Freedom

One of my friend shared the above image referring to the US. Although most people, across the world talk of US and Americans, I really think they fail to understand Americans. Similar to any other culture or group, Americans are unique too. But, often they are stereotyped in certain manner and showed as 'a quintessential American.'

So, I wanted to write about one thing. Freedom. Outsiders fail to understand the level of ‘freedom’ US has or Americans have it. US is often referred to as a place where one prospers, and it is referred as 'American dream', to come to US and have freedom to do anything. The freedom is absolute without restrictions, but limited by certain things for sure. You don't have the freedom to negatively affect any other person. That's almost a given in any society. 

The level of freedom which is available in West is somewhat unfathomable to other societies. When people protest against lockdown in the US, it is seen as stupid. But, it need not necessarily be stupid. It's the choice of the people to do what they want. In India, police took interesting ways to enforce lockdown, like hitting people who come on roads, and also scare them by keeping them next to a fake-COVID infected person. That's not possible in the US. Is the US police not capable? Sure, they are. It's not about capability, but what to do and what not to do.

The government in the US can’t force you to do something. And, it also goes beyond the typical law of the government. Do you know how many people actually voted? It’s less than 140 million, of the eligible 250 million. It’s like most don’t even care about the government. So, when govt tells to do something, they will surely have no particular obligation to listen. It might not necessarily change if the vote turnout was 100%. But, being the world's oldest democracy where only 55% of eligible voters actually voted should tell something to the world. 

Coming back to the above image, more than stupidity of people, it is in a sense, a representation of true 'freedom.' I'd also make an argument that Indians don't know true freedom. It’s more of pseudo freedom, like freedom in limits and 'baavi lo kappa' (frog in the well). Indians constantly fight for their freedom and rights, but it seems to me they are just expanding that well too a lake, but not breaking the limits. There can be freedom without any boundary, like an ocean. Very few Indians realize and know that. And, freedom also comes at a cost in India. It's true. There is a cost. The rich you are, the more freedom you have in India. I think this also applies to most poor countries. 

Money gives you freedom. So, you see rich in India don’t ever complain of freedom issues. Every person, even a lay man in India knows that if you have money, you have freedom to do anything. Some might even extend to say like even getaway with murder. Is that possible? No one would ever say that's not possible in India. But, a clear distinction is the freedom in the US. Being the richest person, Jeff Bezos won't be able to get away with any crime or murder in the US. If he's in India, there'd be a lot of possibilities for sure. I'm not commenting that rich can/can't get away from murder in the US, or they can/can't in India. It's not about law being broken in India and US having better legal system. It's beyond that. Money opens a lot possibilities in poor countries, which enhances freedom in different forms. It's the same thing for people in the US, but there's a difference. A poor man in the US still has lot of freedom than a poor man in India. Do you disagree? Why or why not?