Substitute of freedom

August 28th, 2023

Laziness is the culprit — we look for and are fascinated by freedom from powers outside of ourselves, and are blinded to the fact of inner restraints, compulsions and fears that we have, which undermine the whole concept of being and living free.

It goes without saying that those powers — political, national, religious, or public opinion — that use the word and concept of freedom have very little knowledge of its meaning and have no intentions of letting us — the common people — use it.

And yet, it is so easy to get swept in the rhetoric of someone yelling and screaming and spitting “freedom, freedom, freedom!”. We all want to be free and it is tempting to latch on to charismatic leaders and let them define what is or isn't freedom.

And let them defile the whole concept.

True freedom can be achieved only by personal hard and intensive work — starting with the ability to think for ourselves. Not just regurgitate the thoughts and ideas and words we heard or read somewhere, but with originality that is of our own making.

Originality in thinking can give every one of us the meaning to the claim that no one can interfere with our expression of thoughts. Then we can be free of the oppressive smallness of thoughts that are not ours and are only an easy conformity.

That is where the influence of anonymous authorities — like common sense and public opinion — shows its power over us and our behavior. We might think that we are original, but we operate within safe and well-defined bounds of commonality and pedestrianism.

Freedom to go against the grain and enjoy our ingrained originality starts with us and is not depended on any outside forces.