In this paper, a person will read about how most people believe that the best things in life are free, when in fact they are not. Instead, the best things in life require people work hard in order to be rewarding, and because of that are definitely not free.
The Best Things in Life Are Definitely Not Free
“The Best Things in Life Are Free,” a popular song by Ray Henderson, and a quote that many people live by. Although this belief seems fitting, it most certainly is not true. For example, American freedom comes at a high cost. Also, one’s health can sometimes be pricey, along with one’s drive to further his or her education. The best things in life are definitely not free but can be very rewarding for those who work for them.
Freedom
First, freedom is certainly not “free,” such as, all the men and women currently in Afghanistan who risk their lives every day to fight to secure American freedom. They leave their homes and families with the uncertainty of never returning home. Also, the greatest freedom Christians have today is the freedom from the penalty for sin which is death. Jesus paid the ultimate price by dying on the cross for the sins of the world. Due to this, those who believe in Him have the ability to choose where they spend eternity. America’s capability to walk, talk, worship, and live how they choose is so often looked past as free, but many people, including Jesus and American soldiers, paid the ultimate price, so people have the reward of freedom that
The works “Somnambulist”, “How not to get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation”, and “Enjoying the so-called "Iced cream": Mr. Burns, Satan, and Happiness” imply that in today’s society, individuals are valuing extrinsic happiness to a greater scale compared to their value of intrinsic happiness. Authors Heron Jones, Alfie Kohn, and Daniel Barwick suggest that individuals need to place a greater value on intrinsic achievements rather than extrinsic achievements within their lives as extrinsic fulfilment leads to momentary happiness, compared to the positive long-term effects of intrinsic fulfillment. The problem begins with individuals focusing and making decisions based on extrinsic rewards such as: grades or a paycheck. Secondly,
Some people consider freedom the meaning of the good life. Thoreau teaches that the good life is “freedom from desire.” To have a good life people must be free to make their own choices and mistakes. However, other people have a different opinion about the good life—Andrew Carnegie believes people can find the good life through success and wealth. Yet still, others want neither of these, choosing instead to stay innocent with no responsibilities like Adam and Eve, free from decisions and the stresses of everyday life. Another view is Freud’s Pleasure Principle that suggests people are interested only in fun and doing whatever they want all the time. Moreover, these people don’t want to worry about anything else.
Intrinsic value defines itself to be a set of ethics that is dependent upon an individual’s Morals. The intrinsic value of anything is often given an underlying inherent value. Extrinsic is the opposite; which defines itself to have value that is not intrinsic. Alfie Kohn’s essay “How not to get into College”, Hero Jones’s poem “Somnambulist, and the episode “Rosebud” from the television show, The Simpsons, reveals a deeper meaning of how an individual’s happiness and motivation in life can be accomplished intrinsically and not extrinsically. It also indicates the concept that an individual’s inner happiness is geared towards immediate and short-term goals.
There are many ways to describe what freedom is; in fact Webster’s dictionary offers nine different explanations of what the word means. “A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference,” is one of the most ubiquitous definitions. There are many ways to describe freedom and American history has portrayed it in very contradictory manners. In the late 1700’s, it was very obvious that America’s forefathers sought freedom as they based their revolution on the principal of emancipation but it was only a short while later that the freedoms of others within the country were being inhibited by slavery. Slavery inhibits civil liberties and in a land of equal
There are certain things that are in the control of the humans, at the same time there are several things, which are not under the human’s control. Thus, to persist a happy life, the humans are required to put an end their desire such that the satisfaction of
Humans live in a world in which every day they encounter numerous choices. The way they decide and the outcomes of their decisions define their lives. Their day to day life essentially revolves around the choices they make. As a whole, a community benefits or suffers from the outcomes of its choices. Freedom of choice is the grant to an individual or community to make its own choices out of free will and without restrictions (Pereboom,2003). This is essay will discuss that though freedom choice leads to variety in life, it does not necessarily guarantee satisfaction. It will also argue that although some choice is undoubtedly better than none, more is not always better than less. It will then consider the implications of the paradox of
Freedom comes at a cost, and so some say it is not free, but what really is free in this world. Too many people today expect free things, but liberty, the right to bear arms and the right to come and go as you please do come at a cost.
Joel Kupperman in Six Myths about the Good Life: Thinking About What Has Value evaluates that humans as a whole want more comfort and pleasure in life as he it “may represent a tendency that is wired into normal human nature” (Kupperman 1). Through the explanation of pleasure as well as its arguable counterpart, suffering and the discussion of their values in addition to the counterargument of hedonic treadmill, Kupperman’s views about the role of pleasure in living a good life can be strongly supported and evaluated.
Most of our so called free benefits involved some of our men to put up a fight. For example, when African Americans put up a fight in order to gain civil rights. African Americans fought against racism and for their legal rights. Freedom has a cost, nothing is completely free.
“Freedom is being you without anyone’s permission” by anonymous. This means that a world of freedom is a world of peace, where you don’t have to worry about your decisions. Freedom is a very important aspect of U.S. History. There were many different political and social struggles that made America what it is today, free. I believe that the U.S. is considered the “land of the free” because of the many people who did whatever they could to see the nation succeed.
King meant of liberty was based not on articulation of justification by faith alone but through the word of Gospel. Perhaps, people should have liberty in terms of their connection to God not controlled or managed by the Church. King understood human liberty, broadly, as the capacity for a “spiritual, new and inward man” to make a man a “justified, free and true Christian.” According to King, “Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none.” Of course, faith gives us true Christian liberty. We are free from the law as regards our salvation.
First, what is freedom? It's an ambiguous term that can hold many different meanings to different people. Where a person comes from, their socio-economic status, their race, age, gender and other factors play a role in defining what freedom is. It's used in many different senses, for example: is freedom being able to do as you like
In today’s materialistic world, the phrase that ‘money can’t buy happiness’ is tending to be proved hence otherwise. Social research and surveys have shown results based on an individuals income, health and the political scenario which is dominant in his or her region. It is quite obvious that the gap between the privileged and the not so is growing into a great divide giving rise to different class and status, thus defining ones social circle. It should therefore be understood how an individuals economic status affects their personal happiness throughout all aspects of life. Many tend to refer to this age-old quote especially when they tend to belong to sector of people who can’t afford the modern day luxuries of life. What they do not
The Greeks still had slavery so the freedom could not truly flourish. Only the though German Christianity did this idea rise that all men were free and that mans freedom of spirit is the very essence of mans nature. I believe this is why Christianity became such a dominant religion because of this fundamental knowledge that every man should be free.
Freedom has a large range of meaning. The encyclopedia Britannica defines freedom as “the quality or state of being free, and the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Britannica). In the American society there is a lot of emphasis on freedom, and the right to be free, but one must question to what extent we are truly “free”.