The Pursuit of Freedom and The Illusion of Choice

Freedom, a word that evokes strong emotions in all of us, a concept that we all strive for in our lives. At different stages in our lives, we have different interpretations of what freedom means to us. 

When we were young, it could be the simple act of going out on our own. Just the freedom to roam around in the neighbourhood was a dream for me. The freedom to get few hours more of TV time. Few hours more of cricket,footbal and hide and seek. This was what I meant by freedom then.  

As teenager, it was to spend more time with my friends. Maybe spending the night at a friend's house or staying with my favourite cousin for the vacation. The defination of freedom gradually changed. This made me realise as we grow older, our understanding of freedom evolves and so does the means by which we pursue it.

I feel this is why we chase money. We believe that money will give us the freedom to do as we please, to buy what we want and to feel powerful. Financial freedom seems like the freedom to have everything we want, cause no one's present to stop us at this age. But is that really the case? The truth is, money can buy us certain conveniences, but it cannot buy us freedom. 

The deeper question is why do want freedom?

The strange thing about human beings is that we tend to crave for things that are beyond our reach, and freedom is one of those things. Deep down, we all know that we have no control over our lives, that we are not truly free. But we refuse to accept this fact and instead seek out something, anything, that will give us the illusion of control.

Well offcourse it ain't as drastic as we've been shown in movies like The Truman show or The Matrix Trilogy, but it sure is an apt reflexion of our society.

Like Truman, who has everything he wants for a good life but still wants to lose everything to gain the thing he can't get his hands on, we too are psychologically designed to always be in pursuit. To chase something. And when we get it, it doesn't feel worth the chase. We move on to our next chase.

Like Nero who has the life that can satisfy him but wants the ability to choose, the ability to be free, we  too are in search for freedom.  We too want the Red Pill.

But unfortunately just like Nero we too come to understand that freedom was not a choice. It was an illusion. Our society often presents us with the illusion of choice. We are given the impression that we can make our own decisions and control our own lives, but the truth is that many of our choices are predetermined by larger forces such as social, economic and political systems. This illusion of choice further perpetuates the idea that we can achieve true freedom, when in reality it may be an unattainable goal.

The pursuit of freedom is an ongoing journey for all of us, one that will never truly be achieved. It's a reminder that as humans, we are constantly searching for something that may forever elude us. But that doesn't mean that the pursuit is not worth it, for it is through this pursuit that we can truly understand and appreciate the complexities of the human condition and the illusion of choice that surrounds us.