What is Slavery and Freedom?
Daily Meditation #132— 7/4/2022
You are living in a delusion that you are free. Or are delusional believing you know how to be freer.
You believe if you don’t have to work you are free.
You think that “doing whatever I want” makes you free.
But, this is foolish thinking.
Freedom isn’t being able to do anything you want.
It isn’t having infinite free time.
Per se.
These things are how we enslave ourselves.
Having no work — no career, no mowing the lawn, no children, no bills, no responsibilities — is not freedom. It’s a treacherous road to enslavement by lack of duties.
Having unlimited time isn’t freedom. It, too, is a tumultuous path to enslavement by boredom.
Lacking discipline and responsibilities are total enslavement.
It is when we find meaning that we are free.
Meaning is found in pursuing healthy eating and movement of the body.
Meaning is found in pursuing spiritual balance.
Meaning is found in pursuing mutually beneficial and enriching relationships.
Meaning is found in pursuing financial prudence and stability.
All of these things are the narrow and steep road of Eudaimonia that we tread.
Freedom is essential, this is true.
But freedom must be tempered with incessant gratitude.
Without gratitude for freedom and all that we possess, apathy and entitlement creep into our lives, poisoning our perception.
In what way can you better find meaning today to be freer from yourself?
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
