Without Entitlement, Freedom to Act
One Perspective on How to Remain Free in an Unfree World
Where’s Muh Freedom?
That’s October’s inner growth theme here at Extremists Being Awesome.
In the liberty community, just as in other philosophical circles and movements for socio-political change, the elusive prize often overshadows the journey that gets us there. Freedom is our ever-present desire, our goal, our rallying cry, but when it comes right down to it, are we behaving like free people, here and now? Are we using our inherent freedom to the utmost? Are we journeying to the destination, or sitting still and demanding that life, or “democracy”, or “society,” deliver us our cherished prize? Those are all questions to consider on an individual basis, and that’s the gist of this month’s theme.
I invited EBA members to submit guest posts about the theme, and Sarah Thompson came through with this fantastic piece. Sarah is a homeopath and health freedom advocate in Maine. You can find more of her excellent, thought-provoking writing on her Substack, The Big At Large.
-Starr
My friends and family aren’t buying it, but this line of thinking is bringing me great comfort: I’m not entitled to anything.
Not bodily autonomy, not protecting my children, not freedom from violence, from tyranny, or from oppression; there is nothing to which I have a right.
“Hold on, you don’t really believe that, do you?” you may be asking yourself. And that gets to the heart of it: it’s about belief. When I feel that something is being taken away from me, this is only painful if I think that it was mine to begin with. In a universe of infinite possible realities, I can do the exercise of choosing to align myself with the one I’m experiencing and be free from the pain. This is The Work of Byron Katie 101.
Now, just because there are infinite possibilities, doesn’t mean all the options are good. To use a framework I’ve heard Jordan Peterson describe, I can look at things in terms of positively and negatively iterating games. A positively iterating game begets more positively iterating games, which are opportunities to productively interact, cooperate, and create. A negatively iterating game closes this scope and leads to fewer.
If I describe a positively iterating game as “good” and a negatively iterating game as “bad” (and I do), then the objective is to maximize positively iterating games. That doesn’t mean that every play is optimal; it’s a collection of events that accrues.
“Why are you such a nerd?” is what you may be now asking yourself. Because this framework allows me to act in the direction of the good without taking it personally. Of course I want to live in a world with the maximum proportion of positively iterating games, and I have thought long as hard about what those games must be premised on in order to function. More than that, I consider those premises to be discovered, not constructed, meaning that I think they are inalienable laws that cannot be violated without negative ramifications in society.
“Are you going to make a point?” if you are thinking that, then at least you’re still reading! Yes!
My point is this: Without the pain of the belief that something has been taken away, I am not bogged down in the fight or flight reaction that generates resistance, heat, and combat. That allows me to move forward toward what I consider good without baggage.
It doesn’t mean I don’t have desires, and that those desires can’t be considered beliefs; it just keeps me from being crippled by the disconnect between what IS happening and what I think SHOULD be happening. It makes other people’s actions no different than accidents of nature, to be contended with in the moment.
That’s how I try to remain free in an unfree world.
Believe it.