Freedom is a state of mind

[Guest e Yer]

Freedom is a state of mind. Some people, like myself are innately free. I grew up in the U.S. where U.S. statism was forced down my throat by my parents, mainly by my father. It may be helpful to know that I'm not White. I'm the guy across the room observing White people looking at the world and each other through their rose' filled wine glasses. When you are free, you ask a lot of questions. My user name is Y ers, in other words: I'm a "why?" er. In my adulthood in grad school, I would answer a lot of questions. It was my way of balancing the scale, or in civic language...giving back, for all the questions I asked others and myself in my youth and early adulthood. Freedom is like good looks, it is both a blessing and a curse. When you're free in the workplace, you step on your deadbeat co-worker's toe or foot as he lies stretched out for a snooze. You, in other words, try to make things efficient so that you can help raise the tide that'll lift all boats...and deadbeats. Deadbeat workers are like the state, they don't want anyone important to figure out that they are no longer needed, so they retaliate. They are like Chihuahua's. They only bark when you are ready to step on them. I have two parakeets in a cage. They may not be physically free, but they are free mentally, and spiritually. When I try to get the sky blue colored one to perch on my index finger, it looks up at me perplexingly, like an old man with a big nose, and through body language says. "Thank you, but no thank you, Sir." When I try to get the lemon yellow one to do the same, it will mount my finger, dance around like an American Indian dance, then take hold of my finger with one of its talons and bite and pull my skin. It hurts. When I hang their cage outside under the avocado tree in the morning, both are as happy as a person who holds a winning lottery ticket. We can learn a lot from animals who think for themselves and are overjoyed by the simple, and free things in life. So freedom is a state of mind. It is the nagging will to proceed with one's purpose or agenda no matter what stands in the way or what demands are made against that. If you are like me, you will now receive your "inheritance" or "dividends." A person who is free and pursues free will, will now have the knowledge and wisdom, so valuable a commodity in these coming days and times. Being free means you are ready to answer the call of the free marketplace once the chains and ropes of state totalitarianism rusts and rots away. Which may be soon. It means being appreciated in the workplace for being an invaluable human resource. So many times I lament the waste of resource when I see a black person fill the void of a statist position, like a cop or Marine. I lament because I would think that black person would recognize the evil and immorality of seeking statist power after having been a victim of it for so long. If you were truly free at heart and behaved as such, you would be fully prepared in mind and spirit to benefit from what lies ahead. On the other hand, if you weren't free, what awaits you is great uncertainty and a mystery of how to cope 

[bootoo]

Freedom from what?

[Armitage]

My favorite kind of freedom is having food, housing, healthcare and information provided permanently and unconditionally, in modest but sufficient amounts.

This kind of freedom is known to make people impervious to "employment" and other forms of indentured servitude.

 

Any other definitions of freedom, such as the "freedom to wander around and get hungry or freeze over night" or the "freedom to get material possessions as long as we are willing to part with wasted-hours-certificates (a.k.a. money)" are highly suspect of Libertarian propaganda.

 

Yes, I'm giggling more and more as I write    Wasted-hours-certificates, got to remember that    

 

 

 

That being said, I don't envy Americans. The American situation is not so different from British colonial occupation, only this time they are occupied by GS bank, Federal reserve private bank, the military-industrial complex, the Wall Street financial lobby and their 30 % richest white men representation (a.k.a. The Congress). Soldiers are returning from Iraq, some more conscientious ones safely disabled by PTSD, some hardened by battle and prepared to encounter any home resistance with extreme prejudice. And yes, there is one more difference, the central government probably has half the domestic support that the British had. These are some rumors that go around my Europe-based Facebook page. 

 

This is the impression I get from the OP, this is what I think the OP hints at.

[Guest e Yer]

Freedom from what?

Dear Bootoo: 

I'm glad you reacted to my blog. My purpose with my blogs and especially this very complex, personal subject of personal freedom is to have you ponder the issue. What motivates me to share my views at this site is that viewers actually take the time to read my stuff. It's like having an audience that listens. It's a compliment. I could include my spiritual views on religion but that will draw the wrath of atheists who'd want to pick a fight with me. (I believe in the principle of non-violence.). But thanks for taking time to write you comments. Thanks also to Armitage and all viewers.  .

[bootoo]

e Yer - i appreciate you are not here to fight, but i would like to hear your spiritual views especially when it comes to discussions of freedom

 

I liked what Armitage said about freedom from hunger and from the elements 

[Armitage]

 

 

I liked what Armitage said about freedom from hunger and from the elements 

I suppose that makes us both bitten by the leftist bug. I believe that there should be an economic bottom line and it should be above zero. Freedom without economic security is not a freedom at all, it's a burden. No wonder people keep selling it to politicians for promises.

 

There is a way to have a bottom line that will rise with us, not without us. Today companies automate everything, but they do it without us. We need more automation, but we need access to the machine productivity. We need to let people directly dial up and click on what products they want. Voting with your wallet is not a fair vote, it presumes we had our hand in the work, which is increasingly not the case today. Today the most productive thing we can do, is to step away and let the machines work. Laissez les machines faire!

 

Division of labor is overrated, person of the future is a scientist-generalist, with an experimental attitude towards everything. As R. A. Henlein said, specialization is for insects. So is work, I say. Bees of cubicles and ants of conveyor belts must become the past.

[doglash]

My favorite kind of freedom is having food, housing, healthcare and information provided permanently and unconditionally, in modest but sufficient amounts.

 

These sound more like demands than freedoms.

[Armitage]

These sound more like demands than freedoms.

You can call it freedom from hunger, weather, disease and ignorance. It's the stuff from Universal declaration of human rights. 

 

The problem is, effectively this freedom is denied from us, if we don't have money. It is a very effective form of coercion. There is no person doing the coercion, but nonetheless, people will do their best to earn money to get this freedom, even if it means working 18 hours a day a low pay difficult and dangerous job. 

 

These are universal human rights, because without them we don't really deal with an autonomous human, capable of making right or wrong decisions, there is no right or wrong when the basic rights are involved, there is only survival. Without them a person is incapable of making a free decision at a job market. Thus a job market or market in general that violates these basic rights is not free at all.

 

Today there is a great inflation of the need for work. If we work only to have basic rights and needs (the UN declaration is not obligatory for governments, it's just an agreement on definition), then we do not work voluntarily. What if people had basic needs provided, would they completely stop working? Not at all, most would still work, but voluntarily. If we trust people to do right market decisions, to use weapons, cars and voting ballots, we should trust them with unconditional providing of basic needs, trust them if they choose to work. If a dentist sees that a society needs a dentist, that a neighbor has a toothache, a dentist will not refuse service just because he already has food and housing provided. Yes, fewer people would work, but the purpose of capitalism and market is not total employment, that is what Communism wants. Don't be like Communists, who saw in total employment the solution of all problems and forced thinkers and artists to build bridges with bare hands. Total employment yes, but total employment of automated, networked machines!

 

Do not presume that everyone has to be like the market is willing to pay for. Market is only an aggregate demand of the average society and the most extraordinary and innovative people have the greatest problem to find someone intelligent enough to pay for what they create. They must bend, conform and compromise with the market... Do not let the average decide what the above average should do, in order to live. If each has provided the basic needs, then we do intrude upon each other with our wallet votes.

[bootoo]

I dont know about a leftist bug, i dont want a government involved...im pretty sure leftists and rightists are statists 

 

However we know you have two types of human - one is conscious and capable, the other is unconscious and incapable - If you are fighting for survival its almost impossible to consider things like morality or UPB or NAP or anything other than 'I MUST SURVIVE'

 

So many people NOT struggling have a hard time appreciating and even acknowledging how dependent on each other we are and how much we all as individuals get out of the greater society and this leads to people trying to make their living at the expense of society or doing a shitty job at whatever they contribute to society - people WITH food and housing an ipods and hot tubs consider society an enemy, this should give an insight into what people who are struggling to survive need to overcome to NOT steal to NOT be anti-social to not just focus on their immediate needs at the expense of everyone and everything else....

 

It should be very important to everyone that they are surrounded by a community/society of conscious capable people - we know how to achieve this - feed people - free people

[Armitage]

I dont know about a leftist bug, i dont want a government involved...im pretty sure leftists and rightists are statists 

 

However we know you have two types of human - one is conscious and capable, the other is unconscious and incapable - If you are fighting for survival its almost impossible to consider things like morality or UPB or NAP or anything other than 'I MUST SURVIVE'

 

So many people NOT struggling have a hard time appreciating and even acknowledging how dependent on each other we are and how much we all as individuals get out of the greater society and this leads to people trying to make their living at the expense of society or doing a shitty job at whatever they contribute to society - people WITH food and housing an ipods and hot tubs consider society an enemy, this should give an insight into what people who are struggling to survive need to overcome to NOT steal to NOT be anti-social to not just focus on their immediate needs at the expense of everyone and everything else....

 

It should be very important to everyone that they are surrounded by a community/society of conscious capable people - we know how to achieve this - feed people - free people

I totally agree! Overlooking the global and societal inter-dependence of living and non-living things is the greatest fault of "market philosophers". (if that isn't an oxymoron) Almost everything we have comes from someone else or somewhere else, taken or inherited. What do you think, are we even able to explain it to people who don't see, don't understand? What I saw so far, words and text are inadequate for that. But maybe paintings can do the job. What do you think about this painter?

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pawel-Kuczynski/222849284410325?ref=ts&fref=ts

 

For me being left-wing means to be aware of the underdog side of the world, either by belonging there, or understanding it. The intellectual ability to observe global society and to draw parallels between the obviously working and the obviously not working, one because of the other. Artists like Kuczynski make the job easier because they draw one right next to the other.

 

So we realize, that freedom to fail economically is no freedom. Freedom to work or to learn what we do not want is no freedom. 

Anarcho-capitalists are people who don't believe in free elections and political campaigns, yet they believe in free market and advertising campaigns. Communists forced people to full employment with police and prisons. Capitalists let poverty do the job, they just open the factory door, people are free to come in and work. Or they just hire some Communists 

[Guest e Yer]

Dear Armitage:

There is enough provided by the earth to feed all the people. Growing food is very easy to do because mother nature, the sun, rain, and soil do all the work. Fact is statist, or those who use statism want to create shortages so that they can profit from selling you food. Money can be our fiat currency, bitcoins or more importantly, your skills. When we pay the plumber or mechanic, we are purchasing their skills. You could have those skills and barter it for food. Knowing thy self Is important, but having said that, channeling your known talents towards a marketable trade or profession is your money or currency for survival. As a New America Now video on 10 survival skills stated: the greatest form of wealth that no one can take away from you are your skills. I believe it. Once you acquire a marketable skill or skills, you will have self-confidence and know that you are truly free!

[Armitage]

Dear Armitage:

There is enough provided by the earth to feed all the people. Growing food is very easy to do because mother nature, the sun, rain, and soil do all the work. Fact is statist, or those who use statism want to create shortages so that they can profit from selling you food. Money can be our fiat currency, bitcoins or more importantly, your skills. When we pay the plumber or mechanic, we are purchasing their skills. You could have those skills and barter it for food. Knowing thy self Is important, but having said that, channeling your known talents towards a marketable trade or profession is your money or currency for survival. As a New America Now video on 10 survival skills stated: the greatest form of wealth that no one can take away from you are your skills. I believe it. Once you acquire a marketable skill or skills, you will have self-confidence and know that you are truly free!

Ah! The light! I can see it now!

All hail to the market!

Marketable skills are the only true skills! Marketable profession is the only profession!

Survival is the goal. Not thriving, not leisure, not sustainability, not the elimination of labor.

Any idiot can hold a plow or a wrench and we are supposed to be these idiots, because market says so. Market says, thou shalt not create self-repairing plumbing, automatic hydroponic farms, or cars that do not break down, because they only contain about 40 moving parts. Thou shalt provide livelihood to mechanics and plumbers.

Labor is the only way to survive, because it provides this dominating medium of exchange, the money. All hail to the money. 

 

Now, if you haven't noticed my weapon-grade sarcasm, I shall read from the great philosopher's book, subtly corrected so that it's even wiser.

 

 

In  “The  Matrix,”  a  young man  is  awakened  from a  computer-generated 

imaginary world to find that he is enslaved by robots who are paralyzing 

him with the illusion of life in order to harvest his electrical energy. 

This is a wonderful metaphor on many levels, and tells us an enormous 

amount about our “relationship” with truth and reality. 

In the movie, the robots that were originally invented to serve mankind 

end  up  ruling  mankind  and  spinning  an  illusory  “reality”  which  keeps 

their former masters entombed in the mere appearance of a life. 

My take on this metaphor is that it is really describing advertisement. 

For  instance,  the  market is  an  institution  that  was  originally 

designed to serve citizens – “market by and for the people.” 

However,  as  we  have  seen  countless  times,  what  we  create  to  serve us 

ends up ruling us. 

Market that  were  supposedly  created  to  keep  our  property accessible to customers

now steal upwards of 50% of our time under the guise of “work.” 

Prices were  supposedly  created  to  give  us  participation  in  the 

“market process” – yet if we do not agree with whatever those in the 

marketplace decree, we are threatened with poverty and natural dangers. 

Through  the  endless  infliction  of  pro-market advertising  in  capitalist

schools,  we  grow  up  believing  in  mad  illusions  such as  “economic cycles,” 

“virtuous  labor,”  “free trade,”  “voluntary  employment,” 

“using the nature” in the form of “profits” and so on. 

 

 

 

Real-Time Relationships

The Logic of Love

Stefan Molyneux

(subtly corrected version)

[Mishelle]

My view of freedom is to not have the blood of others on my hands.  I believe no one in the US or UK is free and will not be even with the basics of life provided or in any other way until the death of the Military Industrial Complex.  Once that is accomplished then freedom would mean no borders.

 

 I've lived in the unraveling "socialism/communism" in eastern europe for several years--people did have the basics, but the motivation of those who lived through it was completely sapped.  Providing for one's own basics is actually a fulfilling human drive and at this stage in our social development I feel it's essential--otherwise entire populations and generations of people become very removed from their own means of survival.  The best thing about communism was that neighbors really relied on each other for the necessities of life, there was very little waste, and people got very handy at fixing things.

[Guest e Yer]

My view of freedom is to not have the blood of others on my hands.  I believe no one in the US or UK is free and will not be even with the basics of life provided or in any other way until the death of the Military Industrial Complex.  Once that is accomplished then freedom would mean no borders.

 

 I've lived in the unraveling "socialism/communism" in eastern europe for several years--people did have the basics, but the motivation of those who lived through it was completely sapped.  Providing for one's own basics is actually a fulfilling human drive and at this stage in our social development I feel it's essential--otherwise entire populations and generations of people become very removed from their own means of survival.  The best thing about communism was that neighbors really relied on each other for the necessities of life, there was very little waste, and people got very handy at fixing things.

 Dear Mishelle,

A hard life is a blessing. Many times you don't have to wish it was different because it's better that it wasn't. Your wisdom fom your life's experiences makes that point. A hard life allows you to see the beauty of human relationships and the ingenuity and creativity that comes from repairing and putting benefits back into items that are broken, and humbles you to life so that you can continue to learn and grow. What you've experienced in eastern Europe was viewed by the U.S. and the west as imprisonment behind the "iron curtain." But what you've shared was definitely not the case. As I mentioned with my parakeets, they are in the cage but they enjoy all the spiritual freedoms of life. I feel living in the U.S. to be a prison for those who don't want to the see the walls of government regulations, and restrictive laws. People in the U.S. have allowed the government to take away a lot of their freedoms because they have so eagerly applied for and received entitlement, and transfer payments from the government to the point where they can't criticize the government anymore. During the war crime that was the invasion of Iraq committed by President Bush and his administration, the U.S. citizens turned their back to the killings of innocent children, women, and men. They even had their own sons, daughters, and husbands join the military and  contribute to those murders. They lived in denial during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and while all those murders and torture were being committed. They were no better than the German citizens who lived outside of Auschwitz. I believe freedom is also peace of mind. Those U..S. troops with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTS) misled themselves into believing they were fighting for freedom when in fact they insured that they will be imprisoned in their own guilt and traumatic experiences for the rest of their lives. 

[Mishelle]

What a thoughtful reply e Yer, thank you!  I especially resonated with:

 

"to the point where they can't criticize the government anymore. During the war crime that was the invasion of Iraq committed by President Bush and his administration, the U.S. citizens turned their back to the killings of innocent children, women, and men. They even had their own sons, daughters, and husbands join the military and  contribute to those murders. They lived in denial during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and while all those murders and torture were being committed. "

 

So true and sad.  I'm surrounded by these folks, whether retirees or receiving unemployment or military benefits--it's truly staggering to me.  Who's going to criticize their Sugar Daddy?!  Before I would keep my mouth shut and smile with a wince, now I make every effort to make them as uncomfortable as possible.  Not very enlightened of me, perhaps!    

 

But I do want to make clear that I was in Eastern Europe by choice.  Indeed there was a great deal of unjust imprisonment, just like here.  But everyone knew they were being occupied, everyone knew the elections were a scam and that your neighbors or even your own family might turn you in, get you on "the list"--that's the only real difference between there in the 80s and 90s and here now.  We call ourselves free and most people really believe this, I'd venture to guess 95% of Americans call themselves "Free" with great pride.  I find this to be a terrible humiliation.  As someone on "the List" right now in US I can tell you I've never felt less free in my life and it sickens me.  I used to travel regularly, but 2 years ago I boycotted TSA and have not traveled since.  This makes me furious.

 

So while I know what you mean by "freedom is a state of mind"--I understand and can also feel the spiritual essence of this statement and I really do appreciate it, like all things beautiful and well-meaning.  On the other hand though, it's dangerous, because practically, it's not true.  But when you say something so lovely folks want to smile and nod along, instead of really considering what freedom means.

[Guest e Yer]

What a thoughtful reply e Yer, thank you!  I especially resonated with:

 

"to the point where they can't criticize the government anymore. During the war crime that was the invasion of Iraq committed by President Bush and his administration, the U.S. citizens turned their back to the killings of innocent children, women, and men. They even had their own sons, daughters, and husbands join the military and  contribute to those murders. They lived in denial during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and while all those murders and torture were being committed. "

 

So true and sad.  I'm surrounded by these folks, whether retirees or receiving unemployment or military benefits--it's truly staggering to me.  Who's going to criticize their Sugar Daddy?!  Before I would keep my mouth shut and smile with a wince, now I make every effort to make them as uncomfortable as possible.  Not very enlightened of me, perhaps!    

 

But I do want to make clear that I was in Eastern Europe by choice.  Indeed there was a great deal of unjust imprisonment, just like here.  But everyone knew they were being occupied, everyone knew the elections were a scam and that your neighbors or even your own family might turn you in, get you on "the list"--that's the only real difference between there in the 80s and 90s and here now.  We call ourselves free and most people really believe this, I'd venture to guess 95% of Americans call themselves "Free" with great pride.  I find this to be a terrible humiliation.  As someone on "the List" right now in US I can tell you I've never felt less free in my life and it sickens me.  I used to travel regularly, but 2 years ago I boycotted TSA and have not traveled since.  This makes me furious.

 

So while I know what you mean by "freedom is a state of mind"--I understand and can also feel the spiritual essence of this statement and I really do appreciate it, like all things beautiful and well-meaning.  On the other hand though, it's dangerous, because practically, it's not true.  But when you say something so lovely folks want to smile and nod along, instead of really considering what freedom means.

 Dear Mishelle,

When you no longer hesitate distinguishing evil from good. When that evil makes you angry (like it does for me) you have a good, virtuous heart and are free in the sense that you express your deep emotions as a reflex. I'm glad that the world has people like you, and Stefan whose work at FDR has sparked a renaissance of people who would choose what is good, and virtuous over ignoring or rationalizing away the evil that you are part of because of pure materialistic concerns for protecting one's status quo of money, power, status, and position. Like Moses leading followers to the promise land, it will take a several generations for young people in particular to choose wisely, their occupations and means of support that will not make them helplessly depended on the state, evil institutions and war profiting businesses. Our sad situation is because it is support by the people for various reasons. If everyone were like us, we would have a much better world.

[dayna j.]

 

Ah! The light! I can see it now!

All hail to the market!

Marketable skills are the only true skills! Marketable profession is the only profession!

Survival is the goal. Not thriving, not leisure, not sustainability, not the elimination of labor.

Any idiot can hold a plow or a wrench and we are supposed to be these idiots, because market says so. Market says, thou shalt not create self-repairing plumbing, automatic hydroponic farms, or cars that do not break down, because they only contain about 40 moving parts. Thou shalt provide livelihood to mechanics and plumbers.

Labor is the only way to survive, because it provides this dominating medium of exchange, the money. All hail to the money. 

 

 

This is not an argument.  You would be better off by saying nothing, rather than demonstrating the willingness to argue by fallacy and damaging your credibility as a thinker.

[Armitage]

This is not an argument.  You would be better off by saying nothing, rather than demonstrating the willingness to argue by fallacy and damaging your credibility as a thinker.

Well, the OP wasn't an argument either. It was repeating me the Economy 101, which is always a mistake.

In the atheist community there is an opinion, that ridiculous things need to be ridiculed as an appropriate response. I think sometimes sarcasm is a necessary defense against intellectually offensive things. And explaining the basics of Economy 101 to me is intellectually offensive. We all here know Economy 101, the point is understanding the Economy 2.0. I don't promote the Economy 2.0 because I wouldn't understand Economy 101, but because Economy 2.0 provides a higher standard of living and more free time for more people and elimination of the most serious global problems. The problem is, it requires a new way of thinking, a new language of thought.

 

I have passed exams of Economy 101 at a Community College and then at a think-tank-like private college. It was a part of my Bachelor's exams as well. There I also passed exams of Austrian economy under a dean who is an enthusiastic Libertarian and taught a few subjects like Law & Economy, which I attended all and had a great time of it. I can jump through all the hoops of traditional thinking. So explaining Economy 101 to me is a big mistake.