Do Humans really want Freedom, or is obedience whats deeply desired?

religion, a free race would not have religion. We have to be slaves because we can't percieve dying as the end. There HAS to be more.
 
Freedom is impossible. What is free? If you have to eat, are you a slave to food? to work to get money for food? Is it free to be without the shackles of life and just roam? Picking fruit as you go, crapping in a hole.  We've seen The Walking Dead. Freedom would be a dirty, difficult mission of survival. With some douchbag trying to ruin it all. Wanting to be in charge, the cycle starts over.
 
Sorry guys, I'm just really baked this morning. Don't hate.

 

I think the dichotomy we're faced with today is liberty versus security.

People are willing to give up their civil liberties to be more safe. The problem is that these broad security measures don't make people any safer. You're still more likely to die choking on your dinner than die in a terrorist attack but a government regime benefits when people give up their civil liberties for whatever reason.

 

To answer the OP directly I think when people have the choice of a less tyrannical government and a tyrannical government they will choose the less tyrannical government.

Especially the young and rebellious. Older people who grew up under strict rules are more likely to be content with tyrannical rule. Especially if they agree with the ideology behind the strict rules.

 

Ahh, this is a really interesting thing to ponder. One thing to add, some people find their freedom in obeying somethings and not obeying others. Are we free if we are compelled to eat by a hungry stomach? Compelled to be angry when betrayed by someone we love? Compelled to feel sad when losing something dear to us? True freedom is freedom from all influences. It does not mean you opt out from life because there are influences from all directions, it just means to take them at face value. It means when you eat, you eat because there is good reason to eat, reason that transcends that innate desire that is inherent to our being. Reason transcends self and influence. Reason means making sacrifice where you see fit.

When the world is stuck on one narrow path, the sage breaks down walls and acts with spontaneity without regard for anything. Without regard for tradition and norms. The sage acts according to what the world needs to wake it up. In this way the sage is free from fear, from enmity, from birth and death. The sage is in this world but is not of it.

 

We want the freedom to serve who we chose and to chose a different master when needed

I don't consider myself a slave to my wife. I sacrifice many freedoms to serve her. But this act itself is a freedom.

There is also the freedom from being a slave to freedom. For example, addiction. You are free to do drugs, until drugs take away your freedom

-yuri

 

 
So is it safe to say we have the choice to give up certain freedoms. But once we give up those freedoms we have limited choices from that point.
 
Whether it was a good choice to give up those freedoms depends on the person and the circumstances.

 

I think it varies from person to person, but that the vast majority of people are most at peace under a system of both freedom and governance. It seems a balancing act, because personal freedom is very important. However, obedience to laws and practices is a crucial part of a society that brings happiness and peace to most people.

 

I think there's a natural order that we can tune ourselves into. In so doing, our suffering departs and we feel purposeful and active in our actions and place in the world. It is when the ego begins making rules and applying roles and boundaries, making distinctions. It is when this happens that we are bound by death, trapping ourselves in an against the grain world, where are actions only dig us into a trench. Happiness does not come easily when we are so bound by the tantalizing world that is not the true world, but the world of ahankaar, or ego. Taoism spoke of the perfect society as being spontaneous and free, without governance. With pure sovereignty of all beings.

 

 
Most revolutionary upheavals were enacted by young idealists, and most have turned into tyrannical hells.
 
But I kinda get what yer saying.

 

That wasn't what I said, or at least not what I meant to say.

Humans can't give up freedoms. We only suspend them.

When I lock my door at night I suspend my freedom to go outside for the security of not being robbed. But at any tike I have the freedom to trade that secuirity back for my freedom

When talking about giving up freedoms to government, what is really happening is we are being tricked into slavery.

Its theft/exploitation. We are not at fault. When a mother sees a school shooting on TV, its understandable that she would cry out for gun control not knowing how ignorant her opinion is. Tyrants prey on this weakness.

-yuri

 

Freedom is more so a concept than a reality. You'll never truly be free as long as you have necessities. Food, water, shelter. You have to maintain those things. That leads to taking on responsibilities that allow you to have them. In our society that means having money, money requires a job or entrepreneurship. Most people don't have the motivation to work for themselves so they take the easier option of having someone pay them to fulfill a designated role they are comfortable with doing consistently.
 
Once you have a job to take care of the basics you have to worry about your security because someone could just come and take those things YOU worked hard for. That's why you have a government in place to "protect" you. Sure you could do it yourself. But who wants to take that responsibility? Why not "free" yourself from having to worry about it and let someone else handle the danger while you go about living your life. Pay for your needs, pay for your protection. The chain of responsibility continues. It's not necessarily obedience. Although some people ARE happier when being controlled as this "frees" them from having to decide their own future.
 
So where is your "freedom"?

 

Is anyone ever free if they are mortal and don't actually want to die?  
If all governments and other restrictions, voluntary or involuntary were to be removed from our lives and we got to do whatever we want, whenever we want,  we'd still have to deal with the fact that nature will cancel our contract at some point.  How much freedom does anyone have considering everyone's been sentenced to death at birth?

 

We are slaves to ourselves. The ego is the slave to the ego. We are the ego. Freedom is when we flow with the self, creating a state of enlightenment.