Harry's Freedom Principles
This week begins a little promotion, “Win Harry Browne’s Book” which is an offer for Harry Browne’s classic, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.
The book was first published in 1973, and has been out of print since 1998. The freedom that Harry addresses is very broad in meaning, including both political freedom (imposed by others) and practical personal freedom from all those things individuals impose on themselves. In both cases, the principles Harry describes are universal. Some of the most important of those principles are ones the Free Individual emphasizes.
Traps
“Traps,” is Harry’s term for all those ideas and beliefs people have come to simply accept as true and allow to control their thoughts and choices, though they are not true at all.
Harry identifies at least fourteen different “traps” and uses that metaphor to explain the mistaken nature of the accepted beliefs and the principles for overcoming the enslaving nature of those wrong ideas.
In the course of his very clear explanations, several freedom principles become obvious. Some of those principles are the following:
Other people are not like ourselves and we cannot change or control other people. Freedom does not depend on changing others, it depends on changing ourselves.
The emotions or feelings are not cognitive or trustworthy guides in making decisions. One must guard against allowing the emotions to control one’s choices.
No moral code is sufficient as a guide to moral choices. It is ethical principles that are needed, not a code.
That something called “rights” is any assurance or guarantee of anything.
That to be free one must first produce a “free society.” (Harry’s word is “utopia.”)
That the cost of freedom is greater than freedom is worth.
The Two Most Important Principals
At least I believe they are the two most important.
That everything has a price. Everything worth acquiring or achieving requires some kind of effort, usually entails some emotional or physical discomfort, and giving up something of lesser value for the sake of a greater value (but it does have to be given up).
Nothing, including freedom, is just going to happen. You must make it happen by determining the price and paying it. The reward of freedom is greater than any price required to achieve it.
Of course, Harry’s style is very different from mine, and his way of expressing these principles is very different, but the principles are the same, however they are expressed, else they would not be principles at all.
One Disappointment
In a couple of instances in Harry’s book, it is apparent that Harry either did not have a strong ethical philosophy, or was an ethical relativist or hedonist, defining ‘wrong’ as that which brings you unhappiness, and ‘right’as that which brings you happiness.”
The independent individualist is a moral absolutist, which only means, moral values are determined by reality and the requirements of man’s whole nature, both physical and psychological and are absolute as reality itself. It is not “what makes you happy” that determines what is “right,” but objective principles of what is right for man as a rational volitional being and acting on those principles that produces happiness.
In every other way, Harry’s, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World is worth reading and studying by every freedom loving individual.