THE LIBERTY OF FREEDOM

What is freedom?

Is it a state  or just a state of mind?

The state and the state of mind define each other.

For to be free or enslaved you have to  know it first.

And to know it, first you have to be in one state or the other.

Are you free?

We all think we are free.

To think otherwise would be insanity.

Nobody accepts willingly to live a life of enslavement.

Therefore, we lie to ourselves and think of us as free.

You are as free as your means to overcome your limitations allow you to be.

May those limitations be physical or mental.

It is easy to see how that applies to the physical world.

Your freedom of movement, of having and doing things, is determined by your means.

What about your mental freedom? Your freedom of thinking?

You think your thoughts are free. Right?

Please stop reading this and pick up a piece of paper.

Write on it how cold fusion can be achieved or how cancer can be cured.

How about this: Can you write a novel or compose a symphony at will?

Nope. I didn’t think so. Neither can I.

Our minds are locked in the prison of reason.

Limited to a continuous internal mumbling and rambling.

Locked into a never ending loop of repetitions.

Fragments of songs, incoherent bits of thought and ideas.

We only rarely break out of that prison.

You might think your mind and thoughts are free but you are wrong.

Freedom is just an illusion created by the “what” and the “who” that are enslaving you.

You will not know your prison until you push for the boundaries of your freedom.

You will not know your freedom until you break those walls.

THE TRUMAN SHOW - TAO OF HOLLYWOOD

And here are some pearls of wisdom from “THE TRUMAN SHOW”

“Christof: Truman! You can speak. I can hear you.

Truman: Who are you?

Christof: I’m the creator.

Truman: The creator of what?

Christof: A show - that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions.

Truman: A show.  Then who am I?

Christof: You're the star.

Truman: Nothing was real.

Christof: You were real.  That's what made you so good to watch.”

“Christof: We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.”

“Young Truman: I want to be an explorer, like the Great Magellan.

Teacher: [indicating a map of the world] Oh, you're too late! There's nothing left to explore! "

"Christof: If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no way we could prevent him.”

“Sylvia: Look at what you've done to him!

Christof: I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place. “

“Christof: Truman, there's no more truth out there than in the world I created for you - the same lies and deceit.  But in my world you have nothing to fear. (suddenly angry) Say something, damn it!  You're still on camera, live to the world...!

Truman: In case I don't see you--good afternoon, good evening and good night.”

There are so many themes so many questions you can draw from this movie but I would like to pick just one question for today:

What is freedom?

Is Truman a free man or not?

Are you, WE, free or not, and if yes, then why?

Obviously first response would be “Truman is not a free man because he lives in a cage.”

But is that really true? Is it the cage that defines our freedom or something else?

A couple of years back I took my kids to Yellowstone Park.

One day we meet a very nice family from Luxemburg

We struck out a conversation and among other things they confess they were completely overwhelmed by Yellowstone in particular and United States in general.

It was easy to understand their astonishment considering that the Yellowstone Park was larger than their country.

(For the American readers Luxemburg is a small European country, it has a population of 524,853 (as of October 2012) and an area of 2,586 square kilometers (998 sq mi), making it one of the smallest sovereign nations in Europe)

Imagine how would a citizen of Vatican feel J

We all live in a cage, we just don’t see it that way, because we never test the limits of our cages.

But try to push the limits and sooner or later you’ll find out that you are trapped.

In truth we all are bound to this rock floating in space that we call Earth.

Is a prison inmate less free than a person outside of the prison?

Is a citizen of Luxemburg less free than a US citizen?

How big, or small the cage have to be to determine if we are free or not?

Obviously the size of the physical space we live in is not a measure of our freedom.

The Luxembourg family visiting Yellowstone were enjoying the same freedom as my family.

They were not limited to the physical space of their country.

So Truman was in fact a free man – He got out afterwards – He was not limited to the confines of his space.

I would like to go to Luxemburg.  The question is; am I free to go to Luxemburg?

Obviously you would say "yes", but I would say "no".

I do not have the money to buy plane tickets or to pay for a hotel room and the other trip expenses.

And even if I had the money I wouldn’t have the time. I’ll still have to go to work to pay the bills. – I guess more money would solve that too.

So it looks like freedom is actually determined by the psychological and physical means one has to overcome his limitations.

Even people in prison at the present time, If they are connected to high enough people in power can be pardoned and set scot free.

It happens all the time when State Governors and even the US Presidents pardon hard core criminals and crooks, although we don’t hear much about it in the press.

That means that actually some people in prison at the present time are more free than you and I, since they have more means to overcome their limitations than you and I.

And I know that, that, might hurt your ego and your sense of self worth and I should keep quiet about it and not rock the boat, but like Truman would say:

“Somebody help me, I'm being spontaneous!”