‘’Is Freedom anything Else than the Right to Live as We Wish? Nothing else.’’
Epictetus
This quote by the famous Greek Stoic philosopher has been rolling through my mind for some months. To be exact, since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, which has turned our lives upside down in 2020. The picture and the functioning of the world we knew until March this year, has tremendously changed since then. At the beginning of this year, China was already fighting against the invisible enemy. And we were looking in that direction in disbelief hoping that the virus tsunami would keep away from us — high hopes, which turned out to be nothing than wishful thinking. The world-wide lockdown has started its imminent raid.
Our everyday routines and the way of living, doing business, travelling, etc. changed and even stopped suddenly. The spread of the pandemic has become a challenge, not just on global, national but also on the individual level. Many business operations stopped almost instantly; the most hit were the hospitality industry; tourism, food and drink services, transportation, especially air-transport, the cultural sector (events management, concerts, etc.). Many people were cut-off from their families in foreign countries due to the closure of the national borders. The sensation of fear and anxiety has slowly started crawling in. To curb the spread of the pandemic, the governments adopted many containment measures. In the domain of health safety, all ‘’unnecessary’’ business had to close their operations, only the basic ones were allowed; essential grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. with the limited working hours. Some strict safety measures were imposed on the citizens: the prohibition of gatherings of large groups of people, the mandatory wearing of a mask and gloves, using hand sanitizers at the entrance points in all open public areas (shops, pharmacies, hospitals etc.). All these necessary safety equipment magically disappeared from the shop shelves; they became necessities the most searched for. The results of the panic uncovered the greediness of the humans; hoarding toilet paper, food etc. the emptiness of the shop shelves were astounding,
The crisis severely affected the economies in the lockdown; the businesses had to close their operations; the lay-offs increased as a consequence. The governments responded with substantial fiscal and financial packages to support their breaking economies and growing unemployment. The OECD projects a slump in the Gross Domestic Product ((GDP, as the indicator of economic growth) in 2020 and estimates it to — 9.1% in Euro area, — 7.3% in the USA and — 6% in Japan according to more optimistic estimation (economies hit by the single wave of the epidemic in Spring). In case of the renewed outbreak, the fall of economic activities shall further push down the GDP to — 11.5% in Euro area, — 8.5% in the USA and — 7.3% in Japan. The impact of this on economies is that the OECD estimates we shall globally face a slow recovery. It will take at least two years to come to the level of economic growth of 2019. A bit of gloomy economic and social future expects us short-term.
All those global changes, unseen for some decades, have impacted us tremendously on the individual level too. Since then, the way of living we knew before has dramatically changed: we are not able to travel as we like; there is a lack of air flights, the public health issues, the requirements of the obligatory quarantine, which terms changes almost daily, impede the revival of the tourist flows globally. The challenges some tourist-overflown cities were facing in recent years (for example Venice in Italy, Barcelona in Spain), how to cut the number of tourists, has reversed now; how to attract more tourists into countries. Nowadays, all those intentions how to dam the flood of tourists seem ridiculous in comparison with the current efforts to invite them again. The limiting possibilities to travel, hamper not only the economies, which rely highly on the income from tourism, but also restrain our freedom as individuals to go around as we like and when we want. In the time of the severe lockdown measures, even travelling from one municipality to the other was strictly prohibited in some countries. Imposing those measures to restrict the physical movement of persons have left an uncomfortable feeling of confinement in people. At least I suffered from it. Not only that we were required to wear a mask, which limits the regular communication with other people, but we also had to stay in the place of living. These considerable impediments to the freedom of expression and movement have caused in people many psychological consequences. Anxiety, changed sleep patterns, sweating at night, nervousness, impatience, fear, etc. to name just a few. Empty streets and constant bombardment by the media on the pandemic and its casualties added to the sense of gloominess.
Nevertheless, this period brought some good things too: we have become more aware of the importance of family, friends, having good relations with them. The sports and cultural events; crowded places that filled us with positive energy have become a distant memory. I tend to become a bit nostalgic looking at the photos and videos that I took at the last fully crowded concert, which I attended, it was the Maluma’s concert on March 1. I should have participated in the music event of Andrea Bocelli a week later, but which due to the current uncertainty is postponed until the next year. I used to visit the cultural events of the Summer Festival, enjoyed open-air concerts and dancing, going to the swimming pool, having an after-work drink with my co-workers and going to the cinema afterwards etc. Those things I took for granted are now severely restricted. I miss these sorts of careless and free people gatherings.
All the limitations and restrictions imposed on us have caused the physical and psychological sense of limited freedom, but on the other side, created some positive effects. They spurred the self-awareness of our state of being, our time, our (un)happiness with life, etc. I found my little garden of pleasure in household chores; decluttering of closets, refurbishing the furniture and in creativity; reading, writing and especially painting. I uncovered my love for colours and creative expressions on canvas, which has been deeply hidden in me since I finished Elementary school. Those callings were buried somewhere inside of me. Or I have put them aside on account of emergency ‘’to do’’ list of hectic everyday life. I discovered a new kind of freedom of expression in myself. And I am very proud of it!
To answer the question from the beginning ‘’Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish?’’ Absolutely, it’s the highest value, the holy grail of our living: to live, to move, to gather and to express ourselves as we wish to!