Freedom: An Introduction
The word "freedom" has been used in a variety of
contexts, meaning something roughly similar but sometimes very confusing. A simple
question when someone says "freedom" is to ask "freedom to do what?".
What are we free to do? And what does it mean that we are free to do it? These are crucial
questions when the word is used to define social institutions, laws, systems of goverment,
education, etc. And the answers can go from somewhat clear to extremely confusing.
In our context, the word has a very specific meaning. We seek
to be free to follow our True Will, both by ourselves and as part of a group (a complex
radio formed of many individual organisms.) Once defined in this way, our purpose becomes
twofold: to be able to find our True Will in any given situation and then to be able to
follow through with what our True Will is asking us to do. Both of these present severe
obstacles for any "normal" contemporary human being.
The first and almost insurmountable obstacle is that we may
be under the impression that we already know what our True Will is and that we already
know how to follow it. This may be true. If it is, and you know it is, then you have no
need to work on any of this. But, in all probability, it isn't true and then your belief
that you have something that you don't have can prevent you from ever obtaining it!
To get a grasp of what we are talking about, we begin by
exploring the "mood of freedom". Once we can savor it, feel it when it is in the
air, then we can begin to sense when it is there, when it is close and when it is nowhere
to be seen. Until then, it will remain a strange concept attached only to thoughts
and rationalizations, with no reality of its own.