The Opposite of Freedom Is Not Slavery But Security

The words freedom and slavery are thrown around a lot and in my different contexts. In my dictionary they have a slightly different definition than most people would agree upon. It has nothing to do with the government or any other external forces but rather with one's mind.

Freedom is nothing more than the ability to live your life as you want, as far away as possible from the mental shackles of the society you have been raised. This is not an easy deed and surely not for the ill hearted. To accomplish this, one needs to shed everything that has been learned. This includes values from religion, friends, family, culture, tradition, science and everything else you can think of.

Becoming an empty shell and then starting to fill up is all that matters. Think of the process much like emptying an antique shop and then deciding to put in a few things that are important. The majority of the things should be brand new or at least refurbished.

Most people unconsciously let all the baggage that has been accumulating inside of them to rule their life. This is why you see many people get caught up in the rat race, working 8 hours a week without being able to stop and think about what the heck they are doing. This is why you see people loving a sports team or a religion without being able to objectively examine an alternative option. Most importantly, this is why most people do not like concepts of anarchy, atheism and selfishness. They all go against the popular grain, the narrative that we have been taught in order to maintain a given cultural narrative.

I am not doubting that actual slavery exists — that is — people being forced to work for someone else and being treated like disposable objects. In my opinion, slavery has been the oldest game in town, far before prostitution. Thing is, there are different levels in this scheme. What most people are familiar with has to do with brute physical force and submission. This is rather long gone — at least in most of the western world. Instead, the kind of slavery that prevails today is the one that engulfs the mind. All forms of slavery start from there. Some of them just happen to evolve on a greater scale if one's allows it.

The reason most people get caught up into a repetitive routine, often following a culture meme like family, religion, country and ideology is because someone else has taught them to think this way. We value things based on other people's perception, rarely ours. It is easier this way. Most people would avoid clashing with others because it makes life harder. Playing it safe and being a hypocrite might cut it for a while but one cannot fool all the people all the time — hence the abundance of hypocrisy in our world. What matters when it comes to freedom is to be honest to oneself and not caring about what others think of your person. This is a mental game very few can play since the majority of people leave their brain on an emotional autopilot. The "life game" only begins when logic and rationality take over. Otherwise you are just being a pawn in jungle 2.0. You are not using your human ability.

I often see people boasting about their jobs, their salaries, names on the book spine. These things matter because other people think they matter. Take for example Bill Gates. He wasn't a novel innovator, he wasn't even a good programmer. He just happened to be a bit lucky, putting the competition into oblivion. He then became one of the biggest philanthropists so people rarely remember what happened before. The name matters in most people's head because they have been taught that it matters in a superficial way — much like with Bill Gates. People try to copy him in order to enjoy similar success forgetting the entire story. This is how most people get lost.

This brings us to Security. When I hear people say that they want a "secure job", "secure investment", "secure college major" all I hear is slavery, slavery, slavery. I know that I might be over-reacting but today what is "secure" is nothing more than a large pot of beliefs that everyone derives meaning from. Life happens on the edges when we take risks and breach new boundaries, not when we repackage old ideas and pat each other on the back. This is exactly how we become a slave to each other. There is nothing more risky than doing what everybody else is doing. If you are living life based on a popular book then you are pretty much doing what most are doing. I know, logic 101 but very few seem to get it.

The mind is not a great or complicated thing. It's an evolutionary mechanism that can be programmed quite easily — given one has enough access. It's function is mainly to process and adopt. It wants to be secure and keep things familiar. Change scares it because it involves danger and exposure to new experiences. In other words your brain is build to be a slave for the sake of existing. Unfortunately, most people do end up like breeding/shitting machines that spend their lives using the gadgets that other people have created. Not that it matters but wouldn't be fun to make a dent in this charade?