You do not have to be, do, or have anything, nor not be, do, or have anything. 　You are free to choose and to be or not be. 　Yet the paradox is that the structures and systems of your world shape each of your complex set of intentional processes, the many components of ‘will’. 　The extent to which you are aware of that paradox is the extent to which you are an ‘authentically awake’ human being. 　Full awareness entails some degree of freedom but also entails a sense of the pathos and bathos of life.

The problem is that people are not aware of this ‘questioning of what shaped and shapes you’ kind of option.　 People have been shaped to think, or assume, that motivations come from within, and that they are a matter of individual choices.　 However, if you turn that common sense world upside down and begin to try to examine how the structures and systems of the world shape those choices and motivations, you will find that people do not know how to do that.　 Where does one start?　 Over the years, from the early sixties to the present, I have spent my life trying to develop a way to approach this question.　 I call the outcome of this process the Natural Systems Approach or Philosophy.

Cultural anthropologists, sociologists, historians, demographic analysts and marketing analysts, economists, political scientists, and others know that the attitudes, preferences, tastes, beliefs, and opinions that influence our behavior are actually shaped by external forces, by the external structures and systems studied by these disciplines. 　As these scientists know, our internal processes and resultant behaviors can be accurately plotted and predicted by experts in the above noted disciplines that are concerned with variations of external structures and systems.　 On the other hand, Genetics, which has recently captured the interest of the media’s audience, contributes, in aggregate or from a demographic perspective, very little to behavioral patterns, or choices.

Consider this.　 If I ask myself why I have an opinion at all on a particular issue or what the basis for that opinion is, I must confess that it comes mainly from the media.　 The rudimentary opinions I had as a child, I strongly suspect, came from the words behaviors of my parents and relatives.　 I have this vain hope that my current opinions are directly a result of knowledge I have assiduously acquired, assessment and thought I have diligently exercised, judgment I have formed responsibly and without bias, and choices that have come from within me and only me.　

However, I often question myself and re-examine my knowledge base and judgment.　 I am vaguely aware of the fact the range of what I do not know that I do not know is very likely extremely vast. 　I sense that the world is so much more complex than I presumed and so much of the world is inaccessible to me.　 When I question myself like this and reach out to overcome these deficits, I typically discover that I was severely lacking in the breadth and depth of my knowledge.　 I also become aware that my judgment has more than likely been influenced by my focus on selective media sources; by some association with various reference groups and friends and perhaps even still by my family, by deep-rooted biases shrouded in my past, by the narrow reference point of my tiny space in the world, and even by paltry self-interests.　

Nevertheless, I will persist in my dedication to trying to develop the best, most well informed opinion that I can.　 I know I must become increasingly expert in deciphering those external structures and systems that may have influenced me.　 I must become adept in using my imagination to take perspectives that might have come from having been imbedded in other structures and systems.　 For example, I must sincerely regard opinions coming from socio-economic classes above and below me, other occupations, other nations and cultures, other religions or political parties, or even perspectives from sources that may seem entirely alien or offensive.　 If I can do this while questioning my knowledge sources and exploring other sources, perhaps then I can confidently, yet tentatively, form and express an opinion.　 Still, I must be open to alternative information and opinions offered by others.　

Likewise, a rule for me should be to try to determine the extent to which some other person’s opinion has undergone a similar rigorous examination.　 Your political freedom may depend upon how diligently you do that.