This Is My Rifle: Freedom At Half the Price

"Greed is good."

Freedom. The very foundation that much of the Western World was built upon and the core principal in which we collectively believe. I've spent many years analyzing what it means to me and I've found that on the surface it's an easily understood concept, but once you push past the surface and look deeper into the defining characteristics, it becomes increasingly complicated.

So what is freedom? Most people would say that we (North America) are a shining example of it. We have the ability to choose from a variety of lifestyles, from religion to sexual orientation, without fear of persecution. We have the right to openly question any idea and publicly debate it until we find a resolution, which then shapes the policies put in place and practiced for decades and sometimes even centuries in the future. Those same theories are then reviewed thousands of times over and when disproven, we the people come together and find a better way of life. If convicted of a crime, we are given due process and provided the opportunity to argue our case and prove our innocence in front of a jury of out peers. It is only when being proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are then punished for our wrong doings, and rightfully so.

When read on paper our system sounds like an impeccable piece of grand architecture. This very column is a direct beneficiary of our belief in the freedom of speech. It's hard to imagine, but there are places in the world where I would be quietly kidnapped and executed for voicing my opinion on topics like religion and government. Fortunately I reside in a place where I have a legal right to individual thought and for that I am thankful.

It's at this point that the concept of freedom becomes blurry. In contrast to countries like North Korea, where residents do not have access to the outside world and what information they do receive is heavily monitored by a dictatorial governing body, we are undoubtedly free. But is that how we gauge our current circumstances? By looking at countries ruled by oppressive regimes and then concluding that by comparison we are better off? Who sets the bar that determines the difference between freedom and imprisonment?

Over the years, and as I entered the latter part of my 20's, I've found myself having the same conversation more frequently. It generally starts with me randomly encountering somebody I haven't seen for some time and occurs right after the other person says, "I heard you're doing well with the music" to which I reply, "Yeah, everything's great. What are you doing now?".

From there the conversation moves into a depressing tone as the other person tells me how they had to compromise their goals and dreams in order to find stability. As they speak it's almost like staring into a graveyard of failed aspirations and it hurts to listen to it. Most people call it "growing up" but I see it as nothing more than walking into a prison cell, slamming the door and throwing away the key.

If you were to ask the majority of the population if their lives turned out the way they had hoped, I guarantee that 99% of them would say, "No". Most would argue that they had no other choice but to settle for a lesser existence purely because of financial and personal obligations but I believe that these people are victims of defeat and conformity. At some point in time they became afraid of their own inevitable failures and opted for a life in the grey; never seeing the sun but in turn, never having to brave the darkness. And as those around them closed the curtains on their own vision of perfection, they did as well. Now they spend 5 days a week staring at a clock, counting down the hours until they are released from their self-imposed misery. They sit behind a desk and watch their lives roll away from them as they come one step closer to death with every second that passes.

Think about that for a minute. There is nothing more petrifying to me than throwing the precious moments of life away in return for the basic human commodities. We trade our one opportunity to explore the possibilities of the world around us in order to be able to afford a heavily skewed existence. We never find that endless sea of potential within ourselves simply because we lose the will to search for it.

So what lies at the center of all of this? What is it that causes us to follow a beaten path rather than create one tailored to our individual interests? That's right, money. The monetary system is what keeps us all under control. It has limited the quality of human life and condensed it even further. It is the almighty dollar that influences our every action and has made us sacrifice permanent happiness for temporary exhilaration. In those few moments when we have an abundance of it, we become the masters of our universe, able to indulge in whatever absurd perversion our minds can conjure, and when we don’t have it we tirelessly conspire ways to get back to that euphoric state. Put simply, money buys freedom.

When thinking about money and everything that it can provide, it becomes blatantly obvious that the word “freedom” is no longer necessary because there is no such thing. For those that have it, they can enjoy a life without boundaries because they have the means to do so. For those who are forced to live on a constricted amount of it, they will never share in the same reality strictly because they have nothing to trade for it. From birth the extent of their life experience will be greatly reduced due to a lack of resources. They will not grow up in affluent neighborhoods, most will not attend a prestigious college or university and as they become adults, they will become the lower and middle classes of society.

There are a few that will push through the barriers and grab the proverbial “bull by the horns” but those are the ones that refuse to give up. They are the relentlessly ambitious members of the group that will not admit defeat. Freedom, to them, is not an option; it’s the only acceptable outcome. These people are not the most talented or intelligent, they’re just the 10% that stay in the race after everybody else has quit.

Success should never be measured by wealth; rather, it should be measured by true, genuine happiness. For some people that means an infinite supply of resources, but in a lot of cases it’s the often overlooked aspects of life that provide us with memories of people and places we’ll never forget. What I’ve found in my own life is that once I managed to separate money from freedom, I learned that the two can’t co-exist peacefully. As long as they are tied together, one will conflict with the other and life will always be out of balance. I’m not saying to disregard money altogether, my point is that we should search for happiness despite our monetary needs, not because of them. We all have to do what we gotta do to provide for ourselves and our families, but it’s important that we continue to strive for better. Never stop looking over the horizon and pondering the possibility of tomorrow. Money will buy freedom but a free mind is priceless. Get back in touch with the one reason why the universe sent you here; find your purpose and re-define it every day.

I have no idea how to end this so I’m just going to say; follow your hearts, love without fear and most important of all, LIVE PASSIONATELY.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)