THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE WILL

Hello Everyone,

It has been four months since I launched my first two poetry books. In that time, I have been teaching Orwell’s text, Nineteen Eighty-four. Naturally, when you are exploring a text about a totalitarian government and the overreach of large institutions, your thoughts turn to the theme of free will and freedom of expression and its impact on our morality, values and actions. It is easy, in this fictional case, to see the restrictions of the state acting upon the individual to reduce their choices. They cripple their citizens’ cognitive faculties through reducing the language and ideas available to freely express themselves, subjecting them to endless propaganda that elevates the regime and tears down any opposing forces, or ideas, that might undermine them. That all seems very straight forward. We need to defend our liberties. We get that.

Turning to another fictitious ‘utopia,’ Huxley’s Brave New World, a hapless outsider finds himself trapped in the machinery of a technologically advanced state, without the eugenic conditioning that would make it acceptable to him. John savagely rejects the straitjacket of totalitarian ideology. He chooses freedom, even if it means pain and suffering and sacrifice, preferring that to the life of an automaton, conditioned to play a part . . . but not the part that Shakespeare had in mind when he said: ‘All the world’s a stage/ and all the men and women merely players.’ Shakespeare’s characters were constrained by their social structures, but they played their part. To what extent they were free to make their choices is debatable. The determinists in the world of philosophy would say no one has true freedom. We are all acted upon by causes that predetermine our responses. There are a myriad of positions on this question. What do you think? If you would like to explore this further, I highly recommend you borrow Philosophy Now from your local library. In the ‘Question of the Month’ (ISSUE #143 APRIL/MAY 2021) readers were asked to respond to the question: What is freedom? Their answers will send you scuttling to the philosophy videos on you tube and to the library for further reading, as you grapple with one of the big questions that has been a catalyst for many novels, plays and poems throughout history.

But if we broaden our exploration of the freedom to express our thoughts by including texts like King Lear we begin to venture into more complicated territory. Who is seeking freedom in this society and why? What is their motivation? The person who finds freedom is the person who is not seeking it. This is the person who, on the face of it, subjugates all others to his will. In reality, he is trapped in the narcissitic hubris of his own ungovernable passions. Even the good sense of others does not dent his ego and bring about contrition and transformation. That epiphany only occurs when he experiences abandonment and isolation, from his family and court, and is at the very nadir of his kingship, confronted by the appalling condition of the homeless in his kingdom as a result of his neglect. Ironically, when he is later imprisoned (through the machinations of his ambitious children and their bitterly vengeful co-conspirator, Edmund), he endures his imprisonment a free man. Free from the capricious nature and self-absorbed pride that held him prisoner for most of his life. Free from the blindness that had enveloped him and prevented him from discerning the truth about himself, his children and his kingdom. Free to love and be loved, an inherent human desire planted in us by God himself who made us in his image to be creative, rational and relational beings, needing and serving and loving one another.

Let us look at The Great Gatsby for contrast to these autocratic states. What do we find when we turn to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s America in the 1920’s? This is a democratic state that celebrates its freedom of expression. It is enshrined in their constitution. In the preamble, it expresses the determination to ‘secure the Blessings of Liberty’ for all Americans, and the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights protects people’s rights to free speech. But here we find a society stuck in the mire of materialism and immorality. Not free at all. The narrator is the only one who makes a choice to reject this lifestyle and escape its trap, sounding Fitzgerald’s grave warning to his fellow Americans to act before it is too late. America’s iconic foundation of freedom is exposed as an illusion, along with the Great American Dream. If free will and free expression cannot be found here in the world’s most powerful democracy, where can it possibly be found?

There is so much more to say. Here, however, my intention is just to stimulate your thinking about free will and our freedom to express our opinions. Ironically, in a democracy with more platforms for communication than any other time in history, we are plagued by cancel culture, preventing people from freely expressing their points of views. A rash of overwrought outrage is regularly sprayed across social media by those who are desperate for their noisy ignorance to be heard . . . at times, I confess, making me feel somewhat sympathetic towards the idea of shutting down this freedom, especially when the messages are so divisive and uninformed. It seems these age-old questions about freedom have never been more relevant in our nation. Genuine reflection on what we need to be free from and free to do and say will help to protect and guide us, as we make individual, family, communal, national and global decisions that impact those around us.

Let us be a people who value the freedom to think and respectfully share and debate those ideas that are important to us. Let us listen to each other. And, importantly, let us remember the words that have been repeated by many former leaders like Eleanor Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela: ‘With freedom comes responsibility.’ Let us use our freedom responsibly to serve others!

My very best wishes,

Julie