Freedom

*Warning: This piece contains issues that could be accurately described as "white people problems."

There is something to be said for freedom. America is based on it. We fight wars for it. We take it away from people who do harm to others and society. But is all freedom good for us?

Being unemployed affords one a couple luxuries: a new perspective and time to think about the things that perspective makes one see. I see a difference between freedom to do things and freedom from doing things.

Freedom to do anything seems like a natural state of being in which one is left with nothing but his free will and desire to make some things happen, but I don't think it's so simple. We need some structure around which to make decisions and build our careers, relationships and hobbies. Our families and hometowns provide some of this. I consider the difference between different friends who are the same age in medical or law school or have great careers going versus friends who are chronically unemployed.  They all (at least from my perspective) have the freedom to choose any career. The former simply had an easier time making that decision. The others - myself included - have to be a bit jealous.

The ability to choose one's own fate is a cruel mistress. It's like being offered three wishes, or choosing which mutual fund to invest in: sure, you can pick anything, but choose wrong and you could regret it forever. Do I favor the extreme of this, such as arranged marriages or parents forcing their kids into certain careers? No. But freedom, as the brilliant Team America said, isn't free, it costs folks like you and me.

I feel that most people value freedom from more highly without knowing it. For example, we want to be free from unsafe work conditions, pollution of the environment, crime in our neighborhoods, government intrusion in our lives, etc. As long as we are free from oppression our lives are at least decent. Recent uprisings in the Middle East can be ascribed to this. They have relatively similar socioeconomic stratification and unemployment rates as the US, but are not as free from the bad that goes on around them. Freedom to choose can be nice, but I'll take freedom from.