(Maybe) a Guide to Freedom

By Our Features and Opinion Editor Cian Walsh

The definition of freedom is a tricky one. It can divide and spread in terms of its definition as far as anyone is willing to do so. Freedom can mean being unbound, unobligated, uninterested even. To see freedom through a lens of detachment is to say that no one has freedom. Attachment is something that as human beings, we can’t exactly escape. People are inherently attached to one another. Companionship and support are what we rely on as a means of survival. The same is true when we think about how we attach ourselves to our identities. We bind ourselves to notions of what we are and thinking of oneself as free leaves us still obligated in a way. 

Many people worry about dating in their early twenties for what they might lose out on. Maybe they worry about what might become of themselves should they be committed, be obligated. It is not an easy task to give part of oneself away in order to pursue the feelings that they cannot escape. At the same time, are we not free to pursue those feelings and free to admit our attachments? We are all free to put ourselves at risk of heartbreak but then are we bound to another person because of that same risk? Would it be easier for us as a society to embrace a polyamorous utopia in which we are feeding our desires and avoiding any notion of commitment for all the years we spend on this planet? Somehow, I doubt it. 

The question still stands however on the topic of freedom and what it really is and how we can embrace it on a micro and macro level. Questioning autonomy will likely leave any critical thinker pulling out their hairs for every contradiction that they fall upon.

Once someone believes themself to be acting freely, they could run into many obstacles or paradoxes regarding such a statement. Any autonomous decision made can still come from a place of influence whereby that autonomous actor is still bound to their own ideologies. In the beginning, people are free to make their own minds on certain topics or events but inevitably, people cannot escape their own thoughts and thus, the spiralling paradox of freedom and how long we can remain free continues. 

Through my own lens of agonising cynicism, I would subscribe to the idea that human beings are inherently stubborn in their ways more than they realise. I suppose it is to say that perhaps freedom is only realised when we can be free despite ourselves. Where we can look past our biases and even attempt to open our minds even if it is only one percent wider than before. Being free could be an ongoing journey that surely never ends. Whether it is due to the idea that we get more stubborn as the years go on, or that those years ahead become the most formative regarding our identities of which we are inseparably bound to. 

There’s certainly something frustrating about wrestling freedom as a concept for every loophole that exists in its definition or its ‘true’ form. Must I be free from something or must I be free to do something instead? Can I only know freedom if I was once forced to live in a cage or could I just start egging houses on College Road and claim autonomy that way?

I am certainly thankful for the inability I have to take myself too seriously. Otherwise, this would’ve been a much less enjoyable piece to write. Ironically, one might believe I just enacted my own freedom through the distance I put between myself and any premonition of my own self-importance. Perhaps, I am free from my premonitions and thus, I am free to do as I wish in this world. Irony aside, freedom from our own senses of self-importance wouldn’t exactly be the worst thing. I fear that what might hold me or anyone else back from pursuing their true passions are the entitlement of the self and the entitlement of everyone else. 

What is the most perfect prison for human beings to be caught or contained by? I think judgement could be the greatest deterrent to one's freedom. If you asked me to say from whom the judgement is most destructive, I would freak out and run away for how terrifying that question is. If you were annoyed at me for deflecting the question, I’d tell you that I was only acting out of freedom. 

Freedom feels more like a moment than anything else to me. It’s an impermanent sensation, almost. To me, a moment of freedom is a moment of spontaneity and precision. It’s exact in its form but can come from nowhere. Freedom is listening to Bell X1 at full blast driving down an empty road at night time. Freedom is staying out later than you normally would with your friends because the only certainty that you need in that instance is that you will be home eventually. Freedom is sometimes as simple as making breakfast in your underwear while your parents aren’t home. Freedom is the feeling that things will work out however they do and that whatever moment you’re experiencing now isn’t worth ruining over what may be ahead of you.

I find a level of freedom in the idea that all I need in order to live my life is to do right by others. It’s a simple construct that might seem limiting in its delivery or description, but I get this pulling sensation in my gut that tells me the right thing is always in front of me. The right thing isn’t always the easiest thing by any means, but why should it be? For all the existential phrases like “attachment” and “bound” that I’ve exhausted this article with, is it not somewhat comforting to think that there’s one idea which I, or anyone else would choose to attach or bind themselves to? In life, I believe people will lose a million freedoms and gain a million more. I only hope they have found the right reasons.