Our guest writer, Fearfully Opinionated and his articles can be found in his blog, http://fearfullyopinionated.blogspot.com. The full version of this article can be found here.
It has often been said in the blogosphere that there is insufficient "freedom of expression" in Singapore. This has led me thinking about what exactly we mean by "freedom". Do we simply take freedom to be "free from restraints or constraints"? If that is so, does that mean that we are free to do whatever we want? Are we then free to rob a bank, murder a person or defy the law of Physics? It appears not. Therefore, it appears that there must be some necessary restraints. What do such restraints look like?
I was reminded of something that was shared to me by my professor several years ago. He told me that there was a saying, "It is the wise restraints that set us free." This saying was more popularly spoken in the past, but almost never in recent times. What does this saying mean? He gave a personal anecdote to illustrate this.
My professor was a PhD student in Harvard many years ago. There was a time when he had a writer's block while working on his thesis, and he became more and more concerned each day he was unable to come up with anything productive. Soon, he realized his working on his thesis had taken over all other aspects of his live, and in his own words: "Harvard has become my God". He then decided that enough was enough, he wasn't going to let Harvard rule his life and took a vacation.
2 weeks into the vacation he realized, Harvard was still his God, just that this time instead of being under servitude and submission to Harvard, he was preoccupied with running away from Harvard. Either way, servitude or running away, he was shackled to Harvard and not truly free. Upon realizing "freedom from Harvard" meant neither of the two, he returned to Harvard and completed his PhD.
What were the wise restraints here? The unwise restraints were making Harvard the most venerated or hated ideal. The wise restraint was choosing to be still under the restraint of Harvard (and hence complete the PhD), but not letting it become the most important thing in his life.
Due to the limitations of the world we live in, there is no such thing as a freedom without restraints. What then would be the wisest restraints to choose?
