Freedom: What have we surrendered?

Are you free? Free to do what? Freedom is such an interesting concept. Of course none of us is fully free. We agree to abide in community. I choose to give up some of my freedom to live with my spouse, to raise children, to be part of my community. Living alone would limit my freedoms as well. I wonder what freedom means.

In the USA we are taught that we are free and we are taught to value this freedom as defined by the state. The story of our freedom is indoctrinated into our bones and mind from the moment we begin school. At the same time that our freedoms become limited we are culturated and brainwashed, trained to live in community according to the laws of the land. We relinquish our freedoms to make our parents happy, to make our teachers happy, and to live a little easier as a result. We trade our freedom for love and acknowlegdement. We discover that choosing not to fight the system allows us other freedoms.

Over my lifetime, we have continued surrendered our freedom to commercial interests and corporations. We have accepted the notion that freedom to purchase is freedom. We allow marketers into our homes on the television, in magazines and newspapers, in the mail and on the web. We invite them in to tell us what the latest thing is that will make us happy. We invite them in to tell us how we should look and how our friends should look. We allow them to seep into every crevice of our lives. We have surrendered our freedom to commercial interests.

I have two elementary school aged children. The schools are hard pressed for funds. In exchange for the financial support of the corporations, we have allowed the schools to become sales areas, where Pepsi and Coca-Cola can begin to vie for the long term consumer loyalty of our children. Marketers know that if I child is raised drinking Pepsi, she will probably drink Pepsi for life. I hope conversely, that if my child is raised eating local produce and drinking water, that he will eat and drink local for life. The big fall fundraiser at my children's school is a Reader's Digest sponsored sale's drive. The children are encouraged to sell magazines, gift wrap, various chotskys, and cheap waxy chocolates. We looked through the catalogs, there was not a single item in them that I would want in my home. The magazines in the catalog be better called advertisement catalogs themselves, as their purpose is to sell their advertisers products not to inform. The children were hyped and enticed into becomeing Reader's Digest salespeople with promises of exciting prizes. This was the drug pusher at work. The drug pusher of our the American addiction to consumption convincing our children that they will be happier if only they have the prize of the day. How many of us continue our lives this way, willing to sacrifice our daily freedom to the dream of consumption, to the dream of the fancier car, nicer clothing, a more beautiful mate. How many of us continue to sacrifice our freedom to play, to love, and to just be? How many of us sacrifice our true freedom to be ourselves in exchange for the American Ideal of Wealth and Stuff-driven Happiness. How many of us still believe that the one who dies with the most toys wins?