Of liberties and opinions

A long time ago… I had read a piece on liberty, which said that one is free is exercise one’s liberty, but only till it does not infringe upon another’s liberty. It further went on to give an example of the liberty of a driver to drive his car, as he likes it, where he likes it and however which way he likes it. But this liberty of the driver violates the liberty of not only other drivers who are on the road, but also of the pedestrians who are walking on the sidewalk, for the driver may say that it is his liberty to drive wherever he likes!

Made me think about the impact of our actions on others, direct or indirect, and how we blatantly go on making decisions and acting upon them as if they were only concerned with us! Made me question “can total and absolute liberty be practiced only in isolation?”
Where there is no presence of the “other” whose liberty may be contravened by us, often unknowingly?

This question of liberty made me think of Raj Thackrey and his liberty to express his views? Correct or not, it is after all his opinion and everyone is entitled to one. Our duty must be to listen to his side of the story and then accept or dismiss it. The problem with my generation is that we are indeed a “short cut” lot. Because we don’t know about a particular issue and because a friend, who seems fairly bright, has an outlook or a judgment about it, we take the short cut and start believing that that is what our stand on the topic is, when we haven’t really given the subject serious thought.
Shabana Azmi once put it succinctly “We Indians have far more opinions than we have information”. True, how many of us can boast of knowing everything there is to know on topics we have opinions on?

But to get back on track, it’s only when a certain Mr. Thackrey’s views get manifested into violent activities that his liberty starts to flout another’s of being employed and reside in any part of the country.

The questions stands: “Can true and absolute liberty be practiced only in isolation?”