Everybody Wants To Be Free, Or So It Would Seem…
Note: This article was written and is copyright © 2010 by Douglas Castle, with all rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced or transmitted by any means whatsoever without the author’s prior written consent unless the article is reproduced in its entirety, unedited, with all hyperlinks fully intact and operational. The article was simultaneously published in the following media: The Internationalist Page, the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community (GICBC) blog, and in the author’s own blog. The author is a featured columnist in The National Networker Newsletter- You may join The National Networker Companies (a GICBC) and receive the Weekly Newsletter™, The Blue Tuesday Report™ and other publications of interest to entrepreneurs and emerging enterprises by clicking on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNW.
Everybody claims to want to be free. In some cases, this notion of freedom means the power to take the reins of responsibility and accept the consequences. In the other cases, this notion actually entails the elimination of the burden of responsibility – this latter type of “freedom” sounds shockingly similar to a plea for enslavement. It is not freedom – it is purely an idyllic and ephemeral sense of security, at very most. It is a lazy daydream.
What does the notion of “freedom” mean to you? It’s a difficult question. It requires that you confront yourself with the pointed query, “do I truly want to be a master, or am I merely fit to be a slave who desires to be treated reasonably well?”
When you have answered this question posed to yourself, you will find, sadly, that there is no “middle ground.” You are either a slave or a master. And the choice is yours alone.
Freedom invariably comes at a cost and at great risk if it is truly freedom – the definition of freedom that involves self-determination. Freedom offers no guarantees, and it is never fully safe. It is subject to constant challenge, both within us, and due to forces in the world outside of us.
Those few persons in positions of control (geographically, politically, ethnically, racially, financially, militarily, ideologically…) do not give up their slaves and subjects easily. They enjoy the power of domination, of mastery over themselves and over others. Yet, most of these masters (whether bullies, petty despots, tyrants or spoiled beneficiaries) are quite dependent upon their slaves, and upon the thrall that holds them. For without their slaves, they could no longer see themselves as masters. Masters sometimes get complacent and lazy. Slaves sometimes get lean and mean.
Sometimes the slaves unite, bonded in misery and despair, and begin to plan revolutions and escapes. That is one of the greatest threats to any self-proclaimed “master” – slaves communicating with one another, exchanging information, and getting organized.
Suppressed rage and bottled up fury can be powerful propellants. Organization is a means of focusing energy. The internet and increasingly portable and far-reaching communications technology provide a means for slaves to collaborate in synergy. Rage, organization and technology, combined together, portend an upheaval in the status quo.
Governments, in theory, are either: 1) constructs of their collective constituents (i.e., the people who elect, empower and entrust them), whom they serve, or they are 2) self-centered powers purely unto themselves, imposing their will upon the people whom they have enslaved, and upon whom they feed, like parasites eating away at a host.
Both types of government, elected or imposed, tend to represent to their citizens or subjects that they “exist to serve and protect them,” either from themselves (taking dangerous medications, driving unsafely, et cetera), from each other (domestic crime and civil war), or from outside attackers (i.e., other sovereign powers, aliens from outer space, or terrorists).
From an historical perspective, every government seizes additional power and reduces individual liberties when a threat to “the public welfare” or to “the national security” is perceived. Posed with this type of a threat, citizens and subjects are invariably willing to compromise their freedoms in the interest of additional security, whether this security is real or imagined.
The escalation in the global War on Terror will be a great determinant of the future of the Human species. What will be fascinating to observe will be the turning point – the Turning Point is that moment at which the majority of the people perceive their government as being as oppressive as the terrorists from whom they are supposedly being protected.
By my simplistic definition, a terrorist is any individual who is determined to deprive another person (a non-combatant) of his or her property, freedom or life. And I’ll admit that my simple definition could be applied to persons who would not ordinarily be labeled as “terrorists.”
Some of them don’t wield guns. Some of them wield propaganda. Some of them storm a target by force, or strap bombs to their bodies and willingly sacrifice their own lives while taking a number of innocent lives as well. Some of them gradually subvert the will of a people until the people are virtually hypnotized into building their own cages and coffins. Some might view this as “jobs creation.”
American statesman Benjamin Franklin said it eloquently some time ago:
“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
If you truly believe in freedom, you’ll know that it cannot be delegated, assigned or entrusted to any government, agency or organization.
Freedom is ultimately an individual choice and an individual responsibility, lest our protectors become our captors and masters, and we all become slaves.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
03.29.2010.
Braintenance - Stay razor sharp.
The Internationalist Page - A world without barriers.
The Global Futurist - Revealing trends.
Taking Command! - Mastering your fate.
This article was published in the GICBC ("Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community") Blog, which is located at GICBC.
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gicbc
Douglas Castle, Organizational Facilitator
