Somebody said that a rejection or a failed goal is a hidden blessing because it will move us to improve ourselves to be worthy enough to reach our goals. However, it’s not that easy to give this life-changing advice to people who have just lost their homes due to a disaster, have been laid-off, or have lost a family member. There’s a common tinge of sadness behind it all, and it takes a while to see such misfortune as a blessing in disguise.
Where were you by the end of December 1991? Around that year there was only one government TV channel called TVRI in my city. There was no internet, let alone cellphones, so practically that single channel was the only home-entertainment during holiday season for all house-sitting kids of the 90s. It was December 26th. A piece of news aired that night still lingers on my mind to this day. The lowering flag of the Soviet Union. Inside the mind of a 13-year-old teenager thought the event was merely ceremonial, just like Monday’s flag ceremony held by all schools in Indonesia pre-pandemic era. What makes these ceremonies different is the Soviet Union’s red flag of hammer and sickle has never been hoisted again at any international events since then.
About 30 years later I realized that losing something that was once our pride is not something painless. Are there hidden blessings behind December 25, 1991 event, of which Indonesians like me watched it on television on December 26, 1991, due to time difference (it was broadcasted by ABC, an American television network)? What was exactly overwhelming emotion in our hearts as we see the flag we proud of as the national identity declared worthless, regardless of who said that in the first place? Even though you and I lived outside the Soviet Union (at that time) as only spectators, don't we realize that situations with more or less the same ambient have been and are right after our eyes at the moment?
Freedom from want
Democracy is highly appreciated in many countries for the great deal of advantages it brings. Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined the main features of democracy in his January 6, 1941 speech on the Four Freedoms, where freedom from want was one of freedoms. Since the synonym of “want” is “desire”, thus, we can say that the literal meaning of “freedom of want” is “freedom from desire.”
Of all the types of freedom indicated as the Four Freedoms, freedom from want is the main reason that inspires people. The entire humans want something in their life; happiness, prosperity, success, you name it. Thanks to digital technology advancement, it's easier for people to get whatever they want with the help of online marketplaces. Even a spouse can be searched through dating sites like Tinder. That is the miracle of democracy, as the freedom that accompanies it opens the path for humans to create and develop ideas to achieve, as Mr. Roosevelt proclaimed, healthy peacetime life.
Human desires are developing with the passage of time. It's like drinking vodka, the more you drink, the drier the throat. Some people are no longer happy enough with delicious food in the dinner table at home. The standard of decent living has also changed, as more and more people feel quite happy living with a partner childlessly, or exploring the world alone. Meanwhile, people on the other side of planet are still struggling to define the meaning of happiness and choose various options on the table as the result of freedom. In the United States, the “Great Resignation” movement arose out of employees who claim they could not find happiness from their jobs. Maybe because their life feels empty, and such loneliness doesn’t end with countless zeros on their salaries.
The nightlife phenomenon, drugs, and everything that 'ill-lit' makes religious people blame the absence of religiosity within contemporary human life as the root of some people's inability to see light at the end of the tunnel; such accusation also plays its role inside religious radicalism in many places. Let’s not forget that for some, religiosity also involves efforts to gain freedom from want, as they decide religion is a liberation from worldly desires that curbing the well-being of one's mind and soul.
Nevertheless, it is freedom from want that motivates people to compete, to collect profit as much as they can because their life needs are imminent and a lot of money required to fulfill them. Unequal economic prosperity makes some groups of people feel insecure about living their lives and looking for loopholes to secure their future. Those who are lucky enough to get access to infrastructure and relations to support their goals will emerge as winners in the midst of free market competition. Thanks to democracy which frees people to perform their best for a better life.
In democracy realm, governments reduce their role as match referees, but will continue to act decisively if their leverage is abused. Information technology and the internet of things are developed to a great extent, not only to support freedom of business, but also to facilitate controlling citizens' freedom. They are led to seek pride in the areas that have been set on, areas that will benefit the authorities as well as capitalists.
Where is The Pride?
When we lose our house, vehicle, money due to a disaster or it is stolen, we can always get a better one someday. What if we lose our pride, where should we search for a new one? Pride is invisible, then how can it be lost? Although a hidden blessing was only discovered later after its fall, the vanishing of USSR from the world map left a lasting memory on the mind of the citizens who were once a part of it. There are those who insist that the Soviet Union still exists, while poll results in March 2021 show 58% of Russians regret its collapse. The United States and its allies may see the event as their victory, but they do not realize that millions of humans including their own citizens and perhaps some of us are feeling what the citizens of the Soviet Union were and are now.
Those with different economic, cultural, social, religious, belief, gender, and age backgrounds may feel the same dismay, as someone decides that something they are proud of is worthless. They may be one of the adherents of an ancestral belief that is considered heretical by more modern belief groups. Or an immigrants' descendant who was born and raised in a country that is not belong to his/her parents, tried to fight for the equal rights for years but crushed by the statement of "America For The Americans." Or the native tribes who were expelled from their ancestral lands after the arrival of other nations who believed themselves more civilized and intelligent. They lost their pride in their inherited identity of family, community, nation, due to pressure from various outside parties who are also proud of their identity and long for recognition.
In short, our current and respected identity should only occupy 10% of the pride on your chest. Yes, all of identity entries that are and not printed on your ID card , such as race or ethnicitys, the political party of your choice, or what major you chose during college. Anything that makes us feel proud to own it and or been a part of it during a certain point in our life. No matter how safe our world is today, there are still those who want to strip us of our pride through narratives about efforts to purify origins, religions, and beliefs as the “correct” ways to find identity. We should remember that pride is not a gift, nor a goal. Pride is an impact that we receive as a consequence of meaningful things that we do or have done. Then, what if we have never done such a thing yet, do we still deserve the pride? As Fyodor Dostoevsky put it, “the darker the night, the brighter the stars.”
