| Freedom, in Mind and Body |
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| Thursday, 09 April 2009 19:00 | |||
(originally launched into cyberspace on 04/10/2009) It's good to see how many different people these days are becoming vocal advocates for freedom: freedom from constant government surveillance, freedom from arbitrary and oppressive regulation of behavior, freedom from government bullying and intimidation, freedom from excessive taxation, and so on. However, as important as it is for people to be advocating physical freedom, there is something else that is more important: mental freedom. Consider the example of a plantation slave. As long as he views himself as the rightful property of someone else--as long as he views slavery as legitimate--what are his chances of ever obtaining freedom? Almost none. He may wish he had a nicer master, but that is not at all the same thing as being free. Unfortunately, most Americans, including most Americans who consider themselves to be advocates of individual freedom, have yet to achieve real mental freedom. They remain prisoners inside their own heads, oppressed as much by their own assumptions and superstitions as they are by outside forces. In short, their minds still contain the residue of "slave-think," which not only gets in the way of them achieving freedom, but gets in the way of them even WANTING freedom. I will be doing a talk about this topic, titled "Seeing Our Lenses," in Flint, Michigan on the evening of May 2nd (details below). In the hopes of getting as many people exposed to these ideas as possible, I won't be charging admission (though I wouldn't mind people chipping in a couple bucks, since I already paid for the room myself). This will NOT be your average partisan rant or pointless belly-aching exercise. Instead, we will be taking a hard look at some of the most ingrained, and the most destructive, assumptions and beliefs that the average American has rattling around inside his head. Whatever your religion, your politics, your education level, your age (well, those under 12 might not follow it all)--and whatever you know or don't know about politics, world events, or philosophy--I think you'll get something out of this talk. That is, you'll get something out of it, and it will give you some things to think about, if you SHOW UP. (It won't if you don't.) The talk will take place on the evening of Saturday, May 2nd, starting at 8:00 p.m. sharp, in the conference room at the "AmericInn" in Flint, Michigan. The following link includes a map and directions to the place (look on the right side of the web page): http://www.americinn.com/hotels/MI/Flint The room I have reserved holds about 80 people. While you do NOT need reservations or tickets to get in, and while it costs nothing, it would help if people who expected to come could drop me a quick e-mail saying so (to "cartoonlion@hushmail.com"), and saying how many people they expect to bring, so I can have some idea of how many to expect (and so I can panic if we're going to overflow the place). Hope to see you there. Sincerely, Larken Rose http://www.larkenrose.com P.S. I will also have my new book, "The Iron Web," for sale there (for the first time anywhere), for those who want it. But there will NOT be any sort of sales pitch for it, or for anything else, at the talk.
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