Deeper Dive Into the Real Meaning of Freedom

Post Reply New Topic

I recently spent several weeks in a rural part of China, whereas before I had only been to the usual big cities out East.

They're at the stage of capitalism where everyone is eager to live a middle class life. Shops everywhere, and phone apps make buying almost effortless. When you see it in Shanghai it seems normal for a global metropolis, but when you see it in 'tiny' (so much population, even 'towns' are over 1,000,000 people!) towns and cities far from the economic centers, you realize it's permeated the entire culture.

Now, living there is not for me. The surveillance is even more extreme than what we see in the U.S. and the U.K., for example. That's a deal-breaker for me. But they definitely are capitalistic, so anyone who suggests that they aren't is either speaking from ignorance or has an ulterior motive for demonizing the country in that way.

The problem is, the U.S. apparently has to have an equal enemy, and with so many of our politicians and wealthy business owners chumming up to Putin and therefore Russia, we've forgotten where the real danger lies.

It's not about the system and how lenient or accepting -- it's about how one plays the system.

It's not about the culture and the authorities, it's about how to play along with them. The difference between survival strategy and living is that the latter is a willful experimental game.

All risks are perceived. Even if said risk is an actual threat of death from someone.

Everything, no matter how strict the system is -- made mostly by humans, are very malleable than it seem to be.

In turn, being a human is more malleable than that. What's not being malleable is the ego, the beliefs and all those attachment hiding behind the scenes -- in which can be true to everyone.


I say true freedom comes from within first. Living on one's own terms implies a more assertive choice, having to realize a choice implies awareness and some accessibility.

Relying on a system to be free implies a more rigid self, which is somewhat true for most autistics in social settings.

Being able to access on a different system implies either greater skill and assertion to take over the whole room, or the prowess to manage to go elsewhere or flat out privilege to go anywhere.


I've been playing with the outsider's freedom in elementary myself, long before I knew what the word being free exists.
I've been outside the box since I was a kid.

I'm only several levels short of opportunitism. While I can play the social game -- my biggest obstacle is still everything about emotional dysregulation and whatever hidden health related issues...

And also because I hate business. I hate the monetary system. All because of some stupid familial attachment. Need to overcome that first.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Regarding freedom and China vs. US/other Western countries is that judging China by Western standards is nonsensical. China is not a Western country. Are people happy there? At least some, probably. Would you or I want to live there? Probably not, but apparently some Western people do OK there. But if you insist on judging China by Western standards, Chinese people will just think you're stupid.

BTW I have very little idea what life is like in the Philippines.

I agree.

What I've been gathering over the last few decades of my life is effectively something like - freedom = the Red Queen's race. People have to be 'better than' the next person to attract a mate, therefore most people go as far as they can to pull whatever levers they can to raise their status (and considering we're part of the animal kingdom evolution does not care about lying, cheating, or stealing - just head-count of grandkids) and often do so with zero regard to honesty or dishonesty.

Freedom in that context then, absent of meaningful social structure or narrative, quite often means both of the following:

a) Tyranny of the petty and stupid. For example if you don't behave 'just like' people with 90 to 100 IQ you're treading a lot of water not to get exiled from your job and most social circles you might court because your not allowed to say anything that surprises anyone and if you do you look like too much of a potential cluster B or even just competitive risk, at best they won't want you around because they find you unrelatable. I'm also going to say that while I harbor no judgment against people of average intelligence it's the people who are 115+ IQ who behave stupidly and attempt to use the situation as a mugging game try to command armies of dupes - they're the people who are supposed to be part of the solution and instead are too busy lining their pockets.

b) The tighter competition gets the more a certain level of competition is taken for granted and you end up in a place where everyone has to give it their all plus cut into their long-term health to make board. The limits of the average person can put some degree of a cap on that but the absolute 'I'm better than you!' narcissism that gets thrown around over this turns into a social force of condemnation for anyone whose not slaving away 60-80 hours per week.


It just sees like a profoundly stupid way to live and it's something I'm doing my level best to break away from - especially considering that as an autistic I'll be a permanent societal outcast outside of small and well-vetted friends groups (my friend group is small but many if not most are 20+ years) and plus I most likely won't get married or have kids, so it's questionable what they even have to offer someone like me other than commandment to voluntary slavery. I'm not at all saying I have a problem with work in general, it's just when you're not allowed to know what you need to in order to get jobs done or the people appraising the jobs and writing the contracts don't understand what kinds of complexity, let alone third party failures, you'll be running into. It feel like it's a place where everyone's trying to pass accountability on everyone else, most things are built like crap, when it's a third party it's worse because what you're working with is black-boxed, so the hardest part of most jobs is how much you're accountable for that's really other people's behavior and willingness or unwillingness to solve problems.

I would say for women and LGBTQ+ people, they would be safer in China, due to communist countries traditionally being hostile to religion.