Living in Scotland, I can't help but, consider the relevance of William Wallace when contemplating this question. This is a man that supposedly died in the defense of freedom and liberty. Oh, and let's not forget that it was a gruesome fucking death, followed by an inhumane desecration of his body.
I wonder, how many of us today would be willing to die such a horrible death; to be subjected to torture, murder and humiliation, all for the sake of freedom? More than that, I wonder just how many of us have even the slightest inkling what the fuck freedom is.
You cannot have an objective conversation with someone in the military nowadays without them saying something along the lines of, "I am fighting for your freedom." More often then not it is said in such a tone that implies you owe them gratitude for their "sacrifice." So, we are supposed to be grateful because you were weak enough that you were manipulated into invading other countries, under the false pretense that you are defending us?
No, dumbarse. You are invading other countries and stealing their resources all so that weapons manufacturers, oil companies and shady bankers can get filthy fucking rich.
You claim to be fighting for us? Making the world safer for us?
No, dumbarse. You are making it a hell of a lot more dangerous for us. Every time you help invade one of these countries, you create new enemies for all of us whom you are allegedly "protecting." Don't fight in my name. Ever.
The most annoying thing about this is that if any cunt just bothered to do a tiny bit of research before deciding to join the military and go kill other human beings, they would know that it's nothing at all to do with freedom and everything to do with money and power. Who then would be willing to pick up a gun and go point it at some fucker they don't even know, some fucker who could have potentially been their friend had they met under different circumstances?
If it is liberty that our soldiers are fighting for, then where the fuck is it? You have been fighting for a long time now, so why is it that the longer you fight, the less free we become?
Sure, we have free speech; as long as there's not too many people listening. Sure, we have the right to vote; though no matter who you vote for, it's the same corporate interests that pull the strings. Sure, we have the freedom to chose what we eat; though every single thing you find in a store traces back to only a handful of corporations that seem to find it acceptable to load every fucking thing they sell with a ridiculous amount of preservatives. Yes, we know it's poison but, if it will make our food sit on the shelves for an extra two days and increase our profit margin, then who fucking cares if it's killing you? I could go on for hours about how far from free we are and how the supposed choices we see in our lives are all an elaborately constructed illusion. I don't need to do that. You are living in this world too. You know how shit it has become and how much worse it's going to get if we don't start to make some serious changes. So what changes do we need? What is freedom?
Well, I can tell you what it is not.
Freedom is not- having to pay to survive on the planet you were born on. There is a word for that; extortion.
Freedom is not- being slaves to little pieces of paper, running around trying to get more of it to survive, while the true wealth of the planet is horded by a tiny percentage of us.
Freedom is not- waking up in the morning and not being able to pursuit your true passions and curiosities, because instead you have to conform to this life and make more monopoly money to pay your bills.
Freedom is waking up in the morning, with no responsibilities that you didn't ascribe to yourself, knowing that today you can do whatever you want to do. You can spend time with family, you can go view some art, you can take the time to start inventing, writing. painting or learning. You can do whatever you want to do, with anyone you want to do it with, without worrying about how you're going to pay council tax this month, or whether these fucking idiots have finally provoked a third world war. Without worrying about whether this insidious TTIP trade deal is going to go through, or whether your children, family or friends are safe right now in this world where humans are conditioned to believe that rape, murder and worse is just typical human behaviour.
We need to be able to choose our own paths with no restrictions in the way. This system we have found ourselves in, offers a limited perspective of life. We are taught that it's every man for himself, survival of the fittest. Well, if the only way to get ahead in this world is to step on someone else's dreams, then I'd rather be the cunt at the back giving people a leg-up.
So what was William Wallace fighting for? What did he give his life for? He gave it so that we wouldn't have our lives predetermined for us, and we have let him and so many others down by allowing them to have died for nothing.
Freedom is choice. Not the illusion of choice. The reality of it.