Forced to be free: September 08, 1997 issue of New Thinking

September 08, 1997 New Thinking:
Forced to be free

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September 08, 1997

Forced to be free

By Gerry McGovern

It was some great French philosopher who wondered that in the modern age if people were being forced to be free. In Paris, Princess Diana died at the hands of freedom. Freedom of the press.

Translated, freedom of the press means for us to read and see practically whatever meets our fancy. The press are publishers and publishers make private things public.

When the gods want to punish us they give us what we want. What is the price of ultimate freedom? What is the price of pictures of the car crash appearing on the Internet? I don’t know the exact price but I did know that the pictures would appear, like the sun must appear, like the clouds that block the sun, like the rain.

If I gave you the website address for the place that holds those pictures, would you click on it? Would I if I had it?

Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe later. Maybe never. I’m not sure. Neither am I sure why I’m not sure.

If there was no speed limit, if there was no alcohol limit, would you sometimes drink too much and drive too fast. Maybe. Oh, damn maybe.

Oh, please, don’t leave all the decisions up to me. I’m not up to it. I’m a big boy but I’m not that big. I’m just a citizen most of the time. Don’t leave it up to me how much tax I should pay. Because I won’t pay enough. Not enough to keep the hospitals in good order, to keep the schools in good order.

Forced to be free is a curse sometimes. We buy the papers because the papers are there to buy. Damn, there is part of me that wants to look at the crash. Blood and fascination. Death and its repulsion and its attraction. And we are all human. And we are all primal somewhere, and I believe that somewhere we are all pure too.

We pay taxes not because we like paying taxes, but because we dislike even more poor healthcare, poor schooling, poor cities. And yes, contrary to what some might say, many of us – perhaps most of us – dislike a society where other people are poor. We pay taxes to safeguard ourselves and our families, and to help out others.

I have little time for monarchy, but I would have to admire Diana for how she helped the poor, how she comforted those with AIDS and those with leprosy, how she worked to ban landmines. A noble, giving, loving person.

And the world loved her. Isn’t that a great thing? Despite all the news stories of death and horror, the world is still looking for love.

In a world full of people there is no such thing as ultimate freedom. Freedom of the press I support when it supports our basic, decent freedoms. When it supports our freedom to gape into the hole of death, to gaze and thrill at the dying of the light, that is a freedom I can do without.

The Internet is a fertile place where weeds and flowers grow. Untended, weeds will kill our flowers.

Gerry McGovern

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Forced to be free is a curse sometimes.