What is freedom?

 Mankind started in this planet as a special ape. One who talked, made bonfires, produced art and also an ape who had a spectacular insight: there were things that he could not perceive with his senses, but that existed.

Probably, judging by the primitive societies that still exist, this was a happy ape.

However, at a certian point, began agriculture in a large scale. The idea that a seed develops into a plant they knew for long, but the idea of producing more than what you would eat, was a knew one. And that changed history. 

Human groups grew in their size, and some became richer than others. A mistery pervaded all the history of this ape. From the begining , the richer ones were in much smaller numbers, and lived more comfortably. The majority of the poor ones would very rarely revolt against their explorers.

They invented something called a code of laws. Those who disrespected that, would be punished.

There were strict laws to be followed, regarding all aspects of life, noteworthy there was not much room to choose your profession, changing of social class was rare, and even regarding marriage, most of them were arranged.

This pattern existed world wide.

More recently, in the west, these rules were questioned. Society apparently became more liberal. More people could choose their profession, and most people started marrying whom they chose for that.

Freedom of thought, of political opinion, and even your sexual preference thrived.

But a combination of factors led this ape to coexist with paranoy. Because rules broken, the space was there for competition. In non western socieies for example, women and men would perform different activities. The feminist movement in the west questioned that. From the point of view that women can perform most tasks as well as men. But the problem was different. The separation of activities existed to avoid competition between men and women, not only an outcome of a chauvinist thought of male dominance.

And also, as man distanced from nature, the perception of non material entities declined a lot.

So, the wealth of the nations, science, tecnology, all of that thrived.

But competition also. And with that, paranoy.

In my opinion, schizophrenic folks are perhaps the worst victims of that. Competition shatters them.

But the solution perhaps is on the corner. Just seeing how primitive societies conceive human existance.

Important to notice that many times people think they are choosing, but they are not. You are following a profession and marrying the person  your parents want, or because it is the fashion to work as this or that, and also the hair of your girl or boyfriend. Or sometimes the choice is made because you have no option.

But we can humbly attend a conference ( this actually took place in Brazil) of indigenous people. They came from all of the continent,even from Canada, and together consumed ayahuasca. The wisdom of these shamans for me might be the salvation.

Their societies are both free and non paranoic. The invisible is part of daily life.