Individualism

The other day we were talking about people wanting to follow the commands of another in the example of the couriers as well as the idea that if we were truly free we would leave school and do whatever it was we really wanted to do. I was pondering these ideas and I decided that we don’t have to go to such great lengths to prove our freedom. Why perform an action just to prove you are free? It would be a much better action to consider your options and figure out what is the best route to take in life. I believe that making a good judgment is more important than proving my own freedom. In fact, I don’t have to prove my own freedom to anyone. I know I am free and I am free to choose that which is best for me in my own life. Hell, I don’t even have to choose to do what’s best because I don’t have to prove anything to anyone else. Personally, I don’t need validation from the outside world to tell me what I am doing is good. We are fully capable of making our own morality and not everyone needs outside influences to guide them. It doesn’t take the signing of the honor code to convince me I shouldn’t cheat. This can be for whatever reason, whether it be I think cheating would be contrary to the whole goal of education or because I think cheating is inherently wrong. Frankly, it doesn’t matter much what I think except to myself. Many of us are caught up in thinking about ourselves and proving we are good to other people, but other people don’t care either. Just as we are worried with validating ourselves, they are worried about validating themselves. Our ideas and feelings about things revolve around us and our experience and we aren’t usually trying to figure out whether someone else is a good person. Due to this, performing an action just to prove I am free is not only foolish, but pointless because I would not be proving anything to anyone, just the fact that I have the freedom to make a bad decision. Wouldn’t it be way better to prove I have the freedom to make a good decision? By deciding to stay in school instead of leaving and doing whatever is fun I am showing that I can make a good judgment call, and if anyone wants to doubt my freedom they can go right ahead because they have the freedom to do that, but I have the freedom to ignore them.