The end of freedom (genesis, America, myth, Adam)

[coberst]

The end of freedom

I am shackled hand and foot spread eagle on the floor of my cell. I ask my jailer everyday to set me free. Finally he compassionately sets me free.

For days I am exhilarated with the ability to freely pace about my cell. After a few weeks I begin to beg my jailer to set me free. After weeks he, being a compassionate man, sets me free from my cell.

For days I am exhilarated at the freedom to wonder about and speak with other inmates. After several weeks I begin to beg my jailer to free me and finally he relents and releases me from jail. I am overwhelmed with the sense of freedom until I, overcome with hunger and basic needs, seek some work so as to feed myself.

I find a job working on an assembly line and am exhilarated at the new found freedom. After a year I begin to seek other less strenuous and repetitive assembly line work. I wish to free myself from this robotic work I do everyday.

What is the ‘telos’ (ultimate end) of this series of ever persistent desire for freedom? Is hunger for freedom similar to hunger for food, never satiated? I don’t think so. I think the search for freedom can culminate in an ultimate and satisfying end.

Freedom, I suspect, is a search for self-determination. When we feel that we are master of our domain, when we are free to determine who we are and what we need to be our self we will have reached that ‘telos’ of freedom. I suspect this end is as unique as a finger print; it is an act of creation and can be made conscious to me only by me.

I think each of us must learn for our self what we need to secure freedom’s ‘telos’. Probably most of us find only a degree of freedom, but if we never stop looking we may continue finding more of it.

I think our degree of possible freedom is directly proportional to our degree of self-actualization. Self-actualization is a process of extending our horizons based upon our own unique potential. The further we can see the greater is our horizon for freedom.

Do you think self-actualization has any impact on the nature of freedom?

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by coberst

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Do you think self-actualization has any impact on the nature of freedom?

Yes, of course.
Does our potential self-actualization have a limit? If so, then why?
Is there ever total freedom?

[coberst]

Originally Posted by b. frank

Yes, of course.
Does our potential self-actualization have a limit? If so, then why?
Is there ever total freedom?

In a practical sense our self-actualization can continue until we finally die. There is no finish to self-actualization and freedom has no limit except our ability ti realize it.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by coberst

In a practical sense our self-actualization can continue until we finally die. There is no finish to self-actualization and freedom has no limit except our ability ti realize it.

So freedom is quantifiable and also infinite.
How can I tell how free and self-actualized I am?

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by coberst

Do you think self-actualization has any impact on the nature of freedom?

Nah. Self-actualization strikes me as a fancy term therapists use for navel-gazing selfishness. In the end, it doesn't make us free, only more content in our prison.

True freedom comes not from satisfying your self, but from joining the world around you and helping others.

[ParkTwain]

There is such a thing as the "myth of mastery" for human beings, such as that (mastery of Adam over nature) presented in the Book of Genesis.

'Freedom' is a relative term, of course. Your freedom diminishes as the size of your encompassing society increases. So your maximum sense of freedom is relative to the size of your social environment.

In some non-Western cultures, the American conception of 'freedom' is interpreted as a mental illness of radical self-centeredness.

[coberst]

Self knowledge is the essence of self-actualization. Freedom and self-actualization feed upon one another. The more freedom we have the more likely we are to self-actualize and as we do we gain more freedom. They share a symbiotic relationship.

[june 7th]

Originally Posted by coberst

Self knowledge is the essence of self-actualization. Freedom and self-actualization feed upon one another. The more freedom we have the more likely we are to self-actualize and as we do we gain more freedom. They share a symbiotic relationship.

And yet I wonder: would it be possible for one to self actualize even within the most limiting and restrictive of environments? Are these two concepts truly symbiotic in their relationship?

[coberst]

Originally Posted by june 7th

And yet I wonder: would it be possible for one to self actualize even within the most limiting and restrictive of environments? Are these two concepts truly symbiotic in their relationship?

You are correct. When freedom is restricted so is self-actualization.

[june 7th]

Yet to what extent is self actualization an inner oriented process which takes place in the mind, irrespective of personal freedoms.

Victor Frankl clearly spoke of those ways in which he managed to find meaning in life, irrespective of the most horrific surroundings imaginable. I don't know whether he would necessarily have referred to it as being "self actualization," but he did go on to forumlate an awfully good theory about it...