Quoting Juan Manual Arguelles, each time we give up a portion of our freedom with the aim of obtaining any type of security, for maintaining a certain standard of living, wellbeing, or development, we are walking through the consolidation of our voluntary servitude. It is evident that our society has voluntarily donated (temporarily) its sovereignty. Some persons will argue that it is an unquestionable need. But the question that we must ask ourselves is, are there no alternatives? Social isolation is incompatible with individual freedom since freedom would really only flourish in what Sartre called the group-in-fusion. According to Hannah Arendt, freedom is the ability to act together, which requires to preserve individuality, but in a context of social solidarity. If you haven’t it then your freedom is just an illusion. Regarding this topic Mikhail Bakunin considered that individuals, freedom, and reason, are products of society; he stated that to be free in absolute isolation is an absurdity formulated by theologians and metaphysicians.
Faced with the accusations of those who call us individualistic reactionaries for rejecting the measures of social isolation imposed by the governments, I respond that I realize that the limits of freedom exist. Those limits reside in authoritarian practices since when authoritarianism is born, freedom dies. Freedom and authoritarianism are antagonistic and irreconcilable ways of Being. Anti-authoritarian practices demand absolute coherence between means and ends because domination practices are a path of no return. I reclaim freedom, but freedom for all. In line with Albert Camus, I consider the most extreme freedom, the freedom to kill, is not compatible with the justification of the rebellion. Camus considers that the true rebellion tries to question the differences of power that allow the freedom of individuals to be violated and that here resides the uncompromising desire for rebellion. Does it mean that by supporting civil disobedience I am calling for chaos? Far from that, since as Proudhon would suggest, I consider that freedom is the mother of order. Chaos is what characterizes our current proletarianized lifes.
Finally, it is worth asking, can the feeling that derives from the actual context of global collapse bring us something positive? If we could direct the question to Jean-Paul Sartre, he would answer that absolutely yes. In Sartre’s words, humans become aware of their freedom in anguish.
References:
[1] La vida administrada (2017) . Agulles Martos, Juan Manuel.
[2] The origins of totalitarianism (1974) Arendt, Hannah.
[3] The Political Philosophy of Bakunin (1978) G. Maximoff
[4] About Freedom (1871) M Bakunin.
[5] The Rebel (1951) A. Camus
[6] Being and Nothingness (1943) J. P. Sartre.
[7] Jean-Paul Sartre’s Anarchist Philosophy (2018) W.L. Remley.