Rejection and obligation

Back in the sixties, my friends and I wondered "what if they declared a war and nobody showed up?". With the college dropout rate averaging 50%, I've wondered if half the entering freshman are wising up to what a real education entails. With the global economy contemplating a world wide recession, I'm now wondering if we're seeing through those economic obligations to our real freedom here.

When we believe in our own free will, other people's free will is a violation of our own. We cannot handle what happens because it appears our own free will is in jeopardy. When we exercise this kind of free will, other's feel rejected. They cannot get their viewpoint understood, heard or respected. There's only one frame of reference in play by the one who's free will appears to be getting violated.

When we feel rejected, we instantly feel obligated to the free will that's eliminated our own. We lose our sense of orientation and turn to a sense of duty, commitment, endurance and hardship. We make all kinds of sacrifices in hopes of eliminating the feeling of rejection. It does no good, but it does give us experiences of fighting battles, taking classes and working inside machines.

Because we feel obligated by rejection, there are masses of citizens who show up to fight wars, study textbooks and toil inside corporations. There's no end in sight while we sleep through the part of the cycle where rejection turns into ferocious obligations and willingness to sacrifice. We centralize control, impose will top down on those below and insist on who's really stupid regardless of what they claim to the contrary.

There's signs that this sad story is coming to an end. We can reject the notion of "our own free will" that affords us the luxury of thinking our rights have been violated. We can submit to what happens. We can limit our free will to how we perceive and interpret what happens. We can grow in our understanding, relating, connecting and co-creating. We can redefine ourselves to be whatever makes the most sense in our current understanding. We can exercise our free will in a way that dovetails with every other free will.

When we experience the vibes of others who let go of "old-style free will", the feeling of rejection by them is gone. We no longer feel obligated in hopes of getting the feeling of rejection to go away. We now have a use for networks that expose us to many other frames of reference, world views and experiences of freedom amidst constraints. We're free to" call it like we see it: and let others do the same without violating our "right to be right" regardless. We've awakened from the nightmare.