The Freedom Manifesto

How to Free Yourself from Anxiety, Fear, Mortgages, Money, Guilt, Debt, Government, Boredom, Supermarkets, Bills, Melancholy, Pain, Depression, Work, and Waste (Paperback)

Reading this book will not solve all your problems like the long-winded title says, but it will help you get a start. It's a very refreshing and easy to read book, and I think this should be read along with Kalle Lasn's CULTURE JAM. This is the "sequel" to" How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto" by British author and editor (the Idler) Tom Hodgkinson.

He cuts through all the bullshit right from the beginning stating his goal, which is to present a philosophy for everyday life based on freedom, merriment and responsibility, or anarchy. He wants to overthrow modern Puritans and return to an approach to life that is basically having a laugh, doing what you want in your own time, not take life too seriously and reject the system as much as possible. And that approach sounds very inviting to me. I certainly try not take life too seriously. I sometimes have a hard time ignoring all the shit out there though.

The only problem is that many of his topics sound a bit too easy, for example, in the chapter titled Forget Government, the message is Stop Voting, while in another on Submit No More to the Machine, Use Your Hands, his main advice is Use a Scythe. Redefining human relationships based on local needs instead of global capitalism is a fine idea indeed, and in a perfect world, if everyone thought like him, I'm sure we would all be better off. But he never quite explores in enough detail how this would happen in the real world, relying instead on grand statements, like moving out of the city, growing your own garden and not consuming, etc etc. Easy to say, but not so easy to do. We're living in a world where we can't walk a km without seeing a Big M hitting us in the face. The message is quite clear, but more detail is needed. Nevertheless, reading this book, if nothing else, will make think twice about what we buy, how much we buy and what we are doing every day to feed this corporate shit system that we all feed. We all just have to do a few simple things, like reject big corporations as much as possible, just simply don't buy from Wal Mart, MacDonalds and don't buy Nike, recycle, that kind of shit. But most people couldn't live without their TV or cellphone for more than an hour, and they would go into major withdrawal.

The book is excellent at first, a little shaky in the middle, then it wavered between those two emotions for the remaining pages. About halfway through he acknowledges how someone could view his ideas as contradictory. Sometimes the chapters feel like they are unfinished or could have gone deeper with more research. A lot of his chapters could have been contained inside other chapters.

It IS up to the individual to find and create his own happiness and to break free of controls like government or guilt. But then he talks about how people should live in communes and advocates smoking and drinking which are 2 things that feed the system big time.

I do really like his idea about throwing out the TV and reading more books. I also really like the chapter about PLAY, something most of us adults have forgotten how to do. We put so much goddamn importance on CAREER and CAREER advancement, but what does it all mean? Nothing, unless we can't have fun. That's especially true in a place like Japan, where people just work like dogs and NEVER EVER question what they are doing with their lives, they're just serving this big fat machine that sucks their entire life out, then spits them out when they're 64, with no idea what to do with their free time, no hobbies, just wasting the rest of their life away in front of the box.

I also like the chapter about banks. Banks are absolutely the worst evil places on earth and WE ALL are almost forced to use them. It is my dream that one day, every bank in the world will come tumbling down like dominoes. Banks truly suck and they treat us like circus animals. If something is wrong on OUR end, banks bug the shit out of us to no end, or take our homes and assets, but if it's their fault, they usually try to cover it up or make us wait for months. I can't begin to describe the feeling I get every time I am even near a bank. I just start laughing evilly, plotting in my head how I could blow it up...

Anyway, a good book that you can read it a day. It won't change your life, but it will certainly make you think. and will put a smile on your face.

Check out The Idler, Tom's magazine. Pretty interesting.