Throughout my life, I’ve been someone who is fairly easy to convince. That is to say that I’m not particularly set in my views. One might call that gullible and naive, but I think it’s a strength.

Lately, I’ve been listening to and watching and reading political arguments, and honestly I have to say that a lot of people with opposing viewpoints do have somewhat logical arguments, if one believes in their core principles. And I’ve seen varying core principles. Some people think that personal freedom is the most important. Others believe it’s safety, justice, truth, logic, etc.

Thinking about this I realized that if I want to be more resolute in my beliefs, I need to be absolutely sure of my core, or guiding, principles.

The first three things that came to mind were: freedom, truth and kindness. I’ll admit kindness was the last on my mind though, so I imagine my hierarchy puts freedom and truth higher than kindness.

Mostly there are two types of freedom: freedom to and freedom from. Freedom to do the things you want to do. Freedom from the bad things. Honestly, I have to say, freedom to is more important to me. Though I’d like to be free of bad things: disease, poverty, etc.

Freedom also has many connotations. When I was a little girl, I thought freedom meant total freedom, an anarchy; when someone would say “It’s a free country,” I would respond with “Well, I’m not free to kill you, so it’s not really.” I was maybe a bit of a smartass. I’ve matured. Freedom, here in the context of this writing, is about personal freedom as long as it doesn’t encroach on the personal freedom of others. So, under this idea of freedom, no thought is unallowed. Anyone can think anything they want, even if it’s stupid or hateful or wrong. If it stays in their mind, it’s 100% okay, regardless of what it is. Under my premise, conveyance of thought, like in speech or writing or maybe even in art, is slightly less “free.” The reason for this is that speech and writing can encroach on the personal freedoms of others, especially concerning libel, slander, and shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

So freedom to say the things I want to say is the next level of freedom. It’s a bit more restricted than thought. In the case of libel and slander as above, I can’t knowingly smear someone’s name with falsehood — truth comes into it now!

The last freedom is action. This is the most restricted. There are many things I can’t do. It is for the protection of other people, myself and society. I understand why action isn’t completely free, and I’m glad it isn’t. What a scary world it would be to live in.

When I think about truth, it’s more important than tact, for me. But that’s a personal line. Kindness is last, because it’s less important than freedom or truth. It is still vital though. Kindness and truth are a gentle interplay. They are almost complementary in that to be truly kind, you must be truthful.

I’m not entirely sure what all this adds up to, but I’m pretty sure of my stance on these three principles.