Freedom, Free-will, Thinking, and Dreams

I believe that thinking and freedom go hand in hand.  And, connected to both is the concept of hope.

Freedom requires free will, and free will involves asking questions, especially “why?” whereas those without freedom, without free will, have no need to ask questions because they merely accept what is and what will be as a given over which they have no control.  Those with free will have hope, because they know that they have the ability to make their own decisions and act in a way that they have chosen with intent of good outcomes for themselves or others; they have the power to act towards outcomes they choose.  Those without free will do not have this power and hence are left with hopelessness.

Thinking is a necessary part of free will.  If one is free to take actions that determine how one lives, then one must be able to understand the results of the various actions available.  One must be able to ask questions that allow an assessment of the various courses of action possible and the likely consequences of those actions.  That also means that one must be able to understand the answers to those questions and how they relate to the many aspects of one’s life and environment and the world in which one lives.  Again, if one has no free will, no choice, then there is no need to ask those questions or have that understanding because they are totally useless to one when all such choices are made by others.

In the political world there were many people during the last eight years who felt hopeless.  These were the many forgotten Americans who believed that Washington was creating rule after rule that put them in a position without choices, a position where they were left only to accept that which was happening to them and their country, but had no ability – no freedom – to change things.  They were hopeless.  Many of these people voted for President Trump in perhaps their last gasp of hope that things would change and the government would no longer fully control their lives.

But I think there is perhaps an even greater hopelessness in the Democrats.  The rank and file who have supported the Democrat agenda over the last several years seem to be in fear that if the government does not fully care for them, making all their decisions and providing all their needs, that they will not be able to survive.  They have given up or are willing to give up their free will to the government.  This may or may not be a conscious choice; it may be their last act of free will.  But, in the end, it must certainly leave them without hope, without the dreams and the self-esteem that come with a knowing realization that one has control over their own life.

It is this sort of hopelessness that allows governments to become overpowering, perhaps totalitarian, perhaps dictatorial.  And, such governments leave the people ever more hopeless as the leaders ride that hopelessness to ever greater forms of power.  The antidote for this is not more government.  The antidote for this is education; an education that demands that students ask questions and think; not an education that tells students what to think, but one that opens possibilities by teaching them not only how to think, but also that yes, they can think - for themselves.

We do not see this sort of critical thinking today.  Rather we see people blindly following what they are told.  In the political arena we have people simply accepting the voice of their party’s leader.  No questions are asked: not to evaluate the stance of the leader, not to determine if following that stance is the action that one wants to or should take, not to make a free choice to take that stance or to choose another course on a particular issue.  Just look at the typical votes in Congress – all Democrats voting one way, all Republicans the other.  No thinking, just accepting.  Look at the voters who vote for one candidate or another simply because they have the word Republican or Democrat attached to their name.  No evaluation of the particular candidate, no thinking, just accepting.  Sleepwalking.

But this sleepwalking, this accepting, this lack of thinking, in the end cannot lead to anything other than nightmares as it destroys the hopes and dreams of free-thinking people.