Freedom's Infinite Potential
Today’s Daily Freedom is provided by Jon Rappoport. With his permission I’m presenting his inspiring piece on individual freedom. His style is unique (as an individualist’s would be), but the principles are universal.
The piece should not be read as an article, but like poetry, each line a complete thought but all held together by the single theme of individual freedom—each line like a snapshot of the same scene from a different perspective. Here is the piece:
The Shock Of The American Revolution
It was one thing to separate from England; it was another thing entirely to produce the idea of individual freedom as a natural fact and a political goal.
The first act did not necessarily lead to the second.
Indeed, the exile of the King from American affairs and the cancellation of the taxes laid on by the monarchy could have been the prelude to a new state of tyranny on these shores.
In several respects, this turned out to be the case, but not before the idea of freedom was enunciated for all time.
With the ringing of that bell, definite principles and consequences flowed with great surety.
One person living in freedom could not legally limit the freedom of another.
Freedom meant a condition of self-sufficiency. It meant independence from any invasive and crowding authority.
It meant responsibility for one’s actions, rather than excuses to escape consequences.
It meant that decisions on how to live one’s life were unique to each individual—and if this principle was followed, society would reflect an astonishing diversity.
It meant that social conformity was no longer a desirable goal.
It meant that wide consensus was not a necessary requirement for individual actions.
With these ideas in tow, one would expect a nation in which ideas, innovations, modes of living, and communities were extraordinarily various— each difference and distinction backed up by energetic passion.
Creativity and imagination would play out to the fullest extent on a wide field.
Is that what happened?
In many respects, the answer is no.
But time does not destroy ideas.
Everything stated and implied by the shocking establishment of freedom is as true today as it was 200-plus years ago.
In that sense, philosophy always trumps life.
Anyone, at any time, can pick up the torch.
Implicit in the idea of freedom is the question: what is freedom for?
That question arises, because freedom is not an action. It is a feeling, a state of mind, a potential.
It is the setting for whatever is to come, whatever will be done by the individual.
Freedom, obviously, is for making choices. If those choices are spooled out by some sort of inner necessity and compelling impulse, then the whole idea of freedom is negated in the cradle.
Therefore, the very notion of freedom implies that the choices made are, or can be, freely taken.
Freely made choices open the door to an understanding of what “choice” really means.
It means “created.”
A person does not merely choose. He creates those choices.
He is essentially and deeply creative.
And this changes everything.
No longer are we envisioning an individual who is bound and irresistibly driven forward by inner forces, or by a past whose events predetermine his future.
None of this speculative “psychcologizing” is relevant.
Free is free.
There is latitude. There is space.
Imagination and creativity overlap.
All of this is implied and derived from the declaration of individual freedom that is at the heart of the formation of the American Republic.
Then why do we see a surprisingly uniform landscape in this country?
Why haven’t the unique creations of millions of individuals caused a stunningly wide diversity of outcomes that are quite visible?
Why are we caught up in a spreading sameness?
Ultimately, the answer is simple: people have chosen to be like one another.
Adducing reasons for this are really beside the point. If the individual does have the freedom to make his own unique creation of his future, then he can change his decision to be like his neighbor.
He can change that.
That change is also part of what freedom means.
An unconscionable tonnage of literature and verbiage have been spent describing all the ways in which the individual is limited and hemmed in and shaped by forces over which he has no control. Indeed, in some quarters, this notion of determinism is applauded and elevated to a high perch.
It is all, in the end, wasted, because the individual can be free.
The expanse of that freedom has no psychological boundaries.
This idea strikes fear in the hearts of people who want to pile complexity on complexity in deciphering the so-called human condition. Inevitably, such “investigations” consign the individual to an unfree status.
But two centuries ago, a small group of men announced to the world that a different destiny awaited us.
They made political separation from a monarchy into a far more profound declaration.
We hold that legacy today, not only as an historical connection, but also as a depiction of what we really are.
What we do with it is up to each one of us.
No potential anywhere has the power of individual freedom.
When we consult our desires in deciding what we want to create in this world, we would do well to consider the enormous breadth and depth of the freedom on which all creation is based—so that our choices and actions do more than scratch the surface of our imaginations.
We are not small; we are, when all is said and done, infinite.
Jon Rappoport has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize early in his career, Jon has published articles on medical fraud, politics, alternative health, and sports in LA Weekly, CBS Healthwatch, Spin, Stern, and other magazines and newspapers in the US and Europe.
He is the is author of several books, including The Secret Behind Secret Societies and The Magic Agent (a novel).
Jon is the author of a new course for home schoolers, Logic and Analysis.
E-Mail: qjrconsulting (AT) gmail.com
Web site: www.nomorefakenews.com
Web site: www.insolutions.info