A Discussion about Freedom

A good definition of freedom is the ability to act as you wish without being stopped by an outside force. So what is the first problem with this? Each individual person probably wants to be as free as possible, but what are some reasonable parameters on what someone should be free to do. What laws need to be in place to assure that people are as free as possible, as well as live in a safe and stable society? I don't think we are going to argue against some basic laws like prohibition of murder, or rape, or other violent crimes. And one could also pose the argument that the legal system in our society and its predecessors has been even more involved in protecting people’s personal property, than protecting them from violence. Our constitution and declaration set us up pretty good in the freedoms department. We have the personal liberties of speech, thought, religious practice, assembly. Our government although not without fault goes to great lengths to ensure that it doesn't constrain our cultural practices whatsoever regarding to how we dress, speak, who we have sex with, hopefully soon enough who we can marry. And it also protects us from the government itself, setting up laws protecting us from self incrimination, home invasion, invasion of privacy, legal privileges. In countries with theocracies, or dictatorships, people don't have these rights. So I guess we should really consider ourselves pretty free right?

Well unfortunately the freedoms that we think are guaranteed are often literally lost in the fine print. Probably one of the most basic things that we should be able to do we can’t. We can’t stand still. There is a system of rules, forms, paperwork, red tape that binds you from ever truly being free. And if you so dare to step out of line they punish you. They can take away everything from you, your money, your family, your freedom, and your life. Think about all of the different forms you have to fill out just to live a normal life. You have your birth certificate, your social security card. You’re going to need these quite a bit. To get into school, to get a job, or even to just get state assistance, you have to prove that you are a real person. Person # 076 53 8942 your next. And if you lose or don't have any of these forms there’s at least weeks of more forms and lines you need to get these back. You need a car to get to work? Well you’re going to need a driver’s license, that’s about 6 months of waiting, tests, and fees granted you make it to the DMV and have two hours to wait for each appointment. Oh yeah, how are you going to get there unless you have a ride because you don't have your license. So there’s another things we need is a support structure. We aren't even free to be just left alone.

We need licenses for almost everything we do. In most states you need a license to hunt for your own food. That's right; you aren't free to hunt animals to feed your family. You need a license to build a house for your family. So they can have shelter from the elements. You need a license to do a large percentage of jobs or trades to earn an income to support yourself and your family. And worse than the licenses and forms that you need just to live, if you plan on living in that house that you built, even if you have owned the land for generations, you have to pay the government taxes on what they think its worth. You even have to keep the house up to codes, or they can tell you it's not suitable to live in. Because the government would rather have you be homeless than living in a rundown house.

God forbid you have a child, whether you wanted it or not. You have to care for that child. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, it’s true. If you don't take care of your child by at least paying child support they will put you in jail. And when you get out of jail, you can either get a job or be given a mandatory minimum wage job by the courts.

Work takes up most of everyone’s time, with our busy schedules we spend less and less of our time with friends and family as we get older. All those close knit friendships from primary school went out the window when half of the class moved out of state to go to college. The average person takes out over 2000 dollars in credit a year because they have to spend more than they make working. Because in the little bit of spare time that we have not breaking our backs working for a barely livable wage, we require the disposable income to be able to pacify ourselves from the reality of an unfree world. So some of us go to the movies, or go get some food, some of us have hobbies, some of us play golf, none of this is free. How often do you do anything that is free anymore? But the worst thing we do to pacify ourselves is shop. We spend money just for the hell of it. Because it makes us feel good. It relieves a lot of stress.

So when I say that it is illegal to do nothing I truly mean it. No matter how uninvolved in society as you want to be there are systems that will always drag you back in. You can’t run away, and there is literally no place to hide. Do you know of any land that is not owned by somebody? Do you know a place where you can go to live, and not need an income just to pay the taxes?

What about inner freedom? In my opinion this is the ability to do what you want, without being influenced into changing what you want against your better interest. Think of all the values and ambitions you had as far back in your memory as you can go. For me at least that person is a much more wholesome an innocent person and my dreams were more defined by who I wanted to be rather than material or worldly things. I wanted to be a good person, good to my friends and family, and I wanted to have deep meaningful relationships with the people in my life. I also wanted to be compassionate for people not in my life, and not judge or fear people who were different from me. From every direction society has fought to change that. When I was growing up I was poor, really poor. Neither of my parents was able to work for the first 14, 15 years of my life, I lived in a condemned building, with no other income except welfare. Everything I had was a hand me down, and I didn't have anything close to a name brand piece of clothing until my late teens. But the strange part was... I was happy. My family has never been as close together as we were when we were poor. I and my siblings and neighbors actually played together, outside. We didn't have a whole lot of stuff to do inside. We didn't have a whole lot of stuff distracting us or making us think that we wanted or needed it. And we had a lot of fun. I and my siblings ate a homemade dinner almost every night. We needed food stamps to buy the basic ingredients but my mom or dad did a great job of turning it into a great meal every night. We even sat at the kitchen table and ate together. I think I probably have only had a dozen or so meals like that as an adult, all of them holidays. Sure I got teased for not having name brand clothes, money to do stuff outside of school etc. but that only made it easier for me to find kids to be friends with that weren't stupid mindless assholes.

As I got older my situation started to change, my mom went back to school and got a job, we bought a house, and I had disposable income. That carried into my adulthood as I went to college, I’ve had good jobs, and I made almost 50,000 dollars in one year. I don't think my parents had 50,000 dollars over the course of the 1980's. My wife has a good job, we have a nice place, a nice car, the money I've blown on music instruments, technology, video games, clothes could support a 3rd world household for a decade. But my quality of life just seems to get worse all the time. Because the more emphasis I put on working and collecting these chotchkies, the less time I have to spend on the relationships that give life real value. Me and my wife are about 5000 dollars in debt just from stupid credit cards we took out so that we could buy shit at the mall. This doesn't count the car loan we needed for 15 grand because we don't want to drive a clunker, or the student loans we need to actually get a job that pays living wage.Things like clothes and home décor, Nothing that we actually needed or couldn't get much cheaper somewhere else. I mean who can actually afford to buy anything they have at the mall? Either the people who actually have a significant disposable income are sneaking into the mall when the rest of us aren't there or people like me are taking out credit to buy this shit, or even worse spending their rent money because they can't control themselves not to buy stuff. Who are the actual people behind the brands of everything we buy, and why are we listening to them. Why do we want what we can't afford? Why are we doing this? I know there has to be an alternative for the consumerism, which we all feel entrapped by. There has to be something we can do to be free from boredom without spending money. There has to be something more than shopping, and chotchkies, and branding that will give us back our self esteem, and make us start acting like children again. I want the world around me to stop competing with and judging each other, and to figure out how we can be happy and free again.

I would love to hear what you think about freedom. I will try to respond to as many responses or comments as possible.