By the Way: Our freedom depends on control of ourselves

By Oz Lorentzen on October 25, 2025.

There is an old philosophical debate that uses this thought experiment: “If a prisoner is doing exactly what they want, are they really a prisoner? Or, are they free?”

I introduce this as a sort of backwards way to get at something I think warrants our attention. That is, the way in which we often justify our reaction to things by seeing it as an expression of our rights, by claiming it as a free choice.

It’s like this, I say, “Oh that makes me so angry, I just had to say something!” as a way to both justify our action and proclaim our freedom.

In that instance however, did you try not to be angry? Or, did you acknowledge your anger, but choose not to say anything? If one can answer “yes” to those questions and if one succeeded in not being angry or not saying anything; then one could credibly claim freedom in the response that they did give.

I am afraid,however, that much of our self-proclaimed freedom is motivated by a denial of our actual state, and often operates as a reinforcement of the very thing that holds us in bondage.

If I can not choose not to be angry and not act out of that anger, then any angry feeling/act only makes the anger stronger, and my inability – being unable to choose otherwise – more profound.

That’s how I see it from the perspective of this armchair psychological-philosophical slurry.

Of course, I do have the weight of the Ancients that nudges me in this direction: They ask us, “Do you not know (with the implication that of course we know) that if you give yourself in obedience to someone (or something) you become the slave of the one you obey?”

Do you doubt this? There is an easy test, the next time you just feel a certain way, and you just have to say/do something, try saying “no”! Try feeling/doing something else.

And then, voila, you are at an important spot: the acknowledgement of where we truly are is the first step in any true change, growth, freedom.

Oz Lorentzen is the pastor at St. Barnabas Anglican Church

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