What Does It Mean to be Free?

It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s tempting to eat ice cream, rub ice on your belly, or go to the beach with your friends. You seek for some sort of relaxation that will clear your mind and make you feel, you know, free.

But how do we know that we are truly free? Is the belief that we are free enough to prove that we are free? Can we ever call ourselves truly and completely free? What does it mean to be free?

It is widely known that even our small actions are predetermined in the brain by the genes inherited from our ancestors and carved by outside environment. What we call autonomy and independence do not really exist in nature. We can choose the path, but that path was guided by another path that was chosen way before. The true freedom, therefore, cannot exist in physical, biological, and chemical sense.

Yet Immanuel Kant gave different perspective to the idea of freedom. He defined freedom as following rational principles instead of just following our emotions. He did not believe that freedom meant “do whatever we like whenever we want wherever we want,” for acting on desires meant we are depending solely on our chemical responses.  Kant believed that freedom meant acting by reason and following the universal laws. Acting morally and doing duties are the basis for the human dignity and its free will. Considering true freedom is ideal dream, Kant’s definition of freedom is probably the closest we can get.

Freedom does not necessarily mean doing things we desire. Even the utilitarians like John Stuart Mill will agree to this point, since Mill argued there is difference between long-term utility and short-term utility, and high-level happiness and low-level happiness. Long-term and high-level are the ones humans should seek, and choosing that path may not be the one we may desire at the moment. Free will is not about doing what we want, but following the right course of actions.

In this sense, Free! is a name that is very inappropriate, and even misleading, for a swimming anime. According to ANN, Free! “revolves around Haruka Nanase, a boy who has always loved to be immersed in water, and to swim in it.” Haruka and his friends form a swimming club so that they can defeat Rin, who was once their close friend. The creators of this anime must have believed that swimming made Haruka, who had stopped swimming for a while, to become free again – like a dolphin in the ocean – and thus named the anime. However, as explained in the previous paragraphs, this may not be true. Haruka had stopped swimming because he knew that it was the best course of action – his action might help his friend, Rin, to regain his pride and put his crew back together. Haruka used rationality and acted on his reason, which may have made him free. Unfortunately, Haruka decides to restart swimming; he rejects his reason told him to and follows his ‘heart.’ Haruka becomes a slave to his emotion and his freedom becomes lost. After that, he hardly gets to decide his own path: most of the decisions regarding the club are done by his friends, and all he does is nod, make short remarks, and strip clothes – which symbolizes that Haruka has discarded his human dignity and becomes an emotional beast.

Even the most generalized form of freedom as seen in The Shawshank Redemption does not appear in Free! Instead of achieving freedom, Haruka makes a shameful display.

Therefore, whenever you want to try out something, please think carefully if it is the best course of action and if you really really really really really really really really really really really REALLY want to do it. Your action may not have been guided by true free will if you miss at least one ‘really.’

(Some of the information may have been misquoted, misused, and abused as always.)