We live in a world where the concepts freedom and freedom of speech and expression get thrown about fairly often. Everyone wants to do what they want to do, have what they want to have and, especially with the younger generation, taking instruction isn't something people tend to do very well. And yet...
...We largely live in a cookie-cutter society where one follows the other, too programmed or afraid to break out and have an individual thought or action. Society is lead by the collar by marketers, governments and corporations into spending habits that often exceed their means, and into behaviours designed around a consumerist ethos. Society are slaves - Willing slaves.
An example may be the billion-dollar mobile phone industry...Or should I say mobile camera industry as that's what mobile phones are pitched as these days. A phone company says there's a new one coming and everyone suddenly wants a new phone so badly so they're not stuck with the old one (often only 12 months old) and ostracised by society for having it. It's a simple formula; They say. People do...But not all people.
Last week I wrote a post about a method, and products, I use to perform a particular task - Cleaning spent brass ammunition cases for reloading. One of my steem-friends, also a shooter, commented and questioned the method and products I used. The user, the esteemed @ksteem, was keen to get a greater understanding about it all with the view to possibly using the same method for himself. We talked about it a little and I gave him my opinion, based on first-hand experience, and I found myself extolling my way and being not so keen on his proposed way which, as it turns out, I have already tried and discarded as not for me. src
You can find my original post here.
Today ksteem wrote a blog about how, after consultation with me and some further thought based around his needs and requirements, went in exactly the opposite direction to what I suggested he go - And you know what? I dig it! Good on you man! You can see the @ksteem post here.
I'm not going to talk about the actual cleaning process here but his decision to go that way sort of made me feel good and I wanted to say so - Society doesn't seem to have a lot of individual thought and I was pleased to see it deployed.
You see, what is right for one may not be right for the other and having the ability to determine the right of a thing for oneself is something I believe many cannot do these days, or will not - They simply go along with the flock afraid to be seen apart from it. Whilst there maybe some comfort in that, it doesn't always mean that the flock, lets' call them sheeple, are on the right path - Certainly when you're concerned...Or me, or ksteem for that matter. We all have different needs, expectations and requirements right? You'd think so anyway.
Have people lost the ability for individual thought based on their own needs? I don't know. I certainly believe that many simply play along with the popular purchase, mindset or decision for social reasons - Fear of not fitting in, of being ridiculed or singled out. It's sort of pathetic really. Pathetic that many, many people have attached their feeling of self worth or value to material things and decisions that flow in the socially-acceptable direction rather than think for themselves.
An example may be someone who voted for a head of state but is afraid to announce it as general [media] consensus is that that head of state is bad. Or maybe a person who does not believe in there being more than two genders but who plays along anyway for fear of reprisal from those who do...Individual thought seems to be something of a dinosaur these days, or certainly becoming a dinosaur along with freedom of speech and expression. [And manners, courtesy, generosity, ownership and responsibility.]
I applaud ksteem for determining what he feels to be the right course of action for him based on him and not on my needs and thoughts, influences or opinions. He listened to me of course, even agreed, however he went away weighed, measured and balanced it out against what I'd said and our discussions and then went his way.
Good freedoming bro!
I hope the method and equipment he selected works to his requirements and standards...It didn't for me which is why my sonic cleaner sits in my workshop unused except for when my wife's jewellery and a few assorted gun parts need a clean. I ended up buying twice, the sonic-rig then the eventual set up I use now as outlined in the post above. Like ksteem I made a decision based on me and my needs.
Freedom of speech and expression or simply "freedom" isn't just a catch-phrase. For many it has meant the ability to live a better life; The chance at one. We have it now generally, freedom I mean. We have it for various reasons which are usually because people who believed in it wholeheartedly went after it - Wars are only one example of this. Hate war? OK, that's your choice and I'm glad you made one...But the hundreds and thousands of slaves freed through war over the years may disagree, same as those who managed to become liberated from the Nazi death camps, by soldiers who fought their way from Normandy to those death camps.
Millions have been denied freedom over time, and here society is willingly shackling itself to the chains of consumerism - To stay plugged into the Matrix.
Freedom is hard-won, meaning it's not something that just happens. We have it, most of us, and yet we waste it also, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Society may not be bounded by razor-wire, mine-fields, walls, bars, chains and "ownership papers" but society still willingly gives up their freedom for material things. But not ksteem...He freedoms like a boss.
Good on you mate and I really hope the sonic works out.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default (and freedom like a boss)