Hello Quercus, with reference to your last post, above, I am willing to expand further on this. In general terms, people are not free. They believe themselves to be free but in reality they are not. This is because they are on treadmills of diffeent sorts, some of their own making, others not. Within a structure of what we call a free society there are some individual and collective freedoms but not complete freedoms in the true sense of the word.
This is because people have what we call obligations. In large measure this means holding down a job, pursuing a career, having a practice, or a clinic,or an office, or a workshop, or a shop, or a factory, or a boutique, or a salon, or a cash and carry or a duty of some sort that is systematic, governed by the calendar and the clock. In many cases there are added restrictions, such as being governed by a set of rules and regulations, operating according to duty rosters, timtables, work shifts.
Additionally they may be doing something they dislike, even hate, in an environment that clashes with their dispositions, they may feel unfulfilled, undervalued, taken for granted, overworked and underpaid.
All this without bringing into consideration the human element which is having to work for a boss, who they might even resent or dislike. And, in all of this misery there is a pecking order with its unspoken bully rules, unfairness, abuse of priviledge, ageism, sexism, and other subcurrents of corrosive cruelty.
This is because the membership fee of a democratic and capitalist system is often viewed in this way by its participants who are on these treadmills. These treadmills are the dynamos that keep the engine of growth going. People have to subscribe, and sometimes even compete for a place on these treadmills.
They are not free, they may erroneously percieve themselves in part to be free, but they are not totally free in the true sense of the word as they are not allowed to be in complete control of their time, effort and rewards, and what is more important choice and use of free time at will.
I find it amazing that when given the opportunity to progress, some elements turn disruptive when this is the opposite of what it is they should be doing, they become impatient when they should be patient and diligent, and they are pointedly rude when in fact they should be extremely grateful and polite. I could carry on at length on the inabilities of the herd, who are their own worst enemies, but my interest lies with those who are able to recognise what it is they do not want and consequently arrive at what they do want and are prepared to be constructive, that is, to adopt a constructivist attitude towards attaining their own independence and freedom and not a destructivist attitude towards enslaving others not only to the treadmill but to their own low targets of low self esteem, bad behaviour, and ignorance.
