Cry Freedom

A couple of days ago, during a conversation on the state of current events, a friend of mine said something that really rung true to me. He told me he believed that there are too many people who use the word “reality” as if it were fact, that “fact was fact”, whereas reality was different for everyone. I couldn´t have agreed more. We all perceive reality in a different way, even if we’re convinced that others, even friends, think the same way, but we can’t think of it as fact, It’s a perceived notion. When one experiences culture shock, for example, it’s because we suddenly find ourselves in the general reality of other peoples and their reality is sometimes hugely different from our own. I think the word “freedom” is also more of a perception, than actual fact.

Let’s face it, we all live our lives conditioned by various external forces. Jobs, family, weather, the list is endless. I suppose the purest form of freedom might be living alone, without anyone to affect your actions, or thoughts. Even then, you would still have to eat, drink and clothe yourself, whenever your body demanded. So, as a matter of fact, (I was tempted to use “in reality”), our freedom is always conditioned in some way. With the advent of propaganda and marketing, (often the same thing), evocative terms, like freedom, have been molded into forms that are more suited to the storytellers, often without people even realizing it. Because we’re a society, sometimes sacrificing our own perception of freedom may be necessary for the benefit of all. The current system of running the planet promotes more a message of individualism, when we all have to try and think as a team, looking out for ourselves and others. If you have a beef with those who govern, go ahead, let them know, but make sure you are also taking everyone else and their realities into account. I don’t like being told what to do either, especially when it comes to getting chemicals injected into my body, thing is though, I live surrounded by billions of others and that very fact, conditions my freedom. In the middle of all this, there are those who are making huge profits. Pharmaceutical companies are making record profits, so are oil, transport companies, banks, all the usual suspects. Let’s protest that! Every cost trickles down to the bottom -where we reside. All the costs for getting by continue to rise and in times of crisis, like the present, the most penalized ones are always us, but when consistently asked to jump, we continue to ask “how high?”. We just keep jumping. That’s why our freedom is disappearing, yet we fight to protect the very way of life that’s at the root of most of our problems. There are those among us that more readily believe that world conspiracies and alien beings are at the root of covid-19, than nature itself correcting for our continued atrocities. Is it because it´s easier than dealing with the real issues? Maybe.

Freedom? Think for yourself. Make an effort to learn about things before forming opinions. Making an effort means not taking information steadily fired at you as fact. It sucks, but as we all know, learning takes work. That’s a true taste of freedom. The unfortunate irony is that for every person who refuses to be vaccinated in the name of individual rights and freedom, there are scores of people elsewhere hoping to get that same vaccine, in the name of their rights and their freedom.
Fiquem bem.

Raul Freitas/MS