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“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Albert Camus
When our movement is restricted, chances are high that we feel trapped. No matter if we are in prison, in a mental hospital, or quarantined between the four walls of our home; the very idea that we cannot leave can drive us nuts, and nostalgia may arise for the times that we were able to go places. But there is more to freedom than the mere restriction of physical movement.
Moreover, how free are we in the first place? And how can we experience freedom when we are physically trapped? We could say that the human experience takes place in two separate realms: the outside world and the inside world. Regardless of what’s happening outside, it’s the mind that processes the information that the senses perceive, and makes judgments about it based on ideals, convictions, frames of reference, et cetera. This means that different minds can judge the exact same situation in a completely different way.
What one person thinks is acceptable, another thinks is intolerable. The same goes for ugliness and beauty, and also for freedom and imprisonment. Throughout the ages, the concept of freedom — or more specifically…