# On Freedom



## Smith (May 8, 2017)

An important thing to remember is that threat of punishment cannot strip you of your natural freedom.

You have the liberty to do whatever you want. But we've decided that certain things are not permissible for the sake of maintaining a functioning order. Choose to exercise the freedom to take away freedom, and you'll be punished for doing so. Yet you still have the option to do it in the first place. Such is the necessary risk we all take in having the gift of free-will.

There will always be consequences for your actions, but that doesn't mean your freedom is being taken away necessarily. Not yet.

We channel - we guide - our inherit freedom like "water". Everybody has their own amount of this liquidized freedom, and therefore we have by default the right to choose what we subject it to. There are benefits to channeling our freedom through the systems of society, enjoying the give-and-take of relationships that take on many different forms. Letting it roar like a river in pursuit of your happiness and eroding away obstacles, seeking the path of least resistance.



_Freedom has the same quality. Be free my friend._​
Of course, along with society comes the necessary evil of law and order. And there are also dangers. Traps. You might run your freedom through the 9-to-5 machine; an engine that always needs fueling and cooling because it can't dare to stop running, lest civilization itself shuts-down. Leave your "water" in there for too long and it will evaporate before your eyes. Lubricant needs changing eventually. Let new blood in rather than circulating yourself through office cubicles forever.

Relationships are great, but one day you might find that your partner's water is more like oil. Always taking top-priority. Or they might freeze your water. Poison it. Turn off your faucet. Rather than a beautiful dance, it turns into a hierarchical fight for control.

Even your own father may be tyrannical, or your mother a cosseter, restricting your freedom into a shrinking container that will burst at the seams from the pressure... _if_ you resist. Unfortunately there seems to be fewer and fewer people with the spirit to resist these days, and their freedom can be confined to a small box, forgotten about in the back of a dark closet. Wrapped in a package and sold to a business, a bank, a politician, or an ideology.

Don't sell your water. Freedom is priceless! Lend some of it, share some of it, but never let it be stolen. Be the arbiter.

Some may say, "You're not allowed to do *this* because *that* will happen, so we're not really free anyway." This is a terrible mistake, for you're surrendering your natural-born freedom by making it dependent upon an additional, artificial limitation - an unnatural pre-requisite - when freedom should mean independent. By saying that, you're just convincing yourself of the lie that you cannot be free so long as 'x' is a consequence of 'y'. As if the presumed result that has not even occurred yet is literally preventing you from doing the present action.

In other words: you're allowing the future to determine your present. This is no way to live.

That being said, what if the full sentence instead was, "You're not allowed to do what's right, because you'll be killed."

That's exactly what The White Rose faced in Nazi Germany, like the millions of other residents at the time. Very few of them made the brave decision that those kids and their professor did. To stand up for what's right in spite of death. Most aren't willing to pay that price, because they value life over freedom.

I believe living is worthless without freedom though. If you're not free, you're already dead.

​
In most cases, a great deal of events have to happen before the price of freedom becomes "Your Life". So many times the danger can be seen from miles away. Yet you know the adage: give a man an inch and he'll take a mile. It's a slippery slope, especially considering nowadays we like to sacrifice inches of freedom for a little "safety" or inches of justice for a little "equality". It sets a bad precedent.

A word you're not allowed to say anymore, becomes a thought you're not allowed to have anymore, which turns into a belief you're not allowed to hold anymore, and a person you're not allowed to be anymore. The opposite is also true: pronouns you _must_ use, become thoughts you _must_ think, from leaders you _must_ obey, otherwise you're not the person you're told you _must_ supposedly be... a "good citizen".

As humans we're very adaptive when it comes to our environment and making the necessary sacrifices. We're also very good at changing our environment to fit our needs, for better or for worse. However, we can build tolerance to the wrong things. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, "Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society."

Our freedom is not something to sacrifice.

If you are not willing to give up your life for liberty, you'd do damn well to make sure it never gets to that point.


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## Winston (Jun 17, 2017)

Good piece.  The metaphors kinda distracted me a bit, but your point was clear.

Too many's folks today embrace the default positions of conformity and fear of rejection.  They are willing to "sell" their virtues in exchange for acceptance.  
If all one believes is simply what everyone else thinks, there are no longer individuals.    That is frightening.


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## Plasticweld (Jun 18, 2017)

Good insight Kyle and well expressed.   The sheep don't like to be called sheep, nor do they wish to have be put in the position of having to actually be accountable or even think.  Your piece will piss some people off and encourage others, always the true mark of something worth both sharing and writing about.


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## Aleph01 (Jun 20, 2017)

Well said. Reminds me of what Christopher Hitchens would have said on the subject


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## Deleted member 56686 (Jun 20, 2017)

I like how this was worded. No particular political ideology was demonized. Unfortunately there are those that do wish do restrict other peoples' freedom just for the sake of their own beliefs, however they tend to lean. It's something both liberals and conservatives can agree on assuming they don't believe this type of behavior is all one sided.


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## Smith (Jun 20, 2017)

Plasticweld said:


> Good insight Kyle and well expressed.   The sheep don't like to be called sheep, nor do they wish to have be put in the position of having to actually be accountable or even think.  Your piece will piss some people off and encourage others, always the true mark of something worth both sharing and writing about.



Thanks Bob, I appreciate it. Abdication of responsibility is truly at the core of surrendering one's own freedoms to an ever expanding government.



Aleph01 said:


> Well said. Reminds me of what Christopher Hitchens would have said on the subject



That means a lot to me. I look-up to Christopher Hitchens. 



mrmustard615 said:


> I like how this was worded. No particular political ideology was demonized. Unfortunately there are those that do wish do restrict other peoples' freedom just for the sake of their own beliefs, however they tend to lean. It's something both liberals and conservatives can agree on assuming they don't believe this type of behavior is all one sided.



Yeah, it's always tough to criticize a specific political ideology without making it seem like you're a member of the "other side". In all reality I always call myself a maverick if anybody asks who I'm with (as if I have to choose a team).

Very happy you liked it! Thank-you for reading.


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## Plasticweld (Jun 21, 2017)

Abdication of responsibility is truly at the core of surrendering one's own freedoms to an ever expanding government.


Worthy of being a bumper sticker well said :}


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