Are you free?
What makes you think you do?
I've been watching what have been going on in our contemporary times, times in which we think we can do everything. There are so much information being thrown down our throats, that we end up by not filtering them. The result is the repetition of concepts which are not exactly of our own. We are anxious by this contemporaneity, anxious by the new; and this new has brought dangerous illusions. We live now in a terribly individualistic world. We have strong necessity of self-affirmation, and we want to fit in behaviour standars that exaltate the right of choice and the power on ourselves - big, controversial questions... Many people even declare the non-existence of God - and I wonder to what point they don't really believe - to justify their points of view. But those are only masks that hide the enormous fear we have to assume our own lives.
Have you ever stopped to think about how difficult is to be really free?
You could, for example, robbing a bank, if you wanted. It would be enough having a gun and courage for such thing. But you jusnt don't do it because it would surely result in other things, not really "amusing". You could lost your freedom, or even being killed. Would you blame your "fate", if it happen, or would you blame your bad choice of violating the order?
Having free will means we can manage our lives, creating options, deciding what is the best for us - since we don't harm anybody else. Choosing what ways we must get is a job of our own. If not for it, we'd be simple puppets, or machines. It's our free will that leads us to growth. It wouldn't be evolution or merit if was not this way. However, we can't exercise freedom without responsibility. The freer we are, the more responsible we have to be before the world and our equal ones, since we are all interdependent. I talked about it in a
former article, about what the lack of responsibility has been causing, especially to our environment. Responsibility - this is just the most difficult part. Not all of us are ready to it. Otherwise, we prefer don't cultivate it. It's easier to blame other things, concepts, philosophies, the horoscope, the government, the marriage. Or fate, or the karma. We live surrounded by excuses. We live walking with crutches in order to excuse us for our inertia and unpreparation. We living excusing ourselves for the fear of being free.
"Free will is doing gladly that which I must do", said Jung.
Are you ready to be free?