Practical Freedom - Respecting Levels of Freedom

(a) Level 1 -- Basic. At this level, freedom activists learn about freedom philosophy, try to educate people, participate in Libertarian Party politics, try to change the system, etc.

(b) Level 2 -- Intermediate. At this level, freedom activists essentially learn how to withdraw material support from "coercive political systems" and they extricate themselves as far as practical from these "systems." They focus on aspects like personal empowerment, health, wealth, etc.

(c) Level 3 -- Advanced. At this level, freedom activists withdraw conceptual, intellectual, and semantic support from supposed "coercive political systems." They discover the most basic nature of pretended "coercive political systems." They cure themselves from Slavespeak (and "Slavethink").

Actions at all three levels are essential to expand freedom.

Some subscribers of the Advanced Freedom Solutions list operate at level 1. Some operate at level 2. Some operate at level 3. Some operate on more than one level.

For more on these levels, see '#TL074: Peme-Theory - Basic, Intermediate & Advanced'.

I'm interested in freedom activists in general advancing from level 1 to level 2, and from level 2 to level 3.

It's important to realize that operating at level 2 is considerably more challenging for most than operating at level 1. For every 100 (or 1,000?) freedom activists at level 1, there is maybe one operating at level 2. Similarly, it's much more challenging to operate at level 3. For every 100 (or 1,000?) freedom activists at level 2, there is maybe one operating at level 3.

To criticize people for running as "LP Candidates" is a waste of time. They're performing important freedom-promoting actions. To criticize them for using Slavespeak is also a waste. They need to use Slavespeak to be able to communicate to the "average slaves" and induce them to shift toward greater freedom.

If someone is engaged in a project involving a "New Constitution for Texas" -- a level 1 activity -- it's a waste of time to point out all the Slavespeak in the document. The document is aimed at people who understand little more than Slavespeak so it needs to be written in Slavespeak.

(Similarly, if you examine the Introductory Terra Libra reports, you'll find considerable Slavespeak.)

I suggest that we learn to distinguish between these three levels of freedom activity so you can respond and interact appropriately to people operating on the respective levels of freedom.

For example:

Assist an "LP Candidate" to become more effective; don't criticize him from a level 2 or 3 perspective. People at level 2 and 3 need to be tolerant of those operating at level 1.

Assist someone who's extricating himself from the tax system; don't criticize him from a level 3 perspective -- though it may be worthwhile to point out his or her most debilitating forms of Slavespeak (and Slavethink). People at level 3 need to be tolerant of those operating at level 1 and 2.

And if anyone is interested in advancing to freedom level 3, then provide appropriate assistance. In this context, it may be useful to critique a "New Constitution for Texas" from a level 3 perspective in order to make list members more aware of political and religious illusions and Slavespeak.

The following parable illustrates the three levels of freedom:

The Universal Hammer
Imagine a world in which the hammer is regarded as a kind of "universal solution." At an early age, all children have a hammer attached to their right hand in such a way that the hammer for all intents and purposes can never be taken off. It effectively becomes part of their body.

People in this world see practically every problem as solvable by hammer. Indeed, they seem to solve most of their problems by using their hammers. They see the world in terms of hammer-problems and hammer-solutions. Anyone who doesn't think and behave the way they should, is simply hammered into submission or hammered to death.

From early childhood, everyone is brainwashed to believe in the necessity, virtue, and inevitability of hammers. Practically all their thinking, communication, and behavior becomes hammer-oriented and hammer-pervasive.

Now somebody comes along (from another world?) and starts questioning the virtues of hammers. He also talks about possible alternatives to hammers. Eventually some people even start talking about "minimal-workable" hammers.

Eventually there are a thousand anti-hammerists. One day, one of them discovers a way to take off his hammer. So he takes it off and he throws it away. He walks around, showing people his bare right hand: "Look; no hammer!"

But among all the anti-hammerists (and many more pro- hammerists), only one in a thousand can see that the non-hammerist really has no hammer, but an empty hand. Every one knows that you can't possibly live without a hammer. When they are shown an empty right hand they can't believe it -- "Maybe he's using a trick to somehow hide his hammer!" -- "Maybe he somehow made his hammer invisible!"

Years go by. The number of anti-hammerists has grown to ten thousand. And nine more of them have shed their hammers. There are now ten non-hammerists.

Because all these people have for centuries lived in a hammer culture, and even though one in a thousand has learned about the virtues and vices of hammers, and one in a million has taken off their hammer, they all still suffer from "hammer-in-the-brain." It's much more difficult to take the hammer out of your mind, than it is to take it off your hand.

After many years there are a million anti-hammerists and a thousand non-hammerists. Then something interesting happens: one non-hammerist realizes that even though he removed the hammer from his hand many years before, he still thinks with a hammer in his head. Because hammer thinking had been so deeply brainwashed into him (and everyone else in his world, of course), it takes him seven years of strenuous mental effort to remove the hammer from his mind.

Meanwhile he talks to anti-hammerists and non-hammerists about "removing the hammer from your mind." Practically everyone thinks he's crazy.

But, as the years go by, the numbers of anti-hammerists and non-hammerists increase. Eventually there are ten million anti-hammerists and ten thousand non-hammerists. And lo and behold, there are now ten people who have largely or completely removed the hammers from their heads. They have hammer-free brains and minds.

So there are three levels of hammer freedom: 1) You discover the nature, virtues, and vices of hammers and the consequences of using them (anti-hammerism); 2) You physically remove the hammer from your hand (non-hammerism); 3) You remove the hammer from your thinking (hammer-free mind).

Richard Brodie's Three Levels

Richard Brodie, author of Virus of the Mind, has written an article 'Level 3', in which he describes three levels that resonate with the three levels of freedom I've identified.

Mark Lindsay <ml@buildfreedom.com> wrote me as follows about Richard Brodie's Three Levels:

Richard explains his three levels in 'Virus of the Mind' -- pages 221-223 [in a section called "the learning pyramid"].

Richard explains his levels as various learning styles or heuristics. People tend to operate from one of the following levels:

Level 1 - genetic programming you were born with (the four F's: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and -- er -- finding a mate).

Level 2 - academic subjects, acquired skills and fields of study (the three R's: reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic).

Level 3 - "Learning to look at life as something to be created out of your personal programming and purpose" (the two P's). ["It's complete personal freedom -- freedom from societal pressures, freedom from guilt, freedom from mind viruses."]

This is actually a very powerful schematic of personal development.

It ties in with and goes past that passage from Ouspensky that I like to quote:

"Our fundamental idea shall be that man as we know him is not a completed being; that nature develops him only up to a certain point and then leaves him, to develop further, by his own efforts and devices, or to live and die such as he was born, or to degenerate and lose capacity for development." [my emphasis]

One last thing, Richard's notion of three levels is similar to the three levels of freedom that we use in that he recognizes that it can be difficult for people to move up in levels.

In fact, he explicitly states that because of the "stuff" in a Level 2 person's brain, it makes it difficult for that person to move into Level 3.

He says: "... you will have tremendous resistance to even considering that Level 3 exists, or if it does, that you're not already in it."

Even more importantly, he says: "If you're in Level 2, your first reaction will probably be to compare what I say to something you already know and form a conclusion about it. That is a Level-2 learning strategy that does not work in Level 3. I invite you to read with the possibility in mind that there's something here that's different from what you already know...."

It might even be useful to engage Richard in a discussion of how to assist people in moving up his three levels.

This may give us some insights as to how to assist people in moving up the three levels of freedom.

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