"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Freedom is an interesting concept. If you ask people in the Western world why they do the things they do, most commonly the answer is because they seek freedom. In their minds, they justify the things they are going through with the eventual attainment of not needing to do that very thing—and being free. This tends to be linked to money, where people appear fascinated by the imagination of not being constrained by it, and being free to buy anything, anytime.
With this widespread appeal around freedom, it’s worth asking what freedom actually is—and whether it’s a worthy pursuit, or just another illusion we’ve been domesticated into chasing. One that ultimately fails to answer the deeper questions of life, which often remain unaddressed as we distract ourselves with pursuits that feel meaningful, but turn out to have the opposite effect once attained.
Unpacking the concept of freedom, we realize there are many dimensions to its meaning. One of which is monetary freedom—the ability to buy and do whatever you please. The freedom to eat out whenever you want. To go on expensive vacations unattainable for most. To purchase the finest products in the marketplace. All of these desires are rooted in hedonistic impulses, which are largely a product of imitation. Rarely are these desires truly our own. More often, they’re shaped by looking up to others and mimicking the lives they project.
This monetary freedom doubles with another powerful motive in society: status. If you own expensive things and show them to the world, you're essentially shouting that you are of higher status than those around you. Whether intentional or not, that’s the effect. And status matters. In group dynamics, the person with the highest status enjoys privileges that feed our pleasure centers—being listened to, influencing decisions, attracting interest from others, including sexual partners. All of these are consequences of signaling high status to the world.
There are two common arguments that arise around this societal and hedonistic phenomenon.
The first usually comes from those who haven’t attained this level of financial freedom. They argue that living in excess and spending money on what they deem “pointless” is wasteful or morally wrong. There’s often heavy moral judgment, rooted not in truth but in scarcity. Psychologically, they tap into a victim mindset and antagonize those who have what they cannot access. But at its core, these rationalizations often grow from competition—from a desire to have the same freedom.
The second argument comes from those enjoying material wealth. They claim it’s not about status, but about genuinely valuing quality and finding joy in the finer things. And while this may be true for a small subset, I’ve found that most people use this reasoning as a defense mechanism—something they tell themselves to avoid admitting they’re driven by status. In conversation, when you study their behavior carefully, this becomes clear. It’s just a justification, used to shut down conversations that might expose something vulnerable.
There’s nothing wrong with attaining things that signal status—it’s a deeply human, well-studied phenomenon. But the issue arises when people aren’t honest about their motives. When they’re not owning their shadows. That’s when cognitive dissonance emerges, and they unconsciously build lives where their fulfillment and wellbeing are tied to a carefully curated self-image. And everything that puts that image at risk becomes a source of suffering—because they’re attached to how others see them. In other words, to their perceived place in the social hierarchy.
Here’s the paradox: monetary freedom often leads to personal unfreedom. Many who are financially free have built prisons for themselves, held together by self-image. They lose freedom in a different, subtler dimension. This usually stems from a deep belief of not being worthy. And the coping mechanism becomes projecting status to gain validation and avoid confronting that inner wound. This isn’t a judgment—just an observation of what’s playing out in the world.
Returning to the broader idea of freedom, two additional dimensions—time freedom and self-expression freedom—emerge alongside monetary freedom. Of course, you can break this down even further, but to me, these are the three foundational pillars of our modern understanding of freedom. And it’s in those latter two that meaning is found.
That’s not to say monetary freedom is irrelevant. It matters. But money as a means, used to evolve as a person and create something meaningful—that is what leads to fulfillment. Not wealth in isolation.
True fulfillment comes from the freedom to be fully yourself. To show up with your weird interests, insecurities, worries, dreams, and ambitions. That, to me, is the highest form of freedom. When you're so grounded in yourself that you don’t rely on external validation for your self-worth, you’ve truly become free. And this is a kind of freedom you can’t buy. It can only be earned—through inner work and trusting your evolution. Everything you need is already available. Just not yet accessible. And to reach that place, you have to do the work. No one can do it for you.
As you move closer to this deeper freedom, uncertainty, chaos, fear, and resistance will inevitably appear. And what’s asked of you is courage—to trust your intuition and go further in. But that’s where the highest order of freedom lies. Not just one degree beyond monetary freedom, but many.
There is such a place. It’s accessible to everyone.
You just have to go and look.