It's been one of my favorites for a long time. I've seen it shared quite a bit on Facebook, but before Steemit, I never knew who the author was. When putting this together, I found the author's site. I hope it drives some traffic their direction.

Very well said. I think doing comes from thinking and thinking comes from inputs to our brain (education, art, conversation, relationships, etc). I'm excited for the future as there's plenty to be optimistic about!

If more of us act as if we are already free, more of us truly would be free.

You're not married, are you? Heheh. *Happy wife, happy life.* She's done more to keep this house beautiful than I ever would have cared to do, and I greatly appreciate it. If I had an office, I might put it up there, but I happily work from home.

I would say people are not really free. If you want to start a business, build a home, travel to another part of the world, get married, go fishing, fly a drone or a plane, drive a car, etc, etc... then you need permission from the government via permits, licenses, and so forth.

Americans may be "more free" than others (mainly due to their economic wellbeing), but I don't think we are truly free. There are more restrictions on freedom today then in many other times in the history of this country. It started out much like a minarchy with very little centralized government. That's the reason, I think, it prospered so greatly.

Unfortunately, all systems which start out with the root of authoritarian thinking (i.e., it's okay for humans to rule over other humans) will eventually lead to centralization of power and control resulting in less freedom.

I hope I sourced the author of the image and promoted their content effectively. :)

Ah yes, I've always loved this one! It reminds me of "We should use physical punishment on our kids to prepare them for an evil world... made up of people who dealt with physical punishment as kids."

Yeah, I've seen these animations before as well. So awesome. I need to get myself one of those no rulers t-shirts. :)

Well said. As I like to think about it, good ideas don't require force. I linked out to my <a href="https://steemit.com/anarchy/@lukestokes/the-myth-of-authority">myth of authority</a> post which you might also like. The problem with government, as it exists today, is it attracts people who wish to rule over others. I'm okay with the "bitching" only when it's constructive idea creation. Revolutions are often destructive and wasteful while not accomplishing much long term since the rapidly created power void is rapidly filled. As I was saying to @bacchist, our ideas form our actions, and it's important for people to think beyond the models of society they were given since birth. With where many of us are today on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, we don't need rulers to understand the benefits to all in striving for increasing well-being and win/win game theory tactics.

Thanks for your comment. I like many of Chomsky's views, but I also think he misses some value which market forces can provide, but I may be mischaracterizing him a bit.