Locked Down? Here's How to Be Free
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Albert Camus.
When our movement is restricted, chances are high that we feel trapped. No matter if we are in prison, in a mental hospital, or quarantined between the four walls of our home; the very idea that we cannot leave can drive us nuts, and nostalgia may arise for the times that we were able to go places. But there is more to freedom than the mere restriction of physical movement.
Moreover, how free are we in the first place? And how can we experience freedom when we are physically trapped? We could say that the human experience takes place in two separate realms: the outside world and the inside world. Regardless of what’s happening outside, it’s the mind that processes the information that the senses perceive and makes judgments about it based on ideals, convictions, frames of reference, et cetera.
This means that different minds can judge the exact same situation in a completely different way. What one person thinks is acceptable, another thinks is intolerable. The same goes for ugliness and beauty, and also for freedom and imprisonment. Throughout the ages, the concept of freedom—or more specifically: freedom within the outside world—has always been transforming.
The hunters and gatherers of old age, for example, we could see as absolutely free. They were not subjugated to a government, didn’t know national borders, and wouldn’t be arrested when they slept in the wild. However, in a sense, they were also very much unfree. Because they were always in survival mode and lived with uncertainty in regards to meeting their basic needs, they probably hardly had room for things like self-realization.
And as opposed to us, modern humans, their lives were restricted to one area. Not only because there wasn’t any fast transportation, but also because exploring uncharted areas was very dangerous because of wild animals and other tribes that could be hostile. Compared to us, their world was very small. Also, their life expectancy was much shorter. So not only were they restricted by their mobility; they were also prisoners of time.
And we still are, even though modern civilization is much more advanced, which leads to a longer life expectancy. And through technology, we created the possibility to travel the world and even shoot ourselves into space and visit other planets. In the physical sense, we are way more free than our ancestors. However, our existence is still chained to the things we do not control.
According to absurdist philosopher Albert Camus, humanity is simply a random occurrence in an indifferent universe that imposes all kinds of situations upon us that we have no power over: things like life and death, health and illness, and if we are born in poverty or in a wealthy family. As Jean-Paul Sartre put it: we are thrown into this world. Thus, it has never been our choice to be here.
And even worse: we are bound to our condition. The only way to escape this is suicide, which, according to Camus, is the only truly important philosophical problem. Long story short: we are quite unfree. Camus compared the human condition to that of a mythological character named Sisyphus, who was a king that challenged the Gods.
As a punishment, he was condemned to push a rock uphill that rolled down again when it reached the top, and to repeat this process for eternity. In a way, Sisyphus is quarantined within the limits of his repetitive task. If that’s us, how could we possibly feel free? If we look at some religious explanations of the human condition, we discover the claim of determinism.
Determinism means that we are all part of a divine plan, and our lives and actions have already been written in the stars. This means that there is no free will and that everything happens according to the will of God. But paradoxically, the acceptance of this idea actually gives us a sense of freedom under any circumstances.
It’s not that we become physically more free; but the freedom lies in the ceasing of resistance to what is. Of course, for die-hard determinists, even the position we take towards determinism is determined, so there is no freedom at all. Yet, just looking at the human experience, we can at least experience freedom of choice, thus, the freedom over our own faculties that Epictetus spoke about.
This means that we can still control desire and aversion. We can desire to be somewhere else, and hope for better times, but by doing so, we grasp for the future, with a contempt for the present moment. Can’t we just enjoy the now? Let’s take a look at Buddhist monks. They have a different outlook on solitude as well as on being locked up.
Moreover, they voluntarily choose to spend time in solitude and literally lock themselves away from the outside world in order to meditate. Instead of finding freedom depending on external circumstances, they find an expansive kind of freedom within. And this freedom is tied to the cessation of suffering. Part of this is the cessation of cravings, thus, the strong desire for anything else than what is.
Now, let’s go back to our absurdist philosopher Albert Camus. In his work, The Myth of Sisyphus, he argues that freedom lies not in our external circumstances, but in how we behave towards them. In his view, we should not only accept that life is absurd: we ought to revolt against it. And, how he puts it: “to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
As modern day Sisyphuses, we should find enjoyment in despair, reject hope, be indifferent to the future, and live intensely in the present moment. If we can imagine Sisyphus happy, we surely can imagine ourselves being happy in quarantine. At the end of the day, freedom is a matter of perspective.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight for freedom and autonomy, let ourselves be captured, and, basically, let injustice befall us without resistance. That’s a completely different story. It means that we at least have a choice in how we experience freedom in a certain situation, and that we don’t necessarily have to feel trapped even if we are physically restricted.
There’s great psychological freedom in finding joy in what’s supposed to be dreadful. When we are locked up in prison, we are supposed to hate it. And as members of a society with a high degree of mobility, and in which we constantly look for pleasure outside, being locked up in our homes is supposed to be horrible.
In order to be free in quarantine, we must wreck the system. If we manage to curb our desires for what’s out there and to actually enjoy the unenjoyable, external forces cease to have power over us. I mean, let’s face it. Isn’t the enjoyment of what’s supposed to be a punishment the ultimate act of rebellion? Thank you for watching.