Freedom to be UNcommon?

[backtoblue]

Corporations have taken the American individual and and made him/her into a mindless state of paranoia and conformity.

In order to succeed in this great land of ours, we are taught from infancy that conforming to the popular demands and the social mores of our culture is the only way to earn a "decent" and "dignified" living. We are beginning to realize (whether true or not) that our form of capitalism is huge; too big and powerful to ever be changed. That "realization" can lead to psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, etc, because the individual has begun to lose his/her sense of self, which leads to the searching of some "purpose".
These feelings make the individual susceptible to manipulation. When you begin to second-guess yourself and your self-worth, you begin to open up to outside influence because of your own insecurities.

Confusion and fear lead to mass conformity. We dress up like penguins, tie a colorful noose around our neck, and walk into our own prisons every day. Our prisons have windows and glass doors that go unlocked, yet we are still under the control of our "boss". That "boss" is money and we have been taught that one cannot live happily and freely without it. Inevitably, we begin to believe that our economic and government structures will take care of us as long as we do OUR part by working and FEEDING the economy. We do not see our work as slavery because we have been conditioned to believe that we have the chance to move up in the social order simply by working hard. (The "rags to riches" fable.)

War and threatening war is feared because it brings chaos, uncertainty, and death. The people will stand up to protect what they believe is their only means of survival and happiness. They will also tend to give up their own rights and freedoms to protect their very own, personal and institutionalized "perception".

Yes, we are free. Free to speak, to roam, and to wonder, but we are not free to be uncommon.

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

1. Well said!

Freedom ultimately requires free-agency -- an ability to express our uniqueness and authenticity, while also being mindful, of course, of the inescapable reality, at another level, of a larger unity that also binds us and obligates us, even in our uniquenesses. Seems to me that (ultimately) freedom IS the freedom to move beyond majority rule and peer pressure...the freedom to be uncommon.

[backtoblue]

2. Thanks!

If our minds are not free and unable for expression, then our perceptions of the world cannot be true. Truth is freedom and when truth itself is in bondage, nothing is at is seems. nt

[Echo In Light]

3. K&R ...some other perspectives:

Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man:
http://igw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse/odm.html

Official Culture - A Natural State of Psychopathy? by Laura Knight-Jadczyk:
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/official_culture.htm

FEAR: THE EMOTIONAL OUTCOME OF (Mass media in America)
Erin O'Brien
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/academics/hohonu/writing.php?id=41

[backtoblue]

5. very interesting

Thank you for the links!

Independence is relative and freedom is subjective.

[BeFree]

4. Be free

...or suffer.

Not to brag, but I am one of the uncommon ones. Albeit there are people in other countries who really are more free than I could ever imagine. It's just that in my country, I am considered to be weird because I am so free. Free from the chains you so well elucidated.

[backtoblue]

6. really?

:beer:

Please elaborate.

[BeFree]

7. Really

Almost everything you said in your OP about losing freedom, I have not done.

Here's the thing.... if you are not free then neither am I. IOW, my freedom is tied to you too being free.

But what I have chose to do in my life is to be uncommon. To march to my own drum. But always be a patriot in action and in words.