Two hundred twenty-four years ago, the French people rose up against the oppressive Old Order and strengthened their political freedom through a courageous and rightful use of their freewill. Their actions were prompted by the Enlightenment Ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Since then, we have witnessed the increasing number of modern democratic systems in many countries based on similar spirits. The modern constitutional political systems based on the old Enlightenment Ideas, however, have not been able to resolve many social strife mainly exemplified by racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, ageism, and terrorism. At this point we need New Enlightenment Ideas!
First, freewill should be used to increase our freedom Unlike animals, humans are given the power of freewill and freedom. Throughout human history, we have witnessed that when we use our freewill in a wrong way, we often lose our freedom and fall into a total despair. Sometimes, our freedom could be suppressed by dictators. Nevertheless, nobody cannot deprive freewill from human nature. So the matter of importance is how we use our freewill to increase our freedom.
Second, we should love "truth, beauty, and virtue." We should first realize that we are given freewill to love because there is no true love without freewill. But throughout history, we often have used our freewill to hate, destruct, and disobey so that our world has been degenerated into a chaotic situation. Then, how can we use our freewill in a right way? The answer lies in loving the right things that are "truth, beauty, and virtue." Our children should love truth, beauty, and virtue, through which they can lead to true happiness.
Third, we should increase our creativeness. One of the critical aspects of human nature is humans' ability to grasp creative thoughts and abstract ideas. The fundamentals of human development lie in our ability to communicate with the past and the future. The creativeness and displacement nature of human languages prompt us to learn more and make efforts to lead a better life.
"Freewill, Love, and Creativeness" Should Be Our New Enlightenment Ideas!
