Our beloved philosopher from Envigado, Fernando González, wrote in 1960 a letter to the presbyter Jaime Vélez S.J. from the Javeriana University, in response to his questions about Colombian philosophy, in which he stated: “He who is a colony on the inside sees freedom as a change of master.” He thus referred to the difficulty faced by the peoples of the Caribbean, central, and southern Latin America in creating awareness of themselves.
On the occasion of the celebration, this August 7, of the 205th anniversary of the Battle of Boyacá, a decisive event for independence in Colombia, it is important for us to question freedom as a constitutive principle of our life in society. Are we prepared as citizens to live our freedom? How do we defend ourselves against oppressive ideas that disguise themselves behind the promise of making us free?
It is inevitable to reflect on this without being prompted by what is happening today in our neighboring country, Venezuela, with an electoral process full of opacity before the eyes of the world, where it has not been possible to uphold the true voice of the citizens, as manifested at the polls. With more than a quarter of a century of a supposed Bolivarian revolution that has perpetuated itself behind the promise of an illusory freedom, what we observe is an authoritarian regime that brazenly still dares to hide behind the concept of Latin American self-determination.
Let us meditate on freedom as a value, as a concept that allows us to define ourselves as individuals and peoples, which keeps us away from the risk of submitting to siren calls that promise changes or solutions that are external to us. Within freedom dwells the power to choose and to not be subjected to any external force that attempts to dominate us.
Etymologically, the Latin word liber, from which “free” derives, initially had the meaning of a person in whom the spirit of procreation was naturally active. It referred to the condition of sexual maturity that in a community gave the ability to assume responsibilities. The word evolved in the history of human thought to later express the defense of self-determination, the capacity to decide, always in an intimate key: freedom – responsibility. That is, there is only freedom when there is a state of awareness and responsibility about our exercise as individuals and citizens, to avoid the risk of becoming a colony again, of allowing ourselves to be conquered without reflection by the voices that promise to free us.
It is important to note that freedom is an active, demanding principle that exposes our reflective capacity. Today, Venezuela and the world awaken to a tyranny that falsely promised to be just and democratic. A regime that has perpetuated itself in power because it thinks no one will be able to confront it; the tyrant – a word that comes from the Greek lord – is convinced of the ignorance of the people, of their supposed desire to be saved, and that they will submit before their incapacity and lack of courage to defend their own freedom, not the one that has been falsified. He believes that the nature of submission and conquest that lies within humanity, which has transitioned from one conquest to another, will prevent reaching the necessary citizen maturity to defend freedom and the principle of self-determination as a society.
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RECÍBALA
Now that Colombians commemorate a key date in our independence process, let us not forget the task that corresponds to us and what we must defend: the cultivation of our citizenship to respond critically to the discourses that seek – at all extremes – to impose unique stories and submit our freedom to think, to build, to deliberate. Let us also remember that the principle of democracy lies in a social contract through which we entrust part of our rights to others, with the expectation that they will represent us and respect the citizen delegation without overstepping. This, of course, will entail having both good and bad representatives – governments – and although some periods will be better than others, it is possible to transition through them. Perversion arises when they try to convince us that it is necessary to remain in power to continue a project. In such cases, the obligatory question must be: Which project? Their own or the one freely constructed by the citizens?
May this meditation lead us to reflect on the origin of freedom, which is none other than the search for the awareness of who we are, from the exercise of rights and duties in social life. An act that involves understanding the relevance of that freedom being exercisable by all of us. In this sense, our obsession should be that of a more educated society because education is the main tool we have to be free, to self-determine, to create awareness of ourselves, and to broaden the possibility of exercising autonomy to create our own reality. The only way to no longer be a colony.
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