means
we can do whatever we like
This is freedom absolute. No half-measures. No prisoners, victims, or slaves. “Do whatever we like” also means be whatever we like, and nothing we dislike is forced on us. Being able to escape unbearable suffering is the most important form of freedom, but all sincere needs and wishes matter inasmuch as they matter to the individual holding them.
An ideal world isn’t necessarily one in which every whim or desire can be fulfilled with ease, because we know happiness is sometimes found in challenge and striving, and sometimes desires can be happily assuaged instead of fulfilled. All of these can be things we ‘like’ to do, which is a statement of contentment and satisfaction, not desire itself. An ideal world is one which all beings find deeply satisfactory and that they’re not “in want” of anything (anything important to them.)
[ img: thumbs up ]
The world, or any world, isn’t necessarily something that can be ideal. A kind of existence, or non-existence, which is intangible and absent all constructs, desires, or multiplicity, might be the only true freedom. Maybe freedom is eternally confined to imagination and longing, every semblance of ‘liberation’ we achieve only serving to drag us deeper under domination. But whether we’re humans foolishly reaching for nirvana, heaven, a utopian pipe dream; or pigs eating corn-and-soymeal in a dark, dank barn; we still have to bear the uncomfortable conditions imposed on us. We still have to resist. Our ego, illusions, craving, the cold hard floor, pain, terror. It’s a dark reality we live in, but pretending we’re free or that we can ever truly be satisfied with anything less than absolute freedom will not make it any brighter.
[ img: a fox in barbed wire, a tear rolling down its eye ]
The antithesis of freedom is domination. This means not only is our freedom actively violated, but someone or something has the power to violate it. Domination serves as the catalyst for all forms of freedom-violation (violence.)
[ img: Puppet | Text: Even when the strings are slack, the puppet is still under control. Freedom isn’t the puppet forgetting the strings are there, but the absence of strings and puppet-masters entirely. ]
Domination
We don’t use the terms domination and submission in the sense of freely choosing to yield to another’s will or power. Domination here means dangerous power over someone, to the point of jeopardising their freedom. Submitting to this form of domination means giving up our autonomy and for this reason cannot be a truly free choice.
Domination is sometimes known as “structural violence”. Policies and institutions like censorship or armed police act as holstered weapons, lingering threats until actively applied. Natural laws like survival of the fittest act as structural violence of the universe itself, reaching brutal enforcement when predator strikes prey or any time we suffer. Suffering is a product of Darwinian evolution, which is itself a product of deeper natural laws.
[ img: Iceberg of violence | text: Violence was already a feature of the system, it just had to be activated. ]
A bit on the words we use: By default, we use “violence” to refer to active, overt violations of freedom. Domination is passive violence (“violent power”) that doesn’t always feel violent until it’s acted on. Inversely, violence is active domination which isn’t always understood as such. We never qualify violence or domination as “justified,” because we view them as inherently unjust. Every violent killing is a murder. Every violent treatment of others is abuse or mistreatment. We don’t, however, use the term ‘violence’ for anything other than that which is forced on an individual against their will. For example, consensual combat sports are completely non-violent despite involving injury, pain, and risk. Similarly, power imbalances do not constitute domination unless a genuine threat of violence is present. Respect and competence can offset power imbalances, whereas someone with a proclivity for violence can take advantage of even a small power imbalance.
[ img: Diagram | text: Domination is the power, violence is the act ]
Suffering is what it feels like to undergo violence. It’s deep, often desperate dissatisfaction.
A Dominator is someone in a position of domination, whereas an Overlord is a high-level dominator such as a demiurgic creator god or tyrannical oligarch.
Oppression
Oppression covers mechanisms or which “feed” domination, creating, increasing, or perpetuating it. Think of an abusive adult who threatens or punishes a child so they “think twice” about disobeying. This is clearly violent, but also serves to reinforce domination by coercing the child into submission. Civilians are often punished for possessing weapons for self-defense or resisting law enforcement, who themselves are heavily armed and use force against civilians with relative impunity. This reinforces the “State monopoly on violence” a.k.a. Domination.
Oppression can be overt and violent, but also insidious or “non-violent” and work unnoticed for a long time, feeding domination in the background. This is covert or subtle oppression. Think of a charismatic adult winning the trust of a naive child. Only later, when their trust is abused, might the child realise they’ve unwittingly “submitted” to the adult’s domination. A State-level example is the proliferation of ‘smart phones’ which seemed to improve quality of life, but double as dangerous surveillance technology. Israel has subsequently taken advantage of this to spy on and murder Palestinians by hacking their phones.
Marginalisation is a form of oppression where groups or individuals, often already vulnerable, are pushed to the “margins” of society via repeated unfair treatment, weakening their ability to resist violence or further oppression.
In nature,
Resistance
If domination is the power to commit violence, and it’s extensive and embedded deep within the universe, how exactly do we counter it?
Someone who resists domination is called a rebel.
Preventing an Arms Race
Domination takes myriad forms. In countering it, so does resistance. Partial resistance plays into the prolonged arms race where dominators and rebels are constantly trying to one-up each other. Not only does it prolong the struggle, it increases the stakes as dominators use more brutal and powerful oppressive tactics which can rapidly outpace resistance if the latter loses momentum. Think of two hares running a race where they each get faster as the race goes on — the penalty of stumbling is growing too.
[ img: Superheroes mean supervillains. Say no to both. | text: ]
The instinctive answer to the “hair-raising hare race” might be to go full tortoise-mode. Appear non-threatening, then get in the lead when your opponent is asleep. The problem with this is dominators can do it too, so it potentially only leads to a different kind of arms race.
Intelligence tells us all domination shares a common thread.
Original Domination
We feel unfree when the real (what “is”) doesn’t match the ideal (what we feel “ought to be.”) Those in domination rule the real. This disharmony is unique to living beings, who are “supposed to be” highly adapted via evolution, but if “adapted” means well-suited to one’s world, we suffer the most troubling maladaptedness of all — that of the heart. But, “suffering helps us avoid death” so it’s just a paradox, right?
[ img: Human says “I’m highly adapted, I’m a survival machine”, then dies from a flower. A rock looks on, unaffected by the same flower | text: Complex life repeatedly fails to achieve what a rock achieves simply — resilience and accord with nature ]
Biological evolution isn’t about adaptation. Adaptation is what the universe does by default — instability gives way to more stable (higher entropy) states; “survival of the fittest” in the purest sense. Instead, life sustains the need for adaptation by reproducing highly unstable molecules (RNA and DNA) which can “mutate” (form into different arrangents) to occasionally last a bit longer under specific conditions.
No wonder we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of need, fulfilment, and more need.
On the bright side, the universe overall doesn’t favour the conditions for life and suffering.
[ img: Entropy | text: The true path of cosmic evolution, according to science. “Biological” evolution is directionally opposite. ]
Scientists call entropy “decay” because complexity and difference crumble under their own weight. This is reminiscent of biological or cultural decay which are consequences of negentropy, not entropy, so we prefer the term “remission.”
Escaping the Matrix
Core instability or “True Chaos” is the antidote to stagnation.
Regression
Spiritual + Material resistance feed into each other
Spiritual Resistance
Resistance which is wholehearted and sincere is intrinsically successful, not because it’s always effective in its aims, but because it’s an act of pure free will in itself, one which stands in spite of domination and imposed conditions, not merely in their absence. For the devout freedom warrior, domination never succeeds on a psychological level. Even Rebels facing Eternal Hell remain free in an ultimate sense.
[ img: Spirit “You can’t take me, I’m free” | text: Spirit emphatically asserts his freedom, in spite of the brutal attempt to completely dominate him. Because in spirit, he is free. ]
Changing the world is secondary, though essential in bringing resistance to completion. Where there’s a will there’s a way. The greatest problem therefore isn’t changing the world, but that our resistance wavers and we choose submission, time and time again. This is fundamentally because we are not all individuals with perfect free will and integrity; our “dominator” lives both outside and within. Torture works by turning one’s “resistance” inward, against feelings of pain, fear, and distress, so one (literally, emotionally, psychologically) breaks and is forced to submit to the greater dominator — the very torturer responsible for their strife.
We can see this pattern repeat at every scale. Many submit to the State to deal with personal and interpersonal challenges, even though the State is often a much more dangerous power than the local thugs or natural disasters from which we nevertheless need rescuing. It is capable of generating struggles exceeding these and extorting compliance much like the torturer. Many submit to the Creator God (the Ultimate Dominator; imaginary or not) in order to be “saved” from the very torture device “He” created.
Submission is a strategy, but always a regrettable one. When those same “bootlickers” have their rights trampled by State forces; or when Believers wind up in Hell despite false scriptural promises, they already lack the integrity to meaningfully resist their final punishment.
Since the problem is that the individual isn’t really “undivided,” and the collective isn’t really “collected,” we can safely call these illusions. This mirrors the Buddha’s revelation that the “self” doesn’t exist except as a loosely coordinated composite, generating a fundamentally unstable identity.
Resistance vs Intolerance
On some level, we all love freedom and all oppose violence when it affects us, because violence is by definition “something we dislike.” This appears circular though. Isn’t violence only violent because we “dislike” it? Are we dominated by our own “resistance”? Should we practice radical acceptance instead?
Intolerance and opposition are the nature of violence, not its rival. So yes, it is circular. The fact we’re able to be bullied by negative emotions is what gives dominators their violent power. Radical acceptance is resistance. This doesn’t mean insincerely “accepting” our situation (another form of submission), but accepting our feelings as well. It means choosing not to “fight fire with fire” and “intolerate intolerance”, or “fear fear,” because this only feeds the supposed “problem” and blocks emotional release.
[ img: representation of internal cyclic violence ]
The only true rival to domination is freedom. True freedom cannot be given or taken away. It isn’t begged for, only expressed and asserted. It’s been claimed that God has “given” us free will, when God could only have failed to take it away, despite being “all-powerful.”
Encouraging Action
“Moral behaviour” and “moral values” are widely treated as something we can and should forced on others because this serves to “reduce” violence, therefore it’s justified. The lesser of two evils is still evil. In no way is coercing others or violating their freedom a form of resistance.
Complete freedom, and complete expression of our inner freedom, means not only are our hearts free, but the entire universe.
Liberty
As all violence flows from domination, all freedom flows from free will. We call the “freedom” that flows “liberty”.
Liberty can take any form, it’s up to the individual to decide whether it’s something they freely choose or not.