When I first sat down to write this blog, I had in mind an idea to look at the concept of ‘freedom’ and describe how crucial it is to develop a full understanding of what it really means in order for you to grasp our passion for the ideas of limited state. I wanted to tell a story of why the economic side of freedom is just one side that people look at and neglect the other, moral side of it. And then I stopped and thought that this would not make much sense unless I take a step back and talk about something even more basic and something that more people can attach to, which is the concept of happiness.
Why happiness? Capitalism and the classical liberalism are often understood as concepts based on greed and gain and economic calculations. I want to make a very bold claim that for me, the importance of liberty is not in the economic growth and development, but rather from the empowerment of each individual and the chance for his/her personal growth. And the first moment that leads to growth of a confident and successful individual is the realisation of what makes that person happy. Recently a friend of mine asked me: “What is happiness? How do you find it?” Of course, here, I don’t intend to give a definite answer, but rather explain why freedom is a crucial concept in one’s personal happiness and why it means so much personally in my life.
Ok, so now to freedom. What kind of freedom do I mean? Of course, as a proponent of free-market capitalism I could be holding on to the strictly materialist / economic version of freedom. And perhaps freedom defined as an absence of violence and coercion is something that is in a way necessary to allow us to find happiness, but it is certainly not sufficient. Happiness comes from being free not merely in the physical sense but in a more intimate, psychological one. This is best explained from one’s personal experience.
When I was a teenager, I got into a mindset that I wanted to be like other people. I regarded myself as a person who ought to follow someone’s example, because the achievement of some pre-defined goals in life, popularity, social life, good looks, partner, would make me happy. As I was not a particularly sociable or popular person, I found myself stuck out of those ideals and thus in a state of unhappiness, because I was not “like them”. I was a pretty nerdy person, who spent most time with studies and very little with social life of any form. Associated with this “lifestyle” of mine was the feeling of bitterness that stemmed from personal envy towards people who had all the things that I desperately wanted, thus putting myself into a state of perpetual unhappiness.
However, when I slowly started reaching those “goals” after high-school, I realised that these supposed “goals” in life that I considered the root to happiness, weren’t goals of my own but goals of other people that were supposed to make them happy. I tried to belong among my friends because I felt the need to conform or to belong into a group of people so that I would feel accepted and popular with them. This mentality, I believe grows from the search for identity, to find something that defines us and gives us the feeling of self-worth.The problem is that in these boldly defined goals most people don’t find happiness, but rather a position of constant pretence to be someone they are not. They don’t feel happy or maybe for a short period of them they do, because these goals make people feel good and bring them pleasure.
Nevertheless, after a while people feel stuck in something that does not feel particularly fulfilling yet they can’t let go of it. Why? For one, the society has a very cruel way of treating individuals who “don’t belong to the pack”, because they challenge that which most people take comfort in. One of my tutors once said that a liberal society always needs to display its hatred and negativity onto a group that stands outside in order to upkeep an image of inner peacefulness. This shows in the way it treats people who stand outside, the unpopular kind of people, which are often the victims of harassment and ridicule, so that the inner circle of people can have the feeling of self-confidence, identity and peacefulness. However, this supposed peace hides volumes of inner coercion and bullying, pushing most of its members into a life-style that mimicking others because they don’t know what to long after. They never properly discovered themselves, or developed in a way to help them know who they are, because what they were doing was the result of societal expectations, but not of their own choice.
In order to get out of this circle, one has to discover the feeling of giving up on these societal expectations (whichever form they take – conservative, liberal) and discover the feeling of mental freedom, which empowers the individual to discover his/her paths to happiness. It is about being prepared to take a step outside the social expectations to learn for oneself and take the adventure of being different, or being weird. There is a drawback to this, coming in form of bullying, disapproval, or disrespect. This does hurt and may often discourage you, but don’t give up. Challenge yourself, challenge others to be free, in the most important sense of all, the free in thoughts, desires and personality. Those who care about you and are your friends will stay with you, respect you and encourage you. The more honest you are towards them, the more they may understand you and reciprocate with a similar form of trust. Those who do not will never understand unless they choose the same path.
Why all this in a blog on freedom? Well, as my friend said in the example of Ayn Rand’s novels, which influenced me a lot in my thinking, maybe not as a kick-starter but as a definite influence, Howard Roark and other Rand’s heroes decided on a precisely this path in life, being hated, scorned because they pointed at the ways the system works and refused to compromise their ideals in their pursuit of happiness. They stuck by their principles even if it meant being cast out by others who felt protected by the conformity. And perhaps there is one more reason, my personal experience in spreading the ideals of freedom. Whenever I started discussing the ideas of capitalism, most of the criticisms against me were not challenging my arguments, but my morality, I was told that I was evil, selfish, immoral, intolerant, uncaring and even bigoted to support the minimal state. This was the greatest challenge that I was facing and this challenge I want to look into in my future blog. The main point of this blog was to encourage you to release you inner self and become happy with who you are, empowered to take the steps to make you happy. That’s one thing that others can’t do for you so you have to do it for yourself.
Martin Reguli