what is free? are we ever completely free? i feel as though we’re constantly trying to grasp this state of being free, but i feel as there is no way for one to be completely free. now we are free from home, free from the curfew restrictions our parents place on us. but this has given me a greater burden. i find that what i do here, should be reflected to my parents. now i can’t blame my parents for not prodding me to start my studying or go class, but myself. it seems strange, that in situations where one would expect more freedom, they are compromising others. no matter how long we look, or how hard we try, we are not completely free. i do find freedom in many activities. i think that freedom is a form of happiness, which we will constantly pursue to grant ourselves an inner peace.

When confronted by the Passover food choices I hesitate to call myself free. Not because I feel deprived by matzah pizza and brisket, but because I realize how inescapably we are connected to that ubiquitous grass known as corn. For those that don’t know, when the rules for Passover were devised, it was suspected that corn might somehow mingle with yeasty things (read: bread-like products) and therefore should be prohibited from the already meager Passover diet.
On the mingling with other foods front, yeah, not so far off Rabbis who decide these things. Corn is in everything! Corn syrup infiltrates every crevice of American soda. It is embedded in the cattle feed that plumps my brisket. You know all those incomprehensible ingredients in everything you buy: you know, malodextrin, fructose, glicerides, Xantham gum, artificial sweeters, vanilla extract (seriously, http://www.vishniac.com/ephraim/corn-bother.html)…sound familiar? They are all derived from corn.
So what does this have to do with freedom, you ask? Well, having control over your diet is a big indicator of freedom. Why do you think the rabbis decided to torture us so for 8 days? When all people can afford is a big mac and fries, you better believe they are enslaved to their social situation. But on a broader scale, we appear to be enslaved to a method of food (corn!) production and consumption that has serious social, environmental, and public heath consequences. Corn is only economically grown in genetically engineered monocultures that eviscerate local ecosystems, rely on pesticides that run-off into our drinking water, and heavily depend on fossil fuels. The production and distribution of agricultural products (corn being our highest trading food commodity) accounts for 30% of our CO2 emissions. Corn production is only possible with large scale, capital-intensive farming techniques, which have pushed small farmers off their lots. And agro-businesses like Cargill and Monsanto inject these high calorie, high sodium corn additatives into most of our food without us even realizing. And who can resist having another corn-infested hamburger with a delicious corn-syrup beverage and a side of corn-oil fries.
When there are substantial economic, governmental and even psychological barriers to having a truly local, fresh and organic food system, our fundamental act of sustenance is truly restricted. Yeah I said it, we are in many ways enslaved to that wily corn crop. So when you peruse the grocery store during Passover and find…nothing, take solace in the fact that in your food deprivation, you are actually freer than ever.

Are you kidding me? I don’t see how this discussion can lead to anything intellectual. This whole question depends on our interpretation of a really really vague word, along with our own generalization of the world today. So all responses have their own merit, and discussing this question will not lead us anywhere. Everyone is right and wrong at the same time. Why bother? Do your paper, as I shall do mine, and live a nicer life.
“Amazingly, different people will have different answers to these questions–radically different answers, in fact.” It’s really not that amazing, and I think we all should know by now that everyone has a different opinion on ‘freedom’.

At first when I read this question, my thought was of course we are not “free.” How can we possibly be free when we have all these societal pressures and constructs that inhibit us from doing “anything” we really want by reducing life to a list of practicalities. I soon realized that though there are many societal structures that constrict “our” freedom, I feel that we allow these structures to influence us. It is a self-imposed bondage. Still, I do feel that being free is much harder than the term illustrates. To truly be free in this society - free of oneself, others judgment, societal influences, one must totally leave everything known and comfortable. Is this even possible?

I think freedom can be both a relative and concrete concept. I think that we are relatively free compared to people from other countries, but freedom has it’s limitations. We are bound and defined to our existence by nature. In order to live on this earth, we must exist in this flesh. We are bound by our mortality, gravity, etc. We can try to fight these things but can never fully overcome them. Ideologically and philosophically, we are free; physically, not entirely–at least, not yet.

Is it ever possible to attain freedom? Can we ever ignore those restrictions that come with living in modern society? Or, more importantly, do we *want* to?