oe ap Occasionally get that “‘hemmed-in feeling? Here, from the experiences of a eee Se of the American scene, are practica g to what you can do about it Seven Steps to Greater Personal Freedom VANCE PACKARD MERICANS are a free people, per- haps the freest in the world—but some are more free than others. How about your- self? Are you free enough to live the way you wish? Or do you often feel hemmed in, manipu- lated, frustrated? Do you have to spend an unreasonably large part of your life doing things you don’t want to do? If so, you are not alone. Most of us feel a crowding in on our lives, as we dwell in ever larger communities and work for ever larger organizations. In the 20 course of researching five books J wrote on the pressures that threaten personal freedom to- day, I found that we are increas- ingly pressed toconform in order to climb business pyramids and achieve social status; that we are increasingly subjected to at- tempts to manipulate our opin- ions and pry into our personal lives. Many readers have asked me: What can we do to preserve freedom in our society? We as individuals can be truly free only as we are sufficiently independent, powerful and influ- ential in our own right to be- come persons to reckon with.GETTING MORE OUT OF LIFE This is also the path to individ- ual satisfaction in life. for free- dom, with responsibility, is the only sound basis for personal happiness. What then can each of us do to strengthen personal freedom? Here are seven lines of action which you might consider: 1. Save Money. Too many of us think of savings as security for old age. A more important function is to strengthen our in- dependenceright now. Yet Ihave seen a statement that the aver- age family is living three months from bankruptcy, and our con- sumer installment indebtedness has risen 1400 percent since World War II. Obviously, a man who cannot afford to be out of work for a few months cannot afford to quit a job that leaves him feeling stifled or guilty. This stifling, guilty feeling afflicted the sales manager of a printing business. He was well- paid. But he suffered from agon- izing headaches because he got most of his orders from purchas- ing agents who expected kick- backs, which his firm provided in disguised form, and this trou- bled him deeply. His wife, who managed his income, urged him to quit. He protested, “But what can I do?” She told him that she had enough saved in government bonds and a bank account to give them a year to make a fresh Start. let i ‘ They moved to the Northwest, and he settled in a job as his own boss, selling household equip- ment. When I met him he was exuberant. “You know, “he said, “thanks to my wife’s thrift, I haven't had a headache in ten years.” | By contrast, an advertising executive once told me that he and his family could not live on his $25,000 salary. He contended that his employers expected him to maintain a certain style of life. The truth is that any fam- ily above the poverty line can build up its savings—and inde- pendence-if it is frugal and relatively nonmaterialistic in on it considers to be the good life. I knew a financially pinched family in which the husband smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, his wile and teen-age son a pack each. One night when the husband was groaning about his money troubles, | mentioned that a lot of his income seemed to be going up in smoke. At $1.40 a day, the habit was cost- ing them $511 a year, or roughly - what the average U. S. family saves in a year. Put in a bank annually to gather interest, this sum would in fifteen years amount to over $10,000, more than their mortgage, which had twelve years to go! The family stopped smoking. . 2. Build Your Education and “21READER'S DIGEST Skills. Personal freedom can be expanded by education and skills because they open up a wider range of professional opportunt- ties. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most im- portant tool in our work. The more marketable knowledge you possess the freer you are, for it can’t be taken away from you — it’s a tool you carry around in your head. . This competence cannot, in fact, be taken away from us ex- cept by obsolescence. In today’s world many of us can feel com- petent, and free, only as we keep abreast of new developments in our field. We are going to hear a great deal, in coming years, about the importance of con- tinuing education. For example, a friend of mine who is a success- ful electrical engineer goes to college several nights every week. He keeps himself up-to- date in his fast-changing field by repeating 10 percent of his college courses every year! 3. Keep Your Honor Clean. To maintain freedom, we should re- duce personal frailties, for these make us vulnerable. It is still true that an upright man is more likely to dare to speak the truth. In today’s world, our dubious or foolish acts of the past are more likely to haunt us than they would have in yesteryears. With the growth of vast record-keep- ing organizations, electronic 22 memory banks and far-flung in- vestigative bodies in both gov- ernment and business, there is less chance that past foolishness or indiscretion will be over- looked. . Recently a young man in Con- necticut was being questioned by police late at night after an accident. He was offended by the routine questions and, instead - of responding matter-of-factly, he taunted the police to arrest him or let him go. Rather reluc- tantly they put him in jail. The lad didn’t realize it, but the fact that he has served time in jail will have to be recorded if he ap- plies for a job with the govern- ment or with many business firms. This can limit his chances of getting a job, and thus his freedom, too. 4. Keep Your Private Life Pri- vate. Privacy is at the heart of our concept of freedom. It is the first thing to disappear when freedom disappéars. And pri- vacy is in danger today. What can we do about it? We can at least preserve the privacy that remains to us, instead of, as so many do, giving it away. Em- erson said, “The private life of each person should be a more illustrious monarchy than any kingdom.” The genuine individ- ualist needs a private life as well as a public one — in order to be himself. Young people need pri- vacy to dream and plan and to