No one would dispute the ability for every man to be free, but sometimes we keep ourselves from being so; we limit our ability for freedom by falling into addictions, destructive mindsets, lies, poor choices, and lethargies. If we could rise above such pitfalls there is no combination of weapons, money, and laws that can deprive a soul of it's innate freedom; except perhaps the only foe to the free spirit, the spirit itself.
Addiction, for example, is one of the main outlets in which a person betrays their own freedom. Before addiction set in, a person is confronted with a choice to either take part in addictive practices or to distance oneself from them. If the former is chose, then the choice to not participate is removed and a dependency to choose the former becomes an institutional routine. This is the classic example of how the soul makes choices inimical to it's success. Addiction however, while it impairs one aspect of an array of choices, there is another internal threat that has the power to degrade the entire array of choices.
Destructive mindsets are the most deadly enemy to the self as there is. Because mindsets controls every action, mindsets become weighty and powerful either for good or evil. While mindsets are as numerous as there are people to posses them, it's fair to group them for this context into two camps: freedom creation and freedom destruction. Mindsets that create freedom are obviously multi-faceted, involving the assumptions that a person is responsible for their own success and failure, that for things to change they must act, and that success is the result of doing the right actions. Mindsets that demote freedom tend to assume that responsibility is shiftable, that change happens independently of their actions, and that success is the result of other things happening to them. To personify this idea, the person that would embody the first mindset would be a responsible person who takes charge of his destiny and engineers his environment as he sees fit. The opposite man evades responsibility, allows his destiny wonder, and lets his environment engineer him.
It is clear that the first mindset is desirable but sometimes however, we seem to find workarounds to avoid listening to our mindset. We do this by lying to ourselves. Whether it is a lie told by another, or to one's self, once accepted, they both become equal in their ability to hijack a mindset. When this happens a normally responsible man becomes un-responsiblle. Where he would normally take the blame for a failure, he now lies to himself and shifts the blame to another. Through lies and deception is the free spirit subjected to it's own self-serfdom.
On the other hand, a man might not be deceiving himself at all, but instead he gives up his freedom through poor choices. While it's true that sometimes these choices are just poorly educated mistakes, sometimes they are bad choices in all good knowledge. While poorly educated choices does limit freedom, the more destructive is the conscious bad choices. These choices might include staying up late despite knowing the consequences, or accepting an abusive tax because it's easy despite knowing the consequences of impoverishment and tyrannical, big, government. Thus lethargy becomes another threat to the freedom of the spirit. Though a man has knowledge of what is right, and he doesn't necessarily make bad choices, he actually fails to act at all.
All in all there are many places to fall out of ones freedom. If one were to overcome these pitfalls and others, and become free, would they be invincible? is it not true that others can impair that freedom? Can't they use force of arms, monitory manipulation, and bent laws to chain a man to another? Perhaps concreting these questions and their answers into a scenario, may be the best way of explanation.
A man, self-mastered and free, somehow through forces outside his control, comes under the yoke of another man. Though master of himself, the subjugated man's person is shackled and bound to another. But while his body and labor is at the disposal of another, this doesn't enslave his spirit, which is still free.
That was the experience of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist, when he went through the horrible
experience of the Holocaust. One of his discoveries while weathering this experience was that while his body was under constant battery, his spirit was impregnable as long as he maintained that final bastion. His discovery is published in his highly influential book A Man's Search for Meaning. Below is a quotation from Wikipedia that takes about the experiences of being in a concentration camp, and what his discoveries were about the human spirit:
Addiction, for example, is one of the main outlets in which a person betrays their own freedom. Before addiction set in, a person is confronted with a choice to either take part in addictive practices or to distance oneself from them. If the former is chose, then the choice to not participate is removed and a dependency to choose the former becomes an institutional routine. This is the classic example of how the soul makes choices inimical to it's success. Addiction however, while it impairs one aspect of an array of choices, there is another internal threat that has the power to degrade the entire array of choices.
Destructive mindsets are the most deadly enemy to the self as there is. Because mindsets controls every action, mindsets become weighty and powerful either for good or evil. While mindsets are as numerous as there are people to posses them, it's fair to group them for this context into two camps: freedom creation and freedom destruction. Mindsets that create freedom are obviously multi-faceted, involving the assumptions that a person is responsible for their own success and failure, that for things to change they must act, and that success is the result of doing the right actions. Mindsets that demote freedom tend to assume that responsibility is shiftable, that change happens independently of their actions, and that success is the result of other things happening to them. To personify this idea, the person that would embody the first mindset would be a responsible person who takes charge of his destiny and engineers his environment as he sees fit. The opposite man evades responsibility, allows his destiny wonder, and lets his environment engineer him.
It is clear that the first mindset is desirable but sometimes however, we seem to find workarounds to avoid listening to our mindset. We do this by lying to ourselves. Whether it is a lie told by another, or to one's self, once accepted, they both become equal in their ability to hijack a mindset. When this happens a normally responsible man becomes un-responsiblle. Where he would normally take the blame for a failure, he now lies to himself and shifts the blame to another. Through lies and deception is the free spirit subjected to it's own self-serfdom.
On the other hand, a man might not be deceiving himself at all, but instead he gives up his freedom through poor choices. While it's true that sometimes these choices are just poorly educated mistakes, sometimes they are bad choices in all good knowledge. While poorly educated choices does limit freedom, the more destructive is the conscious bad choices. These choices might include staying up late despite knowing the consequences, or accepting an abusive tax because it's easy despite knowing the consequences of impoverishment and tyrannical, big, government. Thus lethargy becomes another threat to the freedom of the spirit. Though a man has knowledge of what is right, and he doesn't necessarily make bad choices, he actually fails to act at all.
All in all there are many places to fall out of ones freedom. If one were to overcome these pitfalls and others, and become free, would they be invincible? is it not true that others can impair that freedom? Can't they use force of arms, monitory manipulation, and bent laws to chain a man to another? Perhaps concreting these questions and their answers into a scenario, may be the best way of explanation.
A man, self-mastered and free, somehow through forces outside his control, comes under the yoke of another man. Though master of himself, the subjugated man's person is shackled and bound to another. But while his body and labor is at the disposal of another, this doesn't enslave his spirit, which is still free.
That was the experience of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist, when he went through the horrible
experience of the Holocaust. One of his discoveries while weathering this experience was that while his body was under constant battery, his spirit was impregnable as long as he maintained that final bastion. His discovery is published in his highly influential book A Man's Search for Meaning. Below is a quotation from Wikipedia that takes about the experiences of being in a concentration camp, and what his discoveries were about the human spirit:
Experiences in a concentration camp
"Frankl identifies three psychological reactions experienced by all inmates to one degree or another: (1) shock during the initial admission phase to the camp, (2) apathy after becoming accustomed to camp existence, in which the inmate values only that which helps himself and his friends survive, and (3) reactions of depersonalization, moral deformity, bitterness, and disillusionment if he survives and is liberated.[5]
Frankl concludes that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. In a group therapysession during a mass fast inflicted on the camp's inmates trying to protect an anonymous fellow inmate from fatal retribution by authorities, Frankl offered the thought that for everyone in a dire condition there is someone looking down, a friend, family member, or even God, who would expect not to be disappointed. Frankl concludes from his experience that a prisoner's psychological reactions are not solely the result of the conditions of his life, but also from the freedom of choice he always has even in severe suffering. The inner hold a prisoner has on his spiritual self relies on having a hope in the future, and that once a prisoner loses that hope, he is doomed."
Every man has the ability to be free, provided that he dose not sabotage his ability. The spirit is an entity unto itself, and only it, can affect it. The only kind of serfdom therefore, is the self-imposed, the Self-sefdom.
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