Do you consider yourself free?
Asked by
stump (
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February 26th, 2010
The word freedom is thrown around alot. What does it mean to you? Are you free? If so, what would you have to loose before you felt you were no longer free? If you are not free, what would make you free?
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Freedom is a relative notion. A lot of things can happen to make someone more free or less free, but the only way to become completely absolutely unfree is to die.
Even a high security prisoner has still small freedoms, if only being able to decide when to inhale or exhale.
I for one am presently content with my degree of freedom.
I am as free as a bird….whose claws are epoxied to the tree branch. All my choice though!
Not yet and I can’t tell ya! ;)
I am free. I choose what I do and where I live. I have some obligations, but I have chosen those too.
I feel like I am free.
I have made choices in my life that constrict me.
I can live with them.
I can’t imagine that I would be better off somewhere else. I would still be constricted by my choices, and I think I would have less choices.
Freedom is not free.
But, yes. There is just a price or a sacrifice that comes along with it.
Free enough. I don’t believe in absolutes.
I’m free in the sense that I am not tied down to anything. I wake up when I want, sleep when I want, go where I want, etc. I don’t answer to anyone. So yes, at this very moment in my life, I am completely free.
I’m free enough. I’m not in jail, so what’s else more could I want lol.
Free? No. But I am priced to sell.
Every conscious act is a result of a decision. I arrived at where I am because of decisions I made. You can say the same thing about a guy who’s locked up in a prison cell.
That’s not to say I haven’t been overwhelmed by circumstances more than once. But I still made choices about what I would do even then.
I used to visit my old granny in a nursing home when she was very old – she lived to be 94. There were people in there who were so far gone they would just kick around the halls talking to people who had died 40 years before. They were not free.
Freedom is sanity.
Somewhat hemmed in, but yes, I consider myself free, and therefore I hold me accountable for what happens with the exercise of that freedom. Apparently society agrees, because they hold me legally accountable. If I am a wind-up toy, they should be going after the toy-maker and not me when I misfire.
@IchtheosaurusRex
That’s an interesting take.
But I don’t agree with it. Why would a demented person not be free? They may be out of touch with reality, but within their own perception of the world they are still making decisions. The choice to go pay the late uncle Ben a visit in his workshop in the broom cupboard is no less a choice.
Uh, well I’m free to do anything I want and I’m free to accept the consequences if something I want is somehow wrong. I’m free to decide to work within the system or not to achieve my own goals.
I am also bound. Bound by the constraints of the society in which I live, bound by the physical laws of the universe.
But within a certain framework, I believe myself to be free.
@Fyrius , we’re talking about people who could not go to the toilet without assistance. That doesn’t seem very appealing to me.
@IchtheosaurusRex but insanity, by definition, would render you into a state of not being aware or caring. Your entire perception would be altered. In that altered state, urinating on oneself might be seen as desirable or even necessary. You say that from your perspective of current sanity. Seen from their perspective of seeing beyond the veil, you may seem to be the one in chains.
Do you not see that it is all a matter of perspective?
free of will and free of space
The core of this question is whether free will even exists. Strict determinalists believe that everything that happens in the universe is causal, and that therefore there is no such thing as free will—our atomic substructure determines every thought we have—and any impression of free will is just an illusion. I do not accept that. I am a compatibilist. I believe that the universe of partly causal and partly quantum probabilistic, and that self awareness is an emergent phenomenon which allows us to stop simply being a computer executing a pre-installed program, and realize that we can be a programmer, and rewrite subroutines at will.
Science is still pushing for ways to test this and determine (there’s that word) whether determinism is right or wrong. Perhaps some day we will actually know. For now, I just operate based on how it feels to have apparent free will—and on the knowledge that whether I do or do not, society will hold me accountable for my exercise thereof.
Freedom is just an illusion “The Man” convinces you of having.
In order to keep you in your place. We are never free.
But feel free to think it.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so. (Douglas Adams)
I would feel freer if people used the words “lose“and “loose’ correctly. It really bothers me how often they are misused here.
@janbb If I loose(n) my shoelaces, I might lose my shoes!
@Yetanotheruser Too true, but so many people don’tseem to realize that. :-)
@IchtheosaurusRex
I concur, but that’s not what we’re talking about. The issue is whether they’re free.
No but it is of my own doing and I have chosen this.
@janbb I would feel freer if people used the words “lose“and “loose’ correctly. It really bothers me how often they are misused here.
You really should loose the obsession and allow for a more lose use of language. :-)
But then I might become a lose woman.
@ETpro: If Janbb loosened up, we would lose yet another member of the collective whose questions and answers don’t need translating into English.
no, but it is an abiding ambition
I’m rather expensive actually.
If we don’t loosen up the constraints that supposedly guarantee our security, we might lose those freedoms!
Freedom is like a quote I heard from a wise old man:
Hold on loosely, but dont let go.
If you cling too tightly, you’re going to lose control.
Compared to some people in other countries, yes, technically, maybe not. But good enough for me if I can find the time to whine about it.
Although freedom as a definition can be very complicated…for one, say if I don’t work, maintain an apartment and pay bills, I’ll end up in the street. Will I be free then? Probably, but is it good being that free? No food, no shelter, fuck that.
I guess it’s relative, and we often make of it what we do, usually by being discontented by things we don’t like. That in itself shouldn’t define freedom…but on a simpler scale, I can speak against religion online and in real life without fear of decapitation, so I consider myself pretty free.
for me, anything you can do without significant cost is free.
My personal feeling, I am more free than most people I know.
I remember a conversation with someone who got himself deported from a country he was visiting for speaking his mind about (something), and he said to the arresting officer – “It’s a free country” hahaha. People really have no idea what freedoms we have here that aren’t found in other countries.
I am freer than many in the world but no, I don’t feel free – I don’t feel free to be myself without having people insulting and discriminating against me
@stump okay. I am myself, but with a select few.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir just be your frigging self jeez!
If need a little confidence, I’ve found that farting publicly can be quite liberating.
No. As long as I’m bound to this body, I am trapped.
Victor Hugo said that he who is unable to endure poverty is unable to be free. I don’t know how I’d cope giving up my material possessions, but the fact that I’m nowhere near about to try probably suggests that I am not.
No. I just watched the fire department force someone to get out of the ocean in an effort to save him from himself.
I think it was Janis Joplin who sang…
...freedom is just another word for “nothing left to lose.”
There are too many things I’m dependent upon to consider myself free.
The removal of one or more of these shackles would change my life, considerably.
@Trillian , the image of mentally disabled people as being happy, free spirits, chasing around the asylum grounds with butterfly nets, was always a crass caricature. People descending into dementia go through hell. Then they get there.
@IchtheosaurusRex You are probably speaking from experience, but my own experience is as follows: My brother was placed in a mental hospital, where they were allowed to watch TV cartoons all day, eat what they wanted outside of the meals provided, and live a life many of us would choose, if we could. He was happy and free.
yes now that I gave up trying
“I wear the chains I forged in life.”
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