What is freedom for you?

Mar 15 / Anja van Kralingen
What is freedom for you?
In this world, it seems freedom is something that is slowly disappearing. This is a radical statement, isn’t it, but I ask for a bit of time to explain what I mean.
I watched an interview with Yeonmi Park, a North Korean who escaped and settled in America. She recalls how she was confronted with choices in the West. What is your favourite colour? Red, of course; everyone in North Korea’s favourite colour is red.
What happens when you are not allowed to have personal choice? How do you decide what is good or bad, right or wrong?
Luckily for us, in the West, we have freedom, right? We can go to the shop and choose from a variety of food products; we can order anything to eat at restaurants; we have access to many books; we can study what we want; we can wear whatever we like; we can choose our own favourite colour.
Is this freedom?
What about freedom to feel, freedom to laugh, freedom to think, freedom to explore, freedom to follow your own spiritual path, freedom to express yourself?
Yoenmi Park shared that the most dangerous thing in North Korea is your tongue; what you say can kill you. This, for me, is in essence the true loss of freedom.
When you are no longer allowed to express yourself, how could you know who you are? Would you feel lost? Suppressing ourselves leads to feelings of abandonment, with a subsequent host of coping mechanisms, from substance abuse, denial, and avoidance to anxiety and depression. [1][2]
Jung said:
“Our freedom extends only as far as our consciousness reaches. Beyond that, we succumb to the unconscious influences of our environment. Though we may not be clear in a logical sense about the deepest meanings of our words and actions, these meanings nevertheless exist, and they have a psychological effect.” CW 13 par 153
How pervasive is society’s influence on these freedoms?
Mental health issues are skyrocketing in the West. The latest stats on suicide, self-harm, depression, and anxiety are shocking. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for U.S. children ages 10 to 14, preceded only by unintentional injury. Over four times as many men as women die by suicide in the U.S. You can imagine the stats on depression and anxiety are equally disturbing.[3] You can’t but wonder what is wrong. We have so much information at our fingertips; why would mental health be declining so rapidly?
We are subject to the collective feelings of isolation, rage, fear, and the desire to dominate. We are bombarded on social media and mainstream media and the entertainment industry with a proliferation of images and ideologies designed to trigger fear and panic and feelings of self-judgment and judgment of others. It is almost impossible to feel optimistic and have faith in the goodness of humanity. We are in the grips of a global existential crisis. It is overwhelming, and no one seems to have the answer. Perhaps it is time to accept that no ideology, person, or group is going to save you.
What is the alternative?
I humbly suggest our part in this global crisis is to engender love, kindness, empathy, and compassion for all, not just those whom society tries to convince you deserve it. And most importantly, for yourself, as the relationship with yourself shapes the world around you and is the lens through which you regard the other. True freedom is to know yourself, how you really feel, what is truly humorous or tragic or meaningful to you. To be able to express your real thoughts and have dynamic dialogues with others who don’t think the same or share similar sentiments. To explore the world, nature, and other cultures and enjoy the richness of life. To explore your own spirituality and connection to the divine. To be able to express yourself freely and creatively.
I would like to leave you with a final quote from Jung.
“It is a notorious fact that the morality of society as a whole is in inverse ratio to its size; the greater the aggregation of individuals, the more the individual factors are blotted out, and with them morality, which depends entirely on the moral sense of the individual and on the freedom necessary for this. Hence every man is, in a certain sense, unconsciously a worse man when he is in society than when acting alone; for he is carried by society and to that extent relieved of his individual responsibility. Any large company composed of wholly admirable persons has the morality and intelligence of an unwieldy, stupid, and violent animal. The bigger the organization, the more unavoidable is its immorality and blind stupidity. (Senatus bestia, senatores boni viri.) Society, by automatically stressing all the collective qualities in its individual representatives, puts a premium on mediocrity, on everything that settles down to vegetate in an easy, irresponsible way. Individuality will inevitably be driven to the wall…. Without freedom there can be no morality.” CW10 par 460
For me, what is clear from Jung’s quote above is that it is paramount for us to seek out our personal freedom and emancipate ourselves from the collective views of society, because our very essence of being human, our morality, is under threat.
This process of emancipating ourselves Jung called individuation. It is not for everyone, as individuation demands us taking responsibility for ourselves, a very difficult and lonely path. Individuation is the act of discretion. What is right for you, what is wrong for you? These questions are simple but profound and the very essence of self-knowledge.
The payoff is integrity, autonomy, and a true experience of freedom. Along the way, you will find others who value their humanity and freedom as much as you, and perhaps for the first time experience the true magic of what it means to be you. Someone to like, respect, and even admire.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think freedom means to you.
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