Almost to the end of my chapter on "Free Will" and whether it exists, for my book #HowTheForceCanFixTheWorld. Been thinking a lot about it. Then my daughter randomly comes up to me to talk to me about what's she learned in class about Sharecropping in the post-Civil War era..

this arrangement where poor farmers, both black and white, would rent land from families..work it..produce crops (hopefully and share the crop with the landowner to pay the debt. A lot of times it just snowballed. Debt slavery. Then I go out for coffee & pull out my credit card..

Chase FREEDOM Unlimited Card it's called. Funny. How we have all sorts of clever ways in which we rebrand slavery and servitude through the lens of freedom. Lying to ourselves. There's this thread in Star Wars actually, the Sith Code. (I'm writing a Star Wars infused book)

It goes
"Peace is a lie. There's only Passion.
Through Passion I gain Strength.
Through Strength I gain Power.
Through Power I gain Victory.
Through Victory my chains are Broken
The Force shall free me."

The idea is basically to give yourself to your emotions and base desires..

and if you give the steering wheel of your life over, you'll gain power and be able to use that power to really set yourself free from whatever chains bind you. Circumstance. Station in life. Whatever.

But Sith basically miss the part where they develop impulse control...

and in essence are enslaved to their passions, the things that the Jedi try to fully abstain from in order to not be dominated and subjugated by them. Which is exactly what was tackled in Plato’s Republic as it pertains to free will.

Anyways. Let freedom ring

none of this matters of course
cause we live in a simulation anyways =p