Freedom Is Crucial To The Human Experience

Pomp’s notes on Freedom by Sebastian Junger

To investors,

I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Freedom by Sebastian Junger. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning.

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Book’s main argument:

Freedom is a topic that we constantly talk about, but very few people stop to think what it actually means to be free. The pursuit of freedom is a concept as old as time - people have died fighting for it, others cherish it, and many enjoy its benefits without noticing. Sebastian Junger, who has traveled the world, walks hundreds of miles along the East Coast railroads with friends, while contemplating the concept of freedom. They are alone, dependent on only themselves, and forced to figure out how to survive. This is a quick read that will make you think more deeply about one of life’s most important topics.

6 Big Ideas:

💡 Idea #1 — Every American alive today was born after the settlement of North America. It is hard for us to comprehend how difficult life was, while also understanding the atrocities that took place in conflict of day-to-day life. Those who took risks and survived were able to achieve freedom. Junger writes about life during that time:

Not only did Native autonomy begin at the mouth of the Juniata [River], but in a sense white autonomy did as well. The colonial government had little authority beyond that point and even less means to impose it. If you were willing to risk being captured by Indians and skinned alive or carved into pieces so that you could watch yourself be fed to dogs, then you could make your way up the finger valleys of the Juniata and find a secluded spot to build a cabin and get in a quick crop of corn. There was nothing there but you, the land, and God, and if you were still alive after the harvest, you could send for your family and make a go of it. Maybe you could convince some other families to come with you. The risks were appalling and the hardships unspeakable, but no government official would ever again tell you what to do. 

💡 Idea #2 — The modern world is full of technology and innovation. Everything seems new. There are simple acts, such as walking, that we share with our ancestors though. Sedentary life discourages the act, but there is something powerful about walking outside. Junger writes:

You know you’re in cadence when walking feels easier than not walking. You know you’re in cadence when you stop talking or even thinking and just walk.

The poor have always walked and the desperate have always slept outside. We were neither, but we were still doing something that felt ancient and hard. 

The trip that Junger and his friends embark on is difficult. They are constantly avoiding the police, trying to figure out safe places to sleep, and generally surviving in the wilderness. But the solitude and related loneliness, coupled with the self-dependence, may have been the hardest part.

We walked around four hundred miles and most nights we were the only people in the world who knew where we were. There are many definitions of freedom but surely that is one of them. 

Lots of things that look like freedom when you’re with other people are just a form of exile when you’re alone. But the inside joke about freedom is that you’re always trading obedience to one thing for obedience to another. 

💡 Idea #3 — Everyone’s concept of freedom is different. For some, it is the grandest, most aspirational concept you can imagine. For others, it is simply safety. Junger writes:

The freedom that comes from being feared is tempting for people who have suffered that fear themselves. For people raised in safety, freedom can seem like a luxury, like money or good health, but first and foremost, it’s the absence of threat.

💡 Idea #4 — Western, democratic societies love to boast of the freedom afforded to citizens. The form of freedom that they are celebrating could actually be seen as a lack of freedom by others. The world is a big place, so having global context is important. Junger writes:

People love to believe they’re free, though, which is hard to achieve in a society that has outsourced virtually all of the tasks needed for survival.

Everyone - including people who vehemently oppose any form of federal government - depend on a sprawling supply chain that can only function with federal oversight, and most of them pay roughly one-third of their income in taxes for the right to participate in this system.

To be fair, it’s hard to feel loyalty to a society that is so huge it hardly even knows we’re here and yet makes sure we are completely dependent on it. 

💡 Idea #5 — Most competition, whether physical violence or corporate profit seeking, has a mental component of it that is usually ignored. When you want people to attempt the impossible, you have to give them a reason to try. Junger writes:

Anyone who wants to overthrow an established power - a government, an army, or even a dominant corporation - must, first and foremost, believe they are fulfilling a kind of historic destiny. 

While most people will defend their families without a second though, dying for an idea usually requires giving ordinary people an extraordinary sense of purpose, and both national suffering and God do that nicely.

💡 Idea #6 — Ego can kill a group. Wealth can defend it. Junger presents these ideas in an unique way at two different points in the book:

Hunter-gatherers often go to great lengths to make sure skilled hunters are not held in overly high esteem. It’s not that they are against excellence - in fact they depend on it - but they know how badly pride and ego can destabilize a group.

It’s tempting to imagine that economic injustice destabilizes societies to the point where they collapse and have to reform themselves, but the opposite appears to be true. Countries with large income disparities, such as the United States, are among the most powerful and wealthy countries in the world, perhaps because they can protect themselves with robust economies and huge militaries. They’re just not very free. 

Memorable quotes:

1. They protected each other from rivals in exchange for absolute loyalty - the oldest deal in the world.

2. For most of human history, freedom had to be at least suffered for, if not died for, and that raised its value to something almost sacred. 

3. Wealth is supposed to liberate us from the dangers of dependency but quickly becomes a dependency in its own right.

4. It was the very poverty of the Apache - nothing to defend and almost nothing to carry - that made them hard to subdue, and therefore free. 

5. An insurgency or political movement with leaders who refuse to suffer the same consequences as everyone else is probably doomed. 

Pomp’s Takeaways:

My first big takeaway from the book was Junger’s analysis of freedom from the context of conflict. He mentions how the sedentary lifestyle, which was brought on from the invention of farming, changed the way that people thought about societies. Humans previously roamed the earth in small packs - very few possessions and even fewer responsibilities. That life was physically hard, but mentally may have been easier than the dopamine-addicted lives we lead in the digital world today.

Additionally, the ability for hunter-gatherers and Native Americans to constantly fend off larger, better weaponized adversaries is a reminder of how ingrained the warrior culture was historically. When compared to the current environment of people being scared of offending each other, it is always good to read about the toughness of past warriors - their spirit is part of the human DNA.

My second big takeaway is how powerful nature can be for the mind. Junger and his friends walk about 400 miles along the East Coast railroads, so they have plenty of time to think. I remember reading an academic study about the positive mental impact of walking forward (no treadmill!) while outside. Regardless of the academic studies, anecdotally this works for me. I try to go on long walks (3+ miles or 1+ hour) as much as possible. No phone. No music. No podcasts. Just myself and my wife (sometimes baby too!) walking outside and talking about whatever is on our mind. Junger’s book reminded me of these moments.

My third big takeaway was Junger’s mention of a willingness to live near, and engage with, those you disagree with. He wrote “At the heart of most stable governments is a willingness to share power with people you disagree with - and may even hate. That is true for small-scale societies like the Apache and Iroquois as well as for large-scale democracies like the United States.” This is easier to forget given our obsession with social media and news, which is obviously driving a divisive narrative, but it is important to refresh ourselves so we can try to be more understanding of others. It is reassuring to have it hammered home that this modern struggle is not new, but instead something that humans have always had to overcome.

Lastly, my fourth big takeaway, was the general ambition of Junger’s adventure. Walking hundreds of miles in the wilderness with your friends is not on everyone’s bucket list, but when is the last time you went and did something epic? It can be a trip, a difficult task, or something that you have always wanted to accomplish. The human experience is unlike anything else - experiencing life is not done easily through your computer or cell phone. Do epic, ambitious, difficult things. Seek to have stories to tell your grandchildren about. You don’t have to do the hardest or biggest thing first, but you can get started this weekend.

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As I mentioned, this past week’s book was Freedom by Sebastian Junger. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday. Feel free to leave a comment - I read all of them.

-Pomp

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