Of Freedom n' Mice

It occurred to me that I can use this journal to share thoughts. My mind is full of thoughts.... that's why my head weighs a ton and is constantly aching. Furthermore, my mind produces new thoughts on a daily basis and sometimes I catch myself I regret I haven't written them down somewhere. Not because I am some great thinker or philosopher, but because I know the power of a simple yet good spoken thought to potentially change minds and attitudes. To sow seeds which can someday grow into greater thoughts than my own. If I have a chance to do that, it's worth a try. To make people ponder and think. Because thinking is a powerful force. People NEED to think more. They need to think with their own heads. This makes them strong in many ways. The world only changes when people do that.
So I'll be sharing thoughts and randomness every now and then. I don't really care if anyone is interested, but if somebody has spare time (and likes reading random long stuff), feel free to read, think and discuss. When I say discuss, I mean discuss, not quarrel. My opinion is my own and no one has any rights over it. If you don't like it, that's your own problem, just as my opinions are mine. So, we can always discuss in pursuit of truth (even though I'm sometimes stubborn in my ways), but I will not tolerate trolling and bare hating.


So, about Freedom. First off, this is an abstract concept which we can only define through very subjective perceptions. It only exists in our mind. Although there it can be very powerful. Think of it this way: no matter what constraints life forces over you, it cannot force you to stop dreaming. You may be caged all day in a booth to sell newspapers, yet your mind can keep flying throughout the world all the time. No one can take that away from you. Inside, you can always be free. I don't say you always ARE free. Life has that ability and ugly habit to make you forget it - this is what it *can* do. Nevertheless you always CAN be free. Always. Never forget that.
Freedom is most of all a state of mind. An attitude. It's not even always a way of life, it is an understanding of life, the realization that you make your own choices for yourself. Even when you choose to obey rules and people, it is still a choice.
Many could say that the choices presented before us are often so biased, with alternatives so grim, that they virtually leave us no choice at all. They use our mandatory needs to force us into doing things we don't really want to do. This is all true. But if you hate the choices you were given, then change them or make your own choices. Yes, this is easier said than done. But this is the core of Freedom.

Freedom is all inside your head. Imagine for a moment that it were the other way around and you were living in total freedom, doing exactly what you wanted, any time you wanted, in any way you wanted. Even then, Freedom would still be entirely in your mind. Not something you can touch and put in the fridge. What really matters is that from within your mind Freedom can affect the whole world and change everything. You only need to let it do it.


I heard today that it's part of the human nature to wish to be free, to strive to be free. I totally agree to that. History has shown it explicitly so many times. Tyranny never lasts. And I don't just speak of some long-forgotten ancient empires full of slavers, nor of inquisition-empowered medieval crowns or whatever. I speak of tyranny in all its forms. Despite all odds it still thrives. Every time it gets killed, it takes a new form, one which people won't immediately recognize, and it grows anew. Just take a look around yourself. Most of you live in democracy, yet you do not really govern yourselves. You are not the ones who determine your fate and make the rules. You choose other people who do that for you (it's another question whether THAT choice is good or bad). You choose them to represent you and your interests, but do they really? You choose them to govern your life for you, but do they really? Or do they just do it for themselves? Theoretically the concept of democracy should work beautifully. But we don't live theoretically and this is not really the case, because every human being naturally puts its own interests before that of the others. This is the simple truth. It's not something bad or vile or mean, it's simply our nature. The sooner we accept it, the better. Greed and power lust are the extention of that which truly gets mean and ugly.

Speaking of Freedom, I said human nature strives for it, but it is not the only one. Every living creature naturally goes for Freedom. There are solid evolutionary reasons for that, and they root way back in time of the very dawn of life. In the general case Freedom means choice and the ability to make use of it. In this sense in nature it means survival and getting your genes to continue their hereditary line. This is why the lower in the hierarchy always try to fight with the leader, even when they are weaker. As the go principle goes, this is why every living being always goes for the wider space. The wider the space - both literally and figuratively - the higher the chances for survival.
Many would argue the drive for Freedom in humans is among the strongest among all animals. Perhaps. Paradoxically, as strongly as we desire to be free, we also very much enjoy taking away Freedom from others. We like it when people obey us and do according to our own desires. The whole financial system counts in here. Money is power over others because it makes them do what you want and/or give you what you want. It's nothing more but a socially adapted and acceptable expression of one's will. Which makes it weird to think about how we earn and deal with that will....
Another Freedom we really like to take away is the Freedom of the "lesser" species, like say.... mice (I had to justify the weird title somehow). We constantly put the other animals in cages for rather obscure reasons. Recently I spent some short time working at a local zoo. All day long I was around animals behind bars. Do you know what it looked and what it FELT like to me all along? A prison. A prison in which innocents are kept, without a crime, without a trial or conviction. You'll say that's absurd because they're *just* animals ffs. Some speechless and probably mindless things there that only differ from furniture by their need to be fed. You think that's too harsh? Well, that's what mankind has believed for centuries, that's essentially the same as claiming that they have no soul, unlike, you see, the humans; it's the same, only put in other words. And I cannot explain in words just how wrong that is. Why? Because you - you are *just* animals as well.
During my time in that zoo I made friends with few of these animals. They spoke to me even if they cannot speak in words. I felt their needs, and I can tell you they surpass by far the need to be fed. Being kept behind bars however is what they really DON'T need. You don't even have to be friends with them to be able to tell. All you need is to look in their eyes, it's all there. Well.... and you need to be able to see, to feel what they tell you. It's called empathy. Or maybe I'm just imagining things.


Let's talk about our own Freedom, in practice. Freedom of speech, Freedom of political ideas, Freedom of religion and belief (those are two different things), or generally speaking Freedom of choice. All of these Freedoms, along with a bunch of things, should mean that whatever your choice / inclination / belonging is, regarding politics, religion, sexual orientation etc., this will NOT result in other people treating you in a different way, i.e. discriminating you, based on it - along with any other kinds of discrimination which are strongly discouraged by society.... at least they are in words. The bad thing about all those Freedoms is that they are often selective. Yes, this is all about my own bitter observation in the matter. Feel Free to discriminate me for any of the views I'm about to state further.

Freedom of speech. This should mean you're free to have and state your opinion, speak freely in the public about anything you want, in any way you want. For example, you're free to disregard grammar and talk nonsense as much as you want. And people are just as free to disagree and cuss at you for any of it because this is their own Freedom - but they *cannot* discriminate you in any way for it. It also means Freedom of the public media - television, newspapers, radios, etc. In my country, this Freedom of media has been suspended. Not by laws or political repressions. By money. I'll give you a simple example. As few of you may recall, political protests have become very fashionable in my country lately. A while ago the financially strong of the day were organizing, from behind the curtains of course, protests against the current-by-that-time government in which they did not participate. All the 'national' televisions were going on and on about those protests all day long, for weeks. Even though those protests were constituted of, say, fewhundred people - at best. Most of the time more like few dozens. On the contrary, several weeks ago another political force, also an opposition to the now-current government, organized a protest. All it got was a couple of sentences in the end of the late evening news. Estimations pointed that there have been perhaps up to 10 000 people on this last protest. Freedom of speech I suppose is the Freedom to ignore major social-political events when you are not being paid to propagandize about them. This is why Freedom must come first and foremost with responsibility. I cannot ever emphasize enough on this.
Now please, ask yourselves how are things like in your own country. I hope it's different, I really do.
Freedom of speech is also suspended with society's consent when you talk in favour of certain political and religious (and not only) ideologies or when you just speak up your views which society finds disturbing. This is where things get messy. You see, you're totally free to speak, but you're not allowed to speak supporting certain ideas. I got lost. Alright, I admit there are ideas and views that can and have in fact in the past proven dangerous at large. However, the same principle is being massively, and quite freely, applied over various people and groups of people in an involuntary attempt to eliminate differencies. What the Hell am I talking about now. I won't talk about politics this time. I'll talk about religion. You all sigh in deep grief during those history classes telling of how your own religion, by the time of its early ages, was being massively and brutally repressed. Hence comes the noble principle of Freedom of religion so that never happens to you again. Only that Freedom only goes for those who share your own religions. Ask yourselves, how would you react if you found out that your child's arts teacher is, say, a Wiccan or a Satanist? My best guess is that you'll go mad, write urgent letters to the school's authorities and demand this teacher is being suspended. You've got the right to protect your children and such an evil and profaned person can have a very bad influence on them, right? WRONG. Just because something is different, just because you don't understand something, just because you really know nothing of something, it doesn't make it bad, nor gives you any right to ban it. And just to be clear, it doesn't have to be an actual ban to be banning. Attitude is a powerful tool of social repression. Those people whom society mistreats because of their differencies, they tend and are often forced to conceal the truth about themselves to avoid it. And this is the opposite to Freedom. So my point is, the next time you encounter somebody whose religion and/or religious beliefs are dramatically different from your own, do ask yourself whether you form your attitude towards that person based on their behavior and actions or do you just judge them by the name of their religion instead.

Next Freedom. Let's talk about gays ffs. No, not about gays. For your information, sexual orientation and sexuality is not only about gays. There are heterosexual (that's you, in most cases), homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transsexual, asexual and probably many other people whom I haven't even heard of. Some of those are a kind of sexual orientation, others are a kind of sexuality. Those two may sound similar, but they are totally different. Sexual orientation is about people of what gender do you prefer as your sexual partners. Sexuality is about as what gender do you identify yourself. NOT as what other people identify you, this is irrelevant. And when I say "as what gender" I should probably also mention that there's a lot more than just the "male" and "female" which you're familiar with and acknowledge. There are other biological variations, yes, but the psychological variations are even more diverse. Psychological gender is something radically different from the biological one - face it - and they don't necessarily coincide. Back on sexual orientation and sexuality, those are also independent, so for example you can be transsexual and bisexual at the same time. I know such people. They ain't some freaks you know.
Now as we have our terminology specified, I'll tell you this: STOP JUDGING PEOPLE BY THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND / OR SEXUALITY. This is even worse than judging them by religion and political ideas because, contrary to people's beliefs, most of the time it is not a matter of choice. Do you choose whom to fall in love with? Do you choose what hair or eye colors attract you? Do you choose what kinds of food you like and what you can't stand? Also, non of those are *conditions* nor are they diseases of any kind. They are simply what people are like. DEAL WITH IT.
Here I'll indulge in mentioning that there IS a biological touch in alternative sexual orientation. The phenomenon is not only human, it's widely present in the animal world as well. It's widely observed in domesticated animals, but it's wide and rife in the wild as well. Furthermore, alternative sexual orientation naturally manifests itself much more often in overly dense populations as a natural reaction to overpopulation. It is a NATURAL mechanism which reduces population growth. From a human point of view it is a compromise which could help people cope with the problem of their rapidly growing world population (and this is a vast problem, don't have a moment of doubt about it) without them being mandatorily miserable about it. Having that said, it actually sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Also, I just need to stress it more, it's a NATURAL mechanism. I hope that will shut the mouths of those who are whining that alternative sexual orientation and sexually are twisted, unnatural and gross. If your god claims that, then it simply doesn't understand Nature at all. Which I've always known.
Anothing thing, since we were talking about schools and your precious children anyway - no matter whatever you believe, talking about alternative sexual orientation / sexuality will NOT turn other people, and that includes your children, into gays. Even assuming that is ridiculous - that's not how it works, it is not contagious ffs. The only reason you'd want such talk away from your children is absolutely the same as the reason why you'd want any sex-related talk away from them. But nowadays that goes at a very early age. After that age, the more you talk to them, the better. The more information they have, the better. As long as that information is objective and truthful.


Finally.... speaking earlier of discrimination, I should probably note that there are two kinds of discrimination: a negative one, which we all know and discourage and spit at, and a positive one. I.e. treating someone differently in a positive way because of their choices and/or nature. Because people getting special attitude or social privileges and protection because of their political ideas, religion, sexuality etc. is just as wrong as them being mistreated for it. Think about that too.
All of that is about justice really. People are NOT equal. They are not bottles on a shelft, they are NOT the same, they are all very different, so how can they be equal? No, they are not and they shouldn't ever be. Deal with that too because Freedom is there to ensure that people CAN be different should they choose so. The Freedom of choice and the Freedom from discrimination is not at all about people being equal. It's about different people having equal rights. This is fundamentally different. It is also the essence of justice.


So, to summarize. Freedom. Justice. Truth.
Freedom with its due responsibility. Justice with the right to stand for yourself. Truth, knowledge and wisdom, unbiased but not devoid of emotion and humanity. I cannot ever stress on those well enough.
By the way, those are the values of a certain society-scorned religion, as I understand it.




DISCLAIMER 2.0: Oh Hell I know there's a lot of people who won't agree with me and I might provoke them to attack.... not entirely unwittingly, if I might say. Don't bother. If you're about to start a spiteful argument, don't waste your energy, I'm just not worth it. Besides, I'm far too stubborn and stupid to be swayed by you. You'd be much better off just spend a good 10 minutes pondering. If you do that, then my ultimate goal has been achieved.