Are You Really Free?

Abstract
Freedom often seems a given, yet it slips away under the weight of invisible constraints. Business students, preparing for corporate life, may feel especially entrapped. This article examines freedom through the lenses of will, intellect, and choice; distinguishes conditioning from determinism; explores the paradox of the “corporate slave”; and foregrounds freedom as dignifying and foundational to our rights—without which social, political, legal, and educational systems collapse. Utilizing insights from Mandela (1994) and others, I argue that freedom lies not in unfettered choice but in the deliberate acceptance of the unchangeable and courageous transformation of what can change. Concludes with the Serenity Prayer as a fitting epitaph.

Introduction

You, as B‑school students, stand at the threshold of professional life. Yet the more opportunities you gain, the more you may sense a lack of real freedom. Are your choices genuinely your own, or shaped by conditioning? This inquiry isn’t academic—it determines how you lead, resist, and preserve dignity in a world that often demands conformity.

What Is Freedom? Will, Intellect, Choice

True freedom involves interplay of will, intellect, and choice. Our will motivates; our intellect discerns; choice enacts. Freedom isn’t merely the presence of options—it’s when the will and intellect are aligned in thoughtful decision. A choice made in haste or under pressure isn’t free.

We may hold  that freedom rests in the deep‑down self’s mastery over actions (dominium sui actus), even amid inner conflict.¹ Similarly, Frankl’s concept of “last and greatest freedom”—making meaning regardless of external constraints—underscores freedom’s existential dimension.¹

Conditioned, Not Determined

None of us chose our birthplace, era, or the involuntary conditions that shape us—our genetics, institutions, early influences. But Pandikattu (2011) emphasizes that these conditions limit without determining us.¹ Limited freedom still affords dignity and relational capacity. Mandela’s life demonstrates that freedom persists in the spirit, even when the body is shackled (Mandela, 1994).

Freedom Beyond Choice

In the corporate world, “freedom” often means choosing among options your company or society assigns—perpetuating a “corporate slave” existence. True freedom isn’t arbitrary choice but the free assent to necessary conditions and the courage to change what’s transformable. It’s moving from reactive “choice” to responsible assent and action.

Business School and the Illusion of Freedom

Business students feel a lack of freedom under institutional pressures: rankings, placements, peer norms. But if you resign to this illusion, you abdicate responsibility, internalize determinism, and deplete moral agency. Without belief in freedom, ethics, democracy, justice—all suffer.

Freedom Underpins Dignity and Rights

Our legal, political, and educational systems assume freedom—without it, laws lose meaning, classrooms become hollow, rights evaporate. Denying freedom reduces humans to animals or automatons—denying agency, dignity, reason, and moral obligation.

Acceptance and Transformation: The Dialectic of Freedom

In philosophical anthropology there is a two‑fold movement: accepting involuntary aspects of existence (mortality, culture, embodiment) while transforming changeable structures (unjust systems, toxic work cultures).¹ This isn’t resignation—it’s mature freedom.

Corporate Slavery and Liberation

Labeling someone a corporate slave (used by one of XL students!) signals unfreedom masked as choice. Liberation begins when one notices internal coercion—excessive conformity, overwork, self‑silencing—and reclaims agency through ethical stands, creative input, humane practices.

Implications for Business Education

To cultivate free agents, B‑schools must do more than teach skills—they must instill reflective will, ethical courage, and responsibility. Fatalism yields compliant graduates; affirmation of freedom, resilient, ethical leaders.

Conclusion

Freedom isn't total escape from constraints—but the ability to assent where necessary, act where possible, and preserve integrity amid limitations. Reject the “corporate slave” mindset. Assume freedom—it preserves dignity, sustains rights, and empowers ethical action.

The final word returns us to the Serenity Prayer:

*God,
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.*

Without freedom, your dignity, self-respect and intrinsic worth are threatened. And those of others!

References

Mandela, N. (1994). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Little, Brown and Company.

Pandikattu, K. (2011). The human search: Issues in philosophical anthropology. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.

Pandikattu, K. (2004). Freedom to Free. Media House.

• “People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.” ― Søren Kierkegaard 

• “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” ― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man 

• “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin 

• “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” ― Toni Morrison, Beloved 

• “Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.” ― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes 

• “For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” ― Nelson Mandela

• “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” ― Jim Morrison  

• “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ― Ronald Reagan