Eduard Michalko
Minh-Hoang Nguyen
Eduard:
"I hope you are well and that you felt free enough, as in life so even in the topic for this week. I think that the theme of freedom is from all the themes we have had perhaps the most open, with many questions.
What is freedom. People define freedom differently.
Ask the prisoner who came out what is freedom, ask the mother of a child what is freedom, ask the artist what is freedom and ask influencer what is freedom.
My father used to say that money will bring you happines and freedom, saying that if you have money, you can travel wherever you want, you can eat what you want and when you want and you can buy what you want and these things probably should bring happines and freedom in your life. And so I am sitting here asking, buy a ticket and travel to different countries and you are likely to meet other rules according to the country that you should follow, buy expensive food, ingredients to make the best meal and yet in another country farmers work for this for minimal wages, feel freedom because around you are your best friends, family, people you love and piece by piece one day they will all be gone, buy the most expensive clothing, purse, shoes, jackets, jewellery, handbags and put it on the social media with hashtag "free" and remember that this handbag is made somewhere in China, India, maybe by mother of three children, payed by a ridiculously sad salary, remember that the woman is working 16 hours and looking for a way to have a better life, and then come home, take a picture of your new handbag on Instagram with comment that you feel free, and hope that someone, somewhere cares and then look at your bill for this handbag, look at the price and find out how much did you pay for the tax. Tax what we "ordinary" people have to pay, because its right and just not pretend how much was stolen by politicians. So take a sit and look how free you are."
"I hope you are well and that you felt free enough, as in life so even in the topic for this week. I think that the theme of freedom is from all the themes we have had perhaps the most open, with many questions.
What is freedom. People define freedom differently.
Ask the prisoner who came out what is freedom, ask the mother of a child what is freedom, ask the artist what is freedom and ask influencer what is freedom.
My father used to say that money will bring you happines and freedom, saying that if you have money, you can travel wherever you want, you can eat what you want and when you want and you can buy what you want and these things probably should bring happines and freedom in your life. And so I am sitting here asking, buy a ticket and travel to different countries and you are likely to meet other rules according to the country that you should follow, buy expensive food, ingredients to make the best meal and yet in another country farmers work for this for minimal wages, feel freedom because around you are your best friends, family, people you love and piece by piece one day they will all be gone, buy the most expensive clothing, purse, shoes, jackets, jewellery, handbags and put it on the social media with hashtag "free" and remember that this handbag is made somewhere in China, India, maybe by mother of three children, payed by a ridiculously sad salary, remember that the woman is working 16 hours and looking for a way to have a better life, and then come home, take a picture of your new handbag on Instagram with comment that you feel free, and hope that someone, somewhere cares and then look at your bill for this handbag, look at the price and find out how much did you pay for the tax. Tax what we "ordinary" people have to pay, because its right and just not pretend how much was stolen by politicians. So take a sit and look how free you are."
Hoang:
"As discussed prior with you through messages, my idea of freedom is a bit sinister, pessimistic, even nihilist but at the same time, I do have the habit of finding things at the same place as their conceptual opposite.
I think we have little freedom. For most of our life, we are governed by rules for as long as we live within a society. In order to survive and be a "functioning member" of society, we have to work and create and somehow contribute to the larger community. In relationships, we are bound by social constructs of our immediate culture: there are customs and expectations of what is right and what is wrong. We couldn't choose our birth, surely nobody asked to be born, and nobody asked to have to experience so much, and at times to suffer so much as we live. Considering my personality, if there really were a choice, I might reject the opportunity to live and just Netflix and chill on heaven (or hell) instead, lol. All I'm saying is that we have no choice, no freedom in life. However, we do have a choice in death. We can choose to end our lives if we really wish for it.
While these thoughts have been around with me for a while, they were certainly exacerbated with recent events. I already told you that my maternal grandfather has just passed away and that I took my time to ponder on the experience and take care of my feelings. What I haven't told you is that a few days after, I received news that a friend had also passed away at 19 years old. This death dealt me a great blow considering how young she was and how much potential she held. At the same time, however, I console myself with the thought that while different in ages, my grandfather and my friend had both been relieved. They have completed their journey and found freedom from all things, no longer beholden to anyone else.
Someone told me that what we do for the dead is actually to take care of the living. The dead need nothing, only the ones still living need consolation, and all funeral rituals and after-life philosophies are all meant to ease our existential dread of the absolute freedom of death - of nothingness.
I hope I wasn't too much of a nihilist haha. In fact, I'm quite an optimistic individual. But then again I can be an optimistic nihilist, admiring life while staring at death."
I think we have little freedom. For most of our life, we are governed by rules for as long as we live within a society. In order to survive and be a "functioning member" of society, we have to work and create and somehow contribute to the larger community. In relationships, we are bound by social constructs of our immediate culture: there are customs and expectations of what is right and what is wrong. We couldn't choose our birth, surely nobody asked to be born, and nobody asked to have to experience so much, and at times to suffer so much as we live. Considering my personality, if there really were a choice, I might reject the opportunity to live and just Netflix and chill on heaven (or hell) instead, lol. All I'm saying is that we have no choice, no freedom in life. However, we do have a choice in death. We can choose to end our lives if we really wish for it.
While these thoughts have been around with me for a while, they were certainly exacerbated with recent events. I already told you that my maternal grandfather has just passed away and that I took my time to ponder on the experience and take care of my feelings. What I haven't told you is that a few days after, I received news that a friend had also passed away at 19 years old. This death dealt me a great blow considering how young she was and how much potential she held. At the same time, however, I console myself with the thought that while different in ages, my grandfather and my friend had both been relieved. They have completed their journey and found freedom from all things, no longer beholden to anyone else.
Someone told me that what we do for the dead is actually to take care of the living. The dead need nothing, only the ones still living need consolation, and all funeral rituals and after-life philosophies are all meant to ease our existential dread of the absolute freedom of death - of nothingness.
I hope I wasn't too much of a nihilist haha. In fact, I'm quite an optimistic individual. But then again I can be an optimistic nihilist, admiring life while staring at death."