What is freedom? Are you free?
“Freedom´s just another word for nothing left to lose“ - from the song Me and Bobby McGee.
„Freiheit ist immer die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden“ - Rosa Luxemburg
(translated on wikiquote as
“Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters“ )
Source:
https://www.change.org/p/fran%C3%A7ois-hollande-france-take-back-the-statue-of-liberty
“Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it“
Harry Brown in his book - How I found freedom in an unfree world.
“This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.“ George Carlin on the USA
After 9/11 one of America´s greatest philosophical thinkers, George W. Bush, found the answer as to why guys crash planes into buildings. “They hate us for our freedom.“
And in a heroic attempt to reduce hate, he started to reduce freedom by signing the PATRIOT Act into law. And the "Land of the free“ became the “Land of the used to be free“.
There are also different degrees of freedom for different people.
The richer you are, the more free you are, because you got more choices.
“Money won´t buy you happiness, but it surely let´s you chose your own form of misery.“ Groucho Marx
Financial freedom:
How long can you maintain your current standard of living without having to work for your living expenses? One month? One year? For the rest of your live?
Or are you even enslaved by your credit card debts, because you bought too much stuff you don´t need with money you didn´t have to impress people you don´t like?
Viktor Frankl says
“Between stimulus and reaction, human beings do have the freedom of choice.“
He found out in the most unfree environment imaginable, a Nazi concentration camp.
He realized that the Nazis could do whatever they wanted with his body, since his body was not free, but he could control his own reactions to whatever happened.
He envisioned himself, being back at university, giving lectures again to his psychology students. And that´s exactly what happened later on, because he survived.
The freedom of the mind.
Roberto Benigni, director of “Life is beautiful“, once got verbally attacked during a press conference by some journalist who accused him of making fun of the Holocaust.
What the journalist did not understand is that this movie is a celebration of that freedom of the mind, Frankl was talking about. Although in the movie the father gets shot in the end, (and I was very disappointed and also shocked by this ending, I would have much prefered a Hollywood ending in that case, but this shows that Benigni actually did not take the topic lightly) he succeeded with his plan to protect his son by pretending it´s all a game.
Triumph of the Will!
Unfortunately neuro sciences have been telling us for quite a while now that there is no free will, that the will can only want what the brain has already decided a split second before.
In the Samadhi Hall of the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh there are many paintings,
depicting scenes from Swami Sivananda´s life.
My favorite is one of him sitting on a rock by the Ganga and the caption says
“A saint is the greatest hero, for he alone has broken the unbreakable chains of karma.“
“There is no such thing as sin.
The baby soul simply must commit some mistakes on its way to liberation.“
Take that, all you propagators of purgatory!
“I am not so much concerned with freedom of religion but with freedom from religion“ George Carlin
Don´t get me started on religion. Religion and government, the biggest enslavers of mankind.
“There is no point in finding the clitoris, if you find it with an uppercut.“ - Frankie Boyle
(What the freedom)
And since life would be nothing without a song and a dance let´s end this with one
And while your here, please check out this other great content on the ecoTrain. 😘
This f***in´ preview!
Everything looked perfect there, but after i posted, I saw the mess up around the picture. Grrr!
u can always edit! Great post.. you touched on many things here!
What does free will mean when you take time out of the equation~??!
Sure, but who knows how the editing is going to work out then?
Anyway, I spent already way too much time on formatting and then it idn´t come out as shown in the preview, so I`ll leave it like that.
I gave my best, unfortunately that ain´t much. 😁
Whats wrong with the result? Looks very good!
Thanks. Looked even better in the preview.
I like this post. Sayings are always a good way to approach a not-so-easy subject and you definitely found some good ones :-)
Sorry, I keep having more to say. Being Israeli, every so often I find myself singing along to the Israeli National anthem. One of the lines talks about the right to be a free people in our own country. These past few years the mention of freedom in that context has irked me to understate a tad. A couple months ago I made a sign for the Israel Day march in Denver where I wrote on one side That there is No Freedom unless we are All free. Of course I am refer to the fact that Israel has been occupying the Palestinians and denying freedoms of all kinds for over 50 years. To take that idea farther, Freedom is a relationship, not an individual thing. If what I want takes something away from someone else, is that Freedom? Many relationships of inequality exist in this world from individuals to countries and these need to be examined. One day I hope those unequal relationships that provide more freedom to some above others will find a more equitable balance.
Cheers Steemit friends.
Peace.
Thank you.
Feel free to post your own take on that unfathomable subject! 😇
I have a bunch to say on the subject. This song captures some of it.
free to do what ever you want... no because you only are here to pay pay pay and with stupid old people in the parlement or only douches who want fame and status but licking other country's asses.. i don't feel free but yet Im aware the country i live in has the most freedoms
So you´re living in India then?
fortunately not :P we have toilets xD
The worst slavery is that of the mind, the slavery of ideas that keep you from questioning and seeking answers.
Don't forget the banksters. The governments only serve them. Great post. We are all on our own path.
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STOPI feel most happy the moments i can just do what i want to do. Mostly i am able to so, it depends on my pocket, sad to say. Right now, i am practicing gaining back control over my desire to live life like i want to. Weeep!
Meep meep
Weep Weep
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
That is my favorite Viktor Frankl quote :) I understand it as being about the wisdom we should employ regarding the use of whatever freedom we have.
This is a great post @likedeeler
Once back in college I had to write a long paper about predestination vs free will based on the views of Ahmad Sirhindi an Indian Islamic Scholar during the time of the Mughal Empire. If only Incould remember any of what I wrote , this comment would be far more interesting. All I remember was that delving into Sufi thought was deeply rewarding.
Amazing post @likedeeler . The ideas just flow.. so many ways to look at the question of freedom. So many really big ideas in a fairly small ammount of words. I like that - it's not easy to do. A great selection of quotes too. Thanks for taking the time to write it down and share. I enjoyed reading it.
Thank you, your feedback is much appreciated.
That´s what I wanted to create, some free flow.