Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Freedom of Choice

One of the most important factors of freedom is that a person should at least be able to choose from a set of choices that is best for him. Definitely, thinking of choosing from unlimited choices is not practically possible but having enough freedom to choose basic requirements of life and basic necessities that are required to shape one’s personality is the right of every citizen. The societies are not made only to consider the collective good but to keep in consideration the rights and freedoms of the individuals as well, and that is what a democratic system basically claims to provide.
It is also important for the collective good of the society that an individuals is provided a certain level of freedom of choice. How could a person value a society where none of his wishes is valued? Where he has to spend his life by following the orders of others? No one would like to follow those rules and regulations willingly, which are formed without his involvement and are forcefully implemented on him. He would definitely question the authority of those who impose their decisions on others. He would ask who has given them the right to do so. No one among us has been sent from the sky and all of us have the same relation with the time and space. It is not right if some of the people start considering themselves superior to others as all belong to the same earth and live through the same time.
Moreover, the individuals within a society would not be demanding any sort of freedom if all the inhabitants of the society had the same level of liberty. If the all could choose only what the society offered them. But that is not the case. There are few who have many choices available for them and they can easily use the best for themselves. They possess most of the wealth, luxuries and comforts while others can only dream about them. In such a world, it is the right of every individuals to question the system that provides them nothing except misery and demand freedom of choice for themselves.
If a person is not able to choose an option from amongst different choices, he, in fact, does not exist. And, if he is free but he has sold his right of decision to someone else, it means he has lost himself willingly. While, he has lost himself, he does not have the right to live life with all its beauties. He, actually, resembles a nonliving being, that is lying uselessly on the face of earth without contributing anything positive to it.
Both for the personal growth and the betterment of the society, it is vital that the individuals should have a certain level of freedom of choice. If people are given such a right, they would definitely choose the best for themselves and attain bliss and contentment which would ultimately result in the development of the whole society. However, today’s societies have failed to do so.
Though today most of the societies chant the slogans of democracy, they have failed to implement it in true sense. Democracy, at least ideally, stands for the freedom of thought, expression and decision, but today’s men living in democratic societies are deprived of their choices. They are enslaved in the invisible chains of deterministic systems.
In backward democracies, like the one in our country, the decision are made only by few authoritative people who seem to have great freedom and the choice that is given to the people through the right to vote is also a fake one. There are many who cannot cast their votes and many others who do not know even the concept of casting votes. Moreover, it is not always the votes of the people that decide who should be the rulers.

As a matter of fact most of the people are only free to choose between the bad and worse. They either have to suffer extreme poverty or opt for a criminal life. They, on one hand, have the option to live a pathetic life or welcome the untimely death. Is it really democratic? Is it really a choice, wherein you are given a limited set of options to choose from when none of the choices is better than the other? On the other hand people are not encouraged to choose; they are taught to compromise with what they have. Through different social institutions they are conditioned to live a life they are dictated to live. Parents, teachers and guides all have failed to teach the children and the students the capability to choose and to choose rightly. As quoted beautifully by David Foster Wallace, “But someone sometime let you forget how to choose, and what. Someone let your peoples forget it was the only thing of importance, choosing. . . How to choose any but a child's greedy choices if there is no loving-filled father to guide, inform, teach the person how to choose? How is there freedom to choose if one does not learn how to choose?”