What Kind of Magnet Is Freedom?

Abstract

Introduction: Freedom is a magnet. Ask any teen chomping at the bit under adult rules. Ask any entrepreneur entangled in endless government regulation. Ask any child in a war zone who longs for freedom from fear.

This "will to freedom" is an appetitive stimulus for us all; a stimulus more foundational than the "will to power" (Nietzsche 1895/1992), which is merely instrumentally valuable for the pursuit of freedom. Freedom, however, is not a one-stop shop. One individual's freedom magnet might be freedom of action, another's freedom from judgement, another's freedom to participate, another's freedom from want, another's freedom from oppression, and another's freedom of sexual expression.