random thoughts on Freedom

[Nick Truske]

Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom’s existence. Totalitarian societies seek to replace the many truths of freedom by the one truth of power, be it
secular or religious; to halt the motion of society, to snuff out its
spark. Unfreedom’s primary purpose is invariably to shackle the mind.
from “Step Across This Line” by Salmon Rushdie p. 215

“There is no vantage point from where real reality can
be seen. We are all looking from the point of view of our own reality tunnels . . .
every reality tunnel might tell us something interesting about our
world - if we are willing to listen.” Robert Anton Wilson explains Quantum
Physics 

- Creativity needs passion, aliveness, energy. Creativity needs that you
should remain a flow, an intense, passionate flow. – from Osho Book “The Search”

"There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle." —Murray N. Rothbard

Responsibility, not to a superior, but to one's conscience, the awareness of a duty not exacted by compulsion, the necessity to decide which of the things one values are to be sacrificed to others, and to bear the consequences of one's own decision, are the very essence of any morals which deserve the name.

— Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom [1944]

“Freedom is the right to choose: . . .” — Archibald Macleish Quote

“A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

". . . Of what avail the Plow or Sail ?

Or Land Or Life ?

If Freedom Fails?

No One's Safe if Freedom Fails.

The Best Men Rot in Filthy Jails."

"Even those who cried "Appease ! Appease !

are hanged by those they tried to please."

“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” 
Brian O’Leary

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated
simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” — Quote by: Charles Mingus

People with varied interests quickly discover the advantages of
organizing themselves into groups to lobby the state for these
apparent benefits. Ego-boundary identities have proven themselves an effective
means of promoting collective ends. Race, religion, ideology, economic
interests, ethnicity, lifestyle, age, nationality, provide just a
handful of grounds upon which to organize mass movements. Those to be
organized into such groupings, as well as those who control the
machinery of the state, develop a symbiotic relationship in the
perpetuation of the political process.

Of course, in order to maintain the seeming effectiveness of such
practices, it is essential that group identities be reinforced. The
boundary lines that separate one group from another (e.g., “employees”
and “employers,” “straights” and “gays,” “Hindus” and “Muslims,” and
other “us” versus “them” categories), must be clearly delineated and
rigorously defended. . . . . Political systems thrive on “crises,” for
they are used to generate the fear that causes men and women to huddle
at the feet of state authorities who – like the “big daddies” of our
childhood – promise to protect us from perceived threats. Any crisis
will do, particularly those that can be seen by some groups as threats
arising from others . . . from Butler Shaffer:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer189.html

“You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease
if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for example,
in the form of ideologies such as communism, national socialism or any
nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems which operate under the
implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that
therefore the end justifies the means.
The end is an idea, a point in the mind projected future when
salvation in whatever form; happiness, fulfillment, equality, liberation, and so
on will be attained. Not infrequently, the means of getting there are
the enslavement, torture and murder of people in the present.
For example it is estimated that as many as fifty million people where
murdered to further the cause of communism — to bring about a better
world in Russia, China, and other countries. This is a chilling
example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be
any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental
illness ? How does this mind pattern operate in your life ?” . . . .

. . . The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an
inner psychic pollution —millions of unconscious individuals not
taking responsibility for their inner space . . .

“In the normal mind identified, or unenlightened state of consciousness,
the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the
now are completely obscured by psychological time. Your life then looses
its vibrancy, its freshness, its sense of wonder” . . .
from Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now

But there is that in us which doesn’t want to be free; which prefers discipline and acceptance and patriotic local tunes to the wild loose-haired love-music of the world. There is that in us which wishes simply to go along with the crowd, and to blame all naysayers and pelvis-wigglers for rocking our comfortable boat. “Don’t follow leaders,” Bob Dylan warned in “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Watch the parking meters.” Yet we continue to want to be led, to follow petty warlords and murderous ayatollahs and nationalist brutes, or to suck our thumbs and listen quiescently to nanny states that insist they know what’s best for us. So tyrants abound from Bombay to Mumbai, and even those of us who are notionally free peoples are no longer, for the most part, very rock ‘n’ roll.
from “Step Across This Line” by Salmon Rushdie p. 271

Being free of Fear -

“Fear does not come from the unknown. Fear comes from letting go of the known.”
J. Krishnamurti - from “The Impossible Question”

"The great theme of true individualism is that in the spontaneous collaboration of many free minds there is a mysterious creative power far greater than the power in any individual mind."

— Garet Garrett, American Affairs [1949]

"The mystery is in you. You are the mystery. If you were not mysterious yourself - you cannot create that which is mysterious on paper or on canvas." - from N. Scott Momaday

So being mysterious - we create mystery, awe, . . . reverence for our amazing lives we experience thru the creations of our being human creative creatures . . . sharing lovely emotions, intuitions that speak mysteriously to us in many languages . . . we listen, feel . . . breath this mystery into our hearts . . .

my vision . . . i view people being able to freely & spontaneously share
& exchange ideas, talents, in all sorts of overlapping, creative
endeavors, feeling the wondrous deep joys of community & belonging.

Knowing the security of family & friends in the real love connections
that true trust in oneself & others - - which is possible — now if
we live with & nurture our courageous integrities - - open to our
ethical, spiritual individual ahimsa striving consciousnesses - with true
respect for the lovely beingness of each of us — now in our precious
individual lives . . .

[TRISHA SMITH]

Wonderful expose regarding Freedom
Thank you, Nick.