The political unrest in Egypt is making waves in the headlines, revealing the desires of the people to have a different government. This can be for various reasons; however, it ultimately comes back to their desires and beliefs that they deserve something better as they search for their own significance.
In class last Thursday, we spoke about what is the ideal person. This made me think about what each individual believes is their own ideal self, or rather, what they believe they should look like if they were “healthy” individuals. However, can a person really pursue this, if their freedoms are limited by their government? To rephrase this, is the ideal person achievable only when they are free to find their significance?
As a Christian, I believe that there is no such thing as a perfect person. So my view of ideal is more so determined by my worldview, and finding my worth in Christ. For that reason, I believe that if certain freedoms were taken away, I could still be satisfied because of my relationship with Christ. However, if we are to use counseling to help someone become their “ideal” self, then we must take into perspective what their worldview is of the ideal self. Some people will not be able to find their ideal selves when limited by freedom, because this life is all that they have. Now I am not saying that Christians should never oppose the government, and we have examples of such with our own nation during the events that led up to the Revolutionary War. But can the people of Egypt find this “ideal self” if they do not actually gain their freedom? Is the search for freedom (and significance) worth the price of life itself? One thing is certain: choosing to act is one of the rare freedoms that no one can take away.
This was a very interesting post. After spending some time overseas, I realize even more that different cultures' perception of ideal varies. Therefore, what seems a limitation for me as an American woman may be freedom for someone else. Freedoms can be taken away. People are left more empty than they once were when the freedom they had slowly starts to fade away. I feel for the people in Egypt right now, but you are correct in stating that one thing we are able to do is act. Freedom costs something.
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