The Zeroth Human Freedom

We who lived in concentration camps can remember those who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude to any set of circumstances – to choose our own way.

This quote is from From Death-Camp to Existentialism (a.k.a. Man’s Search for Meaning) by Victor Frankl. Frankl was an Austrian Jew who spent four years in concentration camps, and afterwards wrote a book about his experiences which has sold over 10 million copies. This quote was part of a sermon yesterday (on contentment) but I share it here because it’s very powerful, and I think it’s also very relevant to how communities live together – with Mozilla being a case in point.

Choosing one’s attitude to a set of circumstances – of which “someone has written something I disagree with and I have become aware of it” is but a small example – is an ability we all have. If someone even in the unimaginable horror of a concentration camp can still retain it, we should all be able to exercise it too. We can choose to react with equanimity… or not. We can choose to be offended and outraged and angry… or not. To say that we cannot do this is to say that we have lost the most basic of human freedoms. No. We are all more than the sum of our circumstances.

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