“The important thing is to concentrate upon what you can do – by yourself, upon your own initiative.”
-Harry Browne

This post is a condensed version of Harry Browne’s book How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.  Harry Browne was an author and businessman who was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president in 1996 and 2000.

Not Harry Browne

Freedom means being able to live your life the way you want to. The more free you are, the more time you spend on what you want to do, instead what you are forced to do or feel obligated to do. The best way to become free is through direct alternatives, actions that do not require the permission or cooperation of someone else.

There are various obstacles to using direct alternatives. Browne calls them “traps” and the most common one is the selfishness trap. Most people are raised to believe that being selfish is bad, and that instead people ought to focus on making each other happy.

Browne has an interesting way of debunking this idea. Suppose happiness is symbolized by a big, red rubber ball. The person who has the ball is happy, but he doesn’t want to be selfish, so he passes it someone else and so on. No one gets to be happy because they just pass the ball to someone else. What is the point of everyone sacrificing their happiness for other people who are also supposed to sacrifice their happiness? There is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy and everyone is selfish (focused on their own happiness) to a greater or lesser degree.

And then there are laws and informal social obligations. How should we handle them? Browne says everyone must decide how much they will comply with the wishes of others. You couldn’t please everybody even if you wanted to. Most people are reluctant to break laws and say no to requests, but you must learn to do these things if you want to be happy. Browne says as long as you break the rules carefully and discreetly, you have little to fear.

In relating with others, Browne says the key is keep the relationship limited to mutual benefit. You don’t have to like all the same things your spouse or lover or friend does. Remember that other people are pursuing their happiness too, and if you block them, they will resent it just as much as you would. For example, it may not be a good a idea to start a business with a friend because the business could change the relationship for the worse.

The long and the short of it is nobody has an obligation to make you happy nor do you have an obligation to make anybody else happy. Realizing this is an exciting feeling. You are not helpless in the face of external forces. You can choose. And even in the worst circumstances, you have control of your own thoughts. You always have some freedom.

There is no escaping the need to use your own judgement. Even when you decide to follow a religious, legal, or moral code, you used your own judgement to select it and you must use your judgement on when to disregard the code.

So be free. There will always be people who will try to tie you up for no good reason. The key is to ignore them.

 

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” 
-Frederick Douglass

“Freedom comes only from seeing the ignorance of your critics and discovering the emptiness of their virtue.”
-David Seabury

“Live free or die.”
-NH state motto

“And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he’s upset only because you aren’t doing what he selfishly wants you to do.”
-Harry Browne

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”
-Mae West

“Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live nor the smallest instinct about when to die.”
-Oscar Wilde

“To be nobody but yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
-e.e. cummings