The typical debate on Freedom is whether or not Freedom is the ability to do what you want versus the ability to do what you ought.

To do what you want means you are free to do whatever pleases you, even if it results in disastrous ends for you and those around you.

To do what you ought means you are not restricted in doing what is in your best interests.

There is a distinction in these two. I will attempt to describe them here.

Feudal Farmer Analogy

Let's say you are a farmer. You own land. There is a provincial King who oversees the land.

You farm wheat, so you go out into your field and plant wheat. Harvest time comes along, and the King's vassal comes by and demands you offer up 10% of your harvest to the King so he may wages his wars and watch over the land to fight off raiders.

Are you free?

Well, what if you refuse? The King's vassal comes back and burns your house down, slaughters your family, and takes your yearly harvest. Who will stop him?

No... In this case, you are not free. Your serfdom is nothing more slavery, regardless of what deeds on the land you hold. Whether it is raiders or the vassal -- your access to your own productivity is held at the point of a sword.

So long as there is another with a sword and the ill intent to use it to take what you have worked to obtain, you are not free.

The only path to True Freedom is to take up the sword yourself. Sword in one hand and plow in the other... Your First Right under God is to say "fuck off" when someone demands you give them what you alone toiled to possess. Your Second Right when they ignore your warning is to fight for your children.

Make no mistake; your crops, your house, your land, your family... They are all your children. You gave birth or adopted them. You tend to them and nurture them. You alone are responsible for their prosperity as well as their ruin.

And that's the most important part. That's the distinction I wish to address.

Expounding on the Analogy

Let's say the King's vassal comes by and instead of demanding 10% of your crops to fill his coffers, he demands you scuttle 10% of your crops. Just flood or burn them, so long as they are culled. His reasoning is that if you produce too much, you become too great a target for raiders and will thin the King's ability to protect the land.

Are you free?

Regardless of the intent, handing over 10% versus scuttling 10%, you lose 10% of your labor in the name of "security."

Therefore, we must address the reality of Freedom -- that it is not negotiable. It's either all or none.

However, while you may be Free to refuse by using your Sword, you cannot escape the Responsibility.

You cannot escape the Consequences of your Freedom.

If you refuse, you become a target, just as the vassal claims. Raiders will come, and the King will not be able to protect you. You must protect yourself.

The Sour Taste of Freedom

When you are Truly Free, you are free to fail.

Only you are there to harvest your crops. Only you are around to plant them. Only you are around to defend them, nurture them.

There is no King's vassal to come by and demand or whip you into farming so that they may get the 10%. You will receive 100% of the fruits of your labor. Only you are are there to push yourself to act and sustain yourself.

There is no grand Country to serve, no national pride to prop up.

Only you and your Family.

Not everyone can survive in True Freedom. They need some sense of fulfillment greater than just survival. They need someone, something to serve and give them a sense of grandeur and pride in their work -- that their work has supported in some way the movement of mountains.

We understand this as the need for social interaction. We need a sense of fulfillment outside of just working for ourselves or our immediate family. We need some satisfaction in advancing the state of Human Civilization and inching ever so closer to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

Absolute Freedom is unfortunately not enough to entice most people to pursue greatness for greatness' sake. They need some proof that they are helping.

That is why Social Media today is so powerful of a control measure. They convince people that if they support the "Current Thing", they are working towards some grand "Progress" towards the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, be it a counterfeit or otherwise.

This is all because they wish to avoid the Consequences. Heaven on Earth, in their mind, is Freedom from Consequence, not Freedom to Act.

Freedom to Fail

Freedom to Act also entails Freedom to Fail. If you don't plant your crops, you will not be able to harvest those crops, and you will not be able to eat. You will die.

Those are the harsh Consequences of Freedom.

The Security that comes from being a Slave offers you an illusory path to avoid those consequences. "If I fail, it's the King's fault."

The King says he will take upon himself the weight of your failures -- failures to defend yourself from raiders and the failure of you not having the self-determination to farm just to survive. In exchange, he ensures you WILL FARM, or else...

In reality, the King inches death closer to you in order to force you to act. Either you choose death today by his hand for not farming, or death by starvation after a season passes with no work done to sustain yourself.

By moving death closer to your doorstep, the King forces your hand.

This is not True Freedom.

The Founding Fathers knew this inevitable nature of Man. That is why it is understood a Government must exist, for now. That Social Contracts are necessary to move the hands of the crestfallen and least ambitious among us to act if only to survive.

The reality is that not everyone can be a leader. Not everyone is willing to succeed at all costs. Far too many will fall short. Far too many refuse to wield the Sword in one hand the the Plow in the other. For that reason, it is regretful, that many will demand a King to bring death to their own door such that they may act with urgency to avoid that immediate death.

They will sacrifice Freedom for a shred of Security at the feet of Tyrants.

The Path to Freedom

You may recognize that something is being left out of this equation...

Where is God in all this?

Ah... There's the ultimate point to this discussion.

Freedom without God is doomed to Fail.

Humans are flawed. We will often act against our own best interests. We will often make decisions which are short-sighted and prioritize pleasure and comfort over the humble, straight and narrow path.

We will create False Idols to take away the consequences of our own inaction. We offer up our failures, our sins, to these False Idols and summarily give them power over us -- power to whip us so that we may act in our own self interests, so long as they coincide with theirs.

Security in exchange for our Freedom, under the illusion of escaping the responsibility and consequence of our actions and inactions.

Our desire to act blinds our reasons for acting... Our desire to feel included is a mask for wanting to avoid consequence.

Therefore, as we sin we justify our collective worship of these False Idols. As we sin we say "You see, we must have a King among us to keep us in bondage. We must give up our own power, our own agency, so that we may not use it for ill! We cannot trust our selves to act in our own best interests, so we must offer up our Self to those powerful among us who can bear it."

And so, we invent gods of War, Pleasure, Harvest, Debauchery, Pride, etc.

All to offer up our sins and give them Purpose and Reason for being worshipped. We feed the beasts who hate us... Who despise us for being so weak...

There is, however, hope. There is, however, a God among these which breaks this cycle of self-flagellation.

Love.

Love is acting in the best interest of the other.

As we live on our little homesteads looking for a greater reason for being; a greater passion to pursue so that we may toil another day with purpose, we have only one path which does not lead to our Agency and Freedom being offered up to Tyrants and False Idols:

Working on behalf of the other.

I offer my Self up not to False Idols for safekeeping, but to you, my brothers and sisters. I offer up my Failures to this God of Love and to those who Love me will bear it just as I bear their Failures out of Love for them.

Instead of the Tyrant wielding Consequence over our heads at the threat of death, Love permits us to move forward with nothing more than the genuine welfare of another.

The Servant of All

A Tyrant acting fully in the interest of Others before the Self has no need of the Self, and is a Tyrant no longer. A Servant to all demands nothing but a People to Serve -- that alone is enough to justify their own existence.

God is that Servant of All. The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; the Genuine Article.

A God of Love is the only way to break the Spell of False Idols. They seek to take our Sins to empower themselves by saying "sin all you please, we will bear the weight so long as you give us your Self, your power and agency in Bondage."

The God of Love, instead, says "let me bear the weight of your sins, so that your Self is Free to Serve as I have Served you."

The Sacrifice is the Symbol of Love, and we will Know the True God only by this Crest alone. Only this God offers up Freedom to Fail, which is True Freedom.

This God will not force you to plant or to reap. He will, instead, hand you the Sword and the Plow both and say "go forth and bear great fruit in my name."

If you choose to do so, this God of Love will ensure your love will sprout large and sturdy stalks. What else might we expect when we love our field as one of our own children? If you choose not to do these things, then this God of Love will allow you to fail and perish. He will not force your hand to act, and he will not threaten you with death even in your best interests. He will not be a Tyrant who takes away your own agency, even if that means he must weep as you kill yourself.

He is the God who will let you reach into the fire if you choose to. He will advise you not to, but not swat your hand away. This is True Freedom, and there is a cost for those foolish enough to test its limits. Getting burned is the Consequence.

But he will always be there, to apply ointment to your wounds and carry you to a safe place once you fail.

So, it is with an emboldened heart that I say:

"Offer up your failures to God"

Other False Idols want your Sins as an offering so that they may justify their rule over you. Instead, offer up your Failures, Shortcomings and Weaknesses to the God of Love, and his Love will shine forth as a True Freedom to Act.

Fear of failure is the song of Tyrants and Slaves.

When you Fail, don't cower and hide it in shame. Instead offer it up to God by Serving your fellow Man. Where you are weak, give that weakness to your neighbor to support. Where you are strong, lend your strength to where another is weak.

My Strength absolves your Weakness. Your Strength absolves my Weakness.

Be transparent and say to you neighbor "these are my sins, and I cannot bear them alone. Alone I am not perfect, but together True Perfection is there among us in Love"

That is the Christ. That is the Person of Jesus who bears all our Sins. The mindset of one who says such things freely is the Servant of All, and is God Incarnate.

Together, we are strong in spite of our Failures. Together, our Strengths overpower our Weaknesses.

Only together, working to Serve our fellow Man by offering up our Failures such that others may bear them and offering up our Strengths such that we may bear another's Failures, might we put to rest the False Idol of Tyranny -- the Fallacy of Security in exchange for Freedom.

Only then will True Freedom Ring. A Freedom to Fail, as well as to Succeed in Glory of the God of Love.