First, it's important to define the word freedom. This word gets thrown around every day in popular media. Commonly, they misuse, abuse, or redefine its meaning. To me, freedom is the ability to express one's own self. In a free state of being, one's abilities increase while personal limitations decrease. Another important part of being free is the way we feel about ourselves given the society and environment we live in.
How can we obtain freedom in a world that is fully corrupted? How can one be free in a fully corrupted nation? In talking about corruption, we speak of people using the system in ways that were not intended, and thereby creating a system that was planned for or expected. The unfortunate fact is that we cannot fully stop others from abusing the system, and most especially in large groups. One solution is to remove yourself from that system, partially or fully. A positive way to remove one's self from the system is to Do It Yourself, abbreviated DIY. There are many ways to DIY.
When most of what we eat all year is from our personal or community garden, we have freed ourselves from a major amount of control the system inflicts upon us. In encouraging people to grow food and not buy it at the grocery store, you are thinking, "I live in an apartment. This advice doesn't apply to me". If you continue to think this, you are right. However, it can apply to you if you find a community garden near your apartment in the city. Gardens are starting up everywhere, and personally I would be surprised if you could not find one within a few block of where you live. If you volunteer to water and weed, plan and plant, you will be able to take some of the harvest home to eat. Alternatively, skip the hard work and simply volunteer to take some excess vegetables home! This is a smaller step, but it contributes to the overall success of gardens everywhere, and the feeling of accomplishment each person working their own garden feels. It feels good to give, and in order for someone to give, another must receive.
For most people, work is essential. Work takes up a large portion of our day each and every day, so it is an important aspect of life to look at when considering freedom. How much satisfaction does doing the work you currently do give you, directly? Many people work for the rewards that work gives indirectly, but forget that work itself is a large portion of their life. If what we are doing with a large portion of our life does not satisfy us, then we will experience a nagging sense of unease, of not accomplishing what we ought, or of not being the person that we want and know we can be. It is vital that we look closely at what we do for work. We should look at how much it satisfies or does not satisfy us.
Technological improvements impact almost every aspect of our lives. It is important that we use technology and not allow it to use us. Cell phones, the Internet, social media, and portable music players have all had a large impact on our lives. Sometimes we allow a music player to create a cocoon around us, where we are mostly unaware of what is going on even in our immediate vicinity. Cell phones can leave us a slave to answering them immediately, regardless of where we are or what we are doing, sometimes ignoring the people who we are personally interacting with! The Internet can be very addictive in its explanation of most things, and social media can take up a large part of our free time, leaving no room for in-person interactions once again. These personal and face-to-face interactions with people build confidence and affect how we view each other. As a result of the technologies we have, and their huge popularity, many people can no longer meaningfully connect in person, and have lost many of the social skills and courage to do so.
Political Cartoon by Libertas Institute.
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