Conditional Independence

The word ‘independence’ conjures up the idea of freedom from being told what to do.  The teenager longs for the days of independence when they are not being restricted by their parents.  Yet they soon find that in order to succeed in life, they must be subject to the rules of others at work or university who keep telling them what they must or must not do.

In every walk of life there are rules to follow and the smooth running of society depends on each member of that society doing what is expected of them.  In that sense it seems that true independence would probably be a form of anarchy where everyone does as he pleases regardless of others … … or maybe opt out of society altogether and live a sort of hermit-like existence, a bit like the hunter-gatherers of ancient times.  So this poses the question, does progress really mean dependence?  I suppose the true freedom of the western world is in the freedom of choice that we have to choose which set of governing bodies we want to have making the rules.

 

Whichever form of government we choose we are still dependent on much that makes up modern life.  My last blog mentioned the dependence we have on electricity and such power sources.  A couple of weeks ago I had one of those moments with a dysfunctional mouse when I couldn’t use my computer.  We rely on fuel for transport and as a knock-on effect everything we use depends on this.  Without transport fuel there would be nothing in the shops to buy, so unless I am totally self-sufficient, (and who really is?) I am dependent on much.

 

Religious freedom is a bit of an oxymoron – a contradiction in terms.  Religions of whatever persuasion all have their rules that must be followed, a certain way of living and thinking.  Religious freedom really means freedom to choose which set of rules we want to live by, not dissimilar to society’s free parliamentary elections.  Jesus often criticised the Pharisees for their overbearing rules with nitty-gritty detail affecting just about everything in life.  Sadly there are today many groups of Christians in organised systems of church who have such control over their members.  Often these rules are not written down; you don’t have to sign up to anything but you are expected to act and think in a certain way - you shouldn’t go there; it is frowned upon to read that book; you mustn’t think along those lines.  The thing that strikes me in the Bible is how often Jesus deliberately breaks the rules to show that His kingdom is about real freedom to be one with God each in our own individual way.
 

 

As I get older, I hopefully am getting to the point of being truly free from what others think of me and what I should or shouldn’t do, say or think.  So are these thoughts those of an independent person who is not conditioned by rules or the ramblings of an old woman?  Maybe somewhere between the two!  It seems that being independent is more dependent than we care to think.