Thursday, December 11, 2014

Order vs. Freedom

Order is defined by the OED as ‘To place in order, give order to; to arrange in a particular order; to arrange methodically or suitably,’ while freedom is defined as ‘The state of being able to act without hindrance or restraint; liberty of action.’ I take this to mean that the two are not mutually exclusive, and certainly not ‘paradoxical forces.’ 

One may exercise their freedom by giving order to events or things around them. An example of this might be two college students sharing the same room, one who prefers an organized living space and another who is more comfortable when everything isn't just so. They both have the freedom to decide how they order their living spaces, and they both use that freedom in different ways. 

Furthermore, order may mean different, sometimes opposite things, to separate individuals. For instance, a scene, in a movie whose title I cannot now recall, showed a woman’s children cleaning her studio for her as a Mother’s Day gift. However, when she returned home she was horrified, for what had seemed a chaotic mess to her children made perfect sense to her, and she was unable to find anything in her newly organized work space. Thus, I posit that this question cannot thoroughly be answered in a simple essay response, as it is far too general, open to many interpretations, and people are incredibly and wonderfully diverse.

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