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Recent Questions
- Why did everyone start to hate the Russians if the U.S. did the same thing in Afghanistan, Iraq?
- What needs to be corrected in the management of Russia first?
- Why did Blaise Pascal become a religious man at the end of his life?
- How do I know if a guy likes you?
- When they say "one generation", how many do they mean?
yes, of course, because true freedom is not political freedom, but the freedom of the human spirit. There are no limits to this except disbelief, ignorance or delusion of the person's own personality.
It's just that in a totalitarian state, you don't even know that you're not free. And if you do, then the Ministry of Love (according to Orwell) will immediately convince you that 2×2=5. The Iron Curtain will not let you know how free people live abroad, so you will have to accept the total propaganda that says that ” freedom is slavery.” Because there is no alternative point of view. You really believe that you are participating in political life, but in reality you are only a means to achieve certain goals.
As for the democratic regime, formally you have a choice, whether to go to this or that enterprise or not to go. But, as Marx said, you have no real choice, because you can't earn a living on your own, so you'll have to sign up for a capitalist enterprise anyway. In general, democracy in the true (Hellenic) sense of the word did not exclude slavery, but rather implied the power of equal slave owners.
If we talk about freedom in general, then a person is never free. In the womb, it depends on the mother, after birth-on parents and relatives, and then-on others (the so-called “secondary agents of socialization”). Plus, there is such a catch phrase: “your freedom ends where the freedom of another begins,” that is, you are responsible for your freedom under any political regime.
Well, this is purely my understanding of this issue.
I think that what you are asking is best described in Viktor Frankl's book ” Say Yes to Life!”. Where can you be more unfree and oppressed than in a concentration camp? And so, even in this worst of contexts, Viktor Frankl found a way to preserve freedom – freedom of reason, freedom of choice, freedom to be true to one's chosen meaning, and freedom to take responsibility. As he said (not quoted) ” no one can take away our thoughts, memories, etc.”, in other words-inside ourselves, we are as free as we allow ourselves to be. But the decision to be free, to be the leader and author of your own destiny always leads to the fact that you have to pay a price – accepting responsibility and not being able to shift it to external circumstances. Not everyone is willing to pay that price. But still, you can be free in any of the contexts.