What is Freedom and Are We Really Free?

Political Freedom does not Ensure Freedom from other Constraints 

Our literatures, our media, our education, our aspirations – even our minds, all are in the habit of talking so much about freedom that it can often end up becoming a meaningless rhetoric. While freedom is without doubt one of the most important of our values, how free the freedom itself is from the bondage that life and circumstances bring with them? An employee surrenders a large part of his freedom in lieu of a salary. We all bind ourselves in a contract to get something else. A destitute is hardly better off than a bonded person.

 Are we really free?

Freedom?

The literature of last few centuries, a period dominated by nationalism, colonialism and imperialism, abounds with glorification of freedom as the most cherished human virtue. In most cases, such freedom is from the oppressive and exploitative rule of a foreign nation. In some cases, freedom may be aspired from the oppressive rule of a dictator or inspired by the cherished goal of democracy. Thanks to such glorification, freedom or independence now forms a part and parcel of modern collective psyche and is often considered a basic human right that cannot be compromised at any cost.

Superficially, this concept of freedom, which is largely a political right, appears to have been accepted and accorded to every individual in the modern society, and yet, if one digs a little deep, and takes the hard realities of life into account, this political right may appear as just an ornament that may not serve any purpose. 

Is the Concept of Freedom Absolute or Relative? 

"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." 

Thus wrote Jeans Jacques Rousseau, the French political philosopher, in his book, "The Social Contract", in the eighteenth century. 

Rousseau indirectly hinted at a very important fact of our society. Freedom is always a relative concept, and depends more on the interaction of various forces that govern our lives, rather than the label that is given to a given political state of affairs. Thus, a man who is forced by fear of instant punishment into working eight hours a day can be said to have been enslaved, while a man who works double that time because of his need to earn a living for himself and his family is still considered a free man. But is he really free? 

Is Free Man a Reality or just an Illusion? 

What essentially differentiates a free man from one who is not free is the existence or otherwise of options. A man may opt for dieting or fasts, as also does a man who has nothing to eat. But in the case of the former, it is a willful conscious decision of choosing one of the many options that he has, while in case of the latter it is the fate of a man who never had another option. 

Unfortunately, such simplified descriptions can be potentially fallacious. A man sentenced to life in prison for having committed a crime is not necessarily a man who had no choice. Similarly, the people residing in a territory that has been unfairly occupied by another power are also not a bunch of persons, who never had a choice. In either case, the persons who lost their status as free men, may have had the option at some point of time, to do or not to do something that could have prevented their loss of freedom. In that sense, it is usually not their destiny alone that makes them free or otherwise. 

On the other hand, in the modern civilized world that boasts of universal freedom, the actual freedom that is there for an individual can be extremely limited, and it can be true irrespective of the level of his possessions and wealth. A prosperous individual, who is otherwise very successful in life, may not get any opportunity to spend time with his kids, in spite of all his longing to do so, because of the exigencies of his work. On the other hand, in a remote undeveloped rural area of the third world, a poor individual may have the luxury of spending as much time as he wants with his family. If both these individuals cherish spending time with their family at put that at the top of their wish list, it can become difficult to say who enjoys greater freedom. 

Clearly, freedom does not come merely with a political right. The political freedom has a very limited connotation that is most valuable only when it refers to unfair exploitation by a colonial or dictatorial power. Apart from those limited scenarios, political freedom may turn out to be little more than an illusion. If we also look at the fact that most people trade significant parts of their individual freedom for something else, one can conclude that there are many things in life that people often value more than their freedom. 

So the question then, is how valuable freedom is per se in our life. In particular, can we really say that it is our most cherished asset? 

What are the Practical Limitations on Freedom? 

Everything comes at a cost in this world and that includes freedom. One can enjoy freedom only at a cost, and one who is incapable of bearing it must forego it, or suffer. For a destitute desperately in search of employment, the absolute freedom is likely to be meaningless. In other cases too, just the freedom to enjoy a thing is meaningful only if you have the resources to pay for them. You may be free to go and spend a week on a seven star cruise to Hawaii, but such freedom is meaningless if you do not have the money to buy the cruise ticket or the time to undertake the trip. More importantly, such freedom will remain meaningless if any of your circumstances do not permit you to indulge in that luxury. Unfortunately, such our everyday life is filled with such circumstances. 

This is true even of the political arena from where the concept of freedom has originated. The freedom to vote in a democracy may be meaningful only if there are significant differences between the two contestants and if there is any likelihood that one would be better than the other. If both contestants are equally bad, the voters may be free to vote as they wish, but that hardly means that they can elect a candidate of their choice. It is a practical reality that affects millions of people around the world. Similarly, the political right of freedom of expression can allow an individual to express his views, but that right is meaningless, unless there are people willing to listen to him. In a society, where a lone voice, however sane it might be, gets drowned in the chaos created by sponsored noise, a mere political right of freedom of expression is as good as non-existent. 

Perhaps, one of the worst enemies of freedom is the crime against innocent victims. When the law and order is weak, and people live in fear for whatever reason, their theoretical freedom is of little use. In such cases, the false pretence of freedom can actually end up with an innocent victim getting entrapped and losing not only that illusion, but much more. 

How Free are We and How Important is Freedom?

Often, we are lost in the rhetoric of 'freedom', without appreciating that freedom in life of every individual is very limited. In nature too, everything is dependent on everything else. The free will certainly has a role in our lives, but that role is far more limited compared to what we usually believe. Same is true of freedom. Much of the glorification of freedom and independence is a result of our medieval legacy of nationalities and religious orders struggling for dominance. If viewed from the perspective of a modern civilization that values harmony and abhors conflict, many of those struggles may appear only as sophisticated versions of primitive tribal quest for dominating other tribes. 

As shown by the dictates of market economy, humans are often willing to trade parts of their freedom, indicating its limitations. In fact, one can say that freedom is a complement to other resources. There are countries in the world where women were not allowed driving, but even where they were, such freedom was meaningless for poor women who did not have the resources to enjoy that freedom. Without complementary resources, freedom to enjoy them is a mere rhetoric. This is perhaps the biggest limitation of freedom, and its solutions do not lie in politics or law, but in economic policies that improve the initial endowment of the consumers. 

Perhaps, we need to go a little back in literature and see what was valued by our civilizations. We may find that it placed a great emphasis on harmony, some of which at least came at the cost of freedom. It is wise to remember that freedom to do something invariably comes with a social duty to do that in a way that does not make the society worse off. Thus, it would be much more meaningful if we talk about reasonable and practical freedom in living life in real terms. It may be better to seek fairness in social life, or even better would be a goal for bringing overall improvement in our lives, both materially as well socially. 

To sum up, we need much more than freedom to fulfill our aspirations!