Answer to Question #117267 in Philosophy for Dee Dee

Question

How is it possible that people cannot be happy as long as they and everyone around them has the freedom to act as they choose? Provide examples in which someone else's freedom has kept you from being happy. Share any restrictions on your happiness that have been intended to keep you happy, but have actually prevented you from being happy. Where do you think the line should be when it comes to balancing freedom and happiness?

Answer 1

Freedom, in a real sense, is the responsibility of providing equal opportunities for everybody around for a better living, privileges, and in pursuit of happiness. Freedom is the pursuit of happiness with a balance that includes not only oneself but also others around us, who could be our family, neighbors, or our fellow citizens.

Freedom is a responsibility and not acting according to one's wish. For example, if I choose rash and high-speed driving because I am free to do it and that it gives me happiness, will put both my life and others life on the road in danger and my pursuit of happiness will turn into sorrow for many. So if everybody chooses to live as they want, the world would be in chaos, there would be havoc everywhere, and life in this world will become the most unbearable and difficult.

Spending a huge amount of money for securing arms and ammunition for security reasons is unwanted because it's more than needed. Those huge funds for strategic planning can be used for peace promotion, for developmental works, and nation-building that could bring more happiness and equal opportunities for hard-earned money from the pockets of the tax giving citizens. If the governments of the nations of this world could have understood this concept, the world would have been different, and we would haven't been living harmoniously without the threat of war, terrorism, and destruction.