Do you like being alone?

Response to the "Do you like being alone?" post on The New York Times Education Blog.Original post: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/do-you-like-being-alone/?_r=0

"Students: Tell us how you feel about spending time by yourself. Do you think you might choose to live alone when you grow up? Why or why not? How do you explain why living alone, or just spending ample time by yourself, might encourage a person to be more social? Do you get enough time alone — or do you have too much? Do your friends and family support you when you need to take a break from having them around? Do you support them?"

The amount of people who are electing to live by themselves is growing greater and greater. As mentioned in the article by Doyne (2012) living alone "promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization". Many people might say that to live alone is to be sad, to be lonely. However, I disagree with that statement. I like living alone, and even though I have plans on having a family in the future, I really enjoy living by myself, and I'll do it for some more years.

First, living alone provides freedom. You can do whatever you want when you are living alone. It is not about committing any crimes, off course, but the freedom to do things your way that make people to choose this life style. Some people, like me, like letting things visible (not "hidden") and for another group of people, this is nothing but making a mess. There is no right or wrong in most situations, but there is disagreement on how things should be done. The freedom to make things the way you like is a major factor that convinces people to live by themselves.

Next, people who like spending a lot of time alone, or living alone, are often labeled as an anti-social person, but that is not true. Spending time alone allows people to think and reflect about their inner selves, and that help them to understand better who they are. Once you understand yourself, you will be able to identify your problems with many aspects of life, including social life. Some time for yourself will always help you to grow as a person and achieve higher grounds.

I usually have enough time to myself. My family always knew me better than everybody else, so they always understand the fact that I really enjoy being alone. Sometimes I like to lay down, play some video games and disconnect myself from the world, and some of my friends cannot understand that. The same way I like having time for myself, i also like respecting other people's space, because everybody needs some time on their own once in a while.

Finally, either if you are the kind of person who likes being surrounded by a lot of people all the time or if you are a person who enjoys living alone, we all agree that once in a while having some time to think and sort out our minds is a good idea. Some people cannot live alone, for a lot of different reasons like fear, health issues or even just loneliness, also some people love the freedom of having the entire house just for them, but in the end the only person who will always be with you is yourself! and reserving some time to spend with this special and important person is always a good idea.

A Perfect World

Some people might say that the perfect world is a world with the perfect government, with all countries living in perfect peace with each other, and everyone has a determined function to execute and keep the world running. However, I disagree with said idea, that is not a perfect world, that is just a good enough world. A perfect world would be a place where there are no governments, laws or countries, no difference between people, and real freedom.

According to Tomas More (1516), a perfect world the people on the power would be select by the people. I disagree with his idea of a perfect government. In a true perfect world there would be no government at all. People would know what they are supposed to do without someone telling them. Tomas More (1516) also says that people who break some rules could even be punished with death. In a perfect world there would be no rules to be broken or punishments. Everybody knows that hurting people isn't good, just based on how they would feel if they were hurt. The idea of having strict laws and punishments does not define a perfect world, neither does having a government. People are free and smart on the perfect world.

When discussing marriage, Tomas More (1516) says that every family would be "chosen", a woman would be given a husband and they would have a controlled number of children. This idea is completely wrong. The family as a basis for any type of society should be where the perfection begins. The perfect family is the one where people marry whoever they like and have as many children as they want. People are free to adopt children. People are free to marry people of the same sex. People are free to not get married if they do not want to.

Finally, Tomas More (1516) talks about professions and working on the community in the perfect world. This is one of the few points he make I agree with. His opinion is that every child would learn a profession from someone (normally, but not necessarily,  their father) and would not work for money, they would work for the sake of each other. In my vision of a perfect world, people would do whatever is possible to help each other, so everyone would be happy together. People should learn a profession by working with the experienced ones and being taught while helping on the work. Some authors might say that in a perfect world your profession would be assigned to you, and it would be something that you like. This is OK at first, but, what if someone changes his mind and start liking something else? People should be free to change their occupations whenever they want to, with no restrictions.

My idea of a perfect world may be even more out of reach than every other idea out there. The world itself is perfect, what makes it imperfect are the people living in it and how they can't co-exist in harmony. A perfect world would require at least perfect people to be really perfect. The idea being able to do nothing but follow strict rules and live the same day over and over again, the same way everybody else does, can be anything but a perfect world.

I commented on: Hoi's blog, Iman's blog and Kholood's blog