To have freedom of choice is freedom, but to make a choice is enslavement... do you agree?

Answer 1

Actually, I do agree.

Absolute free will is a myth, in my opinion. True free will should NEVER be mixed with choices and consequences. Yet, in real life it's always mixed with those.

To tell me that I have free will to choose a path which goes against my common sense to reach Heaven is enslavement indeed.

It's as absurd as the concept of unconditional love. ''I love you and if you don't love me back ...'' - already a condition in there.
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Answer 2

Freedom of choice is freedom - but exercising choice is being free. What enslaves is what we fear to lose. So while we remain free to choose, and change, we are not enslaved. Yet there are times in life when our freedom depends on locking in, regardless of the costs, and regardless of fear. It's when our sense of meaning and purpose is at stake - mistaken or not.

Answer 3

I agree that at the heart of freedom is the ability to make a choice. Freedom cannot exist without choice, however acting on that freedom, and choosing a particular thing or course of action, isn’t in and of itself, the negation of freedom. The only time the act of choosing becomes a restriction is if one feels bound by that decision, and you preclude yourself from altering that decision. Then, and only then, can the act of choosing be seen as a limitation as opposed to a liberating act.

Hence, the degree to which making a choice becomes confining or freeing is dependent on the person’s willingness to change. For example, a racist person has the option to hate or to love their fellow man. If he chooses to hate the man, he is only restricted by his own prejudice. If his malice is that strong, then he is free to make no other choice, or to change his choice to love, and is therefore a slave to his choices. However, if he his open to argument, and open to the idea that he can be convinced that his racist ideology is wrong, then he still has his freedom intact.

Now, what I have addressed is the practical case for freedom. However, if you are looking at choice as a matter of necessity, that is imposed on us, due to the fact that we are finite beings, then yes, in that ultimate sense the NEED to choose does underscore the fact that we are not truly free in the purest sense of the term. After all, we HAVE to make a choice in everything we do, and we have no option not to choose, for even the option of not choosing is in fact a choice. So if your question is geared towards the fact that all choices that we make, are prompted by conditions that are external to us and outside our control, then yes, I have to agree with you that making a choice is proof that we are not truly free.

Answer 4

I think you have it half right. People choose everyday, even in a society that does not openly support freedom of choice.

A) Choose to go with it.
B) Choose to go against it.
C) Choose to not to choose.

With any of the above, there are consequences. To be truely enslaved I think is answer C. Because it allows somebody else to choose for you.

Answer 5

Freedom of choice is way over-rated anyway. All people live and work without the rules of their environment. Whether they believe that or not.

Answer 6

Freedom in itself does not imply anything but open options. Being able to choose makes freedom a reality.

Answer 7

No. Your choice is the bi-product of freedom.

One could argue though that freedom is an illusion to begin with. That we are all slaves in a sense, we just have different masters.

Jesus said that people who are not slaves to God are slaves to sin.

Answer 8

You are always given a choice on everything! You also given the choice as not to make choices!

Answer 9

No. Volunteering is NOT the same as being drafted. Once you have made your choice, your integrity will keep you to it unless circumstances change sufficiently to warrant a reassessment. Of such are commitments made.

Answer 10

Freedom is a measure.