The Dilemma of Freedom; What does being free mean to you? @ Royal Oak

Please arrive at 6:45pm to order your drinks/food so that we can start the event at 7pm with minimum interruption. Thank you.

Freedom is one of the major bedrocks of western liberal democracy; we preach about our freedom and lecture other countries for the lack of it.

But what is freedom and what does it actually mean?

Our relationship with freedom is complicating:.

We teach tolerance but we do not tolerate intolerance; we have freedom but we do not tolerate complete freedom.

The individual freedom has to be balanced against the freedom and protection of the community. We are free to speak our minds, but we may be charged with hate speech; we are free to do what we want but we have laws that restrict us from doing many things. Once we join a community, we start giving up some freedom, all in the name of justice, safety, co-operation, cohesiveness and....freedom.

Freedom comes with responsibility and burden; it leads to profound existential anxiety as we alone bear the weight of our decisions and the fear of making the wrong decisions.

Then, there is the case of free will vs determinism; are we truly free when in God's world, events are predetermined? Is free will then merely an illusion? Do we really have any control over our destiny? How free are some of us when we are born into circumstances stacked against us?

How does freedom look like to you? What do you want to be free to do? What do you want to be free from? If you can choose, what is the most important freedom to you? What is freedom to you?

Note:
In our last 2 events, some members did not bother to show up when we had more than 10 members on the wait list. While I understand things happen in life, please de-rsvp by Sunday if you cannot attend so that others can take your spot. We are limited to 16 attendants at Royal Oak; please do not deprive others the chance to attend.