Hey all! I recently came across the #freedomchallenge, and got rather excited as it's something that means a lot to me. So without any further ado, this is how I'd imagine life in a free world:
Life
I'm only 19, I wouldn't even consider myself an adult yet, I only left school 3 years ago. But the one thing that has really got me, it's got so far inside my head I don;t think there will ever be around it, is the fact I was lied to for 18 years. When I finished my second year of college, it suddenly hit me. I can't do what I want, be who I want to be.
All those years at school I was so passionate and motivated to create and better myself as a person, I was so productive, I just imagined coming out of studying hard and going straight into a job that I loved and would work hard in. I dreamed as soon as I left school, I would get thrown head first into the world of film and slowly, but steadily, work my way further up that ladder.
3 years on? A job in film? Are you actually joking right now...? I got the highest possible grade in media 2 years running, got onto a uni course, gave it 6 months and then dropped out because it was utter garbage. I achieved nothing in those 6 months that I couldn't have at home with the skills I learnt from college.
Since I left school I have had one day of paid work by an employer in the videography industry. It was videographing at a travel event, it's so far from what I imagined I'd be getting excited about. But the truth is, no one wants to hire somebody without experience, no matter how motivated they are. So any project with any relevance to my desired industry at all get's my heart pumping. Even though it's so much duller and tame that what I know I can create.
I did what I had to do, like anyone else does in this situation, and a got a part time job in public service industry. And the only thing that came to mind throughout my 3 years of working in that area, was, HOW and just WHY on earth would anybody choose to do this with their life? I'm sat there watching people my own age, work till their feet were falling off and their eyes could no longer function, for less than minimum wage, every single day, under the excuse their position is 'an apprenticeship'. I just could not wrap my head around the fact you can choose to undertake an apprenticeship in almost any subject ever, and these individuals had choosen nothing short of slavery. A role with so little room for personal development, I'm pretty sure in the future robots could take their places.
I was so unhappy. It was bringing me down in everything, my personal drive was heavily effected. I'd come home and look at a project blankly, and subconciously my brain would long for mundane tasks that I could perform automatically, anything sounded better than actually using my brain. I was drained. It felt like a had a cloud hanging over me. Sounds pathetic right? I was only in a few days a week at most. But that's all it took to open my eyes to the world around me.
We live in a world where profit is everybody's primary concern. Obviously. But I never realized how bad it was. We are nothing but numbers in a system. People are so overwhemled with the ridicolous cost of living, that they panic and see no other way other than to get themselves a full time job and work hard so they can have all the nice things in life. For what, though? I was witnessing people working 16 hour days 6 days a week, and then claiming they were happy that they were able to go out and spend 4 grand on a wrist watch and spend half a day a week with their loved ones.
I honestly can not see the difference in how the world works today, than how it it did 50 years ago. We're still slaves. We're just blinded by a false system that has been built to keep us in our places. There are so many of us, we easily get lost in the crowd. Not everyone can live a perfect life right? Right. But what if everybody could live a life they care for, what if everybody could be working towards something that motivates us? Imagine how fantastic the world would be if everybody actually wanted to be doing what they were doing. But that could never work, surely? We need public service workers. People need serving. People need their pints and food.
Hate to break it you hun, but no. No they don't. They really don't need you to bring them their grilled, cheapy fake lobster and processo anymore than the man that owns that kitchen needs to sit back doing absolutely nothing but earning a small fortune with every day you spend, false smiling, pretending you don't wish you were anywhere than here. There is no need for it. This is how the world works, but it isn't how it NEEDS to work. Do we really need these sort of systems to make the world go around? Forget money for one second. But do they really benefit anyone other than the fat cat at the top?
In A Free World
My vision of a free world would be one where I was free to create, and those around me were free to work hard on what motivates them, without having to worry about money interfering along the way. For example, If I could be right now, I'd be out exploring the world with a drone and the best camera and sound equipment I could get my hands on. But as close to this I can get at the moment is a 5 day trip to Portugal with a band I'm making a Hopumentary about, with a borrowed DSLR and Zoom Mic. Not quite the dream, but I'm getting there at least...
£600 out of my unemployed bank account later, I'm seriously regretting my last minute, really expensive project, where I am essentially working for free. Why on earth am I regretting an opportunityto explore doing the thing I love and want to do with my life?! Because it's not finanically viable. And in a free world, a world where we were truly left to our own devices, money wouldn't matter. It is disposable, unlike the foreboding time of arriving back home and realizing I am absolutely bankrupt.. panicking and having to go back into the cycle of working full time for somebody else, just to get my bills paid.
Now, I understand that in a world of our current economic state, most people instantly shut down the brief thought at the idea I am proposing. Because it is so far from anything anybody has ever known, it sounds absolutely absurd and ridicolous. But it's not. It's just something new, a change. And there is nothing that frightens us more as a population than change. With change comes risks, but what most people don't understand, with risks come change. Change you could have never imagined previously.
The unknown is scary, of course it is, but without it we would never progress. New discoveries would not be made, and everything would be the same day in day out. Oh wait. Sound a little familar maybe? More to me than anyone could ever understand.
Often I feel that I'm not from this planet, I do not belong here. I feel like I truly belong to a time and place very far away, somewhere where money never existed. A place where if you needed something, you exchanged services. Where we wouuld survive by helping each other grow as a race. We would cut out the middle man, and thrive on our own success and achievements. Hey, now this is sounding awfully familar...
Anyway just shut your eyes for a moment and imagine a world where nothing came inbetween you and your goals. It doesn't matter if you don't have that new guitar you desperately need to tour Europe with next week, instead of having to put yourself in debt and working god knows how many insane shifts to pay it off, all you'd have to do is lend a few hours of your time teaching someone the basics. That. That'd be my free world.
Do you ever feel you're just waiting for your life to start?
I do every day, and I'm afraid it's become an all too familar feeling among many. Instead of going out and chasing our dreams, making things happen, we sit here working away for hours for a promotion we don't even know will still exist by the time we get there.
In a free world, we'd all have the advantage of no money worries, so we'd have nothing holding us back, we'd have the power to go out and acomplish things we never thought imagnible.
If you're wanting to know more on my thoughts about how a world without 'the fat cat' could exist, here is a lovely video showcasing a town in India that has lived without religion, politics and money since 1968. This town is a perfect example of what humanity could achieve if we stopped being so distracted by pointless media and dull achievements.
