14 Dec 2016_1

In the spirit of these short blogs, I pick a word and blurt words out on the screen. In a self centred way I will probably rant on about what a word or phrase means to me. Then after no time at all I’ll end up realising my self-centredness and put things in to some kind of perspective.

“Man is free, but everywhere he is in chains”

I don’t know who the above quote is attributed to. And again in the spirit of these short passages, I’m not going to research any of this. The main idea is getting the thought out of my head, and maybe use it as an idea at some later date.

My first feeling about this, is that I’m happy not to be in chains. Many people around the world are. People who have done nothing wrong, except to be different, or to express views contrary to their leaders.

Chains that control people are not always seen. People can be controlled by families, or by their religious beliefs. To go against the beliefs of the group can have dire consequences for individuals. And at this point I will cease my self indulgency around all things religious.

As I write this, many bad things around the world are happening. Syria has been the location for what will turn out to be multiple war crimes against civilians – most notably in Allepo. I have never, and will never understand the mentality of a government to imprison and murder its own people.

Another problem I struggled with as a child (and I still do now) is the idea of proxy wars. The principle of this that at least two countries go to war with each other in another country to gain ideological and or financial control of a weaker country of strategic use. There is no declaration of war, and fighting factions on either side will be sponsored by interested groups.

Once a proxy war starts, there is no mention of the Geneva Convention. The situation can a best be described as fluid, and trying how to work out who the bad guys are is almost impossible. But our politicians insist on identifying the “moderates”. And no-one has any idea what that means. Except they do. They are moderately religious people (men I expect), and they will only do slightly very bad things. But they will restrict the freedoms of the people. And the people will restrict the freedom of the people.

So here I am, on my first day of holiday, free to do whatever I want. Mostly free, in that my range of freedom is limited by my available disposable income. Free to waste my time, as I wish. And free to make the most of my freedom.

Poor old me for feeling sorry for myself!