I love my freedom just as much as anybody. I love being able to choose where I want to go, what I want to do, and who I want to spend my time with. I love that every day, new and exciting choices arise for me to examine and then decide which ones to take part in. Call it freedom. Call it liberty. To me, it’s being able to do what I want.
I also love the freedom of having a choice between fifty different types of toothpaste brands at the grocery store. Some healthy, some not healthy; some natural, some chemicals; some cheap, some expensive; some for tartar control, some not. I don’t mind that at all, nor do I think there is anything wrong with having lots of options to choose from.
If everything was the same everywhere, all the time, things would become very boring, and life would lose its zest and meaning. Differences and evolutions create innovation, uniqueness, new experiences, and culture. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
I think that logic is just fine and alright in many different areas of our lives. Variety and progress are good things. We will always keep innovating and solving problems, inventing new and better ways to do things.
I love my freedom and I cannot imagine living in a society without the freedom to do those things — to pursue what you want. To solve problems in the way and shape that you want. To be able to leave your own unique mark on the world. I think everybody wants that to a degree.
There is no way that I would want to sign up for a life where I do not have a choice in how I spend my time. I would never willingly submit to having someone else tell me how to contribute to society, or even telling me that the things that I make and use for myself are not mine. I want that freedom. I love that type of freedom, and I would never want it to go away.
We Have No Realistic Alternative To Our Current System
What I do not consider freedom, however, is the fact that there is no realistic, available alternative to the competitive market economy we are currently forced to labor for and live in.
We are not free to simply live, utilize technology, and cooperate to our fullest. We are not free to use or access the things we need to educate ourselves, to become “competitive” in our market economy.
Because of this, we are forced to compete and we are not even given a level playing field. Many people start out disadvantaged, behind, or far worse off than many others. And the people who have a head start often don’t even know it.
And it’s with everyone else, including all the people with all the head starts… that we are forced to compete for homes, for jobs, for quality education, for products in our stores, and more.
We are forced to compete for everything in our lives… just to survive. And this is the “wonderful” system of capitalism that we live in today.
Remarkable…
Artificial Scarcity is Not Freedom. It is the Opposite of Freedom.
To me, having the technology to broadcast, say, things like educational lectures and classes to anyone, anywhere in the world (which could be done in practically any and every classroom, especially in high-end colleges and universities) and not doing so… is ridiculous and absurd.
How many people could be learning from the best professors in the world on a daily basis, but instead cannot do so simply because the educational system and structure prevent them from doing so?
That is basically the classic definition of artificial scarcity — having the technology to make something abundant and choosing not to do so.
What Type of Freedom Do You Want?
As much as I love my freedoms, sometimes certain freedoms limit other important freedoms and this is where we run into problems.
Right now, in our society, we have the freedom to own lots and lots of property — far beyond what one person could reasonably People can own a building, a factory, land, shares of a company, and many other structures that mass-produce goods and wealth.
This is an interesting type of freedom… if you could call it that. It is the freedom to exclude everyone else from something. Really… anyone else, from anything that we may happen to own.
But what is ownership, really? Is it possession? The right to operate? The right to exploit for personal gain?
That means, essentially, that anyone has the freedom to take advantage of anything and everything else, for their own personal pleasure, gain,
But… what happens when freedom rewards sociopaths, who hoard resources and don’t give back to society, reinvest in our environment, or regenerate our resources in any meaningful way?
What happens when an environmental catastrophe is barreling down on us, and nobody who can do anything significant about it, does anything?
What happens when they give up and want to leave the planet instead, and let the rest of us burn or drown?
That’s the boat we’re in right now. And it’s certainly not an easy situation to overcome.
We Need A Different Type of Freedom
In order to overcome this situation, we have to decide what type of freedom do we really want. Do we want the freedom to make personal gains for ourselves at others’ expense? Do we want beliefs, institutions, and laws that upheld those values — values of competition, domination, and accumulation?
Or do we want to institute systems and policies that encourage cooperation, regeneration, and symbiosis?
The two values are antithetical to one another. You cannot compete with others to accumulate the most, and at the same time put what you have together to
The kind of freedom that I really want is the kind that allows anyone and everyone access to the things they need not just to survive, but to thrive. To make education free, and widely available. To have automated community gardens, vertical farms, aquaponics, and solar power in every neighborhood or apartment complex, with free childcare/education and fitness facilities.
To have access to quality-produced, open-source goods. To fully utilize automation and technology to free up needless human labor, eliminate unnecessary or mundane tasks, and allow people to exist without having to work 40+ hours per week, simply to survive and pay rent.
If we come together and cooperate as communities, to take advantage of what we can build and achieve together, we have a chance at reinvesting enough in our local environments to make a difference. We can wean ourselves off of the endless consumer lifecycle, and start regenerating our environment, and ourselves, instead. We can give ourselves a new type of freedom…
I Love My Freedom. But I Would Really Love Freedom From Money…
I love my freedom, but the freedom that I really want to see come to fruition within my lifetime is the freedom of people not having to live and labor within and for the monetary system every day of their lives.
I want to see young people grow up in thriving communities and not worry about what “career path” they are going to take. To be free to learn about subjects hands-on, and access valuable education for free from anywhere in the world. To have the time, energy, resources, and knowledge to help maintain and improve their community’s production and regeneration systems.
We would like to see mothers and fathers experience the freedom to have plenty of quality time with their children, but also have help in raising them when they need it, and also have enough spare time to pursue health and fitness goals, as well as other projects to contributions.
We want people to be free to access the healthcare and resources they need, to have the free time to rest and recuperate. To have the time to learn new subjects or the time to spend with friends and family.
We Are Free To Build a New, (Even More) Free Society Right Now, So Why Don’t We?
We have the capabilities to provide all of the things we need for people. From food to shelter to clothing, transportation, and even vacations. So why not do it? What is stopping us collectively from doing so?
In reality… we are free to do these things now. We have always have been free to cooperate and build the society we want, but it is difficult to do this in our market economy. Having humanity is something we need to practice. Sharing and cooperation take practice.
And starting businesses isn’t easy in general.
It is difficult to start relative, successful cooperative businesses and compete with capitalist enterprises that have access to large amounts of funding and rounds of investors. It takes dedication, funding, the right people, planning, coordination, time, and a lot more. And it needs to work better than capitalism.
And we’re working on that, right now… but it’s a LOT of work. And we’re only a small group of people… so far.
But we’re growing. And things are happening. We’ll be posting more about our projects and endeavors very soon. So come back for more.
Right now we have a podcast, we’re starting a regenerative farm, we have a book coming out in May of this year (2022), a movie is being filmed, and there is much more in the works.
Check out who we are, and what we do.
Help Us
There’s a lot to do. So, if you feel like helping us, email us at [email protected] We have many available volunteer positions, and we’d love to talk.
Otherwise, we’ll keep you updated.
Enjoy your numerous, wonderful freedoms.
We definitely will.
