Freedom = I will

I once read a science fiction story which had as a philosophical base the idea that the essence of liberty is the right of refusal. It was expressed as Freedom =I Won’t (FIW). This freedom expressed in the negative is the ability to avoid or resist external coercive force. In the story a great power was defeated by a much smaller number using the rule, FIW. The great power could destroy but could not subjugate the small but free indigenous population. The locals faced weapons and orders with simple laughter and went about their business with no regard for the nonplussed forces sent to subdue them. The mighty invader, used to being taken seriously, could not formulate an answer to a population that simply refused to respond.

FIW, works as an answer to external tyrants but what about the internal type? It is a given that people act and their actions have motivations. No one is free to do nothing at all. Every action answers some motive. The motive could be elemental as hunger or troublesome as pride but, no one starts free of self.

Freedom from the internal tyrant is the first and only kind of freedom worth having. Consider the life of someone dragged about by every attachment, controlled by every lust, trapped by pride. With no external master he is still very much in servitude to the vilest, most capricious master possible, his own self. The external result may be less or more acceptable, addictions, imprisonments, wealth, intellectual attainments; still all are only window dressing for a life led without restraint. It is a life filled with frustration caused by inability to say no to the internal tyrant.

This terrible condition is the commonest lot of men and its description is a mirror we daily peer into. We are intimately familiar with the face of slavery since it is our own visage. Attempts to deform, deface, and erase the terror of this image drives many actions and is the cause of much suffering. What is the alternative? What is the picture of one who can bring FIW into the darkest recesses of his own psyche? Who can deny himself?

It would be easier to sit in a bucket and lift oneself over the moon by the handle than to pull oneself, by dint of will, out of oneself. What is required is an outside agency. Someone Else, someone who is free in himself and of himself, someone who can lead the way, is necessary to begin the process.

Tyrants never leave of their own accord. Usually they must be killed. This remains true for the internal tyrant. It is also true that a vacuum of power never lasts long. The tyrant’s place must be filled. New motives must replace old ones. The Someone Else must attain the throne because only one who is free and has freedom can give it to another. A new freedom emerges, the freedom of fealty. Unconditional freedom is found in unconditional commitment.

Once the internal tyrant is overthrown and the only revolution that ever counts complete, one is free to say ‘I won’t’ to any remnants of the old tyrant. It can be an arduous process learning to reject the old way and embrace the new freedom. We can be certain of ultimate success because the dead have no power over the living. The Free One who alone can grant us precious freedom has promised to never forsake those who belong to him.