Freedom is Slavery

     Freedom, like many other topics, does not rest in the physical alone, but rather it is also richly alive in the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our person. These aspects shape our view of the word, and greatly change its meaning depending on our focus; if we are referring to the emotional aspect, freedom could mean, for example, being able to love whom we will. On the other hand, if we are referring to intellectual freedom, it could conceivably mean we have simply arrived at a state of inner mental peace. Though everyone has a different idea of what the word “freedom” means, they are often mistakenly thinking of the opposite, especially in the case of physical and spiritual freedom.

     Freedom is not free. To establish liberty from any sort of oppression requires liberation – a typically lethal emancipation, quite often through the death of those who desire it the most and fight for it the hardest. The price of freedom is often paid for in human lives, and consumers of freedom do not generally appreciate the sacrifice that has been made to ensure that it yet lives. Freedom does not mean that everything is free, but rather that there is recognition and payment of the enormous and costly price.

     Physical freedom does not mean everyone can do as he or she pleases, because freedom requires a balance. To remove restrictions on society would upset the balance, until eventually freedom would belong to only the most powerful or resourceful people. If one man’s freedom interferes with another man’s, it is no longer freedom, but rather it is oppression; it is the beginning of a terrible struggle for ever-changing power which is never wholly attainable.

     Freedom is not safety. Freedom is not feeling comfortable and stable; indeed, those feelings are only indications of a false reality, for the world is neither comfortable nor stable. Rather, freedom is acknowledging the instability of reality, and making prudent preparation for an unstable future; indeed, the moment we cherish our safety above all else is the moment we lose our freedom. If we want to surround ourselves with walls, we must remember this: walls do not simply keep evil out, but they also keep the innocent in; when we allow or give another entity the job of protecting us, we also give that entity our liberty, for we have surrendered to them our power. The balance is skewed, and freedom is destroyed. To allow an almighty hand to surround us is to admit our complete trust and utter slavery in that being or power.

     At a physical level, freedom is hard to achieve, and harder to hold onto, for when we have been pampered and spoiled by the pleasure freedom affords us, we forget the cost and are pacified into a false sense of security. We are so coddled by our safety and comfort that we would give up our freedoms to maintain that sense of well-being, not understanding that as soon as we lose our freedoms, we will not have the power to retain our former luxuries, and will be at the mercy of whoever is providing our security. In desiring the comfort of safety, we would trade the freedoms that bring us that comfort in the first place, and in the process we lose both.

     Physical freedom is quite different than spiritual freedom, but the former aids us in understanding the latter. Indeed, without physicality, we would never arrive at a proper understanding of any spiritual concepts, for we are physically-oriented beings with an inherent spiritual ignorance. Therefore, it is unsurprising when we see physical reflections of spirituality in many facets of our lives, including the concept of freedom.

     Spiritual freedom is similar to physical freedom in that it is not free: it comes with a monumental price. The greatest difference being perhaps that the price has already been paid, and we are expected to make use of this great sacrifice, lest it be in vain.

     Spiritual freedom is challenging in demand, but fulfilling in reward. It demands the complete abstinence of immorality in order to find a unity with a Just God, all the while recognizing the inability of sinful humans to achieve a complete abstinence. Spiritual freedom is irrationally fulfilling, because it is a reward of absolute excellence granted to those who could never deserve it, only attainable due to the incalculable sacrifice on the part of the reward-Giver. It is beautiful madness, conceived by the Creator of the World – a type of magnificent madness that we refer to as “Love.” Spiritual freedom is the reward given to the dirtiest, ugliest, poorest, evilest, and most unworthy, by means of a sacrifice made by The Most High, whose only reward is the appreciation of the aforementioned who could never fully appreciate it. It is unfair, illogical, irrational, unreasonable, and perfectly, wonderfully free for We the Filthy who were/are so evil we required the Great Sacrifice to take place.

     The most illogical and unreasonable in this situation, however, is not the God who made such an incalculable sacrifice for the incredibly undeserving, but rather it is the undeserving who does not accept the free reward that comes as a result. This is perhaps the epitome of irrationality, and it defeats any arguments against God’s aptitude to govern the World, for we have only proven by discarding unearned, everlasting, priceless gold that we are far more intellectually inept than any other being, especially the Creator of the Universe.

     Perhaps the most complex aspect of freedom of any sort is that we must refer to it in an abstract and relative manner, for absolute freedom paradoxically does not truly exist. To become free entirely of one entity requires servitude to another: to maintain civil freedoms, one must become subject to the laws, otherwise all rights would dissolve. In a similar manner, to become spiritually free of sin and our fleshy selves, we must become slaves or servants to God, Who then grants us liberation. We must choose, therefore, which bondage is more eternally beneficial, and which is more detrimental in the end; we must choose which freedom is closest to the unattainable absolute, and which freedom contradicts itself the least.

     But we do have a choice, and perhaps this is freedom: to choose our own masters, to choose our enslavers, to decide to whom we give our chains and to whom we refuse ownership. Perhaps true freedom is just choice slavery.