Are Human Beings Born Free?

As human beings, our freedom is constrained in many ways. Often, it is by structures of our own choosing - like a job, a school degree program, or marriage and family commitments. We also make philosophical, religious, and ethical choices that place self-defined limits on our behaviors and lifestyles.

More often, however, we are “unfree” because of chains we did not choose and often do not know exist. For example, the ingrained social attitudes that lead to violence and oppression - such as American exceptionalism, white privilege, and heteronormativity. These attitudes, which we inherit from our families and cultures of origin, shape our beliefs and social behaviors in ways we often do not recognize. We are in no way independent political agents, choosing our values and commitments in a rational and objective fashion. Instead, we are acting out of the worldview and the understanding of reality that was given to us. 

In other words, we are not born free, either in thought or deed. All that we do and believe is constrained by where we come from, and what we learn as we go through life. 

As people are educated, in both formal and informal ways, the constraints into which we were born are generally multiplied and tightened. Knowledge is good, but it limits freedom. The possibilities of existence are measured and rationed. Truth and falsehood, and right and wrong, are increasingly defined - often in very useful ways, but also in ways that shut out new and divergent ways of thinking.

Which is why, from time to time, people exclaim, “Children say the darndest things!” Children might be limited by the assumptions they have inherited, but they do not yet have the additional chains of what they have learned in life. Occasionally, a child will perceive something that makes perfect sense to them, but that lies outside the realm of possibility for most adults, whose view of what is possible has been constrained.

“Unfreedom,” therefore, is something we are born with, and that deepens as we grow older. Even as adults, most people continue to harden in the assumptions and the belief systems that shape their lives. Studies have shown that younger voters in their 20’s and 30’s are more likely to change their voting pattern. Older voters tend to stick with the same party election after election. 

Given these strong tendencies for becoming less free as we age, is there hope for moving in the opposite direction? Is it possible for an adult to grow more open to the possibilities of human existence?

Many philosophical and religious traditions have tackled this very question. I believe the Judeo-Christian tradition has a powerful response, lodged in the earliest of its sacred writings (Genesis 1-3). This story finds the mythical first humans living an idyllic and free existence, until they eat the fruit from something called "The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." It is at the foot of this tree (and the accompanying "Tree of Life") that we can find some clues to the possibilities for greater freedom in our own lives.

(In the next installment of “Born Unfree,” I will dig into the ancient story of Adam and Eve, which gives us some clues about the nature of freedom and why it can be such an elusive concept.)