The Curious Case of Freedom

The topic of personal boundaries is one of supreme importance. It has profound psychobiological as well as moral and finally legal and political implications. As we are social beings, always existing in relationships, shaping as well as being shaped, I believe that these different facets of boundaries cannot be held in complete isolation from one another, nor should they be. 

In this episode I would like to delve into the importance of boundaries, building from the personal to the political and to explore how, while boundaries are generally recognised as vital to any meaningful human interaction, they are regularly sacrificed in our our society and systematically so in our relationship with the State. 

Source reading:

When the body says no by Gabor Mate

How we desire by Carolin Emcke

The problem of political authority: An examination of the right to coerce and the duty to obey by Michael Huemer

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠ and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify ⁠⁠⁠⁠on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠ and on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content, and for Judith Brugger for the beautiful logo.

Growing up in Israel I knew Passover as Hag Hacheirut, or the celebration of liberty, commemorating the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and their return to Canaan. But how did their enslavement come about? It is easy to look for a bad guy in ancient stories as well as in new ones, but if we look closely at the text that unfolds in the final chapters of the book of Genesis, we may find that reality is often more complex, and that even good intentions may lead to dire consequences, if they are imposed by force.

Source reading:

Book of Genesis

Aeneid by Virgil

The road to serfdom by F A Hayek

The discovery of freedom by Rose Wilder Lane

Drawing the line once again by Paul Goodman

The law by Frederic Bastiat

One is a crowd by Frank Chodorov

The first minister of agriculture by Robert LeFevre

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on ⁠⁠⁠Spotify ⁠⁠⁠on ⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠ and on ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content, and for Judith Brugger for the beautiful logo.

In this episode I explore the origins and development of the human shadow, on an individual as well a collective level, the darker as well as the golden shadow, the dangers that lerk when the shadow is left undiscovered, and how we may begin to integrate it to our conscious awareness.

Source reading:

The undiscovered self by Carl Jung

Owning your own shadow by Robert A. Johnson

The little book of the human shadow by Robert Bly

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Academy of Ideas:

Face Your Dark Side - Carl Jung and the Shadow

How to Integrate Your Shadow

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my ⁠⁠website⁠⁠ and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on ⁠⁠Spotify ⁠⁠on ⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠ and on ⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠

A big thank you to Simon MacHale, Kat Cohen and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.

Returning to the series on schooling vs. learning - this is the fifth episode of the series that started in episode 024. Having explored the seven hidden lessons of school, and delving into some detail regarding the first two: obedience and apathy, today I explore the third lesson: the lesson of apathy, or indifference, look at how these three lessons combined stifle creativity and growth, not only of individual pupils but of society as a whole, and discuss a possible path back from learnt apathy to regained curiosity.

Source reading:

Montaigne by Virginia Woolf

Autobiographical notes by Albert Einstein

Dumbing us down by John Taylor Gatto

In the realm of hungry ghosts by Gabor Máte

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my ⁠website⁠ and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on ⁠Spotify ⁠on ⁠Bandcamp⁠ and on ⁠Youtube⁠

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.

In departure from our usual format, and pausing the discussion on schooling vs. education, in this episode I present a story that I refer to as the fable of Socrates and Monosizea. It is an extract from a much longer essay by the law and ethics professor John Hasnas. The full essay is called The myth of the rule of law.

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my ⁠website⁠ and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on ⁠Spotify ⁠on ⁠Bandcamp⁠ and on ⁠Youtube⁠.

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.

This is the fourth instalment in the series on schooling vs. education. This time I focus on conformity. What is conformity? Is it simply in our nature to conform or is it a learnt trait? Do the schools really play a role in teaching us to conform? What are the dangers of conformity? And what could be the antidote?

This is not an exhaustive discussion on the topic of conformity, which is vast, but a conscious attempt to focus our attention on this topic within the context of the State and its hegemonic relationship with society.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the channel "Academy of ideas" for their inspiring content that influenced me greatly in the making of this episode.

I mention in this episode, among others, Frederick Taylor Gates (grandfather to Bill Gates). Frederick Taylor was a business advisor to John D. Rockefeller and in 1903 he founded the American General Education Board. Gates wrote:

“In our dreams, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our moulding bands. The present education conventions fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have an ample supply.

The task we set before ourselves is very simple as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them to a perfectly ideal life just where they are. So we will organize our children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shops and on the farm.”

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

If you're a fan of this show, you're welcome to become a supporting listener by going to my website and clicking the donate button. This podcast is free, and I intend to keep it that way, but your contribution whether big or small helps immensely and is highly appreciated.

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on Spotify on Bandcamp and on Youtube

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.

This is the third instalment in the series on schooling vs. education. Delving further into the lesson of obedience, considering how families and communities are so much embedded in a culture of submission, that the belief in obedience becomes a presupposition, a world view that is held under the level of awareness, and like any other unchecked and unaware belief, it taints the lens through which we view the world around us, and continues to manifest and become our reality.

Source reading:

Education - Free and Compulsory by Murray N. Rothbard

Compulsory Miseducation by Paul Goodman

Drawing the Line Once Again by Paul Goodman

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

The Chained Elephant by Jorge Bucai

This episode is the second instalment of the series on Schooling vs. Education. In this episode I begin to explore the unspoken or implicit lessons of school: Obedience, conformity, apathy, class position, intellectual dependency and provisional self esteem, drawing from my personal experience and substantiated by the works of John Taylor Gatoo, I focus mainly on the first lesson - obedience.

Source reading:

Education - Free and Compulsory by Murray N. Rothbard

Compulsory Miseducation by Paul Goodman

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Republic by Plato

Academy of ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyWFpsAnVuI&t=418s

The school sucks podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4WrRuddFFzXMfEK96aQgKU?si=e0baef9c6fbd47c5

In this episode I explore the implicit beliefs that must be held in order to advocate for compulsory schooling, how those become the field, the ground on which schooling takes place. I further explore the goals of a state compulsory school system and hope to show how real learning is self directed while state compulsory schooling is antithetical to learning and growth.

Source reading:

Anxiety by Fritz Riemann

The Drama of Being a Child by Alice Miller

Education - Free and Compulsory by Murray N. Rothbard

Compulsory Miseducation by Paul Goodman

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Freedom's Progress? by Gerard Casey

Having delved into the philosophy of Gestalt for the past few episodes, in this episode I chose to share something about my own personal story, in particular about my army days. I aim to integrate many of the things that I have discussed in the Gestalt series (episodes 11-22) in this episode and see how they apply in my own personal story.

If you would like to contact me directly, please write me an email to [email protected]

Presentation and production - Orí Harmelin

Bumper music - The tallest of Orders by Simon MacHale

Check out Simon's music on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/71OkM6qFs6Xmc1hlOjXgIl?si=bFReoX_LSKS5EHXo4AJPlg

On Bandcamp: https://simonmachale.bandcamp.com

And on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVi-A_N20DbM-GIdw50THPQ

A big thank you to Simon MacHale and Daniel Shafrir for their help and support in creating this content.