I still feel 'Freedom from fear' as still almost an impossibility
It's not an impossibility at all, quite the contrary. But we'd have to discuss fear at length. Would you like to do that? I don't mind.
My only problem with your statements connecting intelligence and freedom is that it probably needs some qualification. Sure, people have to be free from mental problems in order to think clearly about abstract issues. But it's the use of the word 'freedom' as a generalisation here that I stumble over. Without qualification, it implies that slaves could not be intelligent.
I think we're confusing two things here. Slavery is an outward state whereas intelligence is not. There's nothing to stop a slave being highly intelligent and I'm sure that was often the case when slavery was real and actual. Intelligence certainly has nothing to do with race either.
people have to be free from mental problems in order to think clearly about abstract issues
Not just abstract issues,
all issues, and especially the challenges of daily life. Relationships are a good area. 'The world' is nothing more than a vast interconnection of relationships, every human being with every other human being.
In that co-relationship there's so much hatred, misunderstanding, so many barriers, that life has become almost impossible. Because we can't seem to resolve all that we have to resort to the law, rules, force, control, and so on. It's a vast, complex subject.
But it's you and I who have to live with it. We can't change the world but we can make very sure we're not contributing to the madness. If you and I are confused, frightened, insane, then we can't complain about the world.
So it's not the world that has to change, it's ourselves. But we seldom think like that, more's the pity, we think we have to pass more laws, rearrange things outwardly, change governments, and all the rest of it. Those are very superficial reactions, they don't go to the heart of the matter.
The heart of the matter is simple, it's how one person relates to another. If they both have tremendous barriers between them then how can there be peace? So the barriers must be removed - not out there but in here, i.e. psychologically.
If only one of those persons has no barriers of fear, prejudice, and so on, then they may affect the other one. That implies friendship and affection, which is the highest intelligence.
Please understand I'm not preaching religion, although it has a lot to do with it. Nor am I trying to be a great 'philosopher' or something. This is just good, solid, straight thinking. If we start with the world then we must include ourselves.
We are 'man'. What each one of us is reflects in the world. The world is the outward reflection of what we are. The world is violent because we are. If we all became different the world would be different. So we have to start with ourselves, not out there with others, or the institutions, but with ourselves.
But we don't do that. We always talk about these problems as though they had nothing to do with us, as if it were all everybody else's fault. And that is our downfall, as history has shown time and again. It's never our own doing, always 'them over there'.
There's a marvellous story about Alexander the Great. He was faced with an unknown army so he sent out a spy to find out who the enemy was. The spy came back and said 'I've found out who the enemy is - we are the enemy!'.