Poll: Do you feel free?

[Sleepy Sol]

I feel free in that I feel I have independent thought.

I do not feel free in terms of personal responsibilities or obligations (or rather, perceived obligations) to family.

 

[bauke67]

I feel free in pretty much any reasonable sense of the word.
Sure, there's certain obligations to my environment I have, but most of those I chose myself, such as my job and education, so I can't say I'm unfree there. And yes, I guess I'm not absolutely free in the sence that I can't reverse gravity at will, nor can I ignore the way cause and effect works in the world around me. Doing something absolutely unacceptable to my environment(like killing someone or something) is of course not really an option, not that I'd want to, but if I really desperately wanted to so bad, I could simply choose to face the consequences.
In the philosophical sense too, I feel free, because I think the radical existentialist kind of freedom is not just impossible, but also not desirable, because it seems to imply a choice with absolutely no discernable cause, no reason, so I would be unable to say I chose to play a videogame "because" I like videogames, because there could be no cause for my choice, not even in my own preferences. So, accepting a determinist view of the world allows me to base my choices in my own reasons, which it would be weird to say are not somehow based on things outside of me. I could therefore only be unfree if my hand were literally moved for me by someone else in all my actions, which is not the case.(Feel free to correct me on any of this, as I'm no expert and haven't read up on a lot of these things)

 

[neoontime]

No, I'm in school, going through hell trying to finish a Nursing degree and finish up my other majors. I want to be further in school in order to get a doctorate in Neuroscience for research. I can't drive yet so I don't have freedom in that sense and I'm not making money since I have such little time as it is with school stuff and volunteering. I'll be living off loans for many more years. I feel very uncomfortable with my position, but its my decision. It sounds weird that it's my free choice to feel less free, but that's the exchange I'm making in order to work in such a field as science and medicine. When I reach my career point, then I'll feel like a real free adult, finally able to have a wide range of choices with it. It may not sound great for everyone, but it's the best life for me.

 

[Queen Michael]

Today I'm going to eat ice cream for dinner. I'm going to eat ice cream for dinner just because I feel like it. You betcha I feel free.

This is something you mention fairly often in such threads. Would you describe yourself as an aficionado of whippy iced treats at this point? Do you like coffee-flavoured ice cream?

There's no such thing as coffe-flavoured ice cream. I've tried some. It didn't taste like coffee. Funny thing, that Coffe ice cream tastes like coffee chocolate. But actual coffee tastes completely different.

 

[babinro]

Voted: No, but I'm fine with that

I'm fully aware that I'm a cog in the machine that keeps life relatively peaceful and I accept that. It's this lack of freedom that grants me access to food around the world, internet, electricity, easy access to clean water, and of course FREE TIME. I'm not spending 15 out of 16 hours awake simply trying to survive.

The system does have it's negatives though. It strikes me odd that expected norm is to have people working 40+ hours a week and giving us so little time to actually enjoy life. It also REALLY bothers that people are essentially required to spend decades in the school system to get a piece of paper that deems them able to perform a function. People who are bad at the educational system but would be great at the job are effectively denied their opportunity to excel for what is really arbitrary reasons.

But these are really just nitpicks especially when considering the alternative.

Note: I'm not in school or anything. I've got a stable part-time job in my mid-30's and am single. I'm about as free as things get I still stand by my response though.

 

[Barbas]

Today I'm going to eat ice cream for dinner. I'm going to eat ice cream for dinner just because I feel like it. You betcha I feel free.

This is something you mention fairly often in such threads. Would you describe yourself as an aficionado of whippy iced treats at this point? Do you like coffee-flavoured ice cream?

There's no such thing as coffe-flavoured ice cream. I've tried some. It didn't taste like coffee. Funny thing, that Coffe ice cream tastes like coffee chocolate. But actual coffee tastes completely different.

Iced coffee's not the same, but you can get it to quite a similar taste by using camp coffee, IIRC (though you can also use crushed beans), and a considerable amount of sugar. I hope to chance upon the Häagen-Dazs formula one day, to make my own. When coffee ice cream sucks, it sucks really bad, but they've got the best I've ever tasted.

Yum yum. Also, you cannot leave this world without having tried Neapolitan.

 

[Lupine]

Hah, you're not worried about not feeling free because you're not a grown independent man yet.

Mate, you will wish you were as free as you were when you're a kid, when you're an adult.

This I disagree with. When I was a kid I got the whole, "This is the best time of your life" speech from my dad all the time. I remember because he was always telling me that and I remember being a fat kid on the playground and then in high school and I thought, well life must really suck later on.

The truth of the matter is, when you're an adult you're more responsible for your finances and your actions, that is pretty much it. Meanwhile when you're a kid you're life is an endless string of trying to fit in and trying not to standout. In short while they are both prisons in their own right, I'd much rather do what I want and how I want within reason than almost never have that opportunity and then have someone telling me how great I have it because I don't have certain responsibilities but instead have it all translated into social annoyance or utter chaos depending on your view.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

I am beholden to my bodies biological need to eat and sleep so therefore I need to get money to sustain this useless vessel. Sure the dangly parts feel nice, but it's a shallow comfort.

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

FREE? bby I cost more than everything you own combined.

HA ha HA! good ANSWER!

I am free as can bee at all times, very much. I still have bills and all that and responsibilities, however I am still quite free.

That "other" influence you feel is called "Life, The Universe, and Everything" and doesn't go away, but you get used to it.

 

[spartan231490]

Really not enough options. As an American, I feel reasonable free, but I'm very concerned with the way freedoms are being eroded in this country. Most of the Bill of rights has already been undermined to one extent or another, and the 4th amendment might as well not exist anymore. That's highly concerning, but I don't expect my countrymen to be bothered by it any time soon. Too much god damned "bread and circus" going on.

 

[verdant monkai]

You can go pretty much anywhere if you are prepared to walk. I mean yes there are country border blockades and stuff but there are places where its impossible to place guard gates like mountains and swamps.

If you are white you can go pretty much anywhere, whether you will be safe, able to eat or welcome when you get there is another matter. Freedom often means you don't get basic necessities like food water and shelter.

 

[soren7550]

Fuck no.

I can't talk to people because my brain goes all stupid and fearful whenever I try.

I can't take care of myself because of a lack of funds and employment.

I can't go out and about because I can't afford to do anything and I start to freak out if I'm outside too long.

I can't get medical help for myself because the government refuses to believe I exist.

I can't stand most people save for a very very small few, but I end up treating both the same at some point and utterly alienate them all because my head implodes in on itself and doesn't know how to act around people.

I can't start work on the one thing I wish to do with my life because all my thoughts turn to dank vomit whenever I try to write them out.

I am a sad beast that is left trapped within the confines of my sad little twisted head.

 

[Roxas1359]

Fuck no.

I can't talk to people because my brain goes all stupid and fearful whenever I try.

I can't take care of myself because of a lack of funds and employment.

I can't go out and about because I can't afford to do anything and I start to freak out if I'm outside too long.

I can't get medical help for myself because the government refuses to believe I exist.

I can't stand most people save for a very very small few, but I end up treating both the same at some point and utterly alienate them all because my head implodes in on itself and doesn't know how to act around people.

I can't start work on the one thing I wish to do with my life because all my thoughts turn to dank vomit whenever I try to write them out.

I am a sad beast that is left trapped within the confines of my sad little twisted head.

You just pretty much stated everything that I was gonna say. Literally almost to a T, especially on the part with the medical stuff. Are you reading my mind!? D:

 

[soren7550]

Fuck no.

I can't talk to people because my brain goes all stupid and fearful whenever I try.

I can't take care of myself because of a lack of funds and employment.

I can't go out and about because I can't afford to do anything and I start to freak out if I'm outside too long.

I can't get medical help for myself because the government refuses to believe I exist.

I can't stand most people save for a very very small few, but I end up treating both the same at some point and utterly alienate them all because my head implodes in on itself and doesn't know how to act around people.

I can't start work on the one thing I wish to do with my life because all my thoughts turn to dank vomit whenever I try to write them out.

I am a sad beast that is left trapped within the confines of my sad little twisted head.

You just pretty much stated everything that I was gonna say. Literally almost to a T, especially on the part with the medical stuff. Are you reading my mind!? D:

Uhh... I'm sorry?

Probably not though, unless I/you so happen to be some sort of split off of you/me.

 

[Roxas1359]

Uhh... I'm sorry?

Probably not though, unless I/you so happen to be some sort of split off of you/me.

Sorry, my humor at times can be bad.
And if I'm a split off, I'm going with genetic clone.

 

[Idlemessiah]

I feel pretty free. Granted I moved back in with my parents after university, that kinda ties me down when it comes to having friends over and when I'm allowed to make noise and such. But I recently got a better job and I'm on the verge of moving out, so more freedom / more responsibility woo!

The best thing at the moment has to be my job. I drive a van delivering people's groceries. That means I show up to work, spend an hour doing paperwork and loading the van then I'm out on the road for like 5-6 hours just cruising round listening to the radio. So basically I go for a long Sunday drive, 5 days a week, AND I get paid for the privilege!

If I actually got a decent wage rate (i.e. better than £6.89p/h) I'd consider myself to be 100% free, cause I'd just be able to have whatever I fancy on top of my piss easy job.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Hell no! So long as the necessity in having money is eating into my free time, I'm never free. I pine for the day I have enough security to do what I want. I wouldn't stop working, but I'd make damn sure I have more free time.

I've got too much inhibition to meet people, and act freely.

I don't have enough money to do what I want. Prolly never will despite being kinda humble about what I want. Sure I could go nuts, but only to the extent of what money I have.

I'm always stressed. Prolly to considerable detriment to my health.

My happiness comes in bits, and bites. Another figure on my shelves, another game (that I have very little time to enjoy), another comicbook, another TV show. I'm lucky to have a few steady rocks in my life as far as people go which is a very good thing.

Few things go right for me. Life likes making a liar out of me.

It's just a lot of weight on me that keeps me from being free.

 

[EHKOS]

Uhh... I'm sorry?

Probably not though, unless I/you so happen to be some sort of split off of you/me.

Sorry, my humor at times can be bad.
And if I'm a split off, I'm going with genetic clone.

Dammit Liquid! (don't follow up on that joke, I'm playing through the series for the first time and I just got to Big Shell.)

Mostly same boat. Bad General Anxiety Disorder and the fact that even if I were to find an A+ Cert program I could join I doubt I'd get employed.

Although I did start on a novel.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Economically I do not believe I am free, as I am not a member of the economic class that capitalist economic "freedom" benefits. Politically, I do not believe I am free, as time and time again those who successfully organize outside of accepted viewpoints are suppressed and, in extreme cases such as those of Fred Hampton and Martin Luther King Jr., murdered by the state (this is of course not unique to the United States, but has historically been an option, even if one of last resort, for all systems when the existing power structure is seriously threatened). For that matter, I do not believe I am personally free, as I am chemically addicted to tobacco (although I admit I at one point exercised freedom to arrive at such a point).

On the other hand, in all these cases I have the "feeling" of freedom at every point. I may choose what goods I purchase when I walk into a store, even when it is often just a choice of the brand which will appear on the label. As my views are currently not a major threat to the power structure of the United States, I may walk out into the street and scream, "Socialism is the one hope of the proletariat, and revolution the one tool to achieve it," all day if I so wish. While I have very little control over my continued smoking in general, every time I light an individual cigarette I am making a choice to have it then (even though it is only a choice of having it then as opposed to later). In this way, my life feels no-doubt free at the level of emotion. Rationally, I have no illusions that I am free, but my quality of life is arguably more impacted by my emotional "feel" of my freedom than by my rational determination of the same.

 

[Super Cyborg]

I think people's thoughts on if they are free or not vary from situation and personal view. Some of the posters I feel are pretty free, but they feel restricted.

As for me, I feel completely free, especially when I'm home from work. I can do whatever I want, go to places if I desire, cook my own food, work out, etc. I do have obligations that people will have at different points in life, but they don't bog me down where I don't feel that I have no free time.