Is Freedom really one's birthright or is Nobility one's birthright?

Question

Freedom does not free me from selfishness and other negative traits of my heart. Is it then better to be a Noble slave, than a selfish Free person. Would you prefer a free friend with negative qualities or a servant who is full of positive qualities.

Answer 1

I think people are born with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That doesn't mean there are any guarantees about how your life will turn out or what you will achieve.

I do think freedom is a birthright. Those who take it away by slavery or dictatorship are violating a basic human right.

Answer 2

Everyone is free and everyone is noble. But for one reason or another (seeking knowledge etc.), many choose to have lives in which they seem to be not free, or not noble, or both. Being born does not alter the fact.
A noble person cannot be a slave. Slavery is a permanent game; it will never go away. You defeat the adversary; he is on the ground; you poise the sword over his neck and say, “You wanna die or you wanna be a thrall?” If he chooses to be a thrall, he can no longer claim to be noble in that life. He has made a basic ignoble choice. If he is disobedient and runs away, I will help you hunt him down and tie him to a tree and give him a good whipping. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a disobedient thrall, or one who is uppity. Someone might choose the life of a thrall for the discipline, but it’s not a noble life. Whether it’s better is the individual’s own call.
Personally, I would prefer the free friend with negative qualities. No matter how full of positive qualities the servant was, it would irk me that he was a servant. That’s like a denial of his equality with me, and therefor a rejection.
Selfishness is not identity, it is a habit, and alterable by training, using behavior mod. It seems to me that selfishness is not so much the problem as that our own loving caringness hasn’t been awakened enough.

Answer 3

Freedom is the birthright of ALL sentient beings. I would rather be free than noble. Freedom is the absences from restraints. Restraints of ones will and desires. To be selfish or selfless is all part of being free. It is the ability to make a choice and know that, right or wrong, it is yours to be made. To be noble places you into a status. Your are require to act, look and perform in a manner that represents your nobility. In combination with the publics opinion on those individuals who are noble can become more of a burden than it's worth.

It would perfer a friend with negative qualities because I understand that people are imperfect. To expect perfection in an individual is unfair the the person that you are associated with. To be have negative qualtities gives one room for improving themselves. A servant who has positive qualities is still bound by his servatude. In being his master I would not be able to fully appreciate his positive quality due to the status that must be maintained between us.

Although people have fought for their nobitiliy, more people have sacrificed their lives so that their decendants would have the right to say that they were free. I would like to end with a quote from our american history books that says "As for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Answer 4

It is amazing how freedom transforms the noble slave into the selfish free person! Even more shocking the price the noble slave will pay to be free.... A high paced, techno, cosmo, golf club life, fit the kids between 7pm - 8pm, make sure the expensive German model in the garage is locked behind bullet proof door and the 6 killer dogs are not fed, make them even more effective. At last time to hit bed with a prayer at heart, may I live to see another. O yes, make sure the burglar proofing in front of the windows are still in tacked and lock the security gate of the bedroom door!

Answer 5

freedom is everyone's birthright. even if you are born into communism, proverty, religious extrimism or a dictatorship.
nobility was once beleived to be a birthright, but i disagree. people may be born into nobility but true nobility is earned.
of course one can never be free of selfishness and negative traits, they make you human. denying theeir existence is essentially denying you are human. the trick is overcoming them and being a better person.
and who says you can't be free and noble at the same time?

Answer 6

If one is of a religious background they will be aware that even God allows freewill. If your government is one that does not interfere with your liberty then you are fortunate. The next aspect left to consider is how do make your choices. No one
can force you to make a decision which are contrary to your value or your belief systems. If you want to be selfish that is a choice.
Your conscience regulates your behavior.Freedom is an ideology. It has no power.Negative traits come from within
the person.If you live in a dictatorship you still can be evil. If you have a problem with good vs. evil it is relevant to your ego preferences.
There are always conflicts.How we deal with those conflicts
determines character.

Answer 7

Freedom refers to freeing myself from the ego and the bandha that arises from the ego. One of the means of achieving this is to become a servant (for instance) to my master (like our Guruji) purely from the view point of shedding my strong ego. This does not mean being a slave but it purely tantamounts to diligently following the path set by him and constantly improve. The Master takes us to the door-step of the Lord but it is finally up to each of us to become one with the Lord. Krishna's efforts towards Arjuna was to take him to the doorstep of bliss but ultimately leave it to Arjuna to choose to either follow or perish. He chose to be a noble slave of Krishna (ie., follow his words diligently). Hence taking freedom as the end goal and nobility as the birthright (ie., no need to feel bad if we are noble or attempting to become noble) is perhaps a better choice.

Answer 8

Freedom is one's birthright. Freedom is life. If you think you have certain bad traits, be more aware about them and they will go away. but if u give up your freedom, no matter what great thing u do, you are already dead.

Answer 9

You have no birthright. No one does. Someone somewhere died to give you that "right", and when a stronger force comes along, they can take it away.

Answer 10

Freedom is a great thing; virtue (including nobility) is greater.