October 19, 2006 7:15 PM BST
While I agree in general with Wendy's opening statement,
"Why bother?" the issue does raise an interesting intellectual challenge. There is, I imagine, some number of people faced with rejection on the specific religious reason and more faced with the rejection of our
'lifestyle' for any manner of other reasons. If we do not bother with this, it may in the future, leave many others to suffer.
Again in agreement with Wendy these are people,
"completeley invested in their life without the responsibility of ethical decisions." My opinion is that a rational argument is not possible because such people do not operate from a rational or logical basis but from
'beliefs' - which can be pretty much anything and are pretty much unchallengeable.
How for instance can you contest my
'belief' that yellow is the nicest colour? My belief isn't derived from any rationale or progressive logic or analysis, that I can use to convince another of, it is a
'belief' that has arisen subjectively within me - and many people are subjective.
Quoting liberally from a review of the book,
"How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World", by Harry Browne, I think the following is valid advice on how one might proceed,
Introduction
In his superb classic How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, Harry Browne defines freedom as living your life as you want to live it. He claims that you can enjoy a high degree of freedom right now. He indicates that:
"Hoping to be free, many people engage in continual social combat — joining movements, urging political action, writing letters to editors and Congressmen, trying to educate people. They hope that someday it will all prove to have been worthwhile.
But as the years go by they see little overall change. Small victories are won; defeats set them back. The world seems to continue on its path to wherever it’s going. Until they die, the hopeful remain just as enslaved as they’ve always been.
The plans, the movements, the crusades — none of these things has worked. And so the unfree man continues to dream, to condemn, and to remain where he is.
There must be a better way…
Fortunately, there is such a way…
There’s a way that depends entirely upon what you choose to do. You can live your life as you want to live it — no matter what others decide to do with their lives."
By trying to change others in order to become free you’re always trying to do something out of your control. On the other hand, you can use methods to free yourself that are completely under your control.
There are two basic reasons why most people remain enslaved:
1. They’re unaware of the many options and alternatives available to them;
2. They accept without challenge certain assumptions that restrict their freedom.
Harry calls these assumptions traps. As long as you don’t challenge these assumptions, they can keep you enslaved.
If you want to increase your freedom, Harry Browne’s How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World is must reading. I don’t know of any other book that even comes close to providing you with such powerful self-liberating information. Here I can only present you with a brief overview.
Traps
Identity Trap #1:The belief that you should be someone other than yourself. You need to be true to yourself. Find out who you are; be yourself; do things your own way.
Identity Trap #2:The assumption that others will do things the way you would. You can’t control others, but you can control how you deal with them. Harry Browne says, "you have tremendous control over your life, but you give up that control when you try to control others."
Intellectual Trap: The belief that your emotions should conform to an intellectually preconceived standard. Emotions are best regarded as signals that tell you how you’re doing. (For the most powerful techniques to achieve emotional control, see Report #TL12: How to Achieve Emotional Control.)
Emotional Trap: The belief that you can make important decisions when you’re feeling strong emotions.
Morality Trap: The belief that you must obey a moral code created by someone else. In order to become more competent (and free) you need to strengthen your understanding of the cognitive links between your actions and the consequences you produce. Morality is basically a set of very general rules concerning what to do and what not to do, generally involving large consequences. Blindly using someone else’s moral code, tends to reduce your competence, because it prevents the forming of proper cognitive links between actions and consequences. To be free you need to create your own moral code.
Unselfishness Trap: The belief that you must put the happiness of others ahead of your own. A world of maximum value is a function of the total of maximum individual value. You know yourself and what you value far better than you know others and what they value. Therefore, you are much more competent to increase your own value than that of others. So, maximum value is achieved by each individual maximizing his or her own personal value.
Because we live in an "expanding-pie" world, it’s possible to maximize personal value while at the same time adding to the value of others. We maximize personal value by creating values for others to freely choose. The assumptions that "selfishness" and "greed" are evil need to be questioned. I recommend two books: The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand and The Art of Selfishness by David Seabury. Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, wrote this testimonial to How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World:
"THE GREATEST GIFTS ARE GIVEN BY THE TRULY SELFISH. FROM THIS MAN’S LOVE OF FREEDOM, THEN, HAS COME THIS BOOK, A GIFT OF POWER AND OF JOY FOR WHOEVER YEARNS TO BE FREE."
Isn't the attempt to make someone
'understand' really an attempt to
'change' them. Perhaps that's where the problem lies.
