Liberty and Happiness

"You and I don’t have a whole lot in common…but we do have one thing
that people really seem to hate. We’re not dependent on anyone,
we’re self confident, and we’re happy."

One of the biggest mistakes americans often make, is to assume that they possess some sort of birth-right issued freedom. While it’s true that america is something of an even playing field, economically (although in our present state of affairs, that too has come into question), freedom of career choice is merely the tip of the proverbial ice berg. In the modern world all of this matters very little, as most nations have since followed our example, and offer a similar degree of religious freedom and opportunity…but the vast majority of freedoms are located strictly in the mind, as philosophical constructs, and are always active and present, whether we know it or not.

The best examples of such invisible freedoms, or inverted freedoms as I like to call them, can be identified by taking a page out of Orwell’s 1984; freedom is slavery. I’ve often recorded my musings on this matter in the past, regarding the duality of freedom, so I won’t waste my own time re-recording them…but put simply, any restraint always comes with a corresponding liberty, so that the balance of freedom and slavery is forever preserved in a sort of neutrality; a slave to God is free of the fear of death.

Neutral in the way of freedom, perhaps, but when it comes to the relationship between happiness and freedom, choosing the right side of the blade becomes extremely important. It is completely relative to the individual, and as such, there is no one set formula of positives and negatives for all to choose from, as self-help books may have you believe. Instead, it depends heavily on knowing one’s self, and an awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses. Intelligent individuals should seek every possible freedom of thought, while submitting to the slavery of labor. Creative individuals should seek every possible freedom of communication and expression, while submitting to the slavery of potential ostracism. Independent people should seek freedom from dependence, while submitting to the slavery of leadership. And so on, and so forth.

Unhappiness in the self-aware should only exist when one’s strengths and weaknesses are not arranged in such a way…but fortunately, it’s never too late to change.