Tom Facchine – Is Freedom A Myth

			Everybody's a slave to something.
		

			Everybody obeys something. Right? We have a myth of freedom. In that sense, we don't think that, you
know, we think that we can just keep liberating ourselves right from these shackles, these
obligations, these things that we haven't chosen for ourselves, you're obeying something at the end
of the day. And that obedience might have a slightly broader definition than what you're used to
imagining. Maybe it's not just taking orders, but maybe it's has to do with what you fear, what you
love, what you prioritize what you're going to choose, in the sense of, if two things conflict or
two priorities conflict, which priority wins out, right? And so if you follow that logic, and you
		

			look at yourself and take account of your life, and your choices and your decisions, you will find
what's the rationale? Or what's the motivation behind your decisions behind your priorities behind
your your choices, and what is it that you're really serving in life for Muslims, we believe that
there is this sort of interesting paradox where when you submit yourself in servitude to the perfect
God, that that is the only actual freedom that exists, because everybody else has to be a servant to
something. And if you're not a servant, to the perfect God, then you're a servant to something
that's imperfect, whether you're a servant to the state nationalism, whether you're a servant to
		

			your race, whether you're a servant to your gender, whether you're a servant to some sort of
political platform or program, whether you're a servant to yourself, and your desires, or your
appetites, I want to eat this and drink that and watch that and have this relationship or that
experience. What wins out at the end of the day, what are you a slave to, right? Because every other
entity, or movement or ideology that you obey, other than Allah, other than the perfect God, it's
going to be imperfect. So some of us, for example, will will look at these books, like the self help
books are these books on leadership are these books on you know how to be better? And we'll take
		

			that as literally gospel, right? We will treat it like revelation. Okay, well, there's your master
right there, right? You're changing yourself. You're making these decisions, you're going to do
these things. But then when there's actual revelation, guidance from above, that's telling you Okay,
these are the things I'm the one who created you, these are the things that are harmful to you. This
is how you get into paradise. This is how you express your gratitude to your maker, then we get
allergic and we say no, I can't do that. That's so everybody's worshiping something. Everybody is
serving something or as a slave to something and so everybody should take the time to think about
		

			what is it that they're really serving