Freedom: Are you Free … Or just a meat robot – Part 3
Freedom: Is that a Rising or a Setting Sun for You?
This is the armchair used by George Washington as he presided over the almost continuous sessions of the Constitutional Convention, to determine how the United States was to be governed.
While the last members were signing the U.S. Constitution, James Madison reported Benjamin Franklin commenting, “I have often looked at that picture behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”[1]
The Americans were taking their shot at removing external constraints on their freedom, and preserving their liberty from future internal threats. The representatives at the convention had different ideas about inherent rights and a system of government with liberty, but upon reaching an agreement, Dr. Franklin shared his optimism, believing the new governent and liberties were just beginning and not doomed to setting below the horizon of history.
The achievement in freedoms was impressive, but it was far from complete, with the existence of slavery mocking the insightful but narrow-sighted “all men are created equal” declaration. Freedom has been fought for at every point in history, ranging from slaves under terrible tyrants, to the most spoiled teenager and most loving parents today. There are many sources of control able to restrain freedom, and many degrees of restraint, but one factor is almost always left unconsidered, and it is, to use a phrase from a good friend, Abdu Murray, the missing piece of the missing peace.
Historic victories in liberty and peace are forever marginal and incomplete. Even if a people can extricate themselves from the control of national governments, or cultural conditioning, there will always be people nearer you, a boss, a family member, etc., extending unwanted influence into your life. Freedoms are even limited from within ourselves through emotional, psychological, even biochemical constraints.
The fight for liberty is important and should be fought, but can this battle ever be over? I, and likely most others, want peace in this area of life. Believe it or not, peace is possible, and some have already attained it. To determine if this freedom and corresponding peace is possible for you, we must:
- First, get a comprehensive picture of freedom.
- Second, understand our options concerning our personal freedom.
- And finally, make our own free choice whether or not we want such freedom.
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, Oil on Canvas, Howard Chandler Christy[1]
[1] https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/the-constitutional-convention/
What is “Freedom“?
To complete the picture of what “freedom“ means, let‘s start with a definition from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary[1]:
1: the quality or state of being free: such as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another: INDEPENDENCE
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous
Several questions arise from this definition:
- Is this definition sufficient?
- Is complete freedom possible?
- On a personal level: what level of liberty will bring peace to the world, and to ME?
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However, not only are the self-inflicted constraints, previously mentioned, ignored, but also the most important constraining force on everyone’s thoughts, choices and actions is absent from consideration, likely due to its ubiquity – natural consequences.
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Is this definition sufficient? Yes, and no. While the simplicity of ”the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” is robust, the rest of the definition keeps the focus on constraint from another person, and this is what most people focus on, when considering their freedom.
This author is white, male, raised in a fantastic home, and currently a member of the upper-middle-class in the United States. Very privileged position as far as freedoms go. Yet, every time I ride my mountain bike down one of the crazy downhill paths in rock-filled Pennsylvania, or big-drop Colorado, my freedom of choice and action is constantly constrained by reality, which includes dangerous trails, my age, and a low level of mountain biking skill.
However, not only are the self-inflicted constraints, previously mentioned, ignored, but also the most important constraining force on everyone’s thoughts, choices and actions is absent from consideration, likely due to its ubiquity – natural consequences.
We make all our choices and actions within an environment, where reality never fails to bring the natural consequences to us from our choices and actions. A good example comes from the aforementioned Abdu Murray, who posted a statement about true freedom through his Embrace the Truth ministry (highly recommend checking out this resource), which is what caused me to think about freedom and start writing this blog. Later, I remembered an excellent example involving his new backyard, which he repeated in a recent post (see image). “The boundary for freedom is the truth” is a nice way to express the reality you had better embrace the truth in your choices, or the truth will embrace you in natural consequences.
Reality, or the truth of any situation, is a player in the freedom game, empty of personal motivations, yet still the most valuable player as our minds are geared to operate in a world of cause and effect. The reality of a situation exerts some level of constraint during a person’s choice, depending, of course, on the risk analysis and realism the person is capable of grasping, and incorporating into their choice (some people are better at this than others as displayed in any skate park or “epic fail” video). Further, reality never fails to bring the limits and consequences, which will (a) set natural limits on your choice options, (b) add constraints for future choices, if wisdom is gained, and (c) create hindrance in future choice opportunities depending on the type and severity of the consequences.
Looking back at Webster’s definition, a person can only have “an absence of necessity” or constraint only if either natural laws and consequences didn’t apply to them, or they knew the natural consequences following from their choice/action would be best for them. Can either of those situations apply to us? We will consider this soon, but to answer the first question about the definition of freedom, a more realistic or complete definition of freedom has to include the factor of reality into the equation. Freedom: the state of being where thoughts, choices, and actions are not constrained by external or internal factors, including future consequences.