Freedom

Anybody beyond puberty
can emphasize
sympathize
and respect
the desire to experience freedom
after the restrains and disciplines of a careful childhood up-bringing

But
what then is freedom?
Freedom to do what?
Where to do it?
How to experience it?
Why the need for it?
When is the time for it

None of those questions has ever been correctly analyzed
or ant answer to them universally accepted
if any one of them had
there would be no Protestations
no disagreements
no prodigal sons or daughters
no bloody revolutions
no wars
no broken homes
no estranged families
no divorce
no need for written declarations of independence
no need for proclamations of anarchy
no need to bow before kings or gods

Yet
If freedom is recognized by us all
as the most basic of all human rights
why then do we find it so difficult to comprehend?
why so difficult to put into practice?.
why is it so dangerous?

If freedom is worth any price
with every man and woman entitled to their own interpretation of it
but find in the end that it has given us a polluted world
with mass starvation
and mass epidemics of sickness
a crescendo of natural disasters
with our cultures teetering on the edge of species extinction
is freedom worth it?

If
there are millions crying out for inspired leadership
is that not a conflict of two directly posing principles?
does not leadership require obedience
with followers submitting to concerted rules of mass behavior?

Again I ask
what is freedom
if it leads to human conflict
the desecration of all our values
and Nature's values
and ultimately the violent end of the world?
is freedom worth it?