Do You Wish You Were Free? Really free?

"Wish I Was Free" cartoon by nakedpastor David Hayward This trapped fish in a small bowl looks at a trapped fish in a larger bowl and thinks the fish in the larger bowl is free. The fish in the larger bowl probably knows by now that their freedoms are relative. There's a difference between freedoms. "We can go on making our small choices, ‘reinventing ourselves' thoroughly, on condition that these choices do not seriously disturb the social and ideological balance" (Zizek). There is "formal freedom" and there is "actual freedom". Formal freedom is when we are permitted to make choices within a given system or ideology. Actual freedom is when we question the very structure that grants us formal freedom to the point of undermining its power over us altogether. Have you looked back from your new perceived freedom to earlier perceived freedoms, only to realize you weren't really as free as you thought? Yes, me too. But then you got a glimpse of true freedom. Actual freedom! Perhaps, like me, you became tired of working within the system, constantly tweaking and reinventing and renovating it, because you eventually realized that we've already been doing that forever without any substantial change. Perhaps, like me, you realized that you wanted real freedom, authentic freedom, actual freedom, and that the only way to do that was to throw the whole system into question by leaving it. Perhaps, like me, your departure from the system was a testimony to your family and friends and the system you left that you believe it had failed and would continue to fail to create the culture of actual freedom. (*** Join others who have created the disturbances in their lives to let their freedom happen, at The Lasting Supper. I'll personal welcome you.)