Freedom? What and why

This post is about freedom. It is written to structure my thoughts about freedom a little and what it means to me.

When talking to a friend of mine, he said that “Everyone somehow wants to have freedom, but people rarely use it”. For example, someone might enjoy the freedom to go everywhere they could, but once they can, they are not actually doing this for other reasons.

I somewhat feel similar. I am mostly financial independent currently - in terms that I can afford the things I would like to get. This of course also depends on me not wanting a lot of stuff and requiring nothing too fancy or too often. I could pursue to become a digital native and work abroad while living somewhere else. I could work less and live my dream of a 30 hours per week schedule and enjoy going out some more.

Why am I not living/using my freedoms?

Technically I could do the above.

Two Concepts of Liberty

I vaguely had the idea of having constraints and possibilities, which relate of how much freedom one has or better said feels.

Until recently, I did not know that this concept is manifested into “Two concepts of Liberty” by Isaih Berlin.

Negative liberty Berlin initially defined as freedom from, that is, the absence of constraints on the agent imposed by other people. Positive liberty he defined both as freedom to, that is, the ability (not just the opportunity) to pursue and achieve willed goals; and also as autonomy or self-rule, as opposed to dependence on others. These are not the same. ¹

So there are freedoms from doing something and also freedoms to do something specifically.

This now matches my own perspective quite well. While I am free to play trombone in any band (which would like to have me), I would not be free from showing up regularly once I settle for a band. Being a reliable person is of course needed for things like bands to work out.

Also being free to work wherever I want requires me to show up once I have a contract. A pet is also often viewed as a dependency you have to take care of. So choosing a pet and taking the time for it is a “freedom to”, but once you have it, you are not “free from” taking care of it anymore. This is also similar for relationships, real estate and so on..

Are we so free (to) that we bury our freedoms (from)?

Or is it a huge privilege to decide which dependencies we add to our life?

Of course we can even just ignore the freedoms from - not showing up for the job/hobby or

Total freedom

Talking about freedom becomes quite popular around certain circles. This focuses on the “freedoms to” and implicates that you are less free because you have to face or fear consequences from actions.

Yet, taking freedom as something total is not helpful at all. The saying

“your right to swing your arm leaves off where my right not to have my nose struck begins” ² is often used to describe where the borders of freedom can be.

However, investigating freedom as being without influence from others does not work, seen from total freedom. We always influence each other without avoiding or giving up on our freedoms.

This idea that we are not free unless we are free from the consequences of our actions. You see this very often among people that complain about cancel culture. But I don’t think people fully appreciate where such a philosophy would lead. Nobody would want to live in a society in which everyone was exercising their radical freedom to its full extent, they only want to be able to exercise their own radical freedoms. ³

Thinking about where this philosophy would lead reminds me of some Kantian ethic. Just like applying the categorical imperative to that, to only exercise your freedoms without restricting the freedoms of others more than necessarily.

But who defines the “more than necessarily”? It’s our societies ethics. So the borders of our freedom are somewhat set through the ethics our society applies to living. After all, when complaining about not being free, one much more expresses that the own ethics do not quite match the ones of the society.

This either leads to activism to adjust the ethics of society, disenchantment with participating in society or by migrating to a different country whose ethics align better with the own beliefs. It still is a very valuable freedom to move, while of course there are other constraints (family, job, life) keeping one from exercising this freedom.

Freedom to

Getting back to the freedom to’s I would say, that it is much better to have the freedom to do something without using it, then to not have it when needing it. For me, this is a very important part of freedom - having options available - even if they are never pursued at all.

I am free to go out wearing whatever I want. I am free to go wherever I want and how long I want.

Still, having all these options somewhat creates the burden of chosing the best option to spend your time on. The best option to pursue.

In Lisbon, I met a women from Norway who did a split bachelor degree where she has three years in three different countries to study. She finances this through study money anyone can apply for from the Norwegian government through Lånekassen. Most people there max out the amount one can get from this by studying quite a long time. Having such an opportunity is a great freedom to use. She said, that as she has these privileges, she also wants to use them. That of course can create a feeling of having to use your freedoms to, though I don’t think that this was the driving factor here.

But some people in my generation have this feeling quite extensively. The whole FOMO (fear of missing out) feeling comes from chosing between different good options. As well does chosing the subject to study (if you are privileged enough to be able to study in university). Just like in the Midnight library, every decision we make creates a new chapter or even new book of our life.

A few days ago I heard the saying

One always regrets the opportunities which were left out

Which of course is only partial true, as I also equally remember some opportunities I should have better left out. But in general it is good advice to take the adventures as they come. Not forcing it, sometimes taking a risk and always being curious for something new. The freedoms to are there for you.

A quite underrated freedom is also the freedom to take a rest, relax and unwind.