The nature of Freedom, in Concept and in actual Fact

Vic Biorseth, March 20, 2006
http://www.Thinking-Catholic-Strategic-Center.com

Freedom is and has always been the clarion call of man. Freedom from something, or, freedom to do something. But, of course, freedom means different things to different people, and the meaning of the word is subject to change with changing circumstance. Freedom means a particular thing to the adolescent / pubescent child, particularly during that period when the hormones begin to roar, and when mom and dad are increasingly concerned and increasingly limiting, with all sorts of new rules and curfews and watchfulness. But the word means something else to mom and dad, during that trying time.

The child would like to be the one to choose the child's entertainment, company, hours, places to go and so forth; limitations on those choices are seen by the child as limitations on the child's freedom. If an outsider or the state were to impose restrictions on the parent's rules concerning the child, the parents would likely see that as a gross intrusion upon the sanctity and privacy of the family, and an unwarranted limitation on their own freedom to raise their own child in their own way.

Most children hit some point at which, due to parental restrictions, they just can't wait to get to that magical, legal age when they will be considered adult, so they can take that drink, stay out late, and find out about what the general culture all around them calls adult entertainment. They don't know yet (at least some of them don't know yet) that there is nothing adult about it, and that it can be enslaving, as can drinking, and so many other "adult" activities.

We started out talking about freedom and wind up discussing enslavement? What's going on here?

Well, you might wind up in the same place no matter what group of people or what set of philosophical guidelines you choose to discuss, when the beginning topic is freedom.

Marxism, like Freudianism and Darwinism, is purely materialistic and therefore atheistic. In the Marxian view, man gains more freedom with which to create a better world and situation in which to live by purely material means, using whatever means necessary to achieve this material progress, when and only when he is freed from the restrictions imposed by religion. To the devout Marxist, I am a slave to my Catholicism. I am morally bound by the Commandments, the Precepts of the Church, and other rules of my faith, and thus unable to do any of the more repugnant things that need to be done to make the world "better," in the Marxist view. The Marxist can say the ends justify the means; the Catholic cannot say that.

We can look at the history of what Marxism wrought, in the gulags, forced-labor camps, death-camps, purges, the Iron Curtain, the Bamboo Curtain, and other shining, golden examples of Marxism's Worker's Paradise brought about by whatever means necessary. The noble ends were seen as worthy of bludgeoning masses of people into Siberian labor camps, for the good of the larger society. F. A. Hayek's The Road To Serfdom provided an accurate warning and prediction that Socialism and all grand Social Planning done by government would lead, inevitably, to national impoverishment.

I will go him one better than that. Grand governmental economic and societal planning and control will lead to absolute dictatorship. Socialism necessarily involves the centralization (collectivization) of all property, the means of production, and political power. As soon as all power is centralized enough to allow it to happen, centralized power will be seized by someone ruthless enough to seize it. All you have to do is look at the history of it. Not one "Premier" of any Marxism's success stories was elected in a free and open election by secret ballot. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Pol Pot, Fidel - not a single one of them was part of any truly representative government in which the ordinary people had any voice whatsoever.

So, who's freer, between the Catholic and the Marxist? I submit that the American Marxist is only free in America until Marxism succeeds in America. At which point, the ever increasing number of petty bureaucrats running everything will be fiercely competing for those higher level bureaucratic seats from which they will have the power to say those very special words, beloved of all petty bureaucrats: "Shut up and get on the cattle car." And the most ruthless among them, who will occupy the top seat, and will be studying all potential competitors for his position with an intensity born of paranoia, will be making it quite clear to all his underlings that they are to "Do as I say or I'll have you killed."

My Catholic faith allows me to oppose Socialism; the devout Marxist is not free to oppose Socialism. Marxism is Socialism.

But the budding adult emerging from parental control has other places to look for the freedom reserved for and / or associated with adulthood.

The Freudians will tell us we will achieve fulfillment when we lose our sexual inhibitions, and get free of the biggest cause of those inhibitions, which is, religion. To the devout Freudian, I am a slave to my Catholicism. I am morally bound by the Commandments, the Precepts of the Church, and other rules of my faith, and thus inhibited in my ability to fully achieve sexual fulfillment, which is deemed to be of vital importance to my overall well-being. See?

The late Madelyn Murray O'Hara, atheism's champion, loved to describe religion as a psychological crutch, and recommend that those who use it should have it kicked out from under them, so they could stand alone, without their religion. I submit that there is no psychological crutch in existence to compare with the dismissal of the possibility of Hell. It will definitely help you get there.

But the larger culture, guided as it is by the mainstream media, is in general agreement with the Freudians and other atheists on this topic. You can look at the best selling titles in your local bookstore to see strong evidence of this. Titles like Any Woman Can imply not only that every woman should, but that if some woman doesn't, then there must be something wrong with her. You would get the impression that if someone didn't get multiple, giant, super-nova orgasms on a regular basis that she should be in therapy. Even the junk-mail catalogues that come to your house, or magazine advertisements, will show the smiling face of Dr. Ruth alongside a vibrator for use in masturbation. It's recommended, don't you know; it's healthy. It's good for you.

It is not healthy, and it is absolutely enslaving, as I said in describing America's disgusting, yet legally protected, seemingly unregulated, multi-billion dollar Masturbation Industry. The same court system that openly defends pornography, in case some so-called adult might want to use it in his dream world, goes to great lengths to censor and legally restrict Constitutionally guaranteed free expressions of Christian religion in the public square. The courts even actively censor a mere display of the Ten Commandments in American courtrooms. (To see the hypocrisy of this, take a look at the display of the Ten Commandments on, around and in the United States Supreme Court building at The Church and State in Art.)

But true freedom revolves round one, single thing that all devout Jews and Christians recognize, and that all atheists deny, and that is: The very existence of Evil.

If you remember, when President Reagan described the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire, the mainstream media went absolutely nuts. The reason they all went so ballistic is that they all just knew, deep within their atheistic hearts, that there is no such thing as Evil. For them, and for all Marxists everywhere, there is only outcomes, which all have to be judged, sometime after the fact, as either good, or not good. But not evil. For atheists, there is no evil, there is no devil, there is no god, there is only the material world.

In one of Bishop Sheen's old TV shows, he pointed out the fact that not many people believed in Satan any more, and that, that fact pleased Satan very much. For the devil can never make more progress in his war against the Church than when he is dismissed out of hand as not even existing. The more he is dismissed, the fewer inhibitions people will have, the more they will be enslaved by the very things that are advertised and trumpeted, by the world, to be paths to freedom.

I openly admit to my slavery to the Catholic Church, and what she teaches. It is through this blessed slavery that I am free of the addictions of the world: pointless, purposeless nihilism; sex, drugs, alcohol, general hedonism; all things pleasurable, and/or purely worldly, which, partaken of inappropriately or excessively or perversely, are, indeed, enslaving. In the truest sense of the word. The world calls out to you and says, this is all there is; go for the gusto. The Church calls out to you and says, you have before you Everlasting Life. This is not all there is. In Deuteronomy 30:19, the Lord sets before us a blessing, and a curse; and then, He even tells us how to choose, when He says, "choose life."

Take Him at His word. Choose everlasting life, and give it enough value in your personal value system to do something about it. Declare your personal freedom from sin, and from enslavement to the world.

Set yourself free.

Bless His holy name, please God, and live forever.

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