Freedom is not permissiveness: how to become free without losing yourself?

Ask any person if they want to be free, and they will answer: "Yes". But what is freedom? How free are we? Let's take a closer look at this question...

Table of contents:

Freedom or Illusion: The Limits of Our Possibilities

No one has absolute freedom to do irresponsibly whatever he or she wants. The existence of freedom is conditioned by certain principles, which people, without realizing it, perceive as restrictions on freedom

• Perhaps I dream of climbing a high mountain, waving my arms and flying. However, these dreams cannot be realized without the help of technology.

• Maybe I want to become a well-known painter, musician, or gymnast, but it requires such abilities and training that my chances of realizing this dream are slim.

• If I urgently need money, I might decide to steal it. But as soon as the crime is discovered, I will lose all freedom.

These are some examples of when it appears that our freedom is limited. The sources of these seeming restrictions are physical laws, our natural abilities, or socially accepted norms of behavior. What would we think of a person who rebels against such situations, claiming that he or she is not free?

Freedom of choice: between possibility and reality

There is another side of freedom that is often forgotten: freedom of will. Although our freedom may be limited and our choices are extremely narrow, the moment we decide, we feel free. We know that we could have chosen a different path. But let's think about how free we really are.

If you decide to do something and then go back on your decision, are you free? If you do something you regret, and yet you can't stop yourself, are you free? Do you have the freedom to follow your conscience? Are you ever tempted to do something deliberately wrong? Do you have the freedom to forgive people, or do you sometimes say: "I will never forgive him"? Do you have the freedom to restore the relationship destroyed by the conflict by asking for forgiveness, saying, "I'm sorry, I was wrong"? Is there anything limiting you at this moment? Often we feel that there is a struggle in our souls between powerful forces that drive us to do the opposite.

Self-control is the key to inner freedom

Sometimes people say that they are not free, that their actions are determined by their biological heritage or the social environment in which they grew up. And yet, at the moment of deciding, choosing between two or more possibilities, we feel as if we are free.

It may seem strange to you, but freedom is closely related to self-control. Only a person who has self-control cannot decide, but also implement it. In contrast, a person who cannot control the slightest impulses of his or her soul will be a slave to his or her emotions and desires. For example, is a person who is addicted to alcohol-free? On the one hand, yes, because no one forces them to drink, but on the other hand, they are a slave to their addiction to alcohol. And what about a person who wants to quit smoking but cannot? If we cannot control our passions, then our will is not free.

"Only those who have overcome themselves

will find freedom from all the passions

 that binds the world."

Goethe

A person who has inner freedom has many opportunities. He or she finds true freedom of creativity, multifaceted growth and development. It is impossible to deprive a person of freedom of spirit - only if he or she voluntarily renounces it.

Spiritual freedom and moral choice

Such a free spirit will always, including spontaneously and unconsciously, manifest itself only in good deeds, creating an atmosphere of kindness and support around it.

The prominent Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl, who survived the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, wrote, reflecting on the freedom of the human spirit:

"We who lived in a concentration camp remember people who walked around the barracks, comforted others, and gave away their last piece of bread. There may have been few of them, but their very existence is sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a person except one thing: the last human freedom to choose your attitude to the circumstances in which you find yourself, to choose your own path.

And the possibility of choice has always remained! Every day, every hour, it provided opportunities to decide that determined whether you would submit to the forces that threatened to take away your soul, your personality. This choice determined whether you would become a plaything of circumstances, giving up your freedom and human dignity, and turning into a typical prisoner...."

True freedom is the freedom to follow one's conscience while maintaining personal integrity. However, we often need great courage. We need to overcome a difficult internal conflict to follow the voice of conscience. True freedom cannot be equated with permissiveness - the freedom to do evil things, to be selfish. Rudeness and selfishness cannot be manifestations of true freedom. This is arbitrariness. Because they lead to the loss of what we really want - a peaceful and friendly environment, trusting and reliable relationships.

"Freedom! A beautiful word when it is understood correctly.

What freedom will you choose? What is the freedom of the freest?

To do what is right!"

Goethe. 

Freedom of action and its moral basis

In addition to the freedom of will that we have just discussed, freedom also includes freedom of action. If we look back in history, we see that the expansion of freedom of action has always been driven by people who wanted the freedom to pray to God in the way they chose; the freedom to believe what they wanted; the freedom to know the truth; the freedom of expression and the media to learn and spread the truth. People never fought for the freedom to lie or mistreat other people.

People also wanted freedom, defined and protected by law so that they could live, move, pursue the occupation of their choice and do whatever they wanted within the law. At the same time, they would be free from unlawful encroachments on their rights by other people or the state. Finally, people fought for freedom of property because it allowed them to develop their creative abilities.

Freedom of will and freedom of action are inextricably linked and equally necessary for humans. However, when people enjoy full freedom but do not follow the voice of their conscience, the result is anarchy and degradation of society. ʼ

Moral responsibility as the basis of true freedom

If a person has only external freedom, it can easily lead to a sense of meaninglessness, of the purposelessness of life. If we have freedom, but no purpose in life, then we experience a sense of psychological devastation. A free society in which people lose their sense of morality is doomed to collapse, and as the crisis deepens, there is a violent restoration of order accompanied by a loss of will. Thus, there can be no free society that is not also moral, so that all citizens and social institutions reflect a mature and responsible approach to life. Edmund Burke, a seventeenth-century English statesman and philosopher, clearly demonstrated the connection between internal and external freedom:

"People are worthy of civil liberty only in direct proportion to the extent to which they are willing to impose moral obligations on their appetites; to the extent that their love of justice is superior to greed; to the extent that their soundness and sobriety of judgment are superior to vanity and self-confidence; to the extent that their inclination to listen to the advice of the wise and good is superior to their desire to listen to the flattery of fraudsters.

Society cannot exist if it does not have a force that controls human aspirations and appetites, and the less this force is in the souls of people, the more it must be outside. The eternal order of things determines that people of unrestrained souls cannot be free. Their passions forge their chains."

Therefore, true freedom is inseparable from responsibility, morality, and inner strength. Without the ability to self-control, a person becomes a slave to his or her own passions, even if he or she remains formally "free." Freedom is not about permissiveness, but about the ability to consciously choose good, to follow one's conscience, to be honest with oneself and others. Only such freedom brings a deep sense of meaning, dignity, and inner peace. A society composed of such free individuals has a chance to be truly free, stable and just. If we avoid taking responsibility for our own lives, we are surrendering our will to external forces. And then it is useless to complain about the loss of freedom. True freedom begins from within.