Symbol Madness

By Charles D. Hayes

Freedom is a much misunderstood concept. To be truly free is to be exempt from self-imposed oppression because of something someone else is doing that is merely symbolic of something that matters.

If any individual or group is going to burn a book, or a flag, or build a structure on their own property that reminds you of something you would rather not think about, the problem does not exist in the desecration or the construction of these items.

The problem, plain and simple, is in your own head. As I explain in detail in Existential Aspirations, in a chapter titled “Flag Burning and Apple Pie,” to suffer oppression because of someone’s symbolic actions is to give that person or group power over you that they would not have if you did not give it to them freely of your own will.

With so many problems in the world and so much emotional angst over the economy, it is beneath the dignity of a free people to get beside ourselves with worry over sophomoric expressions. But not for the turmoil over the proposed mosque in New York, the Florida Quran-burning threat likely would not have occurred. Before we can show the world’s extremists what it really means to be free, we have to act free. We have to prove ourselves to be beyond school-yard taunting, even if we have to resort to chanting the nursery rhyme about sticks and stones.

Imagine what it would be like if the vast majority of people took complete responsibility for the neurons scrambling about in their own heads. There would be little opportunity for talk-radio hosts to make a living playing on the fears of the general public. People around the world would marvel that Americans really are a free people, and extremists would be left to simmer in their own angst.
Charles D. Hayes

Cross posted with Self-University Newsletter.

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About Charles D. Hayes

Author and publisher Charles D. Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and an impassioned advocate for lifelong learning. At age 17, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marines. After four years of duty, he became a police officer in Dallas, Texas, and later he moved to Alaska, where he has worked for more than 35 years in the oil industry. In 1987, Hayes founded Autodidactic Press, “committed to lifelong learning as the lifeblood of democracy and the key to living life to its fullest.”

Hayes’ first book, Self-University, won PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Award for nonfiction in 1990 and was called the best book on self-education of the decade by educator Ronald Gross. Early in the year 2000, his book Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World was selected by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine as one of the most outstanding academic books of the previous year. His other books include Existential Aspirations: Reflections of a Self-Taught Philosopher; September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life; The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning; Training Yourself; and Proving You’re Qualified. His recent novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, has readers across the country declaring they are going to read or reread classic literature.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes’ work has appeared in USA Today, Library Journal, Training magazine, Training and Development magazine, in the UTNE Reader, on Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska, and on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation.

Hayes’ books have been featured by hundreds of radio stations and newspapers and reviewed in The Bloomsbury Review, Midwest Book Review, Skeptical Inquirer, Across the Board, Adult Learning, The Brain/Mind Bulletin, Growing Without Schooling, Life Learning, Home Education, Latina, NAPRA Review, Publishers Weekly, Training Zone, Tech Directions, and The Wall Street Business Weekly, among others. He was a contributing writer for Creating Learning Communities, published by the Foundation for Educational Renewal.

In 1989, Hayes inaugurated Self-University Week, held annually during the first seven days of September to celebrate the joy of lifelong learning. Since then, his web site Autodidactic.com has continued to provide resources for self-directed learners—from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value lifelong learning brings to everyday living. In September 2004, Hayes initiated September University.com, a web site created specifically for aging baby boomers.

Contact the author at
[email protected]
http://www.autodidactic.com/
http://www.septemberuniversity.org/
http://self-university.blogspot.com/
http://septemberuniversity.blogspot.com/"

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