My Pispective on Being Free from Care

(A pispective is when you write about something in 314 words. Which doesn't include these words or the credits at the bottom)

Security means being free from care. It is related to the words 'cure' and 'secret'. Security is something that, deep down, many of us yearn for. But it is also something that, deep down, many of turn away from.

We like both safety and adventure. We like both a settled life and living our lives on the wind. We like both stasis and movement. This is an important duality in our lives. We are forever moving from one to the other and back again.

Part of the promise of living in market democracies is the idea of having more security than less. Less a promise than an ideal. Being free from care is in the background of much of our vapid popular culture.

But I'm being unkind. Being free from care is what youth is about. We take on cares as we get older. Taking on cares might be what makes us old. There are plenty of messages urging us to be young at heart. To be care free.

There are two sides to this. To be free from care is to be free from worry. To not care is to be unheeding and avoid commitments to other people. Where the one is generally seen as good, the other isn't.

Living a good life is a worthy goal and this means enlisting in relieving the cares of others. We are social animals at heart. The wellbeing of the group is important. But we are also selfish creatures.

The issue is when we buy our security at the cost of others. When being free from care means not caring. This seems to be one of the issues of the neo-liberal world which we are leaving behind.

One of the issues of post neo-liberalism seems to be a return to tribalism. Where we care about our people and become care-less about people who are unlike us.