The Double-Edged Sword That Is Freedom
From Cages to Courage
Author’s note:
I recently read a thought-provoking piece by
His piece hit me so hard I couldn’t just leave a lazy comment underneath. Instead, I felt moved to write something of my own, because what Shane explored isn’t just some abstract debate for me. It’s the very story of my life.
The Double-Edged Sword That Is Freedom: From Cages to Courage
Sir Isaiah Berlin, a philosopher Shane introduced me to, described negative liberty as freedom from interference… basically, no one breathing down your neck or locking your door.
On paper, it sounds like the very definition of freedom. And I used to think that was all there was to it.
When you’re in prison, decisions aren’t yours anymore. You don’t get to choose what to eat, when to go to your cell, or who you see. You have time, sure. But no agency.
Berlin put it like this:
“I am normally said to be free to the degree to which no man or body of men interferes with my activity.”
I thought freedom was just that: no interference. But here’s the catch...
No one telling you what to do isn’t the same as being free.
That’s where positive liberty comes in.
Berlin said it’s the freedom to be your own master.
To call your own shots.
To take the reins instead of just drifting or reacting.
Sounds empowering, right?
But the real kicker? That kind of freedom doesn’t come easy.
It’s not about the doors opening on the outside.
It’s about opening the doors inside you.
Facing your shame. Owning your mistakes. Choosing courage over comfort.
There are days I’ve slept on a fibreglass bed with a rag for a quilt, a disgusting, steel toilet bolted in the corner that looked like it belonged in a war bunker, and a crackhead in the cell screaming to high heaven. We were given a squirt of toothpaste on our finger each morning for weeks and told to be grateful.
But it wasn’t the walls, or the filth, or the madness that trapped me most.
It was the storm in my own mind… my failures, regrets, and fears.
That’s the cage no one sees.
The one that can’t be picked open with a key.
Essentially, it’s the ethos of Unshackled:
“Let Your Mind Break Free.”
So after living and breathing this over the last three months… whether I’m writing or standing in front of my fellow detainees running a workshop… this concept was bound to hit me like a Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett elbow to the face.
Enough to knock me clean out and resurrect my whole thought process.
And I can tell you... that’s the hard part.
Letting your mind break free.
There are days locked away when I lie awake, haunted not by walls or guards, but by my own mind. Those failures. Those regrets. Those fears.
That’s the cage no one sees.
The one that can’t be picked open with a key.
And over the last few months, through countless messages, conversations, and letters, I’ve seen just how universal this is.
From the prisoner to the Pope… we all have our battles.
We all carry chains.
But in that darkness, I found a strange kind of alchemy.
Real alchemy isn’t just the science of turning lead into gold.
It’s the daily choice to turn drama into determination, dead time into purpose, and shame into responsibility.
I started to write. To connect. To help others trapped in their own cells… some physical, some invisible. But cells all the same.
And slowly, I built something from the wreckage.
A new me.
Unshackled from the past.
Choosing who I want to be.
This isn’t just a story about prison bars.
It’s about all the cages we carry: addiction, shame, toxic thoughts, bad habits.
It’s about the chains we don’t always see, but that hold us back just the same.
You don’t need walls to be locked up.
You only need to believe you’re trapped.
I’m constantly telling my partner about the heartwarming messages I get.
Messages from readers.
From blokes straight after my workshops.
From the people engaging in the mentorship program.
Stories of shifts.
Real ones.
Big and small. Usually… big.
I share this not to brag, but because I’m overwhelmed by it.
I’m hooked.
This feels like a calling.
And if that calling was born from my mistakes and heartbreak, then so be it.
I don’t intend to waste it.
So here’s the truth:
Freedom is a double-edged sword.
It can be taken from you, or given back.
It can be a blessing or a burden.
But the kind of freedom worth having?
It starts with courage.
The courage to break the chains inside you.
The courage to be your own master, even when the world tries to hold you down.
As Shane and Berlin remind us, freedom is complicated.
But it’s real.
It’s messy.
And it’s yours…
if you dare to take it.
Not bad for a theory from an Oxford philosopher, a new Substack friend and philosopher, and a pain in the ass from Dublin, eh?
Stay Unshackled, My Friends
Stephen
For more about Berlin’s theory, check out this YouTube video:
Words from the Bible jumped into my mind :
"The truth will set you free".
we could be slave to anything.
we can be our own prison.
but the truth will set us free.
I am really and truly honoured, Stephen. For my writing and thinking to have resonated with you so much makes me endlessly glad, and inspired myself I must say. Inspired to better master myself, to live a good and better life, to dominate my own demons and to be as good as I can be within the limits of the things I can control.
You have a great knack for taking something big and nebulous, and then cutting right to its essence. Love the writing and thinking on display here.
The way we try and give children all the skills, knowledge and tools they will need to be good humans able to deal with what life throws at them - parenthood and education - is a great example of positive freedom. We don't ask them if they want any of it, but we know it will help to free them from many of the ills of society.
Yet when it comes to ourselves, we're often pretty poor at walking the line that will free us from the worst of society and the worst of ourselves, at mastering ourselves. You are a man who's negative freedom has been taken away, but instead of letting this break you, you have taken the deficit of one form of freedom to create a surplus of the other. You understand that freedom is as much about the inside as it is the outside more than most of us. Philosophy only becomes really and truly real when abstracts are fleshed out in the world around us. These abstracts are fleshed out in your life, in the line you're walking, in the choices you're making and in those you're helping. Massive respect to you and the journey you're on my friend. It isn't always an easy one, but one of the central lessons we all have to learn if we are to become as good as we can be is that the highest freedom always has to be fought for. You're fighting the good fight and you're winning.