From the SelectedWorks of Ibrahim Babatunde Anoba
Summer July 23, 2015
The Natural Man And The Idea Of Freedom
Ibrahim Babatunde Anoba
Available at: https://works.bepress.com/ibrahim_anobababatunde/1/
VOL. 1, NO.4, JULY 30, 2015.
The Natural Man And The Idea Of Freedom
THE NATURAL MAN AND THE IDEA OF FREEDOM
Anoba Ibrahim B.
Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria.
So long as we do not harm others we should be free to think, speak, act, and live as we see fit,
without molestation from individuals, law, or government – John Stuart Mill
The foundations of the natural state of human creation was patterned to be at liberty, every
association of man is to respect the natural and inalienable rights of every man including his
right to freely express himself; he is born free, and freedom to man is natural. It is the
gateway at which he expresses himself and realise his potentials, it is non-alienable and nonrepresentable, it must be original and preserved.
The creation of man was never to make him alienate his freedom with others, he should own
means of productions and engage within his liberty; he was created to live in an association of
people with similar natural rights and liberty and never was he compelled to give up his rights
at any point. But then, the demands in the natural association obliged man to give up some
pieces of his natural rights to the commonwealth so he could protect the other rights, that is,
he gave up his bit to secure his all.
In human societies where man is think as being a tool of the state and his natural liberty non
recognised, these societies never grow and in a few cases, moved in a slowed pace through
modernity. Albeit, there were series of conflicts of opinions and coalition of thoughts, the
freedom to explore and expand his thinking faculty owing to his freedom of thought and
application have led and driven modern societies to civilisation.
The ancient Romans were a set of people growing through their application of trials and retrials, which led to errors, then back to retrials and then success, liberty to them was a societal
conception, hence, civilisation was from Rome and Rome owes this to its freedom of thought
and application.
Hegel in his dialectic showed that the conflicting of ideas leads to the fact and it is from this
fact that humanity has grown. The conflict in ideas and opinions metamorphose into the
reality and the path to prosperity. Idea, they say, rules the world but a single set of ideas or the
relegation of ideas to a few set –in most cases the ruling elites- does not guarantee a
progression of thoughts. But the multiplicity of ideas in a society forms a powerful synergy
that combines a number of thinking from numerous human endeavours to a single unit, and
makes them united and interwoven such that one would easily blend with the other and slight
changes in one brings about greater changes in others. It is this synergy of innovations and
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inventions, that mostly determines the level of conflicts of ideas that would result to prosperity
and it is this level of changes and developments, which bring about the growth of humanity, in
other word, the socio-economy.
Modern day governments especially before the popularisation of liberalism have struggled to
maintain a relatively formidable economy and they encountered problems of fiscal balancing
and economic sustenance. It was obvious they realised that it was almost impossible for
governments to tie all ends of the economy, and to make it relatively possible, they had to
adopt a capitalist approach to economic building and policy formulation. An open and free
economy does not only bring about great economic progress but also lessen the burden of job
creation and wealth management on the government; it instil an appreciable level of
confidence in the private sectors and individuals in generality.
When men are given freedom to think and apply, the complexities of ideas buried beneath their
grave of wisdom will be sparked and unleashed. Ideas and innovations never thought of before
would be born, for example, the Wright Brothers created the aeroplane in 1903 and Charles
Babbage invented the first computer in 1837, these were inventions that have change the
course of human existence and history will never forget them. The multiplicity of innovations
as dictated by the level and quality of freedom granted to man will define the pace at which the
society will prosper.
Moreso, Freedom unleashes human talents. For God so love the world that he built in
everyman a significant quota of unique quality. These qualities are hidden and all have the
propensity to change the course of human existence as with the coming of the internet and the
discovery of solar and hydroelectricity has done, these qualities were not unleashed until man
had the independence to exploit them. He needs freedom and freedom only. Most developed
nations of the world are societies of freedom and tranquillity, the individual has the free-will to
invest, create and invent, thereby unleashing series of exceptional and history-changing talents
and it is from the dividends that these pieces of agglomeration of ideas have bring about, that
makes up the whole in economic prosperity.
If Charles Babbage or Bill Gates had not been free to apply their natural qualities maybe I
would not have been able to write this piece but due to the inalienable access to explore their
endowments, great innovations have graced the earth and these talents have created the
unbelievable that have redefine human history.
Freedom creates invention and innovations. When men are free to explore their talents and
apply their skills, the naturalism of communal progression sets in. The mere encouragement of
being free makes man be naturally motivated and humanly challenged to go the extra mile of
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The Natural Man And The Idea Of Freedom
moving from the state of the known to the unknown and in these course creates
things and ideas that are new and through innovative skills conjure inventions. The
freedom in the United States makes their society boosts of more than enough
percentage of major inventions of the world.
In the same vein, freedom creates wealth where none ever existed before. When
human talents are unleashed, his innovative skills leads to inventions, he becomes
intellectually wealthy and more importantly he becomes financially efficient, fewer
burdens would be on the government to provide jobs or creates platforms for selfrealisation, the series of inventions and innovations achieved due to freedom in the
society will add-up to make a prosperous society.
Modern societies especially the governments have come to realise that to bestow the
responsibly of societal development into the hands of the ruling elites or in the hands
of a privileged few was not enough but the act of giving the general individual the
access to develop and apply have driven creeping economies through the bridge of
modernisation.
Some however calls it liberalism others calls it capitalism, I call it the cornerstone to
economic success. It is the inalienable access of private groups or individuals to
means of production, the freedom to invest and to have private entities producing at a
fast and regulated pace is a tenet of socio-economic development, and it creates
natural wealth and economic wealth even in smaller economies.
Robert Ingersoll once avowed that ‘‘what light is to the eyes- what air is to the lungs
what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man’’. Nonetheless, to give man the
free hands is to give him life, to give him opportunity is to give him hope and to give
man the gift of being free is to give him both life and hope, it means everything.
The Natural Man And The Idea Of Freedom Copyright © 2015. Global Principal Ideas® All rights reserved.
Anoba Ibrahim B. +2348094044738. Email- [email protected]
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