I am Free. Because I am Free from Fear.

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Fear is a theme that I have touched time and again on this blog. I recently heard this excellent documentary-podcast on the Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San, keeps appearing in the press now and again for being under house-arrest. But being historically-illiterate I had no idea why she was put on house-arrest and what’s the big-deal really. Her confi/dence and aura of courage is extraordinary. The podcast provides a wonderful background of her upbringing and what has made her so courageous. It’s through this podcast that I learnt of her award winning essay on Freedom From Fear. You may download the podcast from this page and read the whole essay by clicking here. I am pasting my favourite excerpts of the essay below.

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect on their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote man’s desire for harmony and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature.

Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’ – grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

1 Comment

  1. Sincere thanks for bringing to us words from this inspiring world leader. I will surely look up her original article… Love the title to this blog, and will always bear it in mind.

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