In Western culture freedom is the most important value. Americans value freedom more than love and that is why the USA is messed up. Love is more important than anything else including freedom. Love should be mandatory. When we beg for more freedom we should always be asking ourselves what do we want the freedom to do in particular. The Western individualistic model of freedom is unacceptable because it allows for all kinds of hateful behavior. We need to discard individualism and move toward collectivism. Freedom can be divided into two categories: benevolent freedom and malevolent freedom. Benevolent freedom is the freedom to love others and malevolent freedom is the freedom to hate others.
Here is a list of benevolent freedoms. The freedom to be with our friends, families and communities. The freedom to marry. The freedom to help others. The freedom to be nice. The freedom to share your possessions with others. The freedom to express love, compassion and empathy. The freedom to choose how one wants to contribute to their community. The freedom to choose ones career path. Freedom of art, music, literature and entertainment. Freedom of religion. Freedom of thought, education and learning. Freedom of dress, clothing, hairstyle and appearance.
Here is a list of malevolent freedoms. The freedom to hate, hurt and reject other people. The freedom to abandon your children. The freedom to break someone’s heart. The freedom to abandon your family or friends. The freedom to kill. The freedom to make war. The freedom to be mean. The freedom to be racist, sexist or homophobic. The freedom to commit rape and assault. The freedom to be rich while others are homeless and starving. The freedom to enslave others. The freedom to express hatred. The freedom to lie. The freedom to steal.
Only benevolent freedoms should be allowed. No individual should ever be allowed to have malevolent freedoms. We should create strong, tightly-knit, autonomous, local communities and we do not need to return to the oppressive conditions of the Middle Ages.
While the Western countries, like Canada, United States, Australia and Western Europe, have the highest material standard of living these countries also have the highest level of alienation. Let’s define alienation as loneliness, isolation and atomization. This alienation can be seen in the large number of people living alone, the high divorce rates, the broken communities, the shallow and temporary interpersonal relationships, the high rates of depression, violence, substance abuse and suicide and the geographically scattered networks of friends and families. This alienation can most accurately be described as a highly mobile form of solitary confinement under which the individual is able to move around freely but is often kept in isolation by an invisible barrier between themselves and others. This type of alienation must not be confused with that of inmates who experience the most brutal form of solitary confinement imposed on them by prison authorities which is very damaging psychologically.
Only face to face meetings between members of a local community can guarantee that good decisions are made for the individuals participating in the decision making process. The only form of authority that the individual should be subject to is local authority. Structures of authority that extend beyond the local level cause alienation. National and regional governments have given rise to a moderate degree of alienation. Structures of authority that extend beyond the local community, like national governments, should be abolished. A world government would cause total alienation all over the world. The more people that are under the control of a structure of authority the more each individual is alienated from others. Globalization should be opposed because it leads to world government and total alienation. Globalization, capitalism and individualism cause alienation. This is why the world government that is being created by organizations like the G20, WTO, IMF, World Bank, NATO and the United Nations should be opposed. If these organizations successfully create a world government then alienation will intensify and spread throughout the world like a killer virus. Local authority causes little to no alienation. National and regional governments have caused a moderate level of alienation. World government will cause total alienation.
Written anonymously in 2010. This article can be copied, altered and distributed freely without permission from the author. A translation to other languages is also appropriate.
