What is Freedom – English Essay

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What is Freedom – English Essay
Wallace: I AM William Wallace! And I see, a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?

Scotsman: Fight? Against that? No, we will run, and we will live.

Wallace: Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that…for one chance…just ONE CHANCE to come back here to tell our enemy that they may take out lives, but they will never take OUR FREEDOM!!!”

The quote above dates back to the 1995 movie Braveheart starring Mel Gibson as Sir William Wallace of Scotland. In this quote, Wallace is talking to Scotsmen at Stirling Bridge, where the Scottish Army had a stunning victory over the English Army. The Scottish people who came to fight felt that it was impossible to defeat an overwhelming English Army. However, with the courage of a man named William Wallace, the Scotsmen were guided into battle over the English and because of Wallace’s relentless patriotism and strong desire of freedom, the country of Scotland was regained from the British Rule. Wallace’s act of courage and plea with his fellow citizens to risk their lives came out of a greater belief in freedom that parallels the theme of fighting against oppression throughout history by great men.
In The Tyranny of Freedom, Gerry Spence claims, “a state of perfect freedom is a state of nothingness.” According to society, the definition of freedom generally means when members of society are free to do whatever they want. However the true question is, does a place where such freedom truly exists? The answer is yes. That place is our mind. In our minds, we can imagine the state of nothingness and live in the so called ultimate freedom. However, in the United States of America, ultimate freedom is found from the history that is given a lot of pride. In history, freedom has been achieved from the rebound of World War II to the times of Immigrants.
During World War II, the Japanese Army at Pearl Harbor attacked the United States of America. The attack was classified as one of the worst attacks on this country’s soil. The United States Government was forced to take logical and rational decisions on a counter attack with the Japanese. On August 6th and 9th, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by the first atomic bombs used in warfare. The aftermath of the Atomic Bomb was so unbearable, that the government of the United States of America had to take charge in the rebuilding process of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In rebuilding Japan, the United States gave special civil liberties to the Japanese after realizing the harm they gave to the citizens of Japan.
For many centuries, decades, and years, the United States of America has been a country in which immigrants would flood the borders. Currently the number of immigrants allowed in this country has been limited, however the borders continue to remain flooded. Walt Whitman describes America as, “not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations.” The main reason why everybody wants to go to US is because if they would go somewhere like France of Japan although they would get higher wages, there is a much greater chance of getting harassed, arrested or deported in those countries as opposed to the United States. In addition, the price tag of freedom in this country is so precious that it can never be taken away from you. In some countries, freedom is considered evil, religious freedom isn’t considered, and economically the United States of America allows its citizens to grow and become a successful member of society in its free enterprise market.
After seeing how freedom has been portrayed in this country, it leaves the reader back to the original question of freedom being a state of nothingness. In the farms or in the city, there will always be limitations to what freedom is. However in the farms the limitations are considered less compared to those in the city. In conclusion society often associates freedom with the ability to make an unconstrained choice between options. For example, an individual can wake up one morning and choose to wear a black sweater or instead choose a green one. These kinds of choices are made daily. Some choices are made with not so much as a ripple of consequence in our daily existence, while others are life changing events, such as the choice to marry, or the choice to kill, or the choice to go to school, etc. All these choices that an individual makes is known as the freedom that is not so much in the state of nothingness.

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