Mis-adventures of the Half-wit Me

-is freedom also relative?-

i have stumbled upon this photo while idly surfing the net and it triggered something in me and made me ask the question: is freedom relative? let me enlighten you by showing the picture in question:

 
Are you looking inside out or outside in?

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brotherkeeper/704405703/
 

i just thought, if you look at the picture from the barbedwire to the plant, you might say that the plan is enclosed by the wire and therefore not free. however, if you look at it from the plant to the wire, the plant is outside and therefore free. this is striking for me. why? with such analysis, we can see that there is a certain kind of relativity to freedom. and freedom, as in this example is relative to the observer.

if we try to apply the same analysis to a broader topic, as in nation's liberation, people's rights, community welfare, gender equality, much as i hate it, dualism is something that cannot be eradicated.

my analysis is cartesian as it may seem, but come to think of it, who defines oppression? is it the oppressor or the oppressed? who defines terrorism? is it the terrorized or the terrorists?

in our current state, as i come to ponder, definitions of oppression and or of freedom usually comes not from the first person rather from the third person. and most often than not, ethnocentric understanding or definition is made. we attempt to free the nation that we think is not free. we attempt to free the  gender that we think is not free.

come to think of it, have we actually asked these nations these sexes or genders if they feel inhibited or oppressed? are inside the barbed wire or are they outside?

and for you the observer, are you look in or out? i just cannot help but see the relativity.