Generally speaking, freedom may be referred to as the law of nature, which runs through all aspects of life. We see how animals suffer in captivity. It testifies to nature’s protest against any form of enslavement. Mankind fought in wars for hundreds of years until it achieved some degree of personal freedom. In any case, our idea of freedom is extremely vague, and if we delve deeper into it, almost nothing will be left of it. Before we demand personal freedom, we should presume each person aspires to it. First we need to make sure this or that person can exercise his free will.
Today, many people believe that humanity’s progress is approaching a dead end. Our past hopes for a better, happier life through scientific and social progress have been overshadowed by a growing pessimism over what seems to be an impasse. We see that more and more people in the world are unable to find fulfillment. Once, we thought of ourselves as making great leaps forward, believing we were making substantial progress, but now we appear to be facing some kind of a wall.
Humanity seems to be plunging into depression, suicide and drugs abound, and people are trying to disengage themselves from the world, and suppress their feelings. Terrorism and a rapid upsurge in natural disasters are symptoms of a global crisis, and all these states are leading humanity to one fundamental question: “What is the meaning of life?”
Human egoism increases every generation. But we cannot fight it directly and force people to love one another. We cannot force love. That is why we have to utilize the power of society over individuals. Each and every one of us is greatly affected by society: each of us wants respect from society; each of us is influenced by the opinions of society. If we can make it so that the most appreciated thing in the world will be giving-more appreciated than any other act of man, then people will want to give, they will want to bestow and to share, because they will want the respect of society.
We live in a world we know only partially. There are many rules in Nature, some of which we discover easily because they are evident from our own existence. The law of gravity, for instance, is evident because when we try to fly without the proper instruments we fall right back to Earth. Some laws apply only to Earth and some also apply to space. Some of these rules are perceived through our senses and our bodies, but there are other laws, such as the laws of radiation, whose action we cannot feel. We can only see the phenomena they produce. We cannot perceive, hear, or see waves, but we do recognize their effects.
If we were aware that there was a law of reality that determined that if we stole, nature would respond with a negative reaction, we would not do it to begin with. If we knew that the penalty for stealing was illness or that something terrible would happen to us or to our loved ones, we would avoid stealing. Thus, where one does not see the law and the consequences of one’s actions, society helps determine the rules one must follow, along with the system of reward and punishment.