Freedom

                                     Freedom 

 

                             Liberty, Independence, and Self-determination.

    “We the People, of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”


    Freedom - the power or right to think, speak, and act according to choice. We cherish it. Generations of our youngest and bravest men have been sent off to die for it. It is enshrined in our Constitution and laws.

    Liberty - This shared freedom from arbitrary or despotic government control, domestic or foreign, is the bedrock of a government of, by, and for the people. We rightly fear the unwarranted incursions into our Civil Liberties, customary rights guaranteed in the U.S. Bill of Rights. 

   Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty. Thomas Jefferson

   Freedom to act (including freedom of speech) is not absolute. Laws legitimately constrain us from harming each other, or the environment egregiously. We’re even discouraged from doing things to harm ourselves. Many if not most of these restrictions are for the common good. Some are well intentioned but ill advised. And some laws and orders are pernicious and threaten our very democracy.

   Independence - freedom from; control, support, dependence on, or oversight from, authority.
   Absolute independence may be unattainable, and undesirable. Relative independence is, however, highly desirable, and something we can directly impact from childhood on. We can influence parents and other authority figures to respond to trustworthiness with trust, and self sufficiency with relaxed oversight. That doesn’t change as we grow up. The scope of our freedom to act without interference or oversight, our personal Independence, is directly proportional to how trustworthy we are seen to be.

    When the Way is lost then comes virtue. When virtue is lost then comes benevolence. When benevolence is lost then come rectitude. When rectitude is lost then comes the law. (Lao Tzu). 

    Where the law ends tyranny begins. (Locke)                                                               

   Self determination - The power of the will to choose; independent from fate or necessity. Autonomy. Self determination is a defining characteristic of the warrior.
    Jujutsu trains us to be warriors. Jujutsu training enhances control (of self and situation), safety, and freedom from the outset. Strength, flexibility, agility, self protection skills, safe falling, focus, and discipline are all promoted and encouraged through training. Awareness, sensory and intuitive, is developed through meditation.

     “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin

    Instead of trading freedom for safety, training in jujutsu promotes both. Any real safety should be an opportunity to exercise our freedom, not stifle it. Whatever concessions to safety one has made, The power or right to think and act according to our own free will carries responsibilities. Freedom is no insurance against the consequences of our own mistaken choices.
    It is incumbent on us as citizens and warriors to inform ourselves. The better we understand the nature of the world we’re living in the more wisely we can choose our own path. Choices that advance our own interests at the expense of others, reap short term benefits without regard to long term consequences, or rely on insufficient or misinformation can be regrettable.

   There is another aspect of freedom, the state of not being subject to or affected by a specified thing or condition (freedom from). Generally, freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint. etc.
    In 1942 FDR, in his State of the Union Speech, called on the world to recognize four freedoms as basic human rights. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want (economic security), and Freedom from Fear (Human security).

The Four Freedoms photo by Akasha Gnosis

   Poverty and insecurity are forms of slavery. Economic slavery is real and growing in our own country. Freedom of Religion has become about imposing my religious beliefs on others. Cities live in fear of everything from gangs to police, not to mention accidental lead poisoning.
    If you don’t think our freedom is at risk consider the remarkable reverse trickle down effect our economy has exhibited for thirty years. We are an Oligarchy, as I understand the word. Unbridled capitalism, deregulation, corporate greed and welfare, and now the unfettered influence of money on politics have corrupted the system. The influence of popular opinion on our legislators is nil. But our votes can still change the self-perpetuating system that is in place.
    If I were more enlightened perhaps I would appreciate the freedom of letting go. (Just another word for nothing left to lose). We can be enslaved by what we own, or more particularly, what we attach to.    
    But I’m still attached to the beautiful idea of Freedom, with all it’s balances and compromises. And I’m still hopeful we can reverse, or at least mitigate, the disastrous effects of unbridled capitalism we’ve experienced over the past three plus decades. We owe it to our children to turn it around on every front.
  
    Or so it seems to me.