Elissa Ibrahim
Dr. Dania Adra
English 203
11 October 2015
Liberty
By definition, liberty is the state of being free. It is the right
to act without any restriction or limitation. In the Social Contract,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau adds to this biased definition two new concepts and
splits the notion of liberty into two parts: the “natural liberty” and the
“civil liberty”. According to him, the “natural liberty” is chaotic and
irrational whereas the “civil liberty” is orderly and rational. In order to
achieve the real meaning of freedom, men must give up their “natural liberty”
and ‘convert’ it to a “civil liberty”: “This passage from the state of nature
to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man” (Rousseau 114).
The ultimate goal of the social contract is to provide to people the equality
of rights, equality of freedom, peace and finally security.
This heartbreaking picture illustrates perfectly the author’s point
of view in his text. It is actually sad to realize that today, 300 years after
Rousseau’s seminal work, we still haven’t experienced the true meaning of
liberty... It is actually sad to see that in the 21st century, there
are still homeless men on the Lebanese Streets begging for money, for
treatment, for all their rights as human beings... While this helpless man has
lost everything he possesses, our politicians are just giving useless speeches
instead of actually putting their words into action. Rousseau has made it clear
that a true “legislator” wouldn’t waste [his] time saying what should be done; [he]
would do it, or keep quiet”(114). Furthermore, according to him, citizens are
considered to be free (civil liberty) if and only if they abide by the law; because the law is a rational principle whereas our leaders’ rules
aren’t always rational. Unfortunately, in our chaotic country, everyone follow
their political ‘idol’ and nobody cares about rules. This is why we are still
far from being in the civil state, therefore we are still far from achieving
justice.
In sum, I would like to say that poverty shouldn’t be an issue of
charity, it should be an issue of justice. And this justice will not be
achieved until those who are unaffected become as enraged and as aggravated as
those who are. We are living in a society, so this implies that each and every
individual of the group should be free in order to actualize liberty and
freedom. Last but not least, dear Lebanese people, if you want to change this
miserable situation you are living in, you shouldn’t raise your voice , you
should stick up for your argument and improve it.
Works cited
Rousseau, Jean Jacques.
“The Social Contract“. Shifting narratives. E.d. Zane S. Sinno, Bioghlu-Karkanawi Lina, Dorota Fleszar, Emma Moughabghab, Jennifer M. Nish, Rima Rantisi, and Abir Ward. 1st edition. Beirut:Educart 2015.
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