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Tag: freedom

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    vitriolic freedom

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    1–2 minutes

    When repeatedly tempted with the vice we have coined as "freedom," it is to exercise your desire as your agency. (Chasing what you want is who you are, is to be a free, active individual.)

    Yet, the conflicted pursuit of desire disgorges a perverse acidic hate as you strive to earn your freedom, which is to gain yourself.

    The issue is that freedom through desire fulfillment requires increased intensity to become more of what you are (your autonomous individuality), paradoxically leading to an angry, vitriolic exercise of self, which corrupts and degrades yet demands further pursuit to maintain your freedom.

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    freedom from desire

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    1–2 minutes

    We tend to consider freedom as the positive ability to fulfill our desires. This means we can identify more fully with the object of our desire, and over time, we consider ourselves (our identity) to be those desiring actions, those drives.

    According to Lacan or Slavoj Zizek, we are "desiring subjects" captured before inception with ideology. So, our desires are programmatic and not unique. They may be "individual" or "subjectively felt." Still, they are not authentic, meaning we are manufactured to feel individually free in our pursuits, but that very pursuit is your training in action.

    So, what if freedom is not the fulfillment of your desire but a negation of desire? By dissolving desire, like a Buddhist, you create the potential to encounter your authentic self (if that exists), not tarnished with pre-programmed base desires or complex transference.

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    The Precarious Illusion of Progress

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    1–2 minutes

    We become so accustomed to infrastructure that we become blind to its benefits until it erodes. From physical systems (such as highways, roads, or sewers) to ideological frameworks (such as scientific processes or Judeo-Christian values), we become complacently reliant on this contemporary tower’s upkeep as we attempt to launch further into excessive freedoms.
    Historically, the ideas of individuality, freedom, and equality have been illogical anachronisms from which we must inevitably tumble. Yet, in our belief in immanent progress and the righteousness of our causes, we think we are on a launch pad when we are delicately perched atop a tremulous tower, a juttering scaffold of political insanity.

    Keep the faith and never look down, lest reality cause you to fall.

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    Herd Mentality vs. Individual Freedom

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    There’s an evolutionary tension between the desire to separate from the herd and the need to claim communal solidarity—we strive to be both individually free and communally secure. This conflict is mirrored in corporations and nation-states, which encourage extreme specialization while maintaining cohesion through structure, salary, and perceived stability.

    By nature, the "tribe" or "bureaucratic structure" often opposes our individuating desires while fulfilling cohesive others. At times, we find comfort in rules over relationships (Jack can’t get away with that) yet feel alienated when our personal wants are denied (I deserve this, this makes sense for me).

    Further, when mistreatment and unfairness occurs, we see the cult-like contradiction of charismatic leadership within the community and realize that it’s neither rules-based nor stable. Instead, it functions as a herd—providing protection and power to a few, while suppressing and exploiting the instincts of the many.

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    Redefining Freedom

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    When freedom is lost, we turn to rationalization.

    The emotional impulse for freedom persists, but once constrained, a new self emerges—one guided by principles. This adapted self redefines “freedom” as self-discipline, finding power and fulfillment in pursuing excellence, and moderately expanded agency within the limiting parameters.

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    Struggle is Freedom

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    1–2 minutes

    Reality is what pushes back against your agency: the easier it is, the more you belong to someone else.

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    Freedom paradox: subjective/objective

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    1–2 minutes

    Unsurprisingly, our freedom does not arise from the physical world: the objective realm limits us and is arguably antagonistic to our freedom. However, we phenomenally experience the world with subjective perception (limited, personal interpretation).

    Oddly, freedom resides inside the subjective realm as a fantasy construct, yet it transcends the individual as an abstract notion. It is both in you and beyond you.

    This inside/outside dynamic allows an abstract notion to be mapped onto the objective world through a subjective lens. As such, we can perceive our freedom and agency in action, even if our reading is delusional. To counterbalance our bias, we can share the expansion or constriction of our liberty with others.

    Consider that your level of freedom is based on shifting alignment, reframing your subjective stance: deciding contentment punctures the idealistic conceit of victimization or frustrated agency. Yet, it simultaneously allows others dominance if your actions do not deny authority over you.

    The contradiction of having and fighting for freedom is not only self-imposed but externally mediated, reverting the “subjective framework” back into a substantial, shared reality. And yet, it remains nonobjective, non-noumenal, completely accessible, and ultimately denied.

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    Selling anxiety as fake freedom

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    Your new state of anxiety is sold to you as freedom.
    When your stable job collapses and you take on a precarious freelance career, you are now “free” as your own boss. Without universal care, you can now decide to spend that money on vacation to reduce your stress.

    Your freedom to reinvent yourself in order to stay ahead of the market shifts and reductions is not the liberty you sought, but a pernicious fake freedom thrust upon you.

    from Slavoj Zizek

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    freedom produces managers

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    1–2 minutes

    When individuals are granted greater moral/personal freedom, it often leads to social anarchy due to the resulting diversity. This causes people to cry out for more managerial control.

    As established social norms decompose liberty ascends. Our first line of defense, consideration for others and self-regulation, holds no sway because there are no longer social sanctions. To re-establish consideration we turn neighbors into managers wielding policy to regulate what was once informal negotiations.

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    Moral Flip: Empathy as Chaos

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    1–2 minutes

    Empathy for those less fortunate leads to pleas for benevolent altruism: Universal basic, open borders, or reallocated police funding.

    Taken further, all structure and any limitation is oppression: empathetically, anyone should have whatever they want whenever they want it.

    This becomes anarchy or chaos unless by design the people are so dull that they only desire what they are told, or so enlightened they can self-regulate.

    Unfortunately, denuded of limits out of a desire for freedom, we become oppressed by our neighbors, collapsing standards, and bankrupt infrastructure. (oppressed by others and circumstances)

    This hyper-empathy mistakes Isaiah Berlin’s negative liberty (freedom from restraint) and positive liberty (freedom to self-determine): the paradox of allowing self-determination is that it will infringe on the rights of others.