Freedom too often taken for granted

Independence Day is an opportunity for his nation’s people to collectively take pride in and experience gratitude for the freedoms we experience in this country.

Because we simply know no other way, we take these freedoms for granted. It is difficult to imagine what it would be like to have to apply to some governing body for permission to do many of the things we do every day.

Consider how constricted you would feel if you had to produce documents and request permission to cross from one state into another. No passport is ever asked for; it is rare for anyone to even ask for proof of citizenship while in our great country. Would you like to have to produce your “papers” and give an explanation for your going from place to place?

What about starting your own business? While it is relatively easy to start or stop your own business in this country, to enjoy free enterprise is unheard of in some parts of the world.

To choose how many children a family can have is another example of a freedom not enjoyed in some other countries. Another more subtle freedom is the freedom to choose the kind of information desired from many media. What would it be like to have only a narrow choice of media and information determined by the government, with the information provided being carefully selected and censored to get a message across to fit its needs?

During my last visit to San Francisco, I again enjoyed the kaleidoscope of views and information available in a free country while walking through Union Square. On one corner a long-haired, unusually adorned individual shouted out admonitions to onlookers to prepare for the end of the world, an occurrence he apparently was convinced was just around the corner. On another corner, I listened to a young woman explain her views on the tyrannies she thought were being imposed on Americans by just about every organized body in this country. On yet another corner of this unique patch of America, I listened to someone (the person’s sex was unclear) seeking followers for a religious cult, the tenets of which I never completely understand.

As I walked back to my hotel, my spine shivered at this opportunity to witness such a variety of opinions without ever once having the feeling that the opinion-givers were going to be sanctioned, monitored or told to stop.

From another perspective, psychologists have developed written instruments that indicate that each of us is “driven” by certain need states and psychological characteristics. Some individuals have a high need for autonomy, an ability to come and go as they choose, to say what they think, to be independent thinkers and to be non-conforming. Other individuals have a high need state for change and want to try new things, seek out new experiences and resist routine. A third group has the psychological characteristic that makes them need to be aggressive and challenging, even to be the devil’s advocate.

Since these characteristics and needs are relatively enduring, a person who cannot have these needs met feels frustration, anxiety, anger and even depression. If he were to live in an environment where government controls and mandates restricted his needs because of limits on travel, commerce or communication, he would be forced to fit into a mold and his psychological needs could not be expressed or nurtured.

So let us all be grateful for this wonderful land we live in, one where we can be most anything we want to be, think most anyway we want to think and, to a large measure, do most anything we want.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1988