Positive and negative freedom
Question from the Internet:
“What are your thoughts on positive freedom (able to do x) vs. negative freedom (protection against y)? Where do you think the balance lies?”
In order to find that balance, first, we need to identify what it is we want to be free from, and what is preventing us from achieving what we need to and want to achieve. Then we can protect ourselves from this negative influence and find ways of freely moving towards the positive, all-attractive goal and purpose we want to achieve.
Most people are unaware of such an all-important goal or purpose since by default we all exist within our inherently self-centred and subjective and individualistic bubbles, where we define everything according to a 100% introverted “pleasure/pain” calculation.
According to this, we consider “freedom” a state where we can get whatever we want exactly how we want it for ourselves when we can get all the pleasures we crave and avoid any unpleasant sensation of suffering at the same time.
And everything that is interfering with this 100% egocentric and subjective view of “freedom” we want to protect ourselves against.
Does this definition of “positive vs negative freedom” make us happy? Have we managed to build a positive, constructive, peaceful and sustainable human society as a result of this idea of 100% individual freedom when I want to do whatever I want at any given moment without any interference?
I leave the answer to you and anybody else through examining today’s human society and our individual lives in general.
As usual, there is another viewpoint, of course, the viewpoint from Nature’s overall system’s point of view. Usually, we do not care about this viewpoint, we do not even research or comprehend what it is since according to our egocentric, subjective and individualistic viewpoint we are also independent of Nature and we want to overrule its laws, we want to force our own arbitrary human laws over the Natural system.
But again, when we look at our lives and the direction human society is moving towards, our stubborn and unfounded belief in our superiority above Nature, our stubborn, egocentric, subjective and individualistic standpoint does not help us.
This is because we are an integral part of Nature whether we want it or not, whether we consent to it or not. Nature’s strict and unchanging laws that govern the general balance and homeostasis life depends on are also obligatory for us.
According to Nature’s viewpoint, there is no such thing as individual freedom in a fully, mutually integrated and interdependent living system. Each and every element of the system — including individual human beings — have to be a mutually responsible and mutually complementing part of the system.
Thus we will need to revise everything we thought about freedom. The actual freedom we have to fight for is freedom from our inherently egocentric, subjective and individualistic viewpoint and consciousness that forces us to behave and exist against one another and against Nature’s system by constantly thinking only about ourselves, accumulating everything for ourselves beyond necessities, excessively overconsuming and succeeding at the expense of others and Nature.
There is no greater freedom than the freedom from our own egotistic and subjective self.
If one has ever kept a fast for medical or religious reasons, for example, that person experienced that very unusual and totally liberating feeling of not needing to think about oneself for a day. One’s total existence is liberated to think about others, to experience reality as if one did not exist. And this is just a very small and limited taste of what existence selflessly, being independent of the egoistic self actually means!
When we learn and implement this liberation from the self — in a mutually supportive and mutually complementing environment through a special method — we acquire a completely new sense of existence, liberated from the usual, subjective and egocentric limitations of time, space and motion, experiencing a completely unlimited and timeless existence through the desires and viewpoints of others people.
Then positive freedom becomes everything we can do for the sake of others and to maintain that unlimited and timeless, selfless existence and negative freedom is protecting ourselves against the selfish ego that wants to regain control all the time.