This is a big topic for me, how we can cultivate appreciation, particularly in a world of overabundance. Being aware of history, and then stories as you say, are helpful. Then there is some aspect of deliberate habit and practice. I often like to think of being a character like "Matthew or Marilla Cuthbert" (as I always say to my wife). You start out with their day, and then you can see all the things that are already done, all what they might have to do before they could sit for coffee, which, to boot, is not even close to how we sit for coffee in many ways. Yet we just start there. Mega-rich, I say.
As for freedom, I can think of North Korea, say, or encourage kids to imagine the Japanese occupation. We can see it in historical dramas, for one. Just actually imagine a day there. Then look around your dreary classroom and get energized about all the opportunities you have.
I'm leaning mostly into the idea of being way richer than we feel, yet the freedom we enjoy is essential to that. It's in fact the fundamental reason we are rich--that people have been free to pursue what they are most interested in and best at producing.
I think on this because I am quite good at appreciating things. And I know it's something that's been developed. I do think it's a habit built upon reading, understanding the past both in factual terms and through stories. Then I add the habit of imagining the nature I see outside, say, yet with none of the roads, shops, amenities, etc. Just the hills, forest, and maybe a horse if I were lucky. Then I feel like a futuristic Lord and try to earn at least a little of it.
Please allow that this is a ramble and so maybe a little incoherent! In any case, your post has made me stop to wonder at my freedom today!
Thank you, Matt, for your wonderful and thoughtful comment! I love your approach about stepping back to wonder at all that made our abundant existence possible and what life was like before without all that. We *are* wealthy in so many ways, but don't always think about our lives that way. You've helped provide more ways we all can cultivate wonder and appreciation for the freedom that makes our lives possible--and inspiration for continuing to improve and enhance freedom.
Do people have to experience slavery in order to value freedom? No, but those who haven't had to fight for something are vastly more likely to fail to appreciate it, and this risk increases with each subsequent generation that has lived in relative freedom and comfort. The tree of liberty must indeed be periodically refreshed with the blood of tyrants. I think it's possible to reach a point where war and violent revolution will never again be necessary, but that sort of culture requires an incredibly strong, clear, and explicit philosophical foundation. We are still a long way from that goal, but we should be doing whatever we can to move closer to it, one life and one mind at a time.
Thank you for sharing this insightful comment, Tim! Hear, hear on your call to each of us in working to bring about a world worth living in: "but we should be doing whatever we can to move closer to it, one life and one mind at a time."
I think this needs to be seen in a broader perspective. Liberty, equality, fraternity. You cannot have one for long without the others. In an unequal divided society, you risk losing your freedom. Those who do not feel free follow a leader who offers freedom while seeking to taking it away. It’s the roots of totalitarianism that need to be appreciated in order to properly value freedom. Over abundance is itself a threat to freedom, used in China to justify a controlling state, used in the West to further the control of big corporations. Ultimately freedom needs to be pursued at a psychological level so that we do not remain slaves to our impulses and our conditioning.
You raise a lot here to wonder further about, Charles, way more than I can address in one comment. While I subscribe much more to the American Revolution's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" than to the French Revolution's "liberty, equality, fraternity," you raise a good point about human moral psychology. There are inner conditions of freedom, which are not the same thing as political liberty. When I was a professor, one of the philosophy courses I taught was on the "Philosophy of Freedom." Half of the readings were on what we might call philosophical psychology and the other half were on political philosophy. Your brief mention of conditions ripe for totalitarianism remind me of books by Eric Hoffer and Robert Jay Lifton.
Yes, too much to go into here. I suppose what I am saying is that appreciating your freedom by consciously enjoying it is not in itself going to preserve it. Equality and fraternity need to go with it because inequality and division are what can destroy it, the French Revolution being an extreme example of that principle. And what underlies inequality and division is human psychology.
This is a big topic for me, how we can cultivate appreciation, particularly in a world of overabundance. Being aware of history, and then stories as you say, are helpful. Then there is some aspect of deliberate habit and practice. I often like to think of being a character like "Matthew or Marilla Cuthbert" (as I always say to my wife). You start out with their day, and then you can see all the things that are already done, all what they might have to do before they could sit for coffee, which, to boot, is not even close to how we sit for coffee in many ways. Yet we just start there. Mega-rich, I say.
As for freedom, I can think of North Korea, say, or encourage kids to imagine the Japanese occupation. We can see it in historical dramas, for one. Just actually imagine a day there. Then look around your dreary classroom and get energized about all the opportunities you have.
I'm leaning mostly into the idea of being way richer than we feel, yet the freedom we enjoy is essential to that. It's in fact the fundamental reason we are rich--that people have been free to pursue what they are most interested in and best at producing.
I think on this because I am quite good at appreciating things. And I know it's something that's been developed. I do think it's a habit built upon reading, understanding the past both in factual terms and through stories. Then I add the habit of imagining the nature I see outside, say, yet with none of the roads, shops, amenities, etc. Just the hills, forest, and maybe a horse if I were lucky. Then I feel like a futuristic Lord and try to earn at least a little of it.
Please allow that this is a ramble and so maybe a little incoherent! In any case, your post has made me stop to wonder at my freedom today!
Thank you, Matt, for your wonderful and thoughtful comment! I love your approach about stepping back to wonder at all that made our abundant existence possible and what life was like before without all that. We *are* wealthy in so many ways, but don't always think about our lives that way. You've helped provide more ways we all can cultivate wonder and appreciation for the freedom that makes our lives possible--and inspiration for continuing to improve and enhance freedom.
Do people have to experience slavery in order to value freedom? No, but those who haven't had to fight for something are vastly more likely to fail to appreciate it, and this risk increases with each subsequent generation that has lived in relative freedom and comfort. The tree of liberty must indeed be periodically refreshed with the blood of tyrants. I think it's possible to reach a point where war and violent revolution will never again be necessary, but that sort of culture requires an incredibly strong, clear, and explicit philosophical foundation. We are still a long way from that goal, but we should be doing whatever we can to move closer to it, one life and one mind at a time.
Thank you for sharing this insightful comment, Tim! Hear, hear on your call to each of us in working to bring about a world worth living in: "but we should be doing whatever we can to move closer to it, one life and one mind at a time."
I think this needs to be seen in a broader perspective. Liberty, equality, fraternity. You cannot have one for long without the others. In an unequal divided society, you risk losing your freedom. Those who do not feel free follow a leader who offers freedom while seeking to taking it away. It’s the roots of totalitarianism that need to be appreciated in order to properly value freedom. Over abundance is itself a threat to freedom, used in China to justify a controlling state, used in the West to further the control of big corporations. Ultimately freedom needs to be pursued at a psychological level so that we do not remain slaves to our impulses and our conditioning.
You raise a lot here to wonder further about, Charles, way more than I can address in one comment. While I subscribe much more to the American Revolution's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" than to the French Revolution's "liberty, equality, fraternity," you raise a good point about human moral psychology. There are inner conditions of freedom, which are not the same thing as political liberty. When I was a professor, one of the philosophy courses I taught was on the "Philosophy of Freedom." Half of the readings were on what we might call philosophical psychology and the other half were on political philosophy. Your brief mention of conditions ripe for totalitarianism remind me of books by Eric Hoffer and Robert Jay Lifton.
Yes, too much to go into here. I suppose what I am saying is that appreciating your freedom by consciously enjoying it is not in itself going to preserve it. Equality and fraternity need to go with it because inequality and division are what can destroy it, the French Revolution being an extreme example of that principle. And what underlies inequality and division is human psychology.