FREEDOM OR CONTROL

I’m usually a champion of individual freedom. Most of us like to think we are! I believe that everyone should have the right of choice – to choose how they live, what they do, how they talk & interact with other people, whom they vote for, what products to buy and use….etc.

But this benevolent attitude to the freedoms of other people is quick to end the second someone lights a cigarette/cigar/pipe/beedi/agarbatti/whatever. I’m allergic to smoke and suffer from unending hayfever if I’m exposed to second or third hand smoke (I don’t smoke, so first hand smoke is moot). And I freely admit it – I’m quite prejudiced towards smokers.

As much as I claim to respect the freedom of others, I strongly resent it when this freedom allows them to cause me pain. When it comes to smoking, I wish I could control smokers so that they never lit up in my presence or subjected me to smoky breath when they’re back from a smoke break. As for the neighbor who smokes in his bathroom such that the smoke ends up in mine, nothing less than a straight-jacket & restraining order would do!

It’s a fine line of balance but we all have our triggers. We are happy to allow others to exercise freedom until it crosses our own line of tolerance and then we’re suddenly all for control over individual freedom. Think about it….there may be at least one instance when you have wished you could control someone else’s actions…the neighbor who plays music too loud, the taxi drivers who cut lanes recklessly, the domineering aunty who cuts ahead of you in the supermarket queue, the kids who snigger and talk through the movie in a theatre….feel free to add your particular triggers to the list.

Democracy is about balancing individual freedoms versus collective control. Many people seem particularly good at practicing the former themselves and preaching the latter to others around them! When it comes to smoking, I do the same – since I don’t smoke myself, I don’t understand how difficult it is to control. How would I feel if someone tried to control my behavior similarly? There’s a good chance, I wouldn’t like it at all!

So where do we draw the line?