Must Read! How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne

[Winston]

Hi all,
I have a Christmas gift for you all. It's an ebook called "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World". It will enlighten your mind to many social programming and identity traps that we all fall to but don't realize. It will identify them for you, show you why they don't work for you, and show you how to break free - after all, true freedom and liberty begin in the mind. Every page contains many compelling and logically sound arguments. It's an amazing must read book, and priceless gift you won't want to miss out on. Check it out. To download, right click the link below and select "Save Link As".

* Link removed by request of Mrs. Pamela Browne. She requests that you get the ebook off her website at http://www.harrybrowne.org

Here is the intro chapter for your preview:

1
Freedom in an Unfree World

Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.
The urge for freedom is so much a part of human nature that it can never be
suppressed by laws, slogans, or commandments. There is a difference, however,
between the urge and the reality.
For most people, freedom remains a pleasant fantasy — something to dream of
while carrying out daily obligations in the real world. They spend their lives talking
vaguely of what they want in life, what they think they’re missing, why they don’t
have it, and who it is that prevents them from being free.
For most people, freedom is an “if only.� “If only it hadn’t been for my wife, I would
have been a success.� Or “If only it hadn’t been for Roosevelt (or Nixon or
whomever), the country would be free.�
The unfree person can never fully repress his urge for freedom — whether he
considers his jailer to be his family, his job, society, or the government. And so, from
time to time, halfhearted attempts are made to break free from the restrictions.
But unfortunately, those attempts usually depend upon the individual’s ability to
change the minds of other people — and so optimism eventually turns into frustration
and despair.
Hoping to be free, many people engage in continual social combat — joining
movements, urging political action, writing letters to editors and Congressmen, trying
to educate people. They hope that someday it will all prove to have been worthwhile.
But as the years go by they see little overall change. Small victories are won; defeats
set them back. The world seems to continue on its path to wherever it’s going. Until
they die, the hopeful remain just as enslaved as they’ve always been.
The plans, the movements, the crusades — none of these things has worked. And
so the unfree person continues to dream, to condemn, and to remain where he is.
There must be a better way.
There must be a way to be free without having to wish for a miracle. It must be a
way by which an individual can change things without having to rally the rest of the
world to his side.
2
It has to be a way through which he can get rid of exorbitant taxes, have the time
to do what he wants to do, enjoy love without tiresome complications, remove
irritating social restrictions, and free himself from the hundred and one burdens that
others daily hand him.
And it must be a way that doesn’t require that he re-educate all the other people
involved.
Fortunately, there is such a way.
It isn’t necessary to join a massive campaign to reconstruct the society in which
you live, nor do you have to patiently re-educate everyone you deal with.
There’s a way that depends entirely upon what you choose to do. You can be free
without changing the world. You can live your life as you want to live it — no matter
what others decide to do with their lives.

Is It Possible?

If that doesn’t seem possible, I’m not surprised.
After all, how can you live as you want to live when there are so many people
who won’t let you?
How can you spend your money as you please when the government takes so much
of it in taxes? How can you do what you want to do when the government and society
have prohibited many of the things you’d like to do?
How could you live your own life when you have responsibilities to your family,
your friends, your job? How could you possibly ignore the demands that others make
upon you?
I realize that the odds against a free life must seem pretty formidable right now.
And yet there are already individuals who live their lives as they choose. Some of
them may have begun with greater problems than you face now. But in spite of their
problems, they’ve found freedom without waiting for the world to be free.
To be free in an unfree world isn’t nearly as unrealistic as it might seem at
first glance. After all, it’s commonly assumed that there can be free nations in
a world that contains enslaved nations. Why, then, can’t there be free states
within a nation that isn’t free? Or free towns within an unfree state?
Most important, why can’t there be free individuals within unfree towns,
states, or nations?
Freedom is possible, and you can have it — if that’s what you really want.
Freedom in an Unfree World 3
I can’t know which specific freedom you crave most — freedom from social
restrictions, family problems, high taxes, bad relationships, the treadmill,
governmental repression. Whichever one is most important to you, we’ll cover it and
more. And I think you’ll find that the principles to be stated will apply to any type of
situation that may be restraining you.
It’s not likely that you’ll ever gain your freedom by joining, marching, picketing,
or complaining — because all those methods rely upon changing the attitudes of
others. What I have in mind concerns the use of methods over which you have complete
control.

(End of intro. Download at link above.)

[Hook]

I have the hardcopy from 10 years ago. It has a lot of good advice, although I wouldn't go to the extremes he suggests.

Harry Browne (the author) was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.

BTW, you should buy it from http://www.harrybrowne.org because it supports his widow, Pamela Browne.

[Winston]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The ebook at the link above, which you can download by right clicking, is my Christmas gift to you all! Hope it helps change your life, attitude and consciousness!

Best wishes to you all for success and happiness,
Winston

[odbo]

Wow Winston.. you shouldn't have! You are an enlightened soul indeed as you know "It is better to give than to receive." Coincidentally this didn't cost you a dime nor did it take any work. You shouldn't spoil us like this.

[Winston]

Wow Winston.. you shouldn't have! You are an enlightened soul indeed as you know "It is better to give than to receive." Coincidentally this didn't cost you a dime nor did it take any work. You shouldn't spoil us like this.

LOL

Given that most of you are anonymous, it's somewhat difficult for me to hand you a gift in person or buy anything for you.

You should know that some gifts are priceless. The wisdom and enlightenment you can get from this ebook, and the mental liberation, are PRICELESS.

I guess you haven't received my gift yet and opened it, because IRONICALLY, there is a section in it that makes a lot of logically sound arguments about why selfishness is better and makes more sense than unselfishness. It will sound appalling at first, but when you read all the logical arguments in it, it starts to make sense. Have a look. Open your gift and turn to the chapter called "The Unselfishness Trap". It's very thought provoking.

Most of us will love it too, since it JUSTIFIES what we already do. One of my college professors used to say, "If you give people good reasons for doing what they are ALREADY doing, they'll love you for it."

[Free]

For all these years, why "xmas" and not just an easy 5 more letters. Seems to be a very deliberate attempt by Christ-haters to block out the name. Namely the satanic largest Christ-haters of them all.
The shortcut claim is bogus. When you read all the writing after the use of the word "xmas" you'll see a writer had no gripes about writing several other words. Had the time to do so.
Not to you personally Winston, just very tired of seeing that X.
Think of this, a nation has a special day called Buddha-day, just an example, yet backdoor controllers in the gov, schools, media, etc of that nation started pushing the use of X-day and Happy-day instead of Buddha-day to you.
Crude example, but just saying. It's so obvious.

[Winston]

Check this out. The book even has a section that justifies choosing the "Happier Abroad" route. On page 85, it says:

In Florence during the Renaissance, in America during the 1970s, even in a
hoped-for free society, the facts remain the same: No matter where or when you live,
you’ll still have to deal with people different from you. You’ll have to cope with
people who don’t want you to have what you want, and who’ll try to take from you
what you have. Changing the social structure won’t change the prices you’ll have to
pay to get and keep what you want.
That doesn’t mean that one society can’t be a happier place for you to live than
another. There are differences, and it makes sense to consider living in the society
whose rules most nearly coincide with the way you want to live. That’s a direct
alternative. It takes far less effort to find and move to the society that has what you
want than it does to try to reconstruct an existing society to match your standards.
In the same way, if the society in which you live seems to be heading in a
direction you don’t like, it makes sense to get out before you’re hurt by it. I like to
think, for instance, that I would have moved out of Nazi Germany before it was too
late.

You guys really need to read this book. It's amazing and incredible. It has a lot of very good advice too. And it's very enlightening. Download it at the link above. You'll be glad you did.

[Winston]

For all these years, why "xmas" and not just an easy 5 more letters. Seems to be a very deliberate attempt by Christ-haters to block out the name. Namely the satanic largest Christ-haters of them all.
The shortcut claim is bogus. When you read all the writing after the use of the word "xmas" you'll see a writer had no gripes about writing several other words. Had the time to do so.
Not to you personally Winston, just very tired of seeing that X.
Think of this, a nation has a special day called Buddha-day, just an example, yet backdoor controllers in the gov, schools, media, etc of that nation started pushing the use of X-day and Happy-day instead of Buddha-day to you.
Crude example, but just saying. It's so obvious.

I don't usually use Xmas. But remember, the thread titles have limits, so I have to keep the titles within those limits. If I had spelled out "Christmas" in this thread title, there wouldn't have been room for the rest of the worlds I wanted to include. Can't you figure that out? lol

[Winston]

Hi all,
I've been reading this life-changing ebook called "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" by Harry Browne. It has been very enlightening and eye-opening. I've learned a lot from it. I think the single greatest sentence in it is this:

"Freedom is more often lost by false assumptions than by the power of one’s enemies."

That makes so much sense when you think about it and meditate on it. We are all programmed to believe that we must serve and obey others, and live up to others' expectations, and that it is our duty to do so. The only way a few people (oligarchs) can control the many, is if they get the many to give up their power, otherwise they have no chance. No government in the world has enough soldiers to physically force everyone into compliance. So they must convince you to feel weak and powerless, in order for you to give up your power over to them. To do that, they have to use mind control, brainwashing and propaganda to get you to give up your power and sovereignty.

We are also tricked into the assumption that we have to live up to other people's standards and society's standards, in order to be happy and feel accepted. Otherwise, we feel that we have to convince other people to agree with us, in order to be accepted by them.

But these are false assumptions, and if we just let them go, then we will be a lot freer. The truth is, we cannot change other people and make them agree with us. We cannot change the world or society to make it agree with us either. All we can do is let go of our attachment to trying to live up to others and trying to make others accept us. You do not have to try to make yourself compatible with people you are not. There are always people out there who are compatible with you and will accept you for who you are. The trick is to ally with such types.

A manufacturing company, for example, does not try to convince everyone to buy their product. They look for a small target niche market that needs their product and will be interested in it, and cater to them for a mutually beneficial relationship. If they tried to convince everyone to buy from them, they will be disappointed and give up. But they don't need to do that, and neither do you.

The only person you can change or control is YOU. The only life you have sovereignty over is yours. No one else's. That's why you gotta take the power back in your hands and do what's best for you, and live your life the way you want it. That's how you are going to be truly free. You have to realize that NO ONE has power over you, unless you give away your power to them.

In summary, in order to be truly free, you have to:

1) Stop caring about what other people think. Don't give a shit about what others think. Let go of that attachment. You will never find peace or happiness if you always care what others think. You will never make everyone happy or agree with you.
2) Stop trying to live up to other people's expectations or trying to make other people live up to yours. You can't control or change others or make them agree with you. And if you live only to please others, you can never be truly free or happy.
3) Take back your power and sovereignty. Stop giving it away. No one has any power over you unless you give it over to them. The only person you can control and change is you. The only life you have sovereignty over is yours. So take it back. Quit these false assumptions. Only then can you be truly free and live the way you want.

Doesn't that make so much sense?

[Winston]

I had to remove the link to the ebook because I received a copyright claim by Mrs. Browne. She requests that you all get the ebook off her website at http://www.harrybrowne.org

[Think Different]

The price she's asking for that e-book ($10) is a bargain. On Amazon, you can only find it used for $65.

[Winston]

I've been corresponding with Mrs. Browne. She told me that Harry has a comprehensive Article Index here:

http://www.harrybrowne.org/ArticlesIndex.htm

She also told me that she just put up Harry's ebook "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" on Amazon Kindle, and she is negotiating with a publisher to put it back into print again. Here is the page on Kindle. The reviews for it are amazing.

[momopi]

Harry Browne is the author of Fail-Safe Investing, in which he advocated the Permanent Portfolio. If anyone is interested, you can read a brief about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_Investing
http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/InvestmentRules.htm

There's also a discussion forum:
http://www.gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/

There's also a mutual fund called Permanent Portfolio (PRPFX):
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=PRPFX
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pm?s=PRPFX+Performance

There's a lengthy 4-year discussion about the Permanent Portfolio strategy over at the Bogleheads forum:
http://crawlingroad.com/blog/2012/03/07 ... io-thread/
http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... sc&start=0

For those who are unfamiliar, Bogleheads are those who follow John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Funds. John Bogle does not like to invest in gold, versus Harry Browne believes that gold should be one of the 4 core holdings.
http://www.moneynews.com/InvestingAnaly ... /id/409548

Disclaimer: I'm not a follower of Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio strategy. I favor Larry Larimore's strategies for MF, but this should not be considered investment advice, nor am I a professional financial adviser. Always do your own due diligence.
http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSoc ... ageIndex=1
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Taylor_L ... tment_Gems

[Winston]

Harry Browne is the author of Fail-Safe Investing, in which he advocated the Permanent Portfolio

What is that? Can you elaborate on it?

[ALIBABA]

I had to remove the link to the ebook because I received a copyright claim by Mrs. Browne. She requests that you all get the ebook off her website at http://www.harrybrowne.org

what would happen if you ignored the claim?