A man cannot belong to an organisation and remain free.

In fact, to be free, man must not only cease to belong to any organisation but organisations must be dissolved. This is a very complicated matter because for most people, organisations are necessary for discipline and order in society.

When you think about, this explains why there are more people outside political organisations, for instance, than those who have taken up membership.

When a man or woman takes a conscious decision not to affiliate with any group, it is a sign that they are intellectually matured and understand that organisations exist to curb one’s freedom.

If you belong to an organisation, you cannot claim to be free. It is impossible because you have to sign up for membership and this means that you must abide by rules and regulations that have been set up to control your personal conduct and behaviour.

You cannot tie yourself up with some man-made rules and then go around telling yourself and others that you are free. It is like eating your cake and still having it, which is impossible.

Organisations are founded by men who want to have power and control. They are created so that their members can, wittingly or unwittingly, be reduced to puppets or human robots that do as they are told.

And if you willingly become a member of an organisation, you should know that you have to give up a great deal of your freedom to be considered disciplined and loyal.

You can only be considered disciplined and loyal when you are known to be committed to upholding, promoting and protecting rules and regulations that have been put in place to control you.

In fact, members of an organisation are not encouraged to question authority or challenge existing traditions and histories. Anyone who does that will be considered a dissident.

So how can you be free when you are not allowed to critically examine how an organisation does things? There have been countless men and women who have been expelled simply because they have raised serious questions about how things are done.

But even if you choose not to belong to an organisation, you cannot exactly be free because society is organised according to organised gangs or groups, if you like.

So, freedom becomes almost impossible while one is alive.

Man is, to a large extent, a slave to organisations and the rules and regulations that they have come up with. And these organisations can be families, political parties, churches, companies, societies or sports bodies, for that matter.

Organisations have to be dissolved if man is to truly claim freedom.

The choice is clear: you cannot belong to an organisation and still believe in individual freedom.

Thus freedom for anyone who belongs to an organisation is just an empty word, if you think about.

It is only when one does not belong to any organisation or structure that freedom starts to have a practical meaning.

But even this view will not make sense to ordinary folks because they are born into organisations that place them into boxes and are raised to believe that they must always belong by being part of some structure.

Perhaps what this means is that it is impossible for man to be free or grasp its meaning.

It looks neat and nicely organised that we have structures like families, political organisations and other bodies but it just does not add up when we seriously talk about freedom.

Of course, I am not aware of any person or individual who does not belong to an organisation.

But for real freedom, man must not belong to any organisation for organisations are about rules and regulations which are about curtailing total freedom.

This idea of freedom is not to do as one likes without regard for the rights of the next person. Freedom comes with responsibility which encourages man to take total control for what happens to him as an individual without violating the rights of the next person.

Man will only become free when he can exercise responsibility without being put on a leash.

Freedom is about inner discipline and responsibility. It cannot be found in any organisation.

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Sandile Memela

Sandile Memela is a journalist, writer, cultural critic, columnist and civil servant. He lives in Midrand.

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