Freedom is for Whom?
We have gained so many freedoms that we end up becoming slaves to them. If we now have the freedom to tell the world about ourselves, we also end up becoming slaves to what we expose.
What a paradox!? When I have the freedom to vote, I also end up enslaving my ideology for a long time; when I take off my bra in a public square, I end up becoming a woman who is a slave to responsibilities that I didn't have before; when I have the supposed freedom to defend an idea, I become a slave to it. The more freedoms I have, the more vulnerable I become. By exposing my freedom to others, I give away the gold. I allow others to know everything about me, and thus give them the opportunity to manipulate me.
It works like this: when I decreed that as a woman, I would wear pants because I wanted to feel freer, I ended up creating a market that didn't exist before. Brands and models appeared to manipulate me and convince me that this or that were the best pants for me, and I ended up buying this or that; unless I decide to make my own pants, it will always be like this. This was the theory developed by Foucault, a French philosopher from the last century. Just look around us, we are manipulated 24 hours a day because we allow, with our freedoms, that others know everything about us. My sexual preference, my political ideology, my health status, my beliefs, how I raise my children, what I like to eat, how much money I have, where I like to go and so on. I believe that I am exercising my freedom when I conquer the right to act as I please. Big mistake, and quite the opposite. More and more we believe that we are conquering freedoms, when in fact what we are doing is allowing others to find ways to dictate our behavior and habits.
Today there are products and services for all tastes, and we falsely believe that we are making choices. Mere illusion! We are not choosing anything, not our profession, not our job, not our clothes, not the school we send our children to, not the doctors we see, not the politicians we elect. We are a product of the immense machine of "freedom". A paradox without a solution, but one that we must pay attention to and reflect on, otherwise we will have lived a life like slaves.
When I hear people say that today's generation of young people has more freedom than past generations, I feel sad, because if there is one thing that this generation is not, it is free. They are not allowed freedom of choice. Everything is already determined. They simply have to press a little button and select "a, b, or c". They are either geeks, or alternative, or popular, or activists, or straight, or not, or left, or right, or any other label. Everything but free. Good students, bad students, with potential, without potential... Sad. Daring, or not.
Freedom is not libertinism, but these two terms have been confused for a long time. True freedom comes long before all achievements; it is the freedom inherited at birth, in the privacy of the "four walls" of our mind. We are only free when our mind is free to choose, on its own.
Consider my case; As long as this page remains online, I will be a slave to everything I publish on it. I am giving the reader my freedom to think. I am allowing interpretations, I am allowing everything I say to be used in my favor or against me. I need to reflect daily on whether it is worth it. I need to be aware of whether I am doing it for myself or for someone else. If I had to choose just one piece of advice to give my children, I would say, "Don't seek more freedoms. Protect the only one you really have: the freedom to think. Use it to the fullest!"
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