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25. Limits on the Right of Freedom The Creator was most fair and impartial when myriad things in the universe were first created; from the smallest to the largest, they were made to check one another with an equal chance for survival. A mouse is so small that it hardly attracts attention; one may, therefore, presume that it must be truly free. But there is the cat that restricts its freedom. The cat, in turn, has [to contend with] the dog. The dog has the tiger, the tiger has the lion, and the lion has humankind, each checking the other. A whale is so huge in size that it may seem that nothing in the sea can check it. But in an encounter with a pack of smaller sharks, it is reduced to a meal [for the attackers] despite its enormous body and courage. Everything in the world is similarly checked by something else, except that humans rule over all of them because we possess higher intelligence. Does our right, therefore, have no bounds? Is it proper that we excercise full freedom as far as our intellect and power can afford? The answer is an emphatic “no.” Dumb beasts have greater or lesser limits on their rights depending on their levels of intelligence. How can human beings, alone, have no limits on their rights? Because we are the most intelligent among all creatures, our duty is likewise the heaviest. A parent has the duty to feed, clothe, nurture, and educate the child. This duty does not give the parent the right to be tyrannical and mistreat the child, while the child has to depend on, accept , and follow faithfully the guidance from the parent. To reject the parent’s teaching in order to satisfy one’s own wish is not within the child’s rights. For a human being, young or old, right arises from duty and duty arises from the exercise of one’s rights. In the olden days of bar137 barism, to be strong enough to defeat others was considered to confer rights without limits. As the slow process of enlightenment began and as moral teaching developed , rights that used to be won by force were diminished and laws were established to limit them. For example, suppose a group of people prepared a vacant lot to divide among themselves equally to build houses. If everyone refused to yield a portion of their land, those in the central section of the lot would have no means by which to get outside . Each household ought to give up a small piece [of land] to build streets and parks in order to make the place as a whole more livable and maintain the community. If anyone should insist on the right to protect their property and refuse to give up [any land], and since the situation would not permit a permanent stalemate, a strong man with a violent temper is bound to emerge and a bitter quarrel will break out. Creation of a state is similar. If everyone in that state should insist on their rights and pay no heed to public interest, in the absence of any limits [to such rights], an attempt to protect these rights will end up damaging the same rights. For this reason, laws are enacted to set the boundaries for the sake of mutual convenience. If a willfully stubborn man should violate the law to protect only his rights, others would not tolerate the diminution of their rights on account of this man’s insistence and would take steps to block his rights. For this reason, people who value their rights study the law first; they know that as long as they do not violate the law and stay within its bounds, nobody will stop them; all of them know how to conduct themselves, and therefore they would not be subjected to others’ rule. In addition to the laws of the state, even in the case of a small association of a dozen or more people, there are rules and bylaws that even a most dignified and high-status person obeys while in attendance. Similarly, in the world, there is international law (kongbŏp) that is applied in a like manner. The same rationale prevails, although these organizations are different in size. As we protect our right so as not lose it to others and conduct ourselves so as to stay free of others’ command, so should a nation strive to safeguard its rights...

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