Circus Maximus
I’ve been thinking about the concept of freedom.
How do I define freedom? What does it truly mean to be free? How can I pursue greater degrees of freedom?
I’ve long known what freedom is not. Freedom isn’t hedonism, it isn’t selfishness - it isn’t pride, vanity, greed, or lust. It isn’t fear; fear is often a form of hubris.
Each of these paths, of fruitless desires and self-centeredness, promises liberation while slowly stripping us to the bone. It always leaves us thirsting and in pain, when the magnetism ceases; the catharsis that we seek inevitably ends in some form of disappointment or misery.
Soon thereafter, another longing takes its place – for comfort, or recognition, or attainment, or revenge – and the cycle continues. Maybe next time we’ll find what we’re looking for.
We always find something, but it’s never the truth.
I’ve started to recognize freedom as something that is synonymous with personal agency and striving towards truth – to be further removed from the pendulum of desires and closer aligned with what is unchanging. To begin to see situations more for what they are, and less for what I want them to be.
I’ve come to believe that “external” freedom is devalued when gripped by untold influences. Our perceptions are distorted by what we “want” to see or experience - by how we’ve been conditioned.
“You’re free! Free to pursue what other people tell you to want, while doing what other people tell you to do, while believing what other people have told you to believe! Aren’t you grateful? You’re even free to ‘speak your truth!’ Just don’t speak a truth that’s too truthful.”
The perceived security offered by the “easy path,” by group-identity and conformity, often fades to a melancholic gray.
I spend time around people from many walks of life. Athletes, yogis, fighters, academics, artists, soldiers, tradesmen, writers, and other sorts – young and old. One trait that many share is a desire to seek higher degrees of personal freedom and truth. This desire gradually supersedes the lesser ones – comfort, security, and the like.
Many of these individuals believe that the state of our culture, and the world, appears to be bleak. Lies have seemingly usurped the place of truth, while disorder is on the rise. What is ugly is paraded as beautiful; what is patently false is lauded as infallible; institutions are declining in real-time.
We’re watching it burn, as the fiddle plays on.
It seems that many of us are faced with a choice. Do we choose to seek refuge in the same systems, cycles, and processes that have routinely failed us? Do we place our faith in the same ill-intentioned men who continue to lie to us – or do we place our faith elsewhere?
When the world is a circus act, maybe we should stop buying tickets.
Stop placing your attention on desires, ideas, and people that continue to fail you.
Stop placing your faith in liars, cowards, and conmen.
Stop allowing them access to your inner condition; your attention is the gateway.
That’s how you reclaim personal agency; that’s how you pursue greater degrees of freedom.
You reclaim your attention.
You can’t change the world – I can’t either. But we can control our attitude and our attention. Focus on what is true, vital, beautiful, pure, and noble. Seek to love, understand, serve, and act courageously.
And stop buying a ticket to the circus.
