What is freedom? By definition, freedom is the exemption from external control, interference, regulation; the power to determine action without restraint. Most people think that an individual possesses freedom and can do whatever the hell pleases them. In order to disprove freedom of the individual, we must disprove the definition of an action existing without determining factors. There are three factors that determine a person’s decision making process:
- Genetics
- Pleasure v. Pain (PVP)
- Environment (Culture, Society, etc.)
Genetics
We are born with inherent traits that we cannot alter. I can’t change how tall I’m going to be nor can I change my eye color. There are also genes that exist which determine our character traits. Although genes cannot be altered, they can develop differently in different settings.
PVP
Pleasure v. Pain s sort of a branch of genetics (since everyone is born with Pleasure v. Pain so to speak). PVP is a very simple concept.
Examples
Picture yourself working at your dream job making 300,000 dollars a year. It would be a no brainer to accept a raise to 500,000 dollars since it’s more pleasurable. Most people that immigrated to the US found it more pleasurable to move to the US since there is a greater amount of “freedom” and less regulation towards religious beliefs, economic status, or the violation of civil liberties in general.
My Point?
In essence, Pleasure v. Pain is a calculation on the part of the individual, of whether or not a certain predicament is worth being experienced. There either exists an immediate pleasure, or a pleasure that is so great, that is worth one’s while to suffer a bit for it (i.e. studying to be a doctor is very hard and stressful, but the amount of money a person is rewarded in the end is what makes it worth their while to study). Pleasure v. Pain is the center of a person’s decision making process, since PVP is influenced by one’s environment and their genetic makeup.
Environment
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PVP—————->Decision
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Genetics
Environment
The environment is one of the key factors to a person’s decision making. A child is imposed with morals or ideals from his or her parents. I only go to school because both my immediate environment (parents, family, friends) as well as the general environment (gov’t regulation and culture) compel me (directly or indirectly) to do so. In essence, the environment compels me to calculate what is more or less pleasurable (see the figure above). For example, I only wear clothes that are within the boundaries of what is acceptable by my environment and/or by my culture. A person will never wear attire from The Middle Ages because it is unacceptable to their environment, nor will they act in a manner that is unacceptable to their environment (i.e. killing, stealing, etc.) unless it is more pleasurable for them to do otherwise. If it is more pleasurable for them to do it otherwise, then there is a different environment or a stronger field of influence working on them (i.e. peer pressure, lack of being noticed, etc.). My way of living, my accent, aspirations, and pretty much my mentality is determined by my environment. I can change my environment, but that doesn’t mean I have free choice because I deem one environment more pleasurable over another and PVP id instilled in me.
Conclusion
It therefore seems as if we live a life filled with an infinite amount of opportunities to freely choose from. However, if we delve deep enough, we can infer that the aspirations for those opportunities (sex, money, power, knowledge, etc.) are instilled within us by the three aforementioned factors.
LOVE
Unlike the word freedom, love is a word that is open to interpretation. People “love” each other for different reasons. Love can mean a feeling of affection, a sexual urge towards a person, and the list goes on. Regardless of how many different ways love can be defined by, most definitions of love have a common motive or reason for being felt. The question is, what is the common motive?
A Little Dialogue
Characters: 1. Mike 2. Daniel
M: Ay yo Danny!
D: What’s up man?
M: Notin’ much chillin, wbu?
D: I’m good, I’m good
M: Danny listen up. I’ve been meaning to tell you something. I’ve been going steady with this girl for a while and I feel like I love her man.
D: Congratulations man , but just one question.
M: Shoot
D: Why do you love her?
M: Huh? What do you mean why? I love her and that’s that! She’s cute, smart funny, nice, everything I can ask for.
D: Listen up man, I can’t tell you what love IS, but what I can tell you is what love ISN’T.
M: You know, you’re a real smart ass, but Ima liste to you cuz I know you like that.
D: Aight man, so first question: What’s your favorite food, that you absolutely LOVE?
M: That’s a no brainer man, Samsa (Russian food)!
D: No doubt, no doubt. Now tell me why.
M: Cuz it tastes da bomb
D: You LOVE it because it pleasures you, because you in some way benefit from it? In this case you get pleasure from its amazing taste, right?
M: Uh…duh
D: Good. Now, I know it’s hard to do, but picture that Samsa tasted like complete garbage, would you LOVE it anymore?
M: No because it wouldn’t pleasure me anymore.
D: So you’ll only love samsa on the condition that you in some way benefit from it, right?
M: Pretty much.
D: Is that what LOVE is? Something or someone you can exploit or use to get pleasure from them?
M: Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your roll. Who said anything about exploiting?
D: No one, but is inherent in most people, to operate in ways that are more pleasurable to them. Most people can never truly think about another’s desires or what they want since they’re too busy thinking about themselves.
M: What’s wrong with that?
D: Have you seen our current global crisis?
M: Bro, you sound like some sort of a psychologist. What have you been reading lately?
D: Well…it’s called —-
M: Um sorry, but that was a rhetorical question. I gotta go.
D: Where are you going?
M: I gotta do some thinking DR. DANNY. You seem to have a point to what you’re saying.
My Point?
In essence, love means fulfillment. Most people operate in a selfish way and love (fulfill) themselves either directly or indirectly. Self fulfillment is not a bad thing, but as the need for self fulfillment grows into more developed desires (i.e. power), so does the need to exploit others, since that would be the only way to fulfill that desire, since not everyone can be a CEO or on top.
In my previous essay entitled “We?”, I explained one method of observing a type of love that is more extroverted. “A human body is comprised of trillions of cells. Each cell has a different task and although it has to maintain its own life, it realizes that in order to create an infinitely higher degree of existence, it must peacefully co-exist with the surrounding cells, meaning that it has to take according to its need and give according to its ability. That infinite higher being is us. Now picture a mutated cell a.k.a. a killer or cancerous cell. It destroys a certain area of the healthy cells in the body (depending on the cancer) and not only does it eventually kill the body, but it dies along with it. You and I are the cancerous cells. I say you, I and not we because currently, you and I want all the pleasure in the world without giving anything to anybody and even if you and I do give, it’s a calculation for self benefit whether it be honor or fame or just plain feeling good; I exploit others through actions that either seem good (charity) or bad (stealing) to others to ultimately satisfy myself without taking into consideration the other. I have either a desire to receive or a desire to give with the intention of self gratification. However, what’s so wrong about pleasing myself? I wanna have a good time partying all night and whatnot, who cares? The problem is not the pleasure but the desire which has evolved so much through time that we have to exploit each other (whether we’re conscious of it or not) to fulfill ourselves (Bernie Madoff, Great Depression, etc). Think about it-we live in a society where happiness is relative, meaning if I have more than you (gpa, money, girls, cars) than I’m happy and if I have less than you, I’m a miserable prick. This is the reason why we’re in a global crisis, because we are selfish in our intentions and nothing can be done if everyone is screwing everyone else over”. We can also look at the love between a mother and her child. The mother and child are connected with such a strong bond, that the happiness of the baby is the mother’s happiness as well.
Love=Freedom?
There is a famous saying that exists that describes an Italian Jew, or otherwise known as a “Pizza-Bagel,” since pizza was invented by the Italians, and bagels by Jews. Unfortunately, I don’t have a saying that correlates love and freedom, but I do have an explanation that does (shocker right?). We can see that at the rate most people are going, that world is on the brink of a collapse. If we don’t start learning the way nature works, then we will constantly exploit each other, hate each other, and consume each other. If we aspire towards achieving similarity with nature’s governing law, then there are no bounds to what we can achieve. Let me stress it to you one more time, there is no such thing as freedom of the individual, but there does exists freedom of the collective and the only real choices we have are choices we make that work above our human nature. If we rise above our nature by working together for one goal, much like how cells in the human body work together to achieve an infinitely higher degree of existence, then we will achieve true LOVE, meaning that I have to understand that by fulfilling what YOU need to achieve equivalence with nature’s governing law, and vice versa (of course not selfishly), my goal of being integral with nature, of being free, and of truly loving and of course being loved will be fulfilled.
