As I suggested with the first blog, I had a plan regarding how I would proceed when I created this website. I wanted to talk more about time, what I think it is, and what the repercussions such a view of time would have. Perhaps I will get to it eventually, but not any time soon. Like all the other things that happen in my life, there always seems to be forces at work pressuring me to do different things than I want to do. This blog is no exception.
A good friend of mine recently started his own blog. You can find it here. He has decided to share his experiences in his attempt at “financial freedom.” So far, it sounds like he is doing quite well. But I would suggest he may still be in the “honeymoon phase” of his project. The real test of success, as I’ve observed, is the commitment to continuing in one’s project for the long term, especially when faced with distractions and outside pressures that interfere with said project. I have high hopes that he will succeed, but only time will tell. I just have to wait and see.
His project is well timed for my current discussion on freedom, and with regard to Black Lives Matter. In both cases, much of the discussion revolves around breaking out of a chain of predetermined events. In the case of Black Lives Matter, the issue is that there is a traditional world view that puts certain humans at a disadvantage with respect to other humans, in this case in particular, that black people are at a social and economic disadvantage with respect to white people. The social structures that support this fabricated dichotomy are complex, and changing them will certainly be challenging. To change them means breaking out of a chain of predetermined events. To change them means breaking the social structures, and possibly completely destroying them.
As for freedom, if freedom exists, its expression is literally the breaking out of the causal sequence of events. It sounds simple, but really is not. What I might call true freedom, the sort of freedom I’ve been trying to describe in the past few posts, requires making choices that are not determined by previous events or conditions. The very thought of such a freedom is challenging at best.
When my friend wants financial freedom, he is talking about this sort of freedom, though focused specifically in the area of his finances. He wants to no longer belong to the causal chain of events that has been preconstructed by the structures that exist around him. In this part of the world, consumerism and capitalism (at least in some form) run rampant. These structures, and many others, influence the decisions made by those individuals who exist within those societies. One simple and very insidious example of such a pressure is in the form of always carrying debt. In this culture, it is not only considered acceptable, it is considered necessary to always be in debt. Consider how one needs to behave to improve their credit rating. As I was instructed in my youth, one needs to have a credit card, use said credit card (thus entering into debt), and then immediately paying of that debt. In other words, those with the best credit ratings are those who constantly enter into debt, but immediately leave it as well, frequently, likely demonstrating that they are capable of some sort of self control, and that they can be relied upon to pay back what they owe when it is demanded of them.
A part of my friend’s attempt at financial freedom involves removal of all his debt. The very act of not being in debt contradicts the pressures society has placed upon him, but that is also why it is considered a freedom. To not be in debt is to contradict the traditional role of the individual in his society. To be debt free is to be financially free.
It is here I would like to introduce another example of freedom that I think is even more insidious, and yet even more telling. I drink water. That may sound particularly uninteresting, but I assure you it is not. I prefer the consumption of water over all other beverages. I prefer not to consume alcohol, soda, coffee, tea, milk, juice, or any other beverage you can imagine. It is true that I do engage in the consumption of non-water beverages occasionally, and that is part of why this discussion is so interesting to me. However, if given the choice, I would only ever consume water as a beverage for the rest of my life.
Just last year, in January of 2019, a new simplified Canada Food Guide was released. In it, it suggests I “make water [my] drink of choice.” I was quite happy in discovering this change, but others have not been so impressed. For example, politician Andrew Scheer expressed concerns regarding the new food guide’s removal of milk as a beverage of choice. This simple question of what people ought to drink has sparked a great deal of controversy in many circles.
Regardless of the scientific or health benefits associated (or possibly not associated) with the consumption of water, what I find most interesting is how the structures of society pressure me to not drink water. Commercialism would have me believe that there are a plethora of superior options to water that I ought to consider when the time comes to quench my thirst. If I am exercising, I ought to drink a sports drink. If I am at a pub, I ought to drink alcohol. If I am sitting at home watching television, I ought to drink a soda. Even at breakfast, as Scheer would likely suggest, I ought to drink milk.
It does not seem to matter at all what my preference is. When I hang out with friends in a restaurant, if I ask the server for water, both the server and my friends give me looks and make me feel guilty for my choice. After all, the server is working hard, and so I should choose a beverage that presents a cost that will support the effort they are putting into getting me something to drink. Furthermore, being in a restaurant represents a luxury from the monotony of being at home, so I ought to get myself something to drink that is more than I might otherwise do if I were at home. I am scolded for my choice, often in subtle ways.
If the restaurant is also a bar or pub, then alcohol becomes the topic of discussion. I ought to have a drink. It does not matter whether I like the taste of the beverage (I cannot explain it exactly, but I can actually taste the alcohol, and that flavour is very unappetizing to me), I ought to drink an alcoholic beverage in particular. In that I am taken to be of the masculine sex, I am frequently scolded for not drinking beer, a beverage that is strongly associated with masculinity in the society I belong to. In my youth, I was told by a friend that “no one likes beer, we all just get used to it.” That one was expected to build up a tolerance to the bitter taste, as a show of one’s manhood.
I didn’t always drink water. In my youth, I tended to drink flavoured beverages like most people. I didn’t even think much about it for a very long time. However, after some fairly significant events in my life, I decided to switch to water exclusively. Initially, I was put off by the taste; water was flavourless and uninteresting, and I missed the previous thrill of a mouth full of sugar. But after about a month of strictly drinking just water, I stopped missing the sugar, and started finding the refreshing features of water to be more palatable. Furthermore, I found my body responded positively to the change, having more energy and less “heaviness.” I figure what I was feeling is similar to what some people consider as “detoxifying.”
It was a challenge to switch from other beverages to simply water, but it was much easier than I expected to switch myself. I like water. I prefer water now. However, the ongoing challenge is not from within but from outside me. As I have described above, social pressures continue to be exerted against me, suggesting I ought to do otherwise. I am strange, and perhaps less healthy as a result of my choice. As Scheer suggested, “the idea that these types of products that we’ve been drinking as human beings, eating as human beings for a millennia—that now all of a sudden that they’re unhealthy, it’s ridiculous.” This represents an incredibly powerful pressure against my choice to drink water, especially after discovering that milk itself seemed to be the culprit to years of heightened allergic reactions to dust and other debris in the atmosphere.
The point of this discussion is not whether water is healthy or not healthy as a beverage, or whether science agrees or disagrees with such statements. The point is that the social structures of my community are focused on influencing my choice of beverage, using whatever tools are available to them to encourage me to behave in a very particular way. Like when my friend encourages me to drink beer because it is the masculine thing to do, a politician encourages me to drink milk because it is the traditional thing to do (and because it will support local businesses as well).
My preference to drink water, and my actually being able to do so, expresses my freedom. What makes it more apparent that it is a freedom is that it seems to be in direct opposition to the pressures that take place around me. Were my preference to be aligned to the social structures of my community, it may not be as clear whether it was a freedom expressed, or a conforming to outside influences. So freedom might be understood as the situation where one contradicts the pressures and influences. But then there may not be a way to determine if a freedom can be (or is) expressed when it happens to agree with the pressures and influences.
Returning to my friend, why we might understand it as “financial freedom” is not necessarily that it is free. We might interpret it as suggesting he simply wants to practice his personal economics in a manner that is unlike the that which is practiced by most people in our society.
In “financial freedom,” the “freedom” is a freedom from my desk. Freedom from the grind. Freedom from the societal mandate that I need to spend my time to earn a certain amount of money to pay for things I don’t need to prove my wealth to others. I think I’m going to attempt your choice of freedom from flavoured beverages. Not only is water the only truly free (calorie-wise) drink, it helps with joints and muscles and so many other ailments that I struggle with. I am happy to order water at a restaurant, I’ve never cared what anyone else thinks. I just need to learn to choose water at home as well. We’ll see how that works out.
Interesting point. I had not really considered “freedom” in this way. Freedom as in absence of something. Though certainly related (freedom as I have been describing it is the absence of causality; the absence of a chain of causally connected events, or at least the absence of a connection to that chain), I do see how this interpretation of “freedom” is slightly different. I’ll have to re-read my own word to see if I’ve been consistent in my understanding of the term. This interpretation of “freedom” (as an absence) is not entirely what I have in mind, but it is certainly important to recognize. Thank you for highlighting this to me.