“The world you think you know is not the world that is. There is a man behind the curtain. That’s why the world needs a spark—a flame—something to burn away the curtain, to open the eyes of the common person. As long as our eyes remain closed, we deserve to be in our current positions as servants and slaves.”
—Adam Soto
Part I: Freedom
When analyzing and observing most people in the world, I find that the majority of humanity spends very little time contemplating their own freedom. This is a very serious problem. In fact, one could logically conclude that most of the problems in our world result from a collective inability to understand and defend our freedoms against those who wish to take them.
To understand this better, I’m going to break the world down into three kinds of people. First are those who live intentionally, who have clear cut ideas of who they are, who they want to be, and what goals they wish to achieve, and put all of their energy into making their intentions materialize into reality. In all honesty, these people are rare, though they needn’t be; anyone can become a person of intention if they put their energy there.
Intention can be used for noble or not-so-noble purposes, and it works either way; it’s simply the application of energy toward specific goals (we’ll talk more about this later).
The second kind of people are those who don’t live very intentionally, who don’t have very clear cut ideas of who they are, who they want to be, and what goals they wish to achieve. These people sort of bounce around from here to there, easily swayed by other people, circumstances, trends, and their own whims and fancies. Lacking any clear or deeper purpose, they often seem quite unfulfilled and are frequently disappointed with life in general.
The third kind of people are simply a mixture of the first two, having and achieving some goals, but still swayed at times by other people or their own whims and fancies, and feel somewhat fulfilled by the life they live.
I believe that it is essential to the progress and fulfillment of every human being that we become as free as we can be, living lives of pure intention. We should be free and intentional in the way we think, live, act, and relate to the people and world around us―living, experiencing, and exemplifying freedom in all that we are and all that we do. I believe that it is only when we are living this way that true joy and fulfillment can be experienced―not just momentarily―but on a constant basis.
Freedom―itself―is a type of philosophy. As a philosophy it seeks to permeate all of our thoughts and actions and inform us as to which thoughts and actions truly encapsulate the ideas of freedom.
As free people, we’re not meant to let other people do our thinking for us. We have minds and the ability to reason so that we can think for ourselves.
As free people, we’re not meant to let other people decide how to live our lives for us, granting them the power to make rules and laws for ourselves and our neighbors to follow. We’re meant to decide for ourselves how to live and interact with our fellow man.
As you read further on, please remember that it is through your own philosophical explorations and life applications that truths can be experienced and realized. If I happen to offer something that makes sense to you, test it in your own life; don’t just take my word for it. Only then can you know for yourself whether something is true or not.
Excerpted from Them and Us: A Philosophy of Freedom by Adam Soto
Mind / Purpose / Truth 