"Let them eat cake" - Freedom is a lie . . .

in #philosophy6 years ago

The air within the gathering hall was chilly, born of the stillness that encased the minds of all those assembled awaiting the call that would stir life, not only within these hallowed space but out beyond the building, into the city and beyond. The anticipation was palpable. Though he could not see or hear them, John knew that those without these halls were prattling among themselves regarding the morning ritual in breathless excitement, attuned and expectant of the command that will permit all activity to come alive. The first phrases must be accurate and timely, for even a slightest mistake would negate the process and pollute the ritual. John, dressed in his best attire, repeated his opening phrase continuously in his mind, lest he profane the sacred silence that gripped these hallowed gathering, in preparation. Finally, the opening bell resounded, echoing through the trade floor. Sell to open Corning November 20, 2017, $26.50 put option, 100 shares John yelled out his first trade of the day.


Pyramid_of_Capitalist_System.jpg
Image Credit: By Artist not credited. Published by International Pub. Co., Cleveland, Ohio. - Uni Hamburg, Public Domain, Link

Modern finance is a form of religion. Its purveyors wear the trappings of an oracular priesthood, from whence the proclamations and prognostications are avidly hearkened by the mightiest political figure to the lowliest pleb. The quarterly public decrees of interest rates from Central Banks direct public policy and private enterprise, even more effectively than the Papal bulls at the height of Western Christian ascendancy. The numerous conference lectures and televideo interviews of economists are zealously attended to by the faithful, even more so than the Muslims seeking the ahadith during the Golden era of Al Mansur. The fanaticism with which the capitalist adherents profess their dogma and condemn heretical financial models would shock even Tomas de Torquemada. Finance is an apt religion for these modern era of profane men bound by their pathetic devotion to colorless logic and befuddling statistics.

Having rejected a personal God, it is fitting that the new god of the West is indifferent and fickle Hermes. What is mercantile sensibility if not dispassionate transaction amongst equally disinterested parties desiring neither to owe nor be owed during their transient interaction through life? Merchants are facilitators of communal disintegration, whose singular goal in existence is commodification of every human interaction and association. Monetization of man’s ecologic relationship need not even be mentioned. Virtually all societal obligations have steadily become commodities to be traded for baubles resulting in the current liquidation of sociopolitical entities in the West. Parental obligation commodified into daycare system; neighborhood obligations monetized into HOAs; filial obligation quantified to nursing home system; patronage obligation reduced to employment; friendship obligation bastardized to psychobabble “therapy”; etc. all contribute to the current societal dysfunction of disconnected, self-absorbed islands of misery.

The foundation of human social structure is communal obligation and personal debt. When obligation is replaced with “freedom” and personal debt transmogrified into impersonal loans, then the very foundation of human group cohesion crumbles. Is it any wonder then, that modernity is cursed with zeroes clumping together with the most superficial of all human traits, that of race, gender, or “ethnicity” (whatever that means). The very concept of “freedom” is antithetical to harmonious human social cohesion.

What are the consequences of the intractable plague of freedom? Millions of alcoholics, drug addicts, and process addicts attest to the repercussion of man drunk on too much freedom. Billions of directionless, purposeless, entitled drones enslaved to the ambition to acquire the next iPhone are the products of a society whose only value is freedom from obligation. Information pornography gussied up as journalism and academic theses is the wages of intelligentsia intoxicated on freedom from responsible speech.

Man requires a master to serve. The quickest method to turn a sane man into a raving imbecile is to curse him with unlimited freedom and unrestricted boundaries. The apocryphal tale of Russians becoming catatonic when faced with the thousand different cereal choices at a Western food mart illustrates the fragile nature of man’s psyche and his need for boundaries. Is not the Western endemic problem with “mental illness” but a symptom of man’s inability to reconcile the reality of inherent inequality of men with the social prattle of liberté, égalité, fraternité that continually assail his common sense? Rather than accepting the fate of his station, the insane modernity urges man to grasp at that which is beyond his reach. Despite the mass delusion inherent in the political system called democracy of man’s godhood, man is not a being who can raise himself up as a clay-god to dictate to Heaven his preferences.

Freedom is a lie; there is only acceptance. Through acceptance, man learns obedience. Through obedience, he gains purpose. Through purpose, he hones will. Through will, he cultivates power. Through power, he achieves victory over himself. As the great law-giver of Athens, Solon, once advised: learn to obey, before you command.

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While I might not be as critical of the state of modern society's soul as you, it's merely a matter of degree- I'm not a huge fan myself. (Though my preoccupation is more concerned with man and human civilization's relationship with nature.) Long live the new flesh and all that.

Where I disagree with you, I think, is whether freedom is the cause of its ills. And, to bring it back to the man's relationship with nature, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between treating nature well or poorly and the level of freedom in a society. Both the US and the USSR trashed the environment during the 20th century, while the Dominican Republic treated it incredibly well, despite being a brutal dictatorship. There's no consistent pattern by political system or freedom level.

This is, admittedly, focusing on a specific portion of society, rather than on the larger scale you're looking at. I am, admittedly, that type of thinker- I approach the larger picture through the details.

If I had to choose the greatest intellectual ill of our time, it would be our shortsightedness- the untrained person only really considers five generations- your grandparents, your parents, yourself, your children, and your grandchildren, and the self gets by far the most attention. We can be trained to think beyond that, but it's not easy- we do it in geology, but geologists, for better or worse, aren't exactly the movers and shakers of society.

I think we agree on similar premise. Modern man is disconnected from not only creation, but also from each other, as well as from generational relations. He does not consider beyond the perspective of his pitiful 80-year timespan to recognize that countless generations of humans proceeded him and countless more will succeed him. As he has received the planet in livable form from his forebears, he has the obligation to pass on the gift to his progeny. From religious perspective, man did not create this world, place its minerals and resources under the earth, quicken the various plants and animals, or even breathe life unto himself. All this is given as a gift from God, and he is obligated to use that gift responsibly. Man is not "free" to do as he "pleases," divorced from social and spiritual connections, with gifts not of his own origin.

This is a superbly written post, with much truth in it. However, I could not more strongly disagree with certain statements you make, and your overall conclusions.

My enemy is not my vapidity, nor an overwhelming plethora of choices that paralyze me, but rather those corrupt thieves of my work that command me to perform for their benefit.

I am not, and never will be, even at the point of a gun, chattel.

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

'Invictus', William Earnest Henley.

While men are not disembodied spirits, and we are social animals, dependent on our fellows for purpose and value in our lives, we aren't either automatons, able to be directed like machines, nor discarded on scrap heaps when our work is done.

From your name, @soo.chong163, I am led to assume you are of Chinese extraction, and given your skill at wordcraft, not unfamiliar with history, particularly of China. Great innovations in technology in China preceded by centuries their export to the rest of the world, yet it was not in China that these technologies, paper, metallurgy, powered flight, have attained their penultimate fruition.

Why?

Because China has not been a hotbed of radical free thinking, rather it's potent culture has repressed innovation.

Without culture and society, just as without freedom, we are but shadows of men.

The fact of life is that you are free. Though I hold a blade to your throat and command you, you yet must acquiesce, or not, as you prefer.

Well it has been said "Give me liberty, or give me death.", for life without freedom is but a pale reflection of true vitality.

While I have a son named Solon, for the Athenian you mention, I have taught him to rebel, as only through rebellion can you ascertain the reason for community. Unless you have been alone, you cannot understand loneliness. Unless you have been free, you cannot grasp community. Unless you live, you cannot die.

It is true that physical technological advancement proceeded at faster pace in the West from 18th century forward, as compared with the East. If the measure of a civilization's worth is based solely upon physical technical prowess, then men are reduced to automatons in service of some abstraction of physical technical progress.

One could argue that Indian subcontinent is wealthiest of all in human history, due to their infinite and deep philosophical and religious concepts, upon which that particular people devoted themselves, if the measure of civilization's worth is gauged by intellectual development regarding spiritual matters.

When the Manchu Emperor rejected Macartney's trade overtures, it was not because his embassy did not present baubles novel to the Imperial court. Unlike Europe, technical advancement or trade profits were not considered valuable in itself. Technology and profits are tools with which a court fosters sociopolitical stability. Having achieved relative social stability and public contentment, the Qing court had not need, or use, for new baubles.

And what has "radical" thinking and "rebellious" sentiments purchased for Europe in the social sphere? Man disconnected not only from creation, but also from each other: the religious spasms and wars of the Reformation, disintegration of Christendom into Westphalian corporate factions, the Terror and Napoleonic wars, mercantile usurpation of state policy, etc. Despite technical "backwardness" of the East, China maintained 6000 years of social stability that was only shattered with the infection of Western prattle regarding freedom and "theory" of government, resulting in the warlord period of the early 1900s.

In the modern times, Syrian civil war illustrates the insanity of the call for "freedom." Is rebellion against the reality of human nature and the necessity of social cohesion worth the 100,000 severed limbs of Syrian children for the Western influence, so-called "free" Syrian army?

While I can hardly more admire your excellent understanding of history, I must note that characterizing the rise of the West as something that only began recently, and of China's history as stable, is disingenuous.

Gunpowder, metallurgy, and paper were all advanced in the West centuries ago, not only from the 19th on, and despite the cultural continuity, China has seen horrifying upheavals, such as the Mongol invasion, throughout it's storied history.

Examples you provide of the drawbacks of freedom, such as the Syrian conflict, have as much to do with freedom as does advertising. The Syrian conflict, and war in general, is simply the result of concentration of wealth and power - oligarchy - and freedom is just ad copy.

I need no master, and you have none. As I said, were my knife to your throat, you yet remain free to obey or not.

Society can, and I do believe, will, far better flower when that sovereignty of individual men is less imposed on by megalomaniacal oligarchs. The advent of AI, 3D printing, and cryptocurrencies are all indications of how much faster individual power is growing compared to institutional, and the concatenation of these technologies potentiates leaps far beyond my imagination.

We live in interesting times, and the desperation of oligarchs to maintain their power in the face of intractable evolution is an possibly unprecedented crisis of human society.

It is impossible to not follow the trends forward to the inevitable conclusion of absolute personal freedom for individuals, given continued technological progress.

Who, in the vastness of space, might conceivably be my master, when I can vote with my interstellar drive built with resources I obtain myself, and craft with my own printers?

While I completely acknowledge that humans aren't merely individuals, and society is necessary to humanity, and that therefore we need to limit our freedom so that we can be social, there needs be no masters for that.

For much of history, since the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, Europe has been net importer of technical knowledge and luxury products. Counter-weight trebuchet was gifted by the Byzantine Empire to the crusaders, and by extension, the West. While it is true that a Czech weapons-master constructed the first cannon, with which the invincible armies of the Ottoman sultanate smashed the triple walls of Constantinople, it was the Janissary corp of the Suleman's court that introduced gunpowder and muskets to the West. The blast furnaces of China and Damascene steel existed centuries prior to the development of the Bessemer process steel manufacture in the West.

Above example are not to suggest that the West has had no technological prowess. The Venetian perfection in glassware manufacture, the Gothic style cathedrals with counter-weight construction requiring less stone material for wall support, the pulley crane system, etc. are magnificent advancement that do not detract from Western ingenuity, regardless of whether certain technology were imported from elsewhere. It would not be inaccurate to suggest that Europe surpassed the East with the sociopolitical transformation in invention of the "citizen" and with the harnessing of the steam-engine during the 18th century.

Indeed, China had its fragmentation after the fall of the Han and then the Tang empires, but it never developed the permanent state of dissolution via the Westphalian states in Europe.

The values which you and I hold to be paramount differ. The echoes of the Westphalian state and the French Revolution continue to command the sensibility of the West with emphasis on "freedom from tyranny," but I do not hear such echoes. For me, it is paramount that a man is granted his being with purpose and station, before any of the trivial Western "freedoms" are proffered.

"...a man is granted his being..."

Who grants it? I submit that you are not granted existence by any man or men, and it is to your creator that you owe allegiance.

I do appreciate that we are each raised in different cultural milieus, and as a result look at life differently. While the prattle born of the French Revolution indeed brays about freedom, the instructive takeaway for me of that event was the coining of the word terrorism, which it exemplified.

In every case of my exposure to compulsory institutions, generally of government, I have noted that some mechanism or means has been employed to craft my compliance, that my overlords might be enriched. For me I first noticed this at the age of six, when I realized that there were not seven continents as I was taught, but six.

I wonder if you have been granted the opportunity to question those that have seized authority over you?

I am glad of our discussion here, as I have learned, and that is my very food and drink.

Be well!

If the model doesn't fit the man, make the man fit the model. The Homo economicus doesn't exist. Game theory can't predict human decisions with suitable accuracy or real-life relevancy. Economists are notoriously incapable of predicting anything.

So, create a society where humans will be forced to function the way the models demand. Problem solved.

Example: The current fashion of superficial self-help self-improvement that has nothing to do with real self-improvement. Telling everyone that the secret to happiness lies only within themselves, manufactures exactly the kind of individual that will be a selfish unit, that will never become part of a movement, and thus has been neutralized, and more easily controlled. Look at all those self-love memes, or self-love posts here on steemit. They're trying to teach people to love themselves! That's like teaching a Siberian cat how to be hairy, or a dog how to scratch when it itches. We don't have enough hedonism and selfishness in the world: let's love ourselves more!

I agree with many parts of your post, but somewhat disagree with the whole freedom angle. Freedom in the right hands is good. But how do we define the right hands? You attempt to do it by prescribing a form of apprenticeship, "learn to obey before you command". But some people are able to self-command. They know the right way to do things, they don't need as much guidance. For instance, if they have money, they will still work like workaholics, whereas another person would spend it all on "fun".

So, some people have a strong will and direction. For others, it's truer to say that, "if you don't have a will, it will be provided for you". They who don't have a will, will inevitably serve another's. The reason for the iPhone culture, is because these people don't have a will of their own, and so they serve the will of those who want to make money off of them. In another era, the same exact people would be deeply devoted to their religion, because someone would profit from that devotion. The morals would be exactly reversed, but the underlying reason is the same: these people are lacking in will and self-direction. Some people realized that giving people freedom is the best way to control them. There's no real freedom. As Noam Chomsky says, consent is manufactured. Giving people freedom means releasing them from the will of smaller groups, and exposing them to the global will of corporations who can afford better advertising. A person released from the control of a small group, is one more person exposed to the control of popular culture, i.e. another paying customer. A woman with a veil won't buy as many products. A scientist will build his own computer from cheaper parts, he won't buy a pre-assembled one. It's not freedom vs unfreedom, it's one shepherd stealing sheep from another shepherd. We only gain real freedom when we educate ourselves, which not many are willing to do, cos it's boring.

man’s inability to reconcile the reality of inherent inequality of men with the social prattle of liberté, égalité, fraternité

An inherent contradiction in the whole Renaissance movement according to the relevant chapter in the Divine Fury.

Yes. Freedom is a tool. Rather than learning to use the tool, modernity worships it as some type of god. Like all tools, only in the trained and capable hands are the benefits of the tools realized. The purpose becomes relevant here, as a tool requires purpose to be useful. A hammer is useless to an accountant, but invaluable to a carpenter.

What many do not recognize, or refuse to acknowledge, is that 90% of man is not capable of using or understanding the concept of freedom because they lack purpose and aptitude. Social hierarchy of human societies for virtually all of human existence would not have been as such, if the inherent conditions of man were different. Even if a man desires to flout all rules and limits, he must, by necessity, first learn all the rules and limits he wishes to flout.

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