Is Freedom A Double Edged Sword?
I don’t always get a chance to reply to comments, but I always read them as they come in. As you are reading what I have written, I’m working on the next installment. I’m developing new materials, planning ahead and going about my normal working and family life.
Sometimes, I don’t reply because my mind is focused on a different track and I know that if I get distracted it will take me a long time to get back to it. Sometimes I’m too tired at the point I read the comments and sometimes I just don’t have anything to say, so I leave it till later.
Anyway over the last two or three days I’ve been catching up and replying to some comments that were long overdue a reply. Here’s one that I felt was probably relevant to many people, so I’m making my reply into a post.
007 said;
Is freedom a double edged sword? A logical conclusion would be “not having a choice is better than having one”..no decision is required and so no stress..
Yes. I do think not having a choice can lead to less stress. The Paradox of Choce and Stumbling on Happiness both talk about how choice can make us more stressed and less happy;
However I believe the ideal state is not in never being put in a stressful situation, which would only lead to boredom and stagnation, but in overcoming stress and using it as a springboard to a higher level of being.
Anything can hurt you or help you. Today we have so much more freedom and choice than our Ancestors, that it is overwhelming us. It’s why so many people are feeling more stressed. Because we have so many possibilities, but lack the skill to decide on issues at the level to really take advantage as we could.
The old structures and barriers that once held us in our place, but also to some extent supported us, such as strong religious/moral codes, defined social class/roles, demographic identities such as nationality, cultural and so on are crumbling to make way for the new. But we have not yet evolved to a state that allows us to function as effectively without the structure of rules and punishments.
Yet the old structures are close to breaking point. The illusion of authority, be it temporal, spiritual or societal is the idea that it can control or manage anything. It can’t.
Our world has become so fragmented and complex that it is beyond any group of people to monitor and plan for. No Government or other body, however powerful or educated it’s thinkers are, can see and understand enough to control all aspects. And so those who place their trust in such authority will increasingly be disappointed.
This millennium is about the birth of what a friend of mine has termed ‘the given self’. It’s not about willing or visualizing yourself to be what you think you should be. It’s about understanding the pattern of instincts, experiences, observations and personality that make you what you are and then living truly to that self.
Up till now people have always worked from the basis that they were designed or manufactured poorly. And so they should mould themselves into something else that will fit into the Society they have built to control each other and so fix the poor job their Creator did in making them.
When I opened up this series on stress I said the critical skill for our times was the ability to define and decide who and what we are. This is what I meant by that.
If you can’t cope with insecurity, ambiguity and choice from now on, you are going to struggle with life. And there is no Government or Organisation that can help you to stop the flow of life.
Yet on the other hand, if you do develop this skill, nothing can hold you back from having everything you ever wanted.
Part 2 tomorrow.
