Too Much Freedom Creates Too Much Loss

Extracted from “Look Twice At The River” © John A Allan 2012

Too Much Freedom Creates Too Much Loss

Science has created and continues to create amazing, modern marvels and yet society craves economic security, social morals, virtue, and happiness. We have a certainty of what constructs the universe and yet many among us have difficulty constructing their lives. Modern warfare is the most destructive force known to human kind and yet armies mass on territorial borders every day, awaiting the electronic order to attack and unleash their awful might. The death of millions and the destruction of centuries old culture occur for the sake of some anonymous, ego driven and perhaps childish insult.

Lessons Of History

Modern medicine has overcome the scourges of a hundred years ago and diseases such as cholera and typhus and even tuberculosis is so rare as to say they do not exist. And yet it is not these ancient ills that killed so many, that appear to be today’s society’s problem, but the simple ills of infection. The golden bullet of the twentieth century, in the form of antibiotics has created super bacterium in the twenty first century. Disease in modern society threatens to repeat the history of the nineteenth century. History repeats and the society that does not learn from its history is doomed to repeat it. Modern society is committing the same mistakes as all of antiquity. The life we have created threatens to become impossible to sustain.
We are experiencing today, a withering of society, where church and religious organisations seek the state to assist the poor, the hungry and to house the homeless, rather than assisting those people themselves. There is a loss of virtue in today’s society which values self-absorption above all else. With the loss of societal virtue, there is a loss of tradition, historically given by the churches, who now scramble to be modern and with that modernity, place value upon the dollar before the value upon their parishioners. Loss of tradition means loss of friendship, of community and social cohesiveness and a loss of honesty, truth, and courage.

The Gatekeepers Of Morals

Society’s leaders cry out for responsibility and yet the gatekeepers of that society’s morals refuse their own responsibility for fear of the cost as they side step law suits and fabricate lies, designed to fool the gullible, but in fact, fooling no one but themselves. Who are the modern gatekeepers of society’s morals when the churches, those traditional and archetypal founders of virtuous life, pretend that nothing is wrong on their sinking ship?
The increase in patriotism, seen in many western countries, is a symbol of the transfer of religious belief and practice, from church to state. For many years, attendances of the Christian churches, dropped almost weekly, as their flock became disillusioned with their performances and attempts to modernise their approach. Little did the organised religions realise, that people ached for the tradition and values that were being deleted in the pursuit of modernism. As the churches lost their influence, the state increased its influence through fear based politics and manipulation of the media. Runaway self-absorption has been the result and it comes from the loss of wisdom traditions and the loss of religious traditions and values. As we lose the relationship to God, planet, and each other, we increase self-absorption that shows itself in individualistic behaviours. Traditions, family, community, and civil society become lost and as that occurs, individualism becomes apparent. Society needs to value its individuals and individuals need to value their society. There has been a loss of virtue and values and an increase in self-interest. With the loss of virtue and values comes a loss of traditions that include those of family community and social cohesiveness. This begins a stepping away from the common good in modern society creating a disparity between hope on the one side and fear on the other.

Loss Of Tradition

With the loss of the traditional churches and their own self-absorption, society lacks a moral compass, historically provided by them. The churches used to be the gate-keepers of society’s morals. When these traditional institutions fail, a vacuum arises and another institution comes to fill the gap. Nature abhors a vacuum. Today’s society has been awarded their moral compass by the financial institutions and powerful corporations, who follow their own agenda. Governments attempt to pick up the slack and between the three, the spin flows completely out of hand.

Anything that is too powerful is a threat to freedom. Too much government and the leaders succumb to the mentality of oligarchies resulting in restrictive legislation impacting on freedoms and aggressive stances with perceived enemies. While restricting personal freedoms they appeal to patriotism and popularist, xenophobic attitudes. Too much freedom for the financial markets, not only leads to ultimate financial collapse of nations but, restricts the power of the political systems in those countries as they become ever dependant upon the money suppliers for their very survival. Some countries end up paying more in interest than the worth of their Gross Domestic Product, many countries have debt levels far greater than their Gross Domestic Product. Japan’s debt level is almost twice their GDP. Who owns the money used to service this debt? The worth of the Rothschild dynasty, historically the world’s money suppliers is estimated at six hundred trillion dollars. The Gross Domestic Product of the United States is estimated at less than twenty trillion dollars. Too much freedom leads to loss and restrictions throughout society, except for the few.

Too much personal freedom also leads to chaos. The loss of respect for the law and society’s rules, because they impact on personal freedoms, is something that many communities have to deal with right now. The loss of personal respect, because self-respect takes effort, and effort reflects on the individual’s freedom to choose otherwise. The loss of respect for traditions for similar reasons follows the loss of personal respect, and this leads to a loss of self, and community identity. Too much freedom is not necessarily a good thing, so there needs to a balance of all things. Everything in moderation, perhaps.