The Lure of Conditioned Freedom
Freedom
Freedom come
Hold on
Won’t be long
Freedom
Freedom come
Hold on
Won’t be long
This is the refrain from the song ‘Letter to the Free’ by Common. Here the musician is inviting freedom to come into the United States of America. To the country, portraying itself as an advocate of democracy. To the country founded on the principles of freedom. To the country, which has never lived up to those principles, even for its own citizens.
Freedom is an empowering word. One of a few uplifting the soul and fuelling strength into raised-up fists. In the name of it, many sacrificed their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Chanting ‘Freedom’ they marched towards the exit of a cave, guarded by their countrymen who genuinely or submissively believed the cave to be the best place. At the end of it, all such marches culminating in brutal suppressions or breakthroughs.
Each little breakthrough is a step forward to a freer world. A step forward from someone or something, as with the famous example of slavery. Yet freer does not mean uncontrolled or unlimited. The nature of the physical world will not permit it because control and limitation are woven into the fabric of it. It is the unescapable truth of our physical reality.
As we live in a world where the human population is above 8 billion, one could argue, control and limitation are essential, if not life-dependent, for humanity. To function, such a large organism as society must have rules, allowing individuals to coexist. Everywhere you look, you will find a governing structure of different scope and complexity from national governments to criminal syndicates. Inside of these structures exist control and limitation mechanisms, which dictate the freedom of an individual. Respectable dictionaries give several definitions of freedom:
Cambridge: a) the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited, b) a right to act in the way you think you should and c) the state of not being in prison.
Merriam-Webster: a) the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action, b) liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another, c) the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous, d) unrestricted use, e) ease, facility, f) the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken, g) improper familiarity and h) boldness of conception or execution.
Collins: a) freedom is the state of being allowed to do what you want to do b) when prisoners or slaves are set free or escape, they gain their freedom and c) freedom from something you do not want means not being affected by it.
As you go through these definitions, there is something far-fetched about them. Something in a hand’s reach and yet unattainable. Something that could be best described as chimerical because when we talk about freedom, as the definitions above do, we talk about freedom in connection to our physical reality. And in the notion of physical reality, you will never be free from something or someone, neither you will be able to do, say or even think whatever you want. The fight to attain such freedom is endless and thus contradictory because at the end, there is always a condition behind it. This is not an invitation to submit to any kind of suppression but to understand the nature of our conditioned freedom. To be aware about its imperfection and hierarchical structure. Something that can be gained and lost in a lifetime. For instance the amount of conditioned freedom a prisoner has differs significantly from that of a non-incarcerated person. In a similar way a rich person has much more conditioned freedom than a poor one. But this can change. And the possibility of such change suggests the up-and-down movement on the hierarchical ladder in the realm of conditioned freedom.
Children’s playground is a good example of how we should look at such freedom. First and foremost, the playground has boundaries. Inside the playground, children are free to do and say whatever they want, with little control or limitation. Free until their actions and words fall within the boundaries of playground etiquette. As soon as one of the unwritten rules is broken, a child must come back to the playground, apologise to another child, or give back the toy to its owner. To control the child, an adult introduces certain limitations, and such limitations institute the conditioned notion of freedom. To enforce it, the adult punishes the child, adding fear of punishment as a tool of control. And punishment is something shared between different governing structures. It exists and thrives in all of them. If an individual chooses to cross the line and challenge the governing structure, one will face consequences such as exclusion, financial implications, imprisonment or death. And if such consequences don’t affect some of the individuals per se, those affected restrict themselves from doing certain things such as exploring, being curious and questioning the decisions of governments.
But if you think about the example of the rich and the poor, you might come across the daring thought of freedom being not an external feature an individual gets at the mercy of the circumstances and the governing structure one lives in but an internal one. Actual freedom, which cannot be taken nor given but only be found within, non-conditioned freedom that, once attained, will never be lost.
Throughout the years, and particularly the previous century, the boundaries of conditioned freedom have been widened to a great extent. What people have in certain societies nowadays could only have been dreamed of a few centuries ago. It is undeniable that humanity is moving towards a freer world. But if you listen carefully to the refrain of the song ‘Letters to the Free’, you will hear Common’s invitation of freedom to rise within us despite the circumstances. That is a very powerful message, taking us beyond the notion of conditioned freedom and urging, to contemplate Freedom…
Freedom
Freedom come
Hold on
Won’t be long
Freedom
Freedom come
Hold on
