Freedom in an Unfree World

Freedom in an Unfree World

Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.
The urge for freedom is so much a part of human nature that it can never be
suppressed by laws, slogans, or commandments. There is a difference, however,
between the urge and the reality.

For most people, freedom remains a pleasant fantasy — something to dream of
while carrying out daily obligations in the real world. They spend their lives talking
vaguely of what they want in life, what they think they’re missing, why they don’t
have it, and who it is that prevents them from being free.

For most people, freedom is an “if only.” “If only it hadn’t been for my wife, I would
have been a success.” Or “If only it hadn’t been for Roosevelt (or Nixon or
whomever), the country would be free.”

The unfree person can never fully repress his urge for freedom — whether he
considers his jailer to be his family, his job, society, or the government. And so, from
time to time, halfhearted attempts are made to break free from the restrictions.
But unfortunately, those attempts usually depend upon the individual’s ability to
change the minds of other people — and so optimism eventually turns into frustration
and despair.

Hoping to be free, many people engage in continual social combat — joining
movements, urging political action, writing letters to editors and Congressmen, trying
to educate people. They hope that someday it will all prove to have been worthwhile.
But as the years go by they see little overall change. Small victories are won; defeats
set them back. The world seems to continue on its path to wherever it’s going. Until
they die, the hopeful remain just as enslaved as they’ve always been.
The plans, the movements, the crusades — none of these things has worked. And
so the unfree person continues to dream, to condemn, and to remain where he is.

There must be a better way.

There must be a way to be free without having to wish for a miracle. It must be a
way by which an individual can change things without having to rally the rest of the
world to his side.


It has to be a way through which he can get rid of exorbitant taxes, have the time
to do what he wants to do, enjoy love without tiresome complications, remove
irritating social restrictions, and free himself from the hundred and one burdens that
others daily hand him.

And it must be a way that doesn’t require that he re-educate all the other people
involved.

Fortunately, there is such a way.

It isn’t necessary to join a massive campaign to reconstruct the society in which
you live, nor do you have to patiently re-educate everyone you deal with.
There’s a way that depends entirely upon what you choose to do. You can be free
without changing the world. You can live your life as you want to live it — no matter
what others decide to do with their lives.

Is It Possible?

If that doesn’t seem possible, I’m not surprised.

After all, how can you live as you want to live when there are so many people
who won’t let you?

How can you spend your money as you please when the government takes so much
of it in taxes? How can you do what you want to do when the government and society
have prohibited many of the things you’d like to do?

How could you live your own life when you have responsibilities to your family,
your friends, your job? How could you possibly ignore the demands that others make
upon you?

I realize that the odds against a free life must seem pretty formidable right now.
And yet there are already individuals who live their lives as they choose. Some of
them may have begun with greater problems than you face now. But in spite of their
problems, they’ve found freedom without waiting for the world to be free.
To be free in an unfree world isn’t nearly as unrealistic as it might seem at
first glance. After all, it’s commonly assumed that there can be free nations in
a world that contains enslaved nations. Why, then, can’t there be free states
within a nation that isn’t free? Or free towns within an unfree state?
Most important, why can’t there be free individuals within unfree towns,
states, or nations?

Freedom is possible, and you can have it — if that’s what you really want.


Our culture is saturated with philosophical “truths” that are commonly accepted
and acted upon — and are rarely challenged. I think of these truisms as traps.
A typical example of a trap is, “It would be selfish to be concerned with your own
freedom; you must think of others first.” Or “The kind of freedom you want is immoral,”
or “The government is more powerful than you are,” or “You have to accept the will
of the majority.”

There are probably hundreds of such traps, but I’ve reduced those I’ve seen to
fourteen basic types.

It’s very easy to get caught in a trap. The truisms are repeated so often they can
be taken for granted. And that can lead to acting upon the suggestions implied in
them — resulting in wasted time, fighting inappropriate battles, and attempting to do
the impossible.

Traps can lead you to accept restrictions upon your life that have nothing to do
with you. You can unwittingly pay taxes you don’t have to pay, abide by standards
that are unsuited to you, put up with problems that aren’t really yours.
Traps are assumptions that are accepted without challenge. As long as they go
unchallenged, they can keep you enslaved. That’s why it’s important that we
challenge them in the following pages. I think you’ll find that most of them have no
more substance than ancient clichés such as “The world is flat.”
If you’re not free now, it’s very likely that you’ve accepted some of these traps.
And you probably haven’t known of a number of alternatives that could get you out
of your restrictions without the pain and effort you might have assumed would be
necessary.

As we look at these traps and alternatives, I hope you’ll become aware of the
unlimited number of avenues open to you. You possess a tremendous amount of
control over your situation — control that’s disregarded when you focus attention
upon the people who seem to stand in your way.
Your Freedom

Most books dealing with freedom present an involved plan that depends upon the
support of other people. These usually urge you to pass the book on to others, sell
the idea to a great many people, and gain the support of the public in order to be free.
This isn’t that kind of book. If you were holding the only copy of it, and if no one
else could read it or accept its conclusions, the ideas would still be useful to you.


We’ll be dealing only with your freedom. Whether the ideas would work for others is
unimportant; what you have to decide is whether they can work for you.
You won’t have to convince anyone else of anything. Every idea in the book will
depend solely upon your own action.

I can assure you that I didn’t achieve my freedom through long hours, articulate
oratory, or mysterious powers of persuasion. And yet I am free.
More than for any other reason, I’m free because I’ve chosen to live that way.
I’ve concentrated upon the things I control, and used that control to remove the
restrictions and complications from my life.

As a result, I’m now free to live my life as I want to live it. Despite all-time high
taxes, I pay ridiculously few taxes. Despite my irregular life style, I live my own life
without interference from society.

Every day of my life is mine to use as I see fit. My time isn’t committed to the
state, to society, to a treadmill, or to fruitless relationships with people with whom I
have nothing in common. I have no fear that the phone will ring any moment to tell me
of something new I “must” do with my time.

I haven’t needed to hide my head in the sand to achieve this. I have valuable
relationships — personal, professional, and romantic. I make far more money now
than I did when I was restricted — and it takes far fewer hours to make it.
I’m involved with people who add to my life, and I’m independent of those who
would take from it.

My life is of little importance to you, however, and this book is not an
autobiography. The title was chosen to let you know that at least one person has
accomplished the freedom you seek, and that it can be done without changing the
nature of the world. The attention will be devoted to your freedom — but the principles
and ideas presented will be those that brought freedom to me.
In the process, it’s important to recognize that you will make all the decisions
yourself. I can’t tell you how to live, nor can I tell you what you “must” do to be free.
Instead, I can suggest dozens of opportunities from which you can choose. And I can
point out the various traps that may be enslaving you now.

You will then have to decide for yourself how you’ll use these suggestions. If the
final decisions aren’t made by you, you could never act with the conviction and purpose
necessary to achieve your objectives. You have to decide what you’re going to do
and, above all, you have to know why you’re doing it. Otherwise, plans and hopes are
meaningless, temporary resolutions — to be shelved the first time anything happens to
interfere.

So please don’t gain the impression that I’m telling you how to live. You have to
decide how you’re going to live. There will be scores of suggestions made in this
book — and you’ll have to decide which ones you can accept and can act upon. If I
write with passion and urgency in places, don’t assume that

I’m demanding a specific course of action from you; the greatest urgency will be in
encouraging you to make the decisions for yourself.

Joseph F Barber
For God and the Constitution - Freedom or Death

Fortis always awake and ready Faithful