Freedom with Responsibility, First Thoughts

Freedom with responsibility can mean a lot of different things to different people and how free you actually are can vary as well. I believe that freedom with responsibility is a key part of freedom itself. Total freedom would actually be a bad thing. It would allow people to do anything they wanted, even if it hurt others. In a world of total freedom, criminals would be allowed to continue committing crimes, and the innocent people in the community would be hurt as a result. Freedom with responsibility keeps a community safe because there are consequences if the freedom is not used in a judicial way. It can be seen in many different places. Freedom with responsibility can be seen in the United States government, as it can also be seen in Rock Bridge High School. In the United States government, freedom with responsibility can be seen as part of the core ideals that the nation was built on. The USA was created so people could be freed by the oppression they felt by the British, but to also create a civilized place where the people could live without having to fear the problems that could come along with total freedom. The answer is freedom with responsibility. This allows the people to live like they want, but they also have certain obligations to meet. An example of this would be that in America, we free to go and buy things from almost every store, but we are not allowed to steal things from these stores. This practices responsibility because we do not have something that directly prohibits us from stealing at the moment, but there are consequences for neglecting our responsibility that come on after committing the crime. In RBHS we also practice freedom with responsibility. An example of freedom with responsibility in Rock Bridge High School would be our dress code. Some people would say that there isn't any dress code at RBHS, but really we have to practice responsibility to show up to school in any clothes at all. If RBHS had no dress code at all, kids could go to school naked, so yes, even in our free-for-all-seeming dress code at Rock Bridge, there still are responsibilities we must keep. Freedom with responsibility is mostly seen as something placed on the community, but I also see it as something that applies to our government as well. The US government has to allow us to have our rights as United States citizens, but also has to tell us what our responsibilities are. Arnold Toynbee said, "As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon the shoulders of God or nature. We must shoulder it ourselves. It is our responsibility." I believe that this quote goes to even a deeper level of freedom with responsibility. We are allowed as humans to make choices in our own lives. These choices will not be chosen for us. No one else cannot make your choices for you because the burden of responsibility is the price of freedom. You cannot have freedom and also be free of all responsibilities and consequences. In everyday life we all make choices, the good and bad ones both come with consequences. Freedom with responsibility could also be seen as freedom with consequences because, for example, if you decide to exercise your freedom of speech and speak out against something you don't like, the consequence could be good. On the flip side, if you make poor choices, there could be a bad consequence as result. Abraham Hicks wrote, "Stop giving other people the responsibility for the way you feel, it's the only place you're ever going to find freedom." This is an intriguing  quote because it relates to the broader definition of freedom with responsibility to a smaller, more internal example. Within ourselves, we have the freedom to chose how we feel, and giving other people the power to chose it for us takes our freedom away. Freedom with responsibility is debatable. You could ask, how free can you be in a community ruled by freedom with responsibility? A person could even debate what the true definition of freedom with responsibility really is because, truly, it really can be up to yourself to create your own definition and it can look very different in other communities. Freedom with responsibility is a delicate thing that could be taken away, as seen in many dystopian novels, but it is also a forceful part of our communities that gives us the will to be prideful in ourselves, others, and what we have done to change ourselves for the better.