Dear friends
I’d like to share with you my thoughts about freedom and how my journey led me to my own personal piece of heaven.
Freedom is the most important thing in the world to me. Every time I look inside to find my core values, what motivates me most, it is freedom. I must have been a very difficult child, because I cannot handle being told what to do. I am an archetype rule breaker. Not because I’m a rebel, just because I cannot handle illogical rules and restrictions. (This may have a lot to do with growing up to ultra-orthodox parents.)
Today I want to write about our loss of freedom in society, and what I have done to regain mine. In part 2 (tomorrow) I’ll give you a couple of ideas of where to start if you are thinking about finding your own freedom again.
Freedom lost
You have probably noticed that there are more and more laws passed every day. The government increasingly controls more areas of our lives. It’s possible that some of my readers think that this is a good thing. But I do not.
Many of my readers are in the health / wellness industry so I’ll give some relevant examples. Governments are increasingly controlling what you can and cannot do. In Europe there are new laws controlling or restricting the sale of vitamins for example, with talk of doing this in Australia and USA as well. The USA Federal Trade Commission has new laws preventing healers from publishing testimonials even if they have miracle results. In Australia there are a series of current court cases in which healing practitioners are being prosecuted for claiming to cure disease – even though they did actually cure the disease and filled the court with happy clients.
In other words, governments are gaining more and more control of every area of our life. You no longer have the freedom to do your job as you’d like (without hurting anyone). You can’t even tell people about your great work.
And if you do manage to run a business despite all this control, do you think you get to keep your own profits? Of course not! The government is there to take most of it. (I won’t go down this tangent today, but what we are seeing in the world is a massive theft of capital (your money) from the public to special interests in the finance and military sectors. The US bank bail-out is a classic example of this – public money going to private pockets. The Iraq war is a much bigger example of the same thing – the main reason for inventing WMDs was to put billions of dollars into private contractors associated with the government.)
Of course it’s much worse than this; I’m just looking for non-controversial (less conspiracy sounding) examples. What really gets me though is things like the suppression of alternative energy technology. The greenhouse effect could have ended years ago; we have the technology (I have seen it). But our governments are so dependent on petrol/gasoline tax and revenues that it is actually ILLEGAL to drive your car using clean alternatives.
Our lives are increasingly controlled by the forces that were meant to represent and protect us.
Most of my family and friends are content to live their lives and remain pawns in this game. They prefer not to know what’s really going on in the world, and to their civil rights.
Freedom found
This is slightly more than an angry rant. Because you see, I did something about it.
In part 2 (tomorrow) I’ll share more about our new home, Vanuatu, and why we are so passionate about the freedom that can be created here.
For now – I’d love your comments. Assuming you live in one of the big pseudo-democracies (USA/Australia/UK/Western Europe), do you believe you are free? How do you measure your freedom? What steps can you take to gain freedom?
Simon
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Wow.
I can see why there are no comments here. What do you say to that? Very difficult and challenging stuff you write here – for me, and I believe that if it’s that way for me, it must be even more so for many people.
I don’t know much about what you write about. I know that wars have been fought, and empires are being built, on the oil industry. However, my way of combating the infringements on our freedoms that you write about has been to search for inner freedom – hence my commitment to Yoga (which is of course nothing less than a methodical quest for true spiritual liberation).
Obviously you are talking about a different kind of freedom though – you are talking about economic, social, and political freedom.
All I can say is that I look forward to learning more about this from you Simon, because I realize that inner freedom and outer freedom are not mutually exclusive, although historically they have been. I suppose I have always dreamt about experiencing both together, but as with most dreams, I never remembered it. Until now…
I’m guessing you could suggest a book or two..? in the meantime I’ll follow this blog closely. Cheers!
Love to you both.
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Dmitry Yeschenko Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Ben, you wrote “I realize that inner freedom and outer freedom are not mutually exclusive, although historically they have been.” -
Why did you decide that historically they have been?
As for me look at all the yogins who practice at mountains etc. They understand this coonection between both freedoms and use it for they way. Only last centuries with growth of big cities people lost this understanding. But historically it was.
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