I have never read Chinua Achebe's "Arrow Of God" before. Or, maybe I read it in parts and somehow forgot I did. But, immediately I saw this edition's topic a quote jumped straight into my thought:
"An inquisitive monkey gets a bullet in the head.”
After rummaging through my 'brain-well' for a while, I couldn't come up with where I got this funny quote from. Well, that's why we have this ridiculously good thing called the internet - it can search your soul, even to the deepest of its rot. Yuck! So, I typed this quote and Google splashed Chinua Achebe's quote from Arrow Of God right on top. Maybe I did read that book anyway.
Well, I started thinking about the idea of too much freedom. According to English grammar, too much of something is "over-something," right? So, too much of freedom must be "overfreedom." Wait, is that even an English word? I checked the internet once again.
Anyway, what is overfreedom?
According to educalingo.com,
"Overfreedom is the state of being too forward, free, liberal."
With that peach of a definition, I'm back at Chinua Achebe's quote, the real quote:
"The inquisitive monkey gets a bullet in the face."
That's a little different from what's in my head, but with the same meaning, right? The inquisitive monkey is one that is too forward, and in extension, enjoys "overfreedom." In that quote, substitute the word "monkey" with "person" and the word "inquisitive" with "overfreed" and you'll get my point:
"The overfreed person gets a bullet in the face."
See? That's straightforward. The message is clear, but not clear. Funny, right? Because I'm not referring to a real life bullet here, I'm referring to the myriads of problems life will throw at someone who has too much freedom that he loses track of sensibilities and makes some relatively silly choices.
Can Freedom Be Absolute?
In other words, can we have "overfreedom"? In fantasy, yes. But, in reality? No, freedom cannot be absolute; no one can be completely free. Inasmuch as no man is an island, and our acts and choices are not completely dependent upon what we want and how we want it alone, there can be no absolute freedom. The world is formed in a way whereby we have to depend on something or someone to survive. Society, laws, family, relationships, they all interfere. Once you're not having it your way at all times, there is no absolute freedom. And then there is the freedom of others that somehow limits yours, that's inescapable.
What If Freedom Becomes Absolute?
For all the doom and gloom that may likely come with absolute freedom, one advantage that is bound to be enjoyed from it is the idea of boundaries being broken, uncharted territories being towed. The last two years or so we've seen a lot of movies about the multiverse. What if there is the multiverse and we are free to travel it as we want? In virtually all areas of life, if we are free to do what we want whenever we want it, shackles will be broken. There are some things never tried before, things best reserved to fantasies and daydreaming.
In a world of absolute freedom, those things will be tried, tested, failed upon, retried till it's gotten right. There will be steep sacrifices made for those failed trials, but it will be worth it in the end as it will push humanity to new levels never experienced before. Afterall, most of the innovations we currently enjoy in the world started as fantasies and imaginations of some wild free thinkers.
A world of absolute freedom will never exist; if it ever did, it will make all our dreams come true!
Image Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/YyFwUKzv5FM
Overfreedom will plunge the world into utter chaos in which everything deemed worthy of try will be tried. I think we will probably have a subpar version of overfreedom in the multiverse when it becomes mainstream. Great post!
Thanks for stopping by.
As for multiverse, is that stuff even real? Like, it's gained traction in recent years so it must be real, right?
Well, everything is relative but if more people start believing that it is real then it will become real. The concept is a bit flimsy in my opinion but experts have been expecting it since the late 90s.
This has been a really nice read mkane. Worth every second of my time.
😅 the internet is really scary in that way sometimes. You even search something partly and you get what you’re looking for. Type it wrongly, google says not a problem mate, I’ve got an answer for me.
I completely agree with you. There cannot be a world of absolute freedom when we’re guided by so much laws. Even our conscience wouldn’t allow us to be completely free and have over freedom.
Thanks for stopping by.
Oftentimes I wonder how the internet got this intrusive. Such a crazy stuff.
Really crazy stuff. Technology is doing well.
One thing or another bounds us so yeah, freedom isn't absolute. What do we do each time we are free from a certain need? We chase another and so we are actually never free.
#Dreemport