Makena Johnson

I think I’ve figured it out. It took conversations with my dad,  my ritualistic mornings with “NPR News Now” and “Unbiased Politics,” and a bit of reading,  but I believe I have come to understand my own beliefs. I have aligned myself with the beliefs of  Lars Svendsen, a Norwegian philosopher and author of A Philosophy of Freedom; Liberty lies in the rights of peoples “to express their opinion about the direction in which their society is headed and about what things they consider unacceptable.” In other words: liberty, as defined for the duration of this note, is the acceptance of individuality. Individual beliefs, practices, lifestyles, should be able to coexist dialectically.

The acceptance of this definition in conjunction with the implementation of it into society would minimize violence, conflict, and simply: hate. If we accept that different opinions can exist simultaneously, that ideas aren’t wrong, that peoples exist within a people, then we could exist dialectically. We could then comfortably exist as a society that never reaches an absolute equilibrium. Instead, we could be grateful for the innumerable varying interests that aid in shaping and controlling the society we find ourselves creating. 

--Makena Johnson ‘29

Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/10675030