Them Too

Buddhists seek freedom as well. Zen Buddhism appears to be in part a reaction to the highly formalized, traditional, self-conscious Japanese culture.

Christianity, Islam, and I believe Hinduism also arose and were cultivated across various epochs in which various empires were in their peak of violence and/or decay, in which much of the population was profoundly constrained. Like all great religions, they eventually became highly formalized and authoritarian over time, but if one digs to the core of those bodies of thought, one finds that same impulse towards freedom and a general inversion of decadent, destructive values of empire.

Buddhism does seem to remain the more timeless of the religions. Mahayana Buddhism anyways. There are those inevitable calcified, authoritarian outgrowths of Buddhism that involve ritual and adherence, but Buddhism properly practiced is probably the best component for spiritual understanding and highly relevant and effective for overcoming modern madness. It is also highly adaptable; it's almost like the scientific method of spiritual thought in that way.

Bwahaaaah!

It's important to stress that as desirable as freedom is to constrained actors, there will always be limits to freedom of movement. In the socio-political realm, one should strive for the right balance between freedom and constraint. I think it would be kickass to race down Ocean Blvd at 100 miles an hour, but I wouldn't get far because of the inevitable population of other drivers, many moving in conflicting directions. I would crash, endangering my life and probably ruining someone else's. As boring as sitting at a light may be, its actually more free than you would be in the case of hopelessly being mangled in a piece of twisted metal.

This is the conception of freedom that the powerful simply don't get (or don't want to get), because they already have an extreme range of free movement, which has been detrimental to the rest of the population, much like speeding down Ocean with an expensive shock-absorbing rocket car. This radical freedom of movement must be absolutely intoxicating, which could explain why deep down the powerful are so existentially terrified of giving up their power.

But nevertheless they peddle their bullshit conception of absolute, constraint-free freedom (which some argue is probably a conception that can be traced philosophically back to Roman slave law in which owners had absolute dominion over their slaves like they were objects) to the unsuspecting populace in the hopes of winning the consent of the rest of the population. The logical outcome of this conception is embodied wonderfully in the comic below (and really we are sort of living through a real-life approximation of it), which I came across in a comments section thanks to someone sharing. I regret not being able to credit the artist, who made me laugh (several times on multiple viewings) in an otherwise mirthless workplace:

Right Right

One of the reasons Minecraft is so appealing is that it serves as a separate psychic space in which one can exercise an almost unlimited freedom of choice, a freedom of choice that is often not available in the various modes of living that are so dominant in our society.

Having a job, going to school, anything that sustains a living (which is sort of necessary) operates with control from the top down. One is under control and usually strictly directed. And the ones with the greatest concentration of the ability to control the surrounding environment are hopelessly out of reach. Communication has broken down. 

 If one is not in control of one's situation, one becomes apathetic towards the overall outcome of one's own efforts. So we've drifted to a point in which there is almost total external material control, and so, upon finding ourselves adrift amidst forces we can't control, have become anxious with every increasing jostle in the wrong direction. 

So the idea is regaining control of one's own freedom of movement mentally and physically. Ultimately in the material world. But with video games like Minecraft, and with social experiments such as free improvisational music, one can exercise a radical freedom of movement within a mental space as a simulation of some time to come. To learn how to reorient an entire society.

 Jazz musicians were seeking freedom. Nigerian afro rockers were seeking freedom. The Grateful Dead and all the acid rockers like that were seeking freedom. Hip hop artists in the Bronx were seeking freedom. The extreme fragmentation of the internet is a reflection of an entire population that is seeking freedom. We can hear it in the music. It sounds good to us because the artists were after the same thing. Free radical games like Minecraft feel good to play because they generate those spaces in our heads in which we have free control over the totality of our activity. This is why the word "freedom" itself has so thoroughly crystallized. 

This is the progression of all history: those constrained moving towards higher freedom of movement. It is going to happen inevitably. Top down capitalism feeds its children increasingly freedom-generating video games due to increasing demand for psychological freedom-increasing products from those progressively more constrained by ruled society's mechanisms. And more time and energy is going to go to those pursuits, thereby depriving the old order of energy for itself. 

And so it goes.