It's A Free Country! Or Is It...???

Following Orders: "It's a free country", is a phrase we often hear with reference to the place in which we live. However, at times our country isn't actually as free as we like to think it is. In fact, in some areas, it's far from it. We have some things right compared to other places in the world, and yet, in the U.K., as far as consenting adults are concerned, we still need to wake up to a person's fundamental right to choose for themself in matters which only affect the individual. Because in some such areas there is still no personal autonomy. As such a lack of regard for personal choice and freedom is backed up by the might of the law, we are still bullied and pushed around on occasions by the governments and the authorities alike. The police, under instruction and conditioned to behave a certain way, at times exhibit behaviour similar in principle to the Nazis, whom of course were also just following orders. If you are going to pick on people, arrest them and lock them up, you have to be sure that you've got it right, and unfortunately, in our green and generally pleasant land, we haven't always quite - as yet!

Interfering: If you are in any way picking on someone who is doing no harm to anyone else, you are in effect persecuting them for their belief, persuasion, or lifestyle choice. I reiterate, if they are doing no harm to anyone else, nobody should be interfering with them and we have no legitimate right or responsibility to do so. If we do so, under any such circumstances pick on them, we are simply following in the footsteps of those that supported Hitler and are behaving likewise. Not quite as severe, thank God, but just the same in principle. It's been a few years since we awoke to the fact that we should not be persecuting people for being gay. Yes, it wasn't that along ago that we were giving gay men a hard time and locking them up in prison. Can you believe that now? In other countries, such persecution, as we know, is still taking place.

Led To Believe: On an individual level, even in the UK, there are still at least three areas where I see the authorities behaving in a less than desirable fashion still, and I am going to be a little more blunt now. As far as I'm concerned, unless it is endangering or inconveniencing someone else, the law has no right to persecute people and beat them for their particular drug choice! No right to interfere with them regarding sexual arrangements between consenting adults, and no right to interfere with a person's right to end their life if they should so wish it! However, in all of these areas we in our society are still at times behaving just like the Nazis. Interfering. Breaking down doors. Accosting people in the street. Carting them off against their will. Taking away their freedom. Violating them. Bullying them. Dragging them through the courts, inconveniencing them, locking them up, forcing them to do things they don't want to do, and all paid for by the taxpayer of course. We spend absolute fortunes each year depriving people of their God-given right to choose and act for themselves in these areas. Why do we do it? Because we have been led to believe that this is the 'right thing' to do, and this is what we must do to people who commit such so-called 'offences'.

Was It An Offence? However, what actually is an offence? And this is the real crux of the matter. Was it an offence to be gay? Some people thought it was. Some still think it is. Why? Because they were, and are, badly conditioned and brought up to believe it so. Probably originally something to do with the bible (and we won't go there at the moment) and maybe their own inability to comprehend and empathise perhaps. However, people are told something and they believe it. It happens all the time. I know one or two bigoted people who still think that being gay is 'wrong' because they say it's unnatural and they can't get their heads round it (although I'm sure they would if they were gay). It may or may not be quite as nature intended, who cares! It could equally well be as nature intended, and maybe the lessons are within the concept, just like many other things in this world that greatly broaden our horizons, benefit our experience, and embellish our understanding. Making the world, and our overall existence in it, a richer and more educational experience.

Misery And Heartbreak: Whatever the case, it's love and it's between consenting adults who can now feel right, happy and fulfilled. Therefore, everyone else can butt out because, actually, it's nobody else's business! Or at least it shouldn't be! Luckily in the U.K. most of us realise and accept that now. Too many self-opinionated, ignorant small-minded, pig-headed bigoted people poke their noses into the lives and affairs of others in this world when it shouldn't and doesn't concern them. They cause misery and heartbreak as they go. If a person is doing no harm to anyone else, the law (or anyone else) has no right to interfere with them in any way that that person would find disagreeable. If the law (or anyone else) is behaving in this fashion the law (or anyone else) is in effect persecuting innocent people unjustly under the misguided belief that it is doing the right thing. Just as we did with gay men not so very long ago (1967 in England and 1980 in Scotland). In fact, as said, it still goes on in some places with the small-minded idiots who know no better. Or at least, don't act on it.

It's Not Your Life! Personally, I like to believe in and support the law, and I like to know that it is doing the right thing. I don't like persecution and I do not like people being deprived of their God-given right to be themself, or to choose for themself. If God saw fit to give it, we should not see fit to take it away. You cannot live someone's life for them, or make them live it the way you think they should just because you think that's how they should live it. It's not your life. However, if you believe that they should be doing something differently, and you care, you can always advise and educate. Lead by example. Most of us aren't complete idiots. Most of us can see some sense - at least eventually. Most of us are grateful for help but don't appreciate being bullied and beaten and don't like having our freedom and freewill taken away from us. Our freewill is all important. And again I reiterate, as long as what a person does is harming no other and is strictly between consenting adults (i.e. there is no victim involved against their will), it is nobody else's business! And that includes the law!

Need To Wake Up! It is unfortunate that we still see many factions around the world enforcing their ideas (some of which are rather perverse), as to how they think things should be, and backing it up with might. Persecuting and beating people, metaphorically or otherwise, if they don't abide, fit in, or toe a particular line. The Taliban and others are often rightly criticised for some of the things they do and the way they behave regarding such. Up until last year it was an offence for women in North Korea to wear trousers, unbelievable as they may seem. Unfortunately, although that law has been abolished, it has been replaced with regulations about haircuts. The people now have to elect from a number of state sanctioned styles. Women have more styles to choose from, but men are somewhat more limited in options. However, it seems students have got the worse deal, as they apparently have to have their hair cut just like their beloved leader, Kim Jong Un. Nice!

Wouldn't It Be Nice! As we see, some countries and regimes are still ridiculously restrictive and oppressive with their silly ideas and manmade laws. Their definitions of what constitutes a crime and what doesn't. Do we want to be like that? No, not really. In which case, although in the UK we have woken up in some areas, we still need to wake up in others. It's ok to be gay now and we don't burn people for heresy anymore. Some progress is better than no progress, and I'm sure we're very grateful for that. However, wouldn't it be nice to be able to say this is truly a free country! Yes, if you're doing someone down, someone has to step in, but, if there is no victim, there can hardly be a crime can there! Simple really! Why can't we quite see that?