8 May, 11:29
We love to talk about freedom. It’s enshrined in constitutions, sung in anthems, and championed in political campaigns. But what if freedom is not a comfort, not a reward, but a psychological burden?
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
— Sigmund Freud
🗳 Freedom is not a gift — it’s a burden
We love to talk about freedom. It’s enshrined in constitutions, sung in anthems, and championed in political campaigns. But what if freedom is not a comfort, not a reward, but a psychological burden?
To be free is not merely to choose, but to accept the consequences of one’s choice. And that is terrifying. It’s much easier to blame “the government,” “the system,” or “the crowd.” That’s where democracy begins to reveal its inner paradox.
🙈 The secret ballot: shield or escape?
The secret ballot is presented as a guarantee of liberty, but it also functions as something else: a mechanism of moral avoidance. You don’t need to justify your vote. You don’t need to explain it. You don’t even need to be coherent with what you say in public.
This isn’t evil — it’s psychological self-defense. The voting booth becomes a sanctuary of shame avoidance, a space where the individual hides from both society and self. No one sees. No one judges. And in this isolation, democracy protects its weakest link: the undecided, the indifferent, the easily manipulated.
Everyone votes — and no one is responsible.
That’s the comfort formula of procedural democracy.
🫥 The split voter: who do we become behind the curtain?
We live in the age of public performance. Online, we advocate justice, dignity, and high ideals. But alone in the booth, we tick boxes for populists, oligarchs, or "lesser evils."
That is why the image of a split self — one person in two booths, one lit, one shadowed — could serve as the most accurate symbol of our times. We fear judgment, yes — but we also fear being consistent with our proclaimed values.
❓Is there an alternative?
Someday, perhaps, voting will become an act of conscience rather than concealment. But that would require not just institutional reform, but a moral culture of responsibility. Not legal change — cultural transformation.
Freedom is not what you are allowed to do.
Freedom is what you are ready to answer for.