The Problem of Freedom

“And what sort of chains of dependence could exist among men who possess nothing? I am chased from one tree, I am free to go to the next; if I am tormented in one place, who will prevent my moving somewhere else? Is there a man who is so much stronger than me and who is, moreover, depraved enough, lazy enough and fierce enough to compel me to provide for his sustenance while he remains idle? He must resolve not to lose sight of me for a single moment, and keep me cvery carefully bound while he sleeps, for fear that I should escape or kill him: that is to say, he is obliged to expose himself voluntarily to much worse trouble than the trouble he wishes to avoid, or gives to me....Withouth expanding uselessly on these details, anyone must see that since the bonds of servitude are formed only through the mutual dependence of men and the reciprocal needs that unite them, it is impossible to enslave a man without first putting him in a situation where he cannot do without another man...” -Jean-Jacques Rousseau from “A Discourse On Inequality”

"Freedom" is one of those slippery words, difficult to define because it is an ambiguous and abstract man-made concept. It naturally occurs in nature, but only becomes an issue in the way that humans view themselves, their surroundings and others. Freedom is only an issue in the presence of oppression, and oppression only exists among humans as a result of their perceptions of the world around them. Freedom grants one the right to behave without fear or punishment i.e. go anywhere they wish, do anything they wish or say anything they wish. Of course there are always limits imposed on freedom. We are all born free, but as we grow we learn the physical limits of our surroundings. We learn about the limits imposed on us by gravity or by our physical surroundings such as walls. Then we learn about ethical boundries....often imposed on us by those raising us. “You can stay out until dark, “Don’t go to the ‘bad’ side of town,” and then moral boundries, “Poor people are no good lazy bums.”

After we form the skills of logic we think it right to do as we wish unless it imposes on anothers freedom. Unfortunately, we don’t usually consider this until somebody else imposes on our freedom. Then...the natural reaction is to make a law or rule that applies to all people, restricting them from certain behavior that happens to offend us...this is where defining freedom gets fuzzy, complicated, and society becomes more and more oppressive.

The thing is, freedom can only exist if you recognize its existence and then excercise it while at the same time acknowledging and tolerating others freedom.

“[W]hat is boasted of at the prestnt time as the revival of religion, is always, in narrow and uncultivated minds, at least as much the revival of bigotry; and where there is the strongest permanent leaven of intolerance in the feelings of a people, which at all times abides in the middle classes of this country, it needs but little to provoke them into actively persecuting those whom they have never ceased to think proper objects of persecution. For it is this-it is the opinions men entertain, and the feelings they cherish, respecting those who disown the beliefs they deem important, which makes this country not a place of mental freedom.” -John Stewart Mill “On Freedom”

Likewise, if you voluntarily enslave yourself to the laws of society which bind you, then you are not free in the least. If you support laws that oppress others, then you yourself are not free, for those same laws apply to you as well. Freedom can only exist if we all practice it, and tolerate other’s freedom...and then...only if we practice it with responsiblity.

To do this we must learn to remove these man-made boundries which devide us...not just those of moral differences, but of geography as well. We must recognize and accept our physical boundries, and rid ourselves of these things called borders...ethnic boundries, economic boundries, etc. We must be united and equal, we must resist the urge to punish others for punishment is nothing more than oppression. As long as there are prisons, there will be no freedom. As long as there are judges, there will not be freedom. We are only free to judge ourselves, and restrict our own behavior...anything else is oppression.

When mankind has reached a point where we can all respect each other, and are logically educated enough to restrict our own actions that will obviously oppress others, and yet are able to tolerate others freedom to do as they wish as annoying as it may be, as long as it doesn’t harm us or inhibit our own developement, then we will all have freedom. If someones action harms, the only thing we can do is show the person through a logical argument that they are wrong. We can educate them, but not physically punish them.

“It is always our responsiblity to acknowledge where something has gone wrong, but never our right to punish.”
-The I Ching translated by Brian Browne Walker

What do we do with those who refuse to acknowledge a logical argument? We propose we send them back to school. (of course, schools need to be rethought as well, in their current state, they are nothing more than oppressive prisons or glorified nursery schools, but that’s another article.)

We must also be willing to accept the natural limits of being human. The sooner we recognize this, the better. Perhaps man was not meant to fly around the earth in man-made jets. Perhaps this is only reserved for the birds. Perhaps we weren’t meant to extract oil and pollute the air with industrialization. Perhaps nature will force us to obey these limits when the oil eventually runs out. (By the way, anyone who believes that the oil will not run out needs to go back to school now and get a logical education...run...run fast...get educate and save yourself).

As an aside, forgive me, but I must go on a short tangent here.The Avian Flu is Mother Nature’s way of laughing at our man-made borders. This is a natural problem, birds do not have to go through customs and immigration quarentine, they are truly free to go wherever they wish. The disease will affect men, women and children of any skin color, regardless of religious, moral belief or economic condition. Birds can spread this disease as they will, and man cannot do much to intervene aside from the ultimate and most arrogantly excercised form of oppression...the massive removal of life. Furthermore, it’s not just a problem for people in asia, it’s a problem for all humans around the earth. Mother nature is reminding us, that we are not so much above nature as an integrated part of it.

We are all born equal, but society teaches us to divide ourselves by rank (rooted in the ego) and to protect ourselves (rooted in fear). This is where the oppressive man-made chains of oppression are forged. To avoid these chains, we must take our ego down to size, realize that we are a part of nature, not above it...we are no better or worse than any other being on the planet, and we have nothing to fear, but fear itself. Life is life, and we have only to embrace all of it as it is comes our way, the “good” with the “bad”. Or perhaps I should say, the “pleasant” and the “not so pleasant” parts of life. For life is just that...life...and all of its experiences in and of themselves. Those that make the best of it using their freedom, and helping themselves and others to get the maximum experience through their freedom will be the happiest and free. Those who wish to oppress others, and voluntarily enslave themselves to the chains of others, will unfortunately be destined to be unhappy, and oppressed.


“’When the great tao fell into disregard, did benevolence and justice arise; when knowledge and cunning appeared, the great artificiality came into being.’ When the source of the tao dries up, men take to the expedients of humanity and justice but in vain. It is as with the fish: ‘When the pool dries up, fish makes room for fish upon the dry land, they moisten on another with damp breath, spray one another with foam from the jaws. But how much better are they off when they can forget one another , in the freedom of river and lake!’ Hence the right way is for men to live simply in the tao without artifice and constraint, without thought or knowledge of good and evil.” (Tr. of Lao-tsu by Arthur Waley)-excerpt from “Socrates Buddha Confucious Jesus” by Karl Jaspers)