The past four years, I’ve heard a lot of talk about freedom: about brave American soldiers “protecting freedom”; about evil terrorists “hating freedoms”; about freedom being “on the march” around the world; and about freedoms being “eroded” here at home. But what freedoms exactly are being hated, protected, marched and eroded?
Is it the freedom to go to work every day to a job you mostly hate? Is it the freedom to buy stuff because you’re envious and because advertisers played upon your envy and fear to get you to buy stuff you don’t need? Is it the freedom to sit home at night and watch tv and believe everything you see on the news? Is it the freedom to be trapped in a marriage which no longer moves you, or maybe which never did in the first place? Which one of these are we protecting?
What I’m saying is that most people aren’t free. And it has nothing to do with the government encroaching on civil liberties, or with terrorists hating you for being free. What I’m saying is that the only freedom most people use, like Philip K. Dick says, is the freedom to do as you are told. You know what I say? I say the terrorists/government can fucking HAVE those freedoms. I certainly don’t need them. Seriously though, if you’re trapped in a life you hate and you don’t have any freedom, then there’s nothing for you to lose. There’s nothing for you to sacrifice, or for those “brave” soldiers to protect (by killing babies and blowing up people’s houses).
See, the funny thing about freedom is that when you really and truly have it, nobody can ever take it away from you. Not by flying a plane into a building. Not by invading a country. Not by throwing you in jail. Not even by killing you. Freedom is not civil liberties, or the ability to vote which crime-syndicate controls you. Freedom is this thing that once it’s inside you, it fills you up and flows out of you endlessly in all directions. Some people might call it love, or maybe happiness. Some people might even call it God. How can you tell when you don’t have it? Everything feels like a threat or a disappointment. How do you get it? Through a process of intense and continuing struggle, completely different for everyone, but equally difficult. “Freedom isn’t free,” as they say. No one can ever give it to you, or protect it for you. But the bright side of that is that nobody can ever take it away from you either.
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