First off, I hate to tell you this, but, freedom is an illusion. We're not free. In historical comparison we may seem free, but as long as there are other people in this world you will never be free. Without them you'd be even less free. I'll return to this.
If we take a life as an example, one in The Free World, I will try to illustrate before you shake your head and think "nonsense", and show how it's in fact an illusion. Alright. Let's go. A child is born. First problem, not so much for the child, but for the parents, choose a name. Shouldn't be so hard to do, if it wasn't for the fact that the poor creature will have to carry the mark of a name for the rest of its life. Make it a good one, folks. Moving forward a couple of years, which toys to choose? Who should be the friends of this little example person? Which toys are chosen are very much tied into who the friends happen to be. Groups of children, all dealing with peer pressure. Where's the freedom in trying to please and fit in? While faced with the choices at the toystore it may seem like endless possibilities. Hardly, those products are placed there with the sly intention of making money out of innocent games. (And sometimes they're not even that innocent. Those who claim all children are nice and sweet have obviously forgotten their own childhoods.) It's a bit mumbled, but what I'm really trying to say that in the freedom of choice, the choices offered are limited, based on social status and production.
Later on, there are choices concerning career, family and location. How could this not be overwhelming? To some of us the choices are more limited. But truthfully they're limited to all of us. Surely in the more democratic parts of the world you could go for whatever you'd like and hope that you make it. Problem is, however, that when you fail, and God knows that you will fail at one point, the responsibility is yours. There is noone to blame for anything, noone but yourself. Maybe your university plan didn't turn out, maybe not even your high school either. It's your own fault. You should have tried harder. You're not worthy of the greater things. Simple. This usually leads to you not getting your dream career. It's still your fault. Let's just ignore the fact that there's only a limited amount of space for success. If we were all equally successful, noone'd be successful at all. It's just the way of what we like to call The Free World. Family then. Decide on who you want to be with, if anyone. Didn't want you back? Your own fault, you should have been better. No children coming along when you wanted to? Your own fault, you incomplete human being. Too many children? Should have been more careful. Want to live on the moon? Well you can't, silly. You can choose where you live, from this list of possibilities. If none of the choices are what you want you're just going to have to deal with it. You can't even really choose which country, most are basically stuck where they were born. How does that make you free? As far as I can tell it's just a recipe for migraines and broken hearts. And that guilt of not having lived up to your potential.
I do have a point, I'm sure, but I have so many words to choose from, yet none of them quite fit. How can one argue for more control, for a society where choices are taken away from you when the world has been about making us more free for so long? What I'd like to know is if people could be happy as slaves, as poor farmers, as factory workers, as housekeepers. I do believe they could, but viewed through the eyes of a freedom seeker the very essence of happiness would be lost on them. How could someone be happy if they were stuck in a fate they hadn't chosen?
Simple. Imagine a life without regrets, without ever feeling torn, without ever fearing making a mistake. Imagine a world where you could always find the right answers to all your questions. Imagine resting assured that everything would be ok as long as you just do as you're told and know your place. Would that really be such a horrible life to lead? It could be, if you failed to accept and submit to your ticket in life. But we have that now don't we? It's easy to end up in a place you don't feel like you chose even though all millions of tiny choices have lead you exactly to where you are but there's nowhere to turn with the question of "So now what am I supposed to do?".
As long as the world you live in is ruled by the idea of freedom being right you'll always be living in a fake one. Your choices are limited and you will rarely get something that is completely yours, and yours alone. If you have something desirable others will want it to, and they're free to take it from you. You will have to bend to what the majority wants, even if you find that you never quite agree. Your home is limited by construction, cost and products offered to put in it. Your time is limited by what you have to do to maintain your freedom. If you make a mistake you have to clean it up, even if it's a simple thing like staying home from work for a month, just because you didn't feel like going. Complete freedom is only having to do what you want. Noone is that free.
Then, if we leave anything financial to the side we have all those people you depend on. They won't act the way you want them to. Sometimes they might, but that's their choice. It just happened to coincide with what you wanted. What we mustn't forget is that freedom is controlling your own world. You can't control others. Most of us can't even really control ourselves. Also, you need others to produce things for you. No man is an island and all that. The idea of freedom is that we should be kings and queens of our own worlds. But we all live in the same world, and you can't have it your way. I know, I know, but you really can't.
Again, I state that freedom is an illusion, cursing us to a life with so many "what ifs" and feelings of not being enough, of not having tried hard enough, of being a failed project of perfection. Maybe a dictatorship taking care of all those boring things would be preferable. One that makes sure we all have jobs and make a decent living. One that educates the youth and provides us with what we need. All we have to do is obey and accept. It'd save oh so many sleepless nights wondering about how to make something out of yourself.
Freedom is a curse, promising everything to everyone and denying the mediocre everything at the same time.
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