I must admit to finding it bemusing and slightly amusing that so many people believe they are free when they are in fact slaves... Whether they be slaves to a job in order to earn money to feed themselves, or slaves to consumerism, slaves to fashion, slaves to expectations... All dreamed up by "society", of course. We're all controlled and manipulated on a daily basis, some more than others, and the vast majority of us are anything but "free".
We're all dependent on things. Oxygen, water, warmth and nutrition being the main ones for most us mammals. I guess as such we're all slaves to our own maintenance and survival.
The only thing that changes is how we obtain those tools for maintenance. Oxygen is free, warmth is free-ish depending on where you live, that leaves food and drink which are not free. And that right there is the bottle neck of modern living. At first we traded services directly, or for material/practical valuables. And the value of these items were quite loose. It was a organic system if you will.
But then they came up with money. And money, when you think about it, is nothing but a coupon. A universally spendable coupon. It's really rather lazy when think about it. And people tend to forget- or even not know, that. And it's so intertwined with life now that you'd almost forget that it's a unnatural human invention. A system that is so machine like and anal that if you're a few increments short in amount, services won't be provided any more. Try getting a carton of milk when you're mere cents short, chances are high you won't be able to buy the milk at all.
Everything is about obtaining the exact right amount of money (or more), without any flexibility or sway to it. It's a very unnatural and inorganic system, that is incidentally also one of the most important ones in modern life.
That's without even mentioning all the permits you need for essentially natural things. There's no such thing as uninhabited freedom, there is however choice in the matter. Natural and organic systems (off the grid, dangerous but independent (mostly)), or precise and inflexible systems (Easy relatively, but with tons and tons of restrictions and conditions).
I'd prefer the natural and organic systems myself, but those unfortunately not available to me. Which is another subject that grinds my gears. But I'll spare you that one..
erfect: Is he an older or younger brother?
