People think they can handle freedom, but they forget it too requires responsibility. When they find this out, they change their minds, because they desired liberty with the fervent hope of shunning responsibility. But true liberty is costly.
When Kafka said “I am free, and that’s why I am lonely” he understood full well the importance of responsibility as a requisite to peace and liberty. Loneliness is the result of unearned liberty, because only the strong are competent to wield it.
That’s why spoiled people don’t know how to enjoy themselves; they’ve been handed down copious freedom, but they neither have the character nor the experience to enjoy and revel in it, so they end up lonely, and probably be better off enslaved.
Yes, most people are better off enslaved, because they haven’t suffered enough for their freedom, and subsequently take it for granted. They must build character and garner experience, since they lack both; only then can they furnish beauty & live wholly.
There are times when being a momentary slave is more profitable than being spoiled with freedom. Who told you freedom will make you content? You hardly know what fulfilment, strength, discipline, or suffering is. Discipline precedes freedom and preserves it.
But to desire a life devoid of self-regulation and occupied by indulgence is foolish, especially if you're a man; if you're not heaving a burden, suffering for purpose, and delighting in the fruits of your labour, you haven't truly realised your manhood.
It's only through the light of responsibility that you are unveiled to yourself, to your nature absent of falsehood. Unearned freedom shortcuts the suffering, experience, and maturation tied to purposeful living. Liberty is more pure when you suffered for it.
When they say beauty bursts forth from pain, it's very true. There is a great, immense pleasure in enduring pain for purpose, and then to subsequently revel in its fruits. It makes the fight worthwhile, and beautifies even the most unpleasant of tasks.
After having suffering gracefully for your pleasures, you start to understand something of moderation, and its importance in preserving beauty, because the essence of a civilised existence is this: nothing to excess, everything in moderation.
There is one exception to this rule, and that is the occasional mania that is imperative for sanity. If you happen to lose your mind from time to time, don't reproach yourself, don't feel a need to justify it. Learn to wield it to propagate poetry and art.
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artfulprudence.gumroad.com
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