In the modern era, humans who are aware of their freedom tend to lose themselves through submission to authority or social assimilation to avoid anxiety and loneliness. However, true freedom and loneliness can be overcome through voluntary self-realization.
In the modern era, humans have become aware of concepts such as ‘individuality’ and ‘freedom’, freeing themselves from bondages such as hierarchy. These changes brought about a revolutionary change in human life and thinking, and individual subjectivity began to be emphasized. However, this newfound freedom “from what” did not immediately translate into freedom “to what”. Humans, who before the modern era had a sense of security and belonging as they lived their lives in accordance with their status, came to realize that the external world around them was acting against their will and that even their relationships with other people had become hostile. Although they gained freedom, their anxiety and loneliness increased.
In order to escape from this anxiety and loneliness, post-modern humans have tended to escape from their freedom. One important phenomenon that emerges from this process is the reorganization of social relationships: people no longer rely on traditional hierarchies and try to form their own new networks of relationships, but this often leads to unstable psychological conditions. One of them is authoritarianism, which is based on obedience. This is the desire to give up the independence of the personal self and become subordinate to something other than oneself, seeking a new secondary bondage to replace the primary bondage that has been lost. This sometimes takes the form of seeking psychological security and satisfaction by subjugating others to oneself. These two seemingly opposing forms are identical in that they are both authoritarian forms of escape from anxiety and loneliness.
Another psychological process of escapism is the cessation of being oneself by fully accepting the personality assigned to one by the outside world. This process becomes more pronounced through social assimilation and the pursuit of homogeneity, in which the individual no longer maintains his unique individuality and subjectivity, but tries to conform himself to the standards and norms required by society. He becomes the same as everyone else and what others expect of him. The contradiction between the self and the outside world disappears, and with it the consciousness of fear of loneliness and helplessness. The human being who has become an automaton, who has given up his personal self and has become identical to the other automatons around him, no longer needs to feel lonely and anxious. However, he pays a very high price for this loss of self. He is forced to engage in an anxious effort to maintain his self-identity by constantly performing acts of acceptance by others.
In this context, many cultural and social phenomena in modern society are also related to this flight from freedom. People seek to identify themselves with various consumer cultures and mass media, which leads to new forms of bondage. Does the nature of freedom inevitably lead us to flee to new bondages? Is there a state of active freedom where individuals exist as separate selves, yet are in harmony with the outside world?
Spontaneity is one answer to this question. In the process of voluntary self-realization, a person reconnects themselves to the outside world, and thus overcomes solitude without sacrificing the integrity of their self. As we’ve seen, passive freedom leaves the individual in solitude, alienating the individual from the world and weakening the ego, making it feel constantly threatened. Active freedom, based on spontaneity, implies the following principles The principle that there is no higher power than the individual self, that man is the center and purpose of his life, and that the growth and realization of his individuality takes precedence over any other goal. In addition to these psychological aspects, the sense of loneliness and powerlessness that has plagued man since modern times can be overcome when social conditions are created that allow man to dominate society and actively participate in social processes.
In this process, individuals can set their own original meaning and direction for their lives and achieve voluntary self-actualization. This will be more than just the acquisition of freedom, but a journey toward true human perfection.
