Freedom Comes with Responsibilities
Freedom Comes with Responsibilities
Freedom seems like this shiny thing at the end of the tunnel that everybody talks about, and everybody wants to taste it, but most of the people have no idea what it is. Freedom, as any other thing in life, comes with a price, comes at the expense of something else.
Total freedom means that you are in control of your life, that you can do whatever the fuck you want when you want with who you want, and as impressive as it might sound, it has a price.
In case my language confuses you, you cannot buy freedom with money because that would be too easy, you can make a shitload of money, there are opportunities. Yes, money can help you attain a specific type of freedom, but it is going to be useless if you don’t have the right mentality.
Look, I love money, it gives me a lot of freedoms and possibilities to say fuck you. Knowing that I have some money in crypto that I can cash out at any time if something happens gives me an ease of mind because I can cover all of my expenses with that money for an extended period.
The Price
As you read in the title, freedom comes with responsibilities this is the price you have to pay, you have to take responsibility for your life and future. Freedom comes at the expense of you having an excuse for not taking action; it takes away your possibility of blaming the state or your parents or some bullshit like that because you don’t have the life you desire.
If you are totally free, you cannot blame your boss for not giving you a raise and keeping you at the minimum wage, from paycheck to paycheck, you have to take full control over your financial situation. As Grant Cardone said, it's YOUR ECONOMY, not the economy; you will have to provide for yourself at any cost.
Also, if you are free you have to take full responsibility for your actions, you can’t blame others for your failures, you cannot blame your parents or the harsh environment you grew in for the miserable life you have now. If you took a decision, no matter the outcome, you have to take responsibility for it; you cannot run away. You see, it’s easy for people to take the pride if their decision had an outstanding outcome but if they fuck up they always like to blame others, and that is not possible anymore if you want to be free.
Attain Freedom
You have full control over your life thus the possibility of change is in your hands, if you don’t like something you have to change it and stop complaining and blaming your environment for your sadness.
We as human get born with freedom, but as we grow older and older, people start to fuck us up transforming some bright and curious babies in some dependent robots that cannot decide for themselves without asking their parents or bosses if they can or can’t do it.
Some are freer than others because their environment shaped them differently but because you read this post you have no excuse now, no possibility of escape. You either accept your shitty shekels, or you take full control over your life, take tremendous amounts of actions and regain your freedom, this will determinate how much you want it.
No one is going to provide freedom to you on a silver plate, no war and no politician can do it, nor any religion, guru or teacher, you are the only one that can attain freedom. You can be free even if you are in prison because the freedom comes from within, it's a state of mine that one can acquire at any times only if he wants it enough. You just have to take the decision of changing your behavior and take full responsibility for your situation.
Take constant action towards attaining freedom, and you will get it, at some point but do not ever stop.
The pictures are from Pixabay: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Jean Paul Satre, following Nietzsche, described the condition you're talking about as 'Monstrous Freedom' - which is basically the terrifying realization that as humans we always have a choice, and with that choice comes, as you say, responsibility.
Neither seems to have done a very good job of thinking through exactly how the free individual can lead an ethical (responsible) life - Nietzsche went mad, and Satre reverted to Marxism in his later years, recognizing the fact that in order to be responsible, the individual has do do something to consciously shape the environment in which he/ she lives (whether communism, or a move towards to communism is the right answer here remains open to debate).
A more recent development of Nietzsche lies in the work of Michel Foucault - his main thing was to point out that individuals might like to think of themselves as free, but actually they are subtly 'governed' by a neoliberal order which 'commands' them to take responsibility as 'autonomous individuals' - that is, the very way we think of the self-morality-freedom nexus is itself steered by a late-capitalist neoliberal political economy which refuses to 'take care' of people.
Foucault actually (although this is not widely known) saw some potential for responsible-liberation in Zen Buddhism, although it also seems that he was too busy exploring the liberating potential of gay sex orgies to explore Zen in any great depth before he died of aids in the 1980s!
Whether we need Marxism, Zen Buddhism, or just more kinky gay sex to further the ethical-liberation of humanity is also open to further debate.
He gave it a great name because it is hard to realize something like this indeed especially that people don't like to be in control and they always choose to be lead by someone just because they are protected from blame.
The thing with ethics is that they are subjective, different for everybody and what someone may consider as a responsible, ethical way of living their life may not seem so ethical for someone else.
I love that, "like to think of themselves as free, but actually, they are subtly 'governed'", I think this is how most people live their lives, probably even us. In some way or another we, as humans are influenced by all the bullshit going on around us thus being free and acting on our will is never easy.
I think that we don't have any idea what we need since we're in this little box that we cannot transcend thus we cannot accept the real truth.
Thanks a lot for your comment, I love it. :D
You should check out some Zygmunt Bauman on ethics, he spent a lot of his life trying to figure out what ethics might look like in a postmodern society where individuals are (essentially) free - he basically (I think) argues that ethical behaviour is behaviour in which we always take account of 'the other' - we have care for them as our starting point for deciding whether we should engage in a course of action - thus ethical behavior will quite often be about not doing, rather than just 'doing what I like' - and this also allows for judgement, responsibility, contextual differences. He has a rather minimalist and generalist approach, but I kind of like it - something is ethical if people act out of caring for others. That makes it social, not individual.
Some people take the concept of ethics a step further and suggest we actually need to codify it in some kind of social rules - Jurgen Habermas for example.
TBH The issues of freedom and ethics were never my main interest, but I just got so far into social theory a few years back - and there they were... recurring themes!
Cheers!
So true! Even with success comes responsibility. Question is are you ready to handle it? Many want freedom or success but don't want the responsibilities that come with it. Great post my friend!!
Many prefer to be lead because they are some obedient sheeps and it's a lot easier than to be in command, but they will never break out of their situation that way.
Yea I think it is a comfort zone also.
Definitely, fuck comfort zone before it fucks you.
Lol ya. You da man!!
nope that is the darwinist premise that is a fallacy and doesnt work for humans. Competition encourages psychopathy and being rewarded for it... society has dreadful paradox on its hands to resolve
my blog exposes it all
I live in Venezuela, Third World Country with tons of issues, Yet, I'm freer than ever before, and I have full control of my life, mos of it thanks to Steemit. That's why we have the duty to set the damn World free!
freedom is an inside job, truth must be experienced individually, otherwise the same issue reappear over and over... what we have had for 5000 years
My blog exposes it all
Feel that bud, Romania is not that great either but as you said, thanks to Steem I have that ease of mind and I feel free too. Let's get everybody on Steem now. :))
Freedom is a subject without any consensus, if we allow ourselves to be led by the norms imposed on us by the society of which we are a part, we do not have it, if on the contrary we refer to economic freedom, in the same way we must fulfill in many cases a working day although we do not have bosses to be able to have income. In general traits there is a lot of fear to be free and that is why we need to be part of a group and that this in turn gives us a status, reinforces that we are valuable for the social network
Freedom is a just a state of mind, you can have anything you want, be anywhere you want and not necessarily feel free.
Experiencing the joy of freedom comes from a state of mind in which we have completely accepted our life is ours and only ours.
In today’s world doing whatever we want requires money, that’s true, since crypto is more open than the traditional financial system, and it allows for people on difficult conditions to take part in this, I believe we will start to see more free spirited people than ever, thanks to crypto.
Maybe our generation won’t be like robots as you said on your post, hopefully we will be a little bit more spontaneous. All thanks to technology and the wealth it creates
Although your 'state of mind' and your definition of freedom are micro-governed by the society you're born into - changing those can thus be quite a challenge.
On the first point it is one of the tragedies of our age that we have such potential for freedom, but so few realize that potential!
Love that. Never really thought of it like that before, but that is so true.
I dont agree here... knowledge is unstoppable, there is no antidote to knowledge, so the best attitude is to accept that any form of control is vain and futile. That is because masses do not get this that mind control works so well... my blog is all about it.
We even have limitation to free ourself from.perceptions and assumption... ;)
Of course but I think that's our real challenge to break those limitations and live life to its fullest.
freedom just makes one responsible for him/herself. just we need to define what freedom means and covers correctly. freedom in my opinion does not include the right to humiliate others or so on. freedom is just be owner of self that does not come with responsibility. just if everyone could be able to take care of their selves everything would be fine.
Nice article..
Kindly upvote