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To be free, or wholly liberated, is to have no map upon which to rely.
The desire for stability and security (structure, rules, and consistency) is at odds with the chaos of freedom. The prospect of not knowing is a risk that produces stress, which somebody can channel into either exhilaration or anxiety.
Most of us want both freedom and security. The challenge is to oscillate between both while respecting each.
(I am free, and that is why I am lost." quote by Franz Kafka)
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We err when we consider ideas, like freedom, as rights inherent to the species; we should think of them as scaffolding.
Freedom is built to lift us out of the filth and normalized through familiarity and cultural pressure.
To forget how the “right” arrived (i.e., to think they are immanent to the individual) is to allow ourselves to become passive in their upkeep. Once tolerant, we are easily determined (guided). While assuming we have freedom (because it is constitutive to ourselves), we perpetuate unfreedom: kicking out the scaffolding because we forgot why it was there.
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Without maintenance, things break, and even with care, they fail.
By checking in regularly we can prevent being shocked by catastrophic failure, perhaps even avoid it altogether.
Whether it is your relationships, car, job, or tools: if you spent the time and resources in the past, spend time now as well instead of courting disastrous loss.
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The ultimate freedom is the realization of your death: you are simply pre-dead, an inevitable corpse.
Instead of clinging to your dead-end job, stagnating in a pool of fear, knowing you are dead already brings you the courage to really live gracefully and fully.
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When life is too good or rich for too long, we experience a complete flattening.
At the extremes, it is anhedonia: the inability to feel pleasure.
While pressures perpetually increase, humans function in cycles (or seasons), not in ever-escalating trajectories. Withdrawal from "the good" is necessary to reset and enable yourself to experience joy.
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Not paying attention means you have focused internally, retreating from the world.
Living in your head means you miss the world and enriching details. That is, you miss out on life for a fantasy.
Of course, the external world may be a nightmare, and fantasy is your reprieve, or perhaps your internal ruminations are terrible, and you avoid your mind to survive. But the only way out of regretting a life of escapism is to begin anew in the present.
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If we lived in a society of radical responsibility (rather than explanatory, justified victimization) would responsibility lead to abusive tyranny, or a culture of vulnerability refocusing effort on the impacts of the present?
Are we inculturated to avoid difficulties for temporary reprieve?
Would sustained pressure today be a strengthening blessing later, while the today’s deferment becomes tomorrow’s trauma?
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We assume more liberty will allow unique individuality to flourish.
But what if freedom primarily promotes libidinal fulfillment, which is entirely predictable and unoriginal?
What if, instead, uniqueness comes from neuroticism? What if repressive constriction, inane repetition, and no-win contradictions lead to novel differences?
Then liberal progress may not be the path to originality.
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The root meaning of “auto” is self or spontaneous. Yet the automobile is not self-moving, autonomy is not self-will (since we are externally shared and motivated), and automatic always requires intervention.
“Auto” is more of a matter of degree. We hand over control to processes that promise freedom, yet more often cleverly disguise long-distance reliance (oil, software, labor, or ideology), which automates us in trade for a “convenience.”
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I lost my voice for half a day at a company function.When communication takes too much effort, we tend to retreat into ourselves and become isolated.
I learned two things: one, be sparing with your voice (you didn’t need to talk so much anyway), and two, some people are without a voice every day (be more sympathetic).
