Existential Psychology

Regulations And Freedom

By  | 

Politicians and other power brokers use the idea of freedom to advance their agendas, agendas that usually have more to do with special moneyed interests than with the interests of the majority. But they trick the majority into going along with the plan, despite devastating consequences for the environment, public services, financial protections, etc. How do they get away with it?

They get away with it by capitalizing on the deep-seated human bias that freedom means freedom from all that binds, freedom from all restraints, that it means the ability to do what we wish without intervention. To the uncritical observer regulations and freedom appear to be contradictory, where more of one means less of the other. Power brokers set up a false reality where regulation necessarily limits human freedom and deregulation necessarily advances human freedom.

But many regulations are put into place precisely to protect various freedoms enjoyed by the majority, freedoms that selfish individuals wish to trample upon in order to advance their own selfish agendas. Take the speed limit. This is a restraint, it’s a regulation. It does limit the freedom of the individual driver to go as fast as he or she wants. But this limit is put in place to protect the freedom of the majority, the freedom of all the other drivers on the road to remain safe, to get to their destinations without undue hazard along the way.

Freedom from and freedom for are the two sides of the freedom coin. It’s patently false to set up regulation and freedom as necessarily opposed to one another. We have to take the question on a case by case basis and remember that many regulations are put into place to protect freedoms rather than to limit them, they’re put into place to insure the long-term interests of the majority over the short-term interests of the individual. Any time we hear that fiery rhetoric from politicians or other power brokers slamming various regulations as villainous, demonic, overreaching, etc., our hair should stand on end. We should grow more critical, more alert, more interested in learning why those regulations were adopted and which entities they seek to protect not just which entities they seek to impede.

Related posts:

  1. Free Will And Slavery Free will is a humanistic concept. It has been bundled into many religions probably because the need for existential freedom is central to the human condition. A quick survey of history shows that people across all times and cultures have fought and died to maintain or create the necessary conditions for their freedom. What makes […]...
  2. Silent Rebellion Any time you are confronted with a behavior that on the surface seems destructive or against a person’s best interests, you’ve got to consider whether an unhealthy power imbalance might be in play. Power relationships define Western culture. Parents and children, teachers and students, bosses and employees, very often husbands and wives or vice versa. […]...
  3. Whatever You Think Applies To Humanity Applies To You Too One of the strangest aspects in the psychology of the human being is that we all tend to exclude ourselves from the conversation when considering humanity. Humanity seems to be something out there, some super structure with its own characteristics. And even in our immediate communities we think, feel, and act differently towards the people […]...
  4. Robot Rights For the sake of this philosophical discussion let’s imagine that robots have become self-conscious, intelligent beings and are programmed with the three laws created by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must […]...
  5. Scapegoating In any struggle for power, even if the cause is right and just or maybe especially when the cause is right and just, it’s almost irresistibly tempting to heap all the blame onto a specific group or entity, to paint this group or entity as evil and villainous, as the incarnation of all that is […]...
  6. Admiration And Envy Admiration can be a positive force in our lives. Having people to look up to gives us a clear idea of the traits and talents we value and these people often point the way for our our own growth and development. From an existential point of view admiration helps us recognize the gap between where […]...
  7. Illusion Of Freedom Let’s say you’re trying to get your child to eat healthy. One clever way to do it is to offer the illusion of freedom by offering a couple of different healthy options from which to choose. “What do you want to eat, the carrots or the broccoli?” You’ve framed the interaction in such a way […]...
  8. Structure And Freedom Some people are terrified of structure, the meaning of their lives revolves around breaking free from anything they perceive as rules or boundaries. Others are terrified of a lack of structure, the meaning of their lives revolves around finding and maintaining rules and boundaries for themselves. While these two types of people seem very different […]...
  9. People Have More Freedom Than They Believe Most people who feel trapped in their lives and relationships have a lot more freedom than they believe. The psychological problem is that in order to exercise that freedom they must first take responsibility for their situations. While remaining dependent upon various sources of authority saps personal freedom it also reduces painful existential anxiety. When […]...
  10. Freedom And Tabus Often what we really believe we must do or can’t do is actually something that we choose to do or won’t do. We become trapped in prisons of our own making without realizing it. We remain in an unwanted situation, or make choices that are bad for our growth and well-being and the growth and […]...
  11. True Freedom I watched a documentary where someone, trying to defend reprehensible actions, said “Gangsters are concerned with freedom too. They wish to do what they want without outside interference.” This guy thought he was being really clever, but betrayed his psychological and emotional immaturity with his statement. The type of freedom he was talking about, and […]...
  12. Positive Freedom If you listen to most people discuss freedom it quickly becomes obvious that they conceptualize it in its negative sense, meaning the absence of restraints. They talk about the people and structures responsible for limiting freedom, about cutting ties, about breaking free from the bonds of oppression, about doing whatever they want to do without […]...
  13. Existential Freedom Until you accept that the person most responsible for holding you back is you, you’ll probably stay stuck where you are. There are countless available psychological mechanisms you can use to evade awareness of your individual responsibility. The most common is probably projection, where you place your unwanted or unrecognized traits and behaviors onto people […]...
  14. Freedom is Paradoxical “Freedom is only necessity understood.” – William James In existential psychology we focus a lot on freedom and self-actualization. We know that no matter what, we always retain the freedom to react emotionally and intellectually to our situations as we see fit, even when we can do nothing to change them. And most of us […]...
  15. Freedom And External Attempts To Control Behavior Most of us don’t appreciate attempts to control our thoughts, feelings, or behaviors but when we become aware of these attempts we respond in different ways based upon our own psychologies and environmental histories. Painting with a very broad brush we could say that if we’ve been sufficiently beaten down psychologically, emotionally, or physically then […]...
  16. Happiness And Freedom Without the felt sense of freedom or at the least the active striving towards it happiness is impossible. But a strange shift has happened in our modern world, which is that with anonymous authority largely taking the place of authoritarian control most of us consciously consider ourselves to be free while in actuality we’re unfree. […]...
  17. Freedom While most people profess to cherish human freedom many of them aren’t actually talking about freedom at all, they just think they are. What they’re professing to cherish, what they seek to protect and bolster, are certain rights, privileges, and opportunities for themselves and for the members of the cultural group with which they identify. […]...
  18. Paradox Of Freedom Practicing yoga naturally leads to a philosophical evaluation of the nature of human freedom if you open your mind to it. This is one of the first steps on the road towards Samadhi, which is the parallel to Buddhist enlightenment where you experience your true Self as being one with the universe. I am not […]...
  19. Eradicating The Racist Mind And Retaining Personal Freedom Psychologically speaking, conversations and ideas meant to eradicate the racist mindset are problematic because the attitude of wanting to eradicate anything is militaristic, or at least perceived that way. It sets up two opposing camps, one hell-bent on maintaining the status quo, the other hell-bent on changing it, and this pressure results in increasingly entrenched […]...
  20. Detached Personality And Freedom People with detached personality are highly sensitive to any type of coercion, perceived or real. Their obstinate refusal to go along with this coercion can’t exactly be called rebelliousness since rebels are typically concerned with overthrowing the existing structure of things. Those who are emotionally detached just want nothing to do with the existing structure […]...
Related Items