The Present: The Questionable Meaning of Freedom

This is part two of three of my blog on blood ...

The Questionable Meaning of Freedom
It occurred to me that often times the notion of freedom has been linked with reason, the personal sacrifice of soldiers, and a sense that somehow we've earned it. Reason based on the Habermasian sphere, while enabling a particular type of action, is critiqued by the culturalists -- as lacking culture.  But when we look at culture or horrifically at religion expressed in cultural practices, we do not like what we see.  Some of us blame religion and culture as the foundation for genocides.  Some of us blame reason as the iron cage of our existence.  Stalemate.  What is freedom?  Is it simply to live?  Can we be free in an iron cage?  Can we be free in a totalitarian regime?  What is freedom?  


We want to claim freedom as expression of human effort found in a political structure.  What want to associate freedom with being able to do what we want.  And this seeming freedom is equated to happiness.  But a child who does whatever she wants is the most miserable.  She is a slave to herself.  For those living in seemingly democratic nations, we are internally chained, internally captivated to ourselves.  Living in a democratic society does not mean we are personally or individually free.  We have equated democracy with freedom.  



For those Canadians who have never known what it means to live under a dictator, we equate the lack of freedom to economic, social and perhaps, if we're insightful, maybe psychological freedom.  We understand freedom as the ability to do what we want, when we want to. We equate freedom with choices.  But these definitions of freedom, while somewhat accurate, are really the by products of capitalist societies.  Consequently, in the last few years during the economic recession, our news saturated us with the dreary news that our societies are facing a crisis -- and a crisis it was: a threat to the number of choices we had in cars, companies to choose services from, and the government response was to bail out large corporations.   Our society tends to think we are free because we live in a particular democratic nation. But we are not really free, just free to buy. 


Consumer Society and Faith?
Some of the unpleasant and sometimes dangerous consequences of our faulty definitions of freedom are: first, we, in the West, often think: "those developing nations" need our help; they need our Western knowledge; and they need us. And why not, we are saturated with the idea the idea that "they" have nothing to offer us. Second, for those who feel they are enlightened, postmodern thinkers, we act like consumers.  We may be selective and embrace something like yoga without really understanding any of the teachings.  Like the woman in Eat, Pray, Love, some of us believe we are enlightened, above the masses, but really we are consumers in a market place, selecting spiritual disciplines that make us feel good, but we reject anything that might be difficult, challenging, or require discipline and study. So, we deceive ourselves: we are not enlightened, we're just consumers.  For some Christians, we act as consumers of our faith: we like the fact that Jesus saves and loves us.  We don't like the word SIN -- it makes feel like we have to deny ourselves or that we have done something wrong; we are not sure what forgiveness really means and even if we did, it is hard to do so; we don't like discipline because it takes time; and some of us have never really read the Bible.  We carry it around and we may able to quote some nice verses, but we really don't know know a personal Jesus.  We are consumers.  


Vampires and Blood: Towards An Understanding of Freedom



I think the archetype of the vampire have it close to being correct: blood is the basis for life and power.  So, indulge me for a brief moment to consider our current glorification of a monster whose dependence on blood leaves people dead, who can't or won't accept death.  The representation of these vampires are in many ways, super-human.  But it is their constant preoccupation with blood that is of most interest to me.  They consume it to fuel a kind of wakeful deadness because they know while the blood gives life, it also makes them cursed to live lonely lives separated from humanity.  The weak succumb and lose their humanity, the strong resist because they remember who they are -- humans.   



What does this say about the masses who consume the vampire myth and along with it, the not so palatable idea of blood?  Perhaps we also long for a type of power that no longer seems accessible to us, the kind that makes us strong, alive, and beautiful.  I think this type of power still exists in a much more tangible way, one providing inner power.  It has the ability to transform a wayward individual to one with purpose, vision, and more importantly, greater peace than she has ever known. Perhaps this type of power enables one to surmount some indescribable challenges.    


Freedom? 
I don't know what it is like to be completely free of needs and wants. Sometimes I can't imagine having power and peace.  Sometimes I struggle just to get out of bed and the long list of things I have to do can seem tedious, boring, and really pointless (washing the car, doing taxes, cleaning my room, or taking out the trash .. these tiny life things).  But there are moments when I am sipping a cup of tea, cross country skiing in the stillness of the woods, listening to my nephew talk, remembering the cherished moments and conversations with friends and family, laying on the grass, running so hard my lungs gasp for air or simply absorbing something like a song or the stillness around me that there is this indescribable peace. Maybe this peace is freedom, not free of anything, but knowing I am who am I. Does that make sense?  Does it make sense that I can be poor or imprisoned or sick or oppressed, but be at peace and completely free?