Freedom's Just Another Word...

Who will you follow, and why?

photo by Pixabay

Perhaps I’m not the only one who has been frustrated by attempting to carry on a conversation with someone, when we seem to be, as I put it, ‘talking past each other’.  Perhaps we are each looking toward a better day, without realizing that we each have a different idea of what constitutes a better day. So, we both make our case for how to achieve our better day, without realizing that we are discussing contradictory goals.

It's easy enough for that to happen.  We ‘discuss’ democracy, and liberalism, and conservatism, and capitalism, but often fail to realize we aren’t really talking about the same things; we’re using the same words, but with different definitions in our own minds.  Boy, THAT can get confusing! I frequently say, define your terms.

But even with my experience with ill-defined terms, I was surprised to learn something about a term that not only has its own varying individual definitions, but that in some cultures, the word doesn’t even exist.  That word is ‘freedom’.  I’ve been reading Thomas Sowell’s book, “Black Rednecks and White Liberals.”  I recommend anything that Sowell writes.  And, in case it needs saying, Sowell is a black economist in his eighties.  He’s seen a few things.  Studied a few things.  TAUGHT a few things. Sowell points out in this book that popular ideologies concerning race relations in America bear little resemblance to reality.

But I had to recalibrate my brain with one point that he made:  In many societies in the past, and in some today, there is no word for ‘freedom’.  There is no need for the word, because there is no such thing as freedom.  Even slaves in America were aware of freedom, and generally wanted it.  But imagine a place where everyone is a slave, except for the masters.  A place where individual freedom of common people has never been experienced, or even considered.

Imagine you are in that place, and you are one of those people.  What would you think about?  Would you contemplate going off on your own and making your own career, in a society where there are no careers? Could your mind make the leap, within itself, to a concept that existed only in your mind but had no basis in reality? How could that thought get into your mind, if there was no experience, no reality to draw from? And with that, we have to wonder what desirable realities could exist, that we are not even aware of.

I often refer to pets in this regard.  Most pets accept that they are owned by their masters. However kind or however cruel that master is, they accept it.  They eat what they are fed.  They get whatever healthcare their master provides. They sleep where they are allowed to sleep. Not all pets are like that.  I had a feral cat once.  He was born domesticated, but he would go off for weeks, and even months, and come back when he felt like it.  Most pets are not like that.  Freedom does not even occur to them. You can tell your dog ‘sit’, or ‘lie down’, or ‘heel’, and he will know what you mean.  But tell him ‘freedom’, and he will not understand.  There is no training that will make him understand.

So, we throw terms like ‘democracy’, and ‘liberalism’ and ‘conservatism’ around as if we are all using the same definitions, when clearly, we are not. But Sowell made me realize that, for some people, there is no definition of the word ‘freedom’.  You can say the word, but they will have no more reaction to it than if you say the word to your pet dog. But no human is as a dog. Right?  I’d like to think so, but I’m not so sure. Think of the people that you perhaps know, who obey commands with no thought of their free right to question or ignore them.  How many people do as their master (their political party) says, without a moment’s hesitation to stop and consider, to contemplate, to form their own thoughts. Isn’t abortion a complex issue? Is it as simple as ‘you have the right/you don’t have the right’? Yet, the political parties reduce it to that, and we are encouraged to think no farther. You are encouraged to pick a side, but you are not encouraged to think about it. It’s all been thought out for you, so why think?

How about marriage? Are you for or against gay marriage? You have a position on it, right? Your opinion, formed in your own mind, right? Are you sure it’s really your own opinion? OK, then, what is your opinion of first cousin marriage? You’ve never thought about it, right? That’s because you haven’t been trained to have an opinion on it, the way you were with gay marriage. Still think your opinion on gay marriage came from your own mind? What about brother/sister marriage? Do you have an opinion on it? Based on what? What reasoning? What values? Are you prepared to defend your position, if your party tells you that you should change it? What other things that you think are your own opinion have actually been programmed into you? What people do you like, what people do you hate, based more on conditioning than on your personal thought process?

Why is nearly every issue in America binary?  You are expected to take either this side, or that side.  Is that freedom? 

I choose my own issues.  Why should I accept only the issues that my master has placed before me? Then, if I take his side, I get a positive reinforcement.  Screw that. If it’s going to be about pets, here’s the only way I’ll agree to it:  I’ll be the master.  The politicians can all be my pet, eagerly awaiting the chance to gain my praise and my rewards.  I’ll tell them what to think, and if they properly repeat it, I’ll give them some tidbit of a reward.

I know what freedom is.  It is well defined in my mind.  That definition does NOT begin with the words We the People. After all, what would logically follow, after those words? Something about a more perfect union?  That is about governments, and governments are not about freedom.  Government is the antithesis of freedom. Yes, we need some government; we can’t be entirely free.  But never forget that governments have never existed to guarantee freedom.  They are there to impinge upon freedom, hopefully in worthwhile ways, but don’t count on it.

In some places, and in some times, there is/was no word for freedom.  Many people fail to realize how much less known that term was, two hundred years ago. Western civilizations were among the first and most predominant to make that term a central consideration in our cultures. Our federal government was formed by people who threw off the yoke of monarchy, and endeavored to never wear such a yoke again.  They, too, recognized that some government is necessary, but only as little as possible.  Now, look at us.  In the name of freedom, we eagerly accept that yoke.  We are easily led to wherever someone else wants us to go, carrying whatever burden they wish us to carry. We are pets.  We get food.  We get housing.  We get veterinarian healthcare.

I’ll take my freedom, and I’ll take my chances.  You can’t have one without the other.

Also see (9) How Free Are You? - by The Radical Individualist (substack.com)

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