Freedom of Choice

Freedom of choice
Is what you've got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want

~ Freedom of Choice, Devo

The above is an excerpt from the song 'Freedom of Choice' by Devo. It's a political song about the issue of choice that one has to make during an election.

First off, I'd just like to say it's really cool that with just the change of a single word, replacing 'of' with 'from', the meaning of the sentence 'Freedom of Choice' is completely changed. In fact, it means the exact opposite. Instead of getting the freedom to choose whichever options are available, it becomes having no choice at all in your options. Aaah, the power of English.

Anyway, the lyrics in the excerpt above poses an interesting situation. An individual possesses the freedom of choice, but freedom FROM choice is in fact what the individual desires.

All of us usually desire to have the freedom of choice in the matters that we are dealing with, but they are some situations where I've personally felt that it's better to have the freedom from choice.

Right now, with the completion of Form 6, I'm dealing with the issue of deciding what to study. I've always been unclear as to what I would like to do in life. I believe it's important to choose a career that I'm happy with, because it'll be something I'll be doing for my whole life, and I don't intend to spend my entire life doing something I don't like, even if it's really good pay. That doesn't mean though, that I want to do something that I like but pays like shit. It's important to pursue a good paying career, but it's equally important as well that it's a career that I like.

The problem is I can't really see what it is that I'll be happy to do for my entire life. Sure, I've got some ideas in mind, but those are a bit too fanciful to be realistic. It's one thing to say 'Chase your dreams!', but we need to be realistic about our dreams too.

I guess it's hard to decide because you never know if the route you choose is the correct one for you unless you're walking on it and by that time, it's too late to turn back.

Anyway, right now I have the freedom of choice to choose whatever career it is I intend to pursue, but the problem is in making the correct choice. Maybe there is never a correct choice, as one never knows until he looks back in hindsight on the choices that he makes. Which is why I wish that I have the freedom FROM choice right now. It definitely would be easier to make a decision because there's simply no choice at all, but then again that may force me into a career that I'm not happy to pursue.

So in the end, it seems that freedom of choice, though the harder option, is the best option to have right now.

Freedom of choice or freedom from choice? Which would you prefer? You decide.