Freedom.

Do any of us really understand what freedom is, let alone what it would mean to us as we try to live our lives out on this planet?

Sure we all dream of it, or what we think it signifies, and many stories throughout history have idealised the freedom we could attain from having it. These people, rulers, kings, governments, dictators and freedom fighters alike have set our minds ablaze with ideas of independence and freedom from the rule of the many that went before. Yet I wonder if we really desire just what those realities of freedom would and could mean for everybody. 

 

Imagine a world with no rules no law, a freedom to do as we wished. It would likely end up in a worse state than it is presently with only limited freedoms, or total anarchy. Do you know why? OK well let's look at a few of the typical views of what freedom is, and let's see if we can find any answers. I am no more sure of any of this than anyone else, yet I would love to keep reviewing the subject to see if any new light may come and touch the hearts of the masses for a change that could bring lasting peace to the world.

Religious freedom. Political freedom. Freedom of choice. Freedom from death, and a freedom from suffering whilst we are here.

 

In the main it is the freedom to choose that is commonly being talked about when the word is used. To choose without pressure from others and their policies and or directions. But we must have concluded that this is neither completely possible nor suitable to achieve personal freedom. You see everything is interconnected, even if we have the ability to close our eyes to such a truth. In the realm of the absolute, the physical reality of our lives here on earth, everything is bound by the laws of cause and effect. A kind of law of duality. Up has down, right has left, in has out and more has less and so on. Add infinitum.....

If this weren't true then absolutely anything else would be possible. So it could be argued that if WE, want more freedom, that possibly means someone else has to have less of that type of freedom. If we choose to use for example, ten thousand tonnes of wood to make a bridge everyone needing to cross the river benefits, except the guys who used to make their living by ferrying people across. And the animals that had previously lived in the forest we have just ripped into. To say nothing of the loss of oxygen factories that trees are and, then all of the ecosystem attached to the environment we have decimated. OK in this example progress has been made, but at what cost? Cause has effect like I said before. We get the freedom to traverse the river easily, but much of the natural world has to pay a price for this. Someone wins, something loses.

So we want freedom to practice hatred and violence and imagine that no-one suffers from this choice. No of course we don't think this but many of our so called civilizations were created this way. Actually all of them so far. We the ruling party, organization, clan gang or religious body have all adopted this way of dominating and subduing the rest by our will. Enforcing our view of freedom without actually stopping to ask what that action might cause, has contributed to so many thousand years of suffering for everyone. And those that thought their way was going to bring a better world for their kind, achieved the exact opposite result. Just look at the war on terror for example. Cause and effect. They say that it was justified to protect the security of freedom. The evidence is that terrorism is on the increase not decrease, so their theorising has not proved true. Violence beg-gets more violence. There is actually less freedom of movement of personal safety than ever. If not true why do so many Americans carry or own lethal weapons? What security have the powers that be achieved since the war on terrorism began? I'm as disappointed as the next man that they even entertained the idea that their ideology was or is best for everyone on this planet. But they are just a tiny part of the misinformation about the idea of freedom as the next policy they all contrive to enforce.

Lets look now at what could be gained from religious freedom.

So people can chose which god they worship and how they worship that particular god. What would happen if that god told them that they had to kill other people who didn't agree with their view on god or how he wished to be worshiped. Oh yes of course this is the state of things up till now. Most of the blood shed throughout human history was decided this way and is still being enforced. Both Christian and Muslim and Judaic histories have been littered with this kind of righteous revenge, score settling and vendettas. Pity none of them had the courage to stand up and say enough is enough. Laying down their weapons and finding reasons to live in peace and harmony rather than to live in a constant fear of reprisals. They have not been prepared to earn any trust from their enemies, because their idealisms won't allow the thought that the other has any rights to his or her worship.

Freedom of worship would work if the people following them allowed the others to have their views also. And not be blinded by hatred for the choices of others, over their own misguided and hypocritical religious idealism. Come on people, who wins in a war were everyone is mortal??

What about political freedom?

Freedom to allow any political view to be tolerated is hardly likely, though this should be considered on its merits too. We have governments, senates, houses of Lords, congresses and so on, to show that we are inclusive. But we allow factions to administer pressure through fear to control the outcomes of this democracy, which in essence is more fascist. The rulers of communist states are faring no better than the democratic ones, mainly because of the corruption of people within those systems. (More human failings) A true democracy would surely allow the majority view to be the one everyone followed, whilst still allowing room for adaptations for individuals to choose separately, so long as their choice did not have a wholly negative affect on everyone else or go outside of the law of the land. There are millions of examples to describe this which we should discuss perhaps later on. Because this freedom of choice is the largest area of the ideas of freedom we shall take a larger look at what some of these choices could be and what the possible effects of those choices would be.

We are pretty sure that freedom from the laws of nature are not suitable to challenge too often. We can't jump out of buildings without gravity having an effect over us for example. We need to eat so have no freedom from the need to pass nutrients into our bodies to sustain it. And we are not bullet proof or stab proof, so should avoid use of dangerous weapons against ourselves and others.

But we can choose where to go for our holidays, and what foods we eat, and how we dress, where we live, what car we drive and many other things of such nature, without these things having a massive impact on other people, even if that freedom will affect others indirectly. Choice of religion is a deeply personal matter and could be respected as any other choice, provided that that choice did not apply negative connotations to everyone else. Freedom to choose which football team you support is a topical one, but fans need to accept that there are many other teams and that they all have an equal right to compete under the same rules of play as each other. The problem is the fans who believe there is a superiority of one team over another. Despite the facts that teams are made up of many players, who's line up changes over the years, therefore it is never actually the same team. They live on the memory of a game that happened in 'the good old days.' I mean if we still had the same players in the England squad that won the title in 1966 then maybe we would have retained the title many times over... who knows?

But choices have the element of failure as well as success, and for this reason total freedom can never be achieved, only a modification of the original idea would allow for the freedom of everybody.

Freedom from death.

It is said, 'there are nothing more certain than death and taxes.' no-one we know of or have ever met has been here forever. Therefore we all must die eventually. Freedom from this eventuality is non-existent. Unless we believe death to be a doorway, a moving into new areas of existence. Freedom from taxes however is possible for the rich.... according to all of the recent findings on the scamming of corporate and banking and governmental finances.... (Open your minds here)

Freedom from suffering.

That we could ever be free from suffering actual pain or disappointment or loss is difficult as a concept. But for some people who have managed to see suffering for what it really is, there is a hope of respite. Pain doesn't go away, but the suffering caused by it can. Suffering is all in the mind. Yes I know we all believe we suffer, but in reality what we are doing is allowing our minds to dictate the suffering. We could just as easily see the same events with a happiness if we trained ourselves to see it another way. So you think that I am talking nonsense, OK. Maybe I am, but I have seen and felt the truth of this many times and am now thoroughly convinced that it is our delusion at work, and the actual event doesn't change, but what we feel about it can. Like death before, we know it will eventually find us all, but if we accept that it is not an end but actually a beginning, fear has no hold over us whilst we are still alive. We would probably get more out of our present lives too if we could allow ourselves to realise this possibility.

  

There are many types of freedom I have not brought out here, and invite you the reader to mention them if you care to comment at all. I merely attempt here to raise the discussion of what freedom is to us and how and why it may benefit us or alternatively hinder us in our attempts to live a happy and fulfilled life here on planet earth.

Some views through out the ages that have shed a new light on what could be achieved, are recounted in many tales and fables and folklore from time immemorial. I am going to list a few of my favourites so as to share the ideas of what freedom could bring if peace and harmony were ever to be given a real chance to work.

Martin Luther King worked hard, even gave his life for the cause of civil rights and ethnic equality. He worked tirelessly to gain political representation for the minorities in a land that was already supposedly a 'land of the free', but just not sharing that ideal correctly.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, fought political injustice and inequality for his entire adult life, also giving it up in the cause of attempting to lead by example, showing what could be done by simple people.

John Lennon, fought through his music and political activism to try to change some of the outdated thinking that has lead us all into greed and complacency. He also died whilst attempting to live out this truth daily.

Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley, spent his entire life working for the peace of mankind on earth, through his music and his behaviours and common touch, reaching the political spectrum whilst still remaining true to his integrity. He died of cancer, but also survived an assassination attempt in the course of his efforts to share a view of peace love and harmony with our world.

Jesus of Nazareth. A humble carpenter from the land flowing with milk and honey, who according to the Bible tried to bring peace and love into the world of simple ordinary people. He was happy to share it with anybody of course, yet it was the ordinary folk that took his message. The religious leaders and other hierarchical people of his day didn't seem to take well to his simple message of sharing love with one another. But then this has not changed much over many centuries has it. The poor nearly always seem keen for changes that will benefit them, but the rich don't want change. They fear it will mean they have to have less, and they enjoy their delusion of power over the poor. In fact they encourage this fear, why else do you think we have this fear when they claim to have the power to stop it?

Friends, brothers and sisters. We are all part of an earth wide family. We have a duty to each other and to ourselves to seek ways to live at peace with one another. The alternative is soon to be global suicide. Maybe not today, tomorrow or next week, but certainly in the near future. We as a race, a species on the surface of this earth are a parasite, a virus, a scourge. We destroy the very planet we have to live on instead of working in harmony with it. We kill and murder one another over pathetic ideals about land and resources, forgetting that they belong to everyone. We came with nothing and will leave exactly the same way. Why not try to make the experience here more enjoyable for each and everyone of us instead of just select groups?

Please for the love of peace and harmony give a thought to what can be done to bring real freedom to everyone. To what can share the most happiness and provide the real true and lasting security here on earth.

As BOB said. “let's get together and we'll feel alright. One love.”

Thank you for getting this far. I hope that you will let me know what your thoughts are on this subject. After all I may not be right about all of this, in fact I am sure that I am not. They are simply my present views which I wish to share with others for the matter of debating future advancements in not only our thinking, but also our behaviours towards one another.

Love and Light.

Peaceful Warrior.