How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World - Harry Browne byBuoy

A practical classic on things one should consider as the life is lived. Dogmatic, probably.... but not a triumph of dogma over thought. Be sure to read the reviews and the content section if interested.



Content from Amazon Reviews



Though I haven't read this book in 20 yrs, I remember thinking at the time, that this book would've saved me a lot of emotional trauma had I only had it ten years earlier. To the point, this book looks at things with a no nonsense approach when it comes to relationships and obligations. It looks below the the surface of the 'social contract" and asks what obligations do we truly have to ourselves, each other, and society at large? And whether you choose to accept Mr. Browne's options or not, at least you've been made aware of the fact that these choices exist.

Many people have a vested interest in keeping the status quo, especially those people we sometimes refer to as "takers". Mr. Browne points out that we are in no way obligated to support anyone's addiction, neurosis, or world view, except our our own.

I found this book refreshing, informative, and relevant to my life. I strongly recommend it to anyone who needs a little freedom in their life.


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I first read this book in 1974, in college and starting a career. I was hell bent on changing the world, and this book stopped me dead in my tracks. It has saved me a lot of time and wasted energy, not to mention money. I've been far more successful AND happy changing my own world....

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My father passed away when I was at the age of 6. In his will he left this book,"How I found freedom in an unfree world" to be given to me at the age of 18. This book is the only thing that I have that may tell me how my father would have offered advice to me in growing up. Every sentence I read feels like it is coming from the lips of my father.



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Harry Browne presents many ways of dealing with many differing freedom restricting issues. My favorite was his discussion of how to find freedom from social restrictions- I copied and pasted a little of my notes to give you a sense of this book:

Begin Quotes.

Whatever your social standards, the best place to find like minded people is the same place where you would most like to be. If you crave companionship that's more intellectual, you might try courses in the subjects that have always interested you. And since you could run into potential friends almost anywhere, it's important to display your standards openly and honestly wherever you are. Only then can others recognize you as a kindred soul.

For if you wear a socially acceptable mask, those whom you seek will walk right by you. And those whom you attract with the mask will only add to the pressure that you be something other than yourself.

If you make your actions and words consistent with who you are and what you admire, you'll know which people are compatible- just by their reactions to you. Those who disapprove will seek someone different to be with, and those who have standards similar to your will react favorably toward you. In effect, you let others tell you about themselves through their reactions to what you are.

So it's important to reveal yourself as you really are. If you're ambitious and show it, people who appreciate ambition are more likely to notice you. If you are careful to respect the property and lives of others and clearly you want the same treatment in return, you're less likely to wind up with thieving or freeloading friends.

When you act as you want to act, you stand a far greater chance of meeting the people who could be valuable to you. When you let others determine your conduct, you acquire nothing but restrictions.

Many people hide their identity, tolerate restrictions, and remain in bad relationships because they're afraid of being lonely. But I wonder what they mean by lonely. Aren't they very lonely when they deal with people who don't understand and appreciate them?

What you are is the most valuable asset you possess for finding others and the best way to find those people is to advertise your real self and by being honest about who you are.

No matter where you go, you never know whether someone you're seeking might see you. What a shame it would be if that person passed you by because you didn't reveal the qualities that both you and she admire most.

To reveal those qualities, you have to be willing to accept the disapproval of those you aren't seeking. It takes courage to overcome the embarrassment, self-consciousness, and even ridicule that might result from honest exposure of your nature- but that's the only way to form the relationships you seek. The kind that are far more rewarding than what you've tolerated in the past.

The best method of advertising is simply to live the way you want to live. Furthermore, your greatest pleasures will be those you experience when you can be yourself completely. Only then will you be free to enjoy every good thing the experience has to offer you."

End Quotes.

Overall, an outstanding books. I feel like an entire weight has been lifted from my shoulders and new clarity brought to my life. That's what a good book should do for you. Highly recommended.



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I first heard Browne speak in the early 70s on NBC's Today Show, where he was promoting his book, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World. The book explains how to recognize and overcome common but false assumptions that unnecessarily restrict our freedom. I had never heard someone speak with such clarity, rationality, and insight about any subject. I was blown away, not by Browne's charisma (although he was charming), but by how reasonable his ideas sounded. At first opportunity I rushed out to buy the book and then devoured it.
The first thing that struck me about the book was the beautifully clear and simple prose. I don't know whether Browne or an editor should get the credit, but the book seems to follow many of Strunk and White's suggestions for strong, lucid writing. Browne avoids needless and overly sophisticated words. He uses short sentences and paragraphs. The writing style makes the book very easy to read. You never have to figure out what Harry Browne is saying; rather, his ideas seem to jump right off each page at you.

Anyone who writes about self-improvement or personal growth must make assumptions about human nature, and I think his assumptions are correct. Harry Browne makes his assumptions about human nature explicit in the very beginning of his book. He assumes that people believe that every conscious choice we make will help us attain happiness or avoid unhappiness. So why aren't we all exquisitely happy all the time?

The main reason is that, although we choose to act in ways that we believe will make us happy, our beliefs can be wrong. The first of the three major sections of this book covers fourteen traps, which are common but false beliefs about what we need to do to be happy. Many of the traps are so taken-for-granted that they appear to be truisms. Harry Browne exposes these errors of thinking and describes realistic alternatives that are more likely to lead you to happiness. In particular, I find his analyses of the Identity, Morality, and Unselfishness Traps so incisive and so liberating that I can barely restrain myself from sharing those valuable insights right here.

The second section of the book discusses specific entities that people often believe restrict their freedom: the government, social restrictions, bad relationships, jealousy, business problems, insecurity, and so forth. For each case, Browne explains why these things need not restrict us if we make the right choices.
The third major section contains the most ambitious and far-reaching ideas in the book. This section describes a technique that Browne calls Starting from Zero. Starting from Zero calls for sweeping away absolutely every aspect of your current life that does not correspond to your dream life. My guess is that many readers will find Starting from Zero too drastic for their liking. Browne does allow that the technique can be used on a smaller scale for addressing problems in any specific area of your life. Nevertheless, he warns us that he has seen many of his friends try to use forms of gradualism to improve their lives, but years later they are still stuck in the same ruts. "Freedom," asserts Browne, "requires bold action."
So, nearly 30 years after hearing Harry Browne speak, do I still find his ideas reasonable? Absolutely. His analysis of traps that limit our freedom is dead on. His techniques for increasing freedom work. I think that this book is so remarkable that I require students in my Personal Well-Being and Adjustment course to read, analyze, and react to Browne's ideas.

This is not to say that Browne's philosophy will appeal to everyone. In fact, to suggest that it would appeal to everyone would put us into what Browne calls The Identity Trap - the failure to recognize that each person is unique in his or her perceptions, beliefs, and values. This book will probably appeal the most to those who value freedom, autonomy, private ownership, and personal accountability over security, contractual commitments, communal property, and shared responsibility. To the extent that freedom and autonomy represent part of traditional masculinity, whereas security and commitment are part of traditional femininity, men may like this book more than women. Nonetheless, both women and men in my courses report finding many ideas in Browne's book personally valuable.

Age may also play a role in how one accepts Browne's ideas. During the year we lived together prior to getting married, my wife and I had separate checking accounts and pretty clear definitions of who owned what in our apartment. I think our only piece of joint property was an old, black-and-white TV set. I thought that Browne's notion of avoiding joint ownership was a great idea at the time. After we got married (something Browne advises against), however, issues of ownership became less and less important to me. Also, when I was in my 20s, I might have seriously entertained Browne's Starting from Zero plan, which involves liquidating all of your assets to begin a totally new life that better resembles your dream life. Today, I can't imagine trying to improve my life that way. Maybe later in life people are more willing to forfeit some freedom for security. Hey, even Harry Browne got married (although he states in an appendix to the 1997 edition that he still recommends that individuals maintain their sovereignty in a marriage relationship).
No matter whether you are young or old, male or female, married or single, I think How I Found Freedom in an Unfree Word will probably increase your understanding of how erroneous thinking causes us to restrict our own freedom. By increasing your awareness of erroneous thinking and offering you better alternatives, Harry Browne gives you a chance to make choices that will increase your freedom and happiness. Whether you want to make those choices is up to you.












Content

This item contains the following content:

1] The audiobook as 1 MP3 files
2] The Word documents for the 1 MP3 files which correspond to the audiobook file
3] Book cover images


Note: this book is read by a synthesized voice (AT&T Mike); however, I am a very experienced audio book listener and I have created the MP3 files as well as all of the Microsoft Word source files. I used TextSpeaker 3.2, converted the Word files to WAV files and then converted them to MP3. After much testing I have determined that this permits a much better quality than simply allowing textspeaker to convert the files directly to MP3. I have created the Microsoft Word files (and therefore the audio files) with some care by placing periods after all titles and sections for natural pauses, as well as the elimination of the title contents pages and any citations that would not normally be found in an audio book, and I have included footnotes that would generally be included within an audiobook. In case you are interested it took approximately half as long, perhaps more, to create this audiobook as it would have taken to simply read the book, but I was hoping to share my work with a larger community as well as to enable myself to listen to the book again at a later date. Often there are many times I listen to audio books and then wish to search for or relisten to a particular item and the inclusion of the PDF as well as the Word file should enable you to search for content electronically which then makes searching for that portion of the audio book considerably more easy.