Man is Born Free But Every Where He is in Chains Part 2

How can we say that governments can guard the freedom of the individuals? The minds of the people are stuffed with the views of the party in power; Marx correctly said that the prevailing ideas are the ideas of the ruling class. When a particular philosophy is hammered into the brains, it becomes convenient for the people to adopt it an suspend their original thinking. 

Distorted news, suppressed facts and prejudice opinions leave no scope, for the people at large, to utilise Their own power to think. Is it possible to enjoy freedom of speech when we do not have conditions which may permit its proper exercise? Otherwise also, we cannot come to a final point of view till all the facts, in their stark nakedness, are not available to us.

But no government or authority, howsoever democratic it may be, can afford to present facts in their proper perspective; they mislead the people in order to keep themselves in power. Freedom under such circumstances becomes almost meaningless, and hollow though it may have a sweet ring about it.

Even the freedom to move and associate has no real significance in democratic countries. Every ruling party has its own ideology and, unfortunately, that is considered to be the only recipe for the prevalent ills in that society. It is no exaggeration if we say that the whole super structure of political and social life centers round those ideologies and party which propagates them sticks to them fanatically.

This is a subtle way of making people intellectual slaves. opposition to these ideologies is branded treason and anti-national activity. Under such circumstances no person is allowed to have any alliance with the other camp. A capitalist in a communist country cannot be tolerated and a theocratic in a secular state is an outcaste. Evidently political affiliations have to be selective and are determined by the ideologies of the ruling party. 

Freedom to associate and move cannot be sans bounds. It is always limited and people are chained down to the political manifestos, even if they are just catchy and nothing more.If we give a bit more comprehensive interpretation of Rousseau's quotation, we can say that the trammels of social decency and social laws including customs and conventions never allow man to feel. By nature man is conservative, he cannot adapt himself to sweeping social changes. Consequently it becomes obligatory, on the part of the people, to remain within the boundaries of customs.

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