Freedom, Only Limited
From James Shelley’s Prison post:
The most effective delusion is the one which holds you captive to the illusion of your own freedom. For if your freedom depends on a certain belief, ideology, device or lifestyle — if you can’t truly be free without it — then are you not actually a prisoner to it? 1
Now, I read Shelley’s posts with a fair bit of regularity. I thoroughly enjoy his insights on just about everything he writes. This particular post is fantastic, but not in the way James was intending, as far as I can tell.
Firstly, correct me if I’m wrong, but the tone of the post is negative. But I find nothing negative about “bounded-freedom” at all! Imprisonment (read=limitations) can be a wonderful thing. I love being a prisoner to the belief of, and a lifestyle based on, gravity. I love being a prisoner to the belief of what I sow is what I will most certainly reap. I love being a prisoner to a diligent and robust work ethic. I love being prisoner to the pursuit of serving and loving my wife well. I could go on and on — all of these, and many others, are beliefs, ideologies, devices, or lifestyles that I gladly adhere to. Which…
brings your eyes to my next point: absolute and true freedom, though desired by some, is unattainable. And this is due to the design of man and the welcome and kind boundaries that his existence has been couched in. Boundaries and limits are good. They preclude chaos.
Now then, freedom itself only lasts until an act of volition is made, that is, until the will wills. Once a free being makes a choice, that free being has chosen to forgo all other options, thereby limiting its very free-ness. So, freedom is only freedom in ability, not in willful action, unless we get into those very few persons whose attributes are beyond human, viz., omnipotent, omniscient, almighty, etc…. That’s for another time.
Finally, freedom can be the greatest delusion. I can reject any number of beliefs or ‘truths’ yet they can still hold sway over me if they are real. A fool could reject the reality of gravity, only to find that gravity has no concern for this rejection, and will certainly throw the fool to the ground if he is not careful where he puts himself.
So, yes, I agree that some, if not most freedoms are reliant upon something else which affords that very freedom. But even therein the freedom is limited, in that it needs to rely on something external. The question is then, is there any true, absolute, unhindered freedom under the sun?
