More wealth or stuff doesn’t mean freedom: Distinguishing freedom from abundance and prosperity
You’ve probably heard people say, “Even poor people today can do things beyond what kings and emperors of the past could dream,” talking about cell phones, airplanes, and so on.
Yes, but technological power doesn’t necessarily lead to people valuing life more.
Most people value freedom. Money and technology can enable us to do what we couldn’t otherwise, but what if it comes with a loss of freedom? If you have nice stuff but if someone tells you what to do, you can’t walk away and you have to do what they tell you to, what’s the stuff worth?
What if it comes at the loss of liberty, equality, democracy, and national security? You can talk to people on the other side of the world on video and see them in person the next day, but you can’t decline having to live by other people’s rules.
I hear the message above of material power and abundance from people on the right. Do they realize that when that material abundance comes at the cost of liberty, freedom, equality, democracy, and national security, they may be undermining their own values?
Freedom doesn’t come with more stuff, even if poor people have what past kings could only dream of.
Freedom means no one else controlling resources that you need with no alternative. To harp on things past kings couldn’t dream of is different than being able to walk away when you want. Focusing on things that are nice to have distracts from freedom. Freedom isn’t precisely the person who needs the least, but someone whose necessities aren’t controlled by others.
Prosperity and abundance aren’t exactly the same. Neither of them is freedom exactly.
Confusing them, or allowing others to confuse you about them, like when pundits or people running for office suggest that since you have technology can do what your parents and grandparents couldn’t you’re living a better life, risks leading to a disappointing life.
When someone implies that your life is great on account of material things, watch your wallet.
What freedom do you have? What freedom are you missing?
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