Why We Are Destined to Surrender Our Freedom

Why We Are Destined to Surrender Our Freedom

So, an important question has been raised by our generation, one that seems to go unanswered though the answer is obvious. Why do we sacrifice freedom for comfort? It's a question we are all willing to ask at one time or another, but never able to resolve or do anything about. I am about to explain why and by the end if it will hopefully show how freedom is a struggle that humans are not naturally predetermined to protect. I could have the Cap do it, but he'd have to somewhere along the way punch you in the face, and I decided to spare you that. By human nature people will communicate far more often about restricting others than about relief from the law. The reason is that people are reactionary by nature and although dozens of people may witness something they feel is offensive or a nusiance, only a few at a time feel the burden of being cited or restricted by the state for those offenses. And of them most would rather be done with it before worrying about voicing their opinion. Nobody sitting around not under prosecution of the law ever thinks to themselves, "gee, it sure is nice not have to worry about fulfilling some obligatory ordinance as I sit here. That would be a lot of tension to live with. I'm going to write a letter to city hall voicing my gratitude!" Heck, no. People don't react until faced with a crisis. So rather, they won't say anything until they get a ticket, or the city cites them for having a lawn too long, or a tire in the yard. Whatever the mundane ordinance heaped upon them by threat of fine or other enforcement, they seem to act as if it does not exist until its threatening them.   In this manner, humans, in comfort, react to lesser and lesser discomforts disproportionately.  For example, guess how many people cared about trash in someone's yard when I lived in Kenya in 1994? None. No one. Why? They were all busy worrying about things like having enough food to survive that day, or avoiding a lethal conflict with a mugger or thief. But comfortable people living a mundane or boring existence in a quiet suburb are going to be irrate when Mr. Fields has a lawn 4.5 inches long when everyone else has one less than 4.2 inches long. It just looks bad and heaven forbid affect property values. Just guess how many damns this guy gives about his neighbor's grass affecting his property value?    Because we are reactionary we lose perspective rather quickly. People live that experience all the time. For example, when you are five, having your parents punish you by making you put up all your toys and go in timeout is a travesty, a vile act that makes life unbearable.  A few minutes without my Rainbow Dash! Life stinks!    But as an adult, we bat an eye when we accidentally break something far more useful, like dishes and such. Why we don't learn from this is probably due to our reactionary nature as well. We don't learn long term lessons until life forces us to. Now it is true that some people never get over minute losses...and they are people who either a) view these losses in a very deep and symbolic way, recognizing the full scope of selfishness or evil events that have created a system where such losses exist, thereby reminding them of the existential terror of death and destruction, or b) have never really suffered in their lives. I think most people like that are in the "b" column. Having never really seen true suffering, they find more mundane or less imminent things to complain about or invest their lives in. What? We could be spending all this time and money saving children? Silly ignoramus, people don't suffer!      This also brings up a valid point about investment of energy that inevitably leads us to restrict rather than liberate ourselves. Some activities cost more energy, and are thereby more difficult to invest in. And as humans we invest in activities that are not life threatening according to our emotional energy. It takes a lot of energy to correct violations and worry about the threat of prosecution or even undergo prosecution (life crippling in may cases) but very little to complain about or cite violations. For this reason, human society is naturally slated to surrender its freedom because its so much easier to restrict society than to fight for freedom and live with dealing with it.  We are destined to trade freedom for comfort, because living comfortably in the box is easier until the due restrictions of that box fall upon the individual, but by then it is too late, because the individual is always outnumbered.  Above: Outnumbered. Now if you were like the Cap you could put freedom on your fist and punch the Red Skull in the face, but since you're not then you are destined to stand alone every time, simply due to the fact that restriction falls on the individual. The only way to stop that is for people to actually stop reacting to life and begin learning from life. But we all know how good humanity is at learning from past mistakes. Above: Case closed. So have a wonderful life and fight for freedom if you wish, but its a heck of a lot easier to let it go and live comfortably in your designated box.