According to Sartre, we have the feeling that we are free, but in
fact we are not.
There is freedom of conscience, in this respect the individual is
free and master of his own choices (there is free will). In fact, we
are condemned to be free ("Les Mouches"), that is we must assume
responsibility and make decisions on our own (whether we know what to
decide, whether we decide right or wrong, whether we are confused or
not).
Conventions keep the individual away from his freedom. We are never
free of the others' judgement ("Huis-clos"), we live in a
psychological hell with people around us passing judgements on us all
the time.
The Existentialists hold that the individual is controlled by social
instances which escape his control. The social self (a surface self)
is commanded by the others and by certain circumstances.
From where does the absurd come? According to the Existentialists,
from this clash between human consciousness (which is transparent)
and the world (which is opaque, not revealing itself).
I believe the problem is, if I am free, if I can do whatever I want,
I will end up getting confused. Why? Because if God is dead (in the
sense of values), if there are no more `standards' for moral values,
how am I going to know what's right and what's wrong? If there's no
more destiny, then the responsibility will weigh all the more on my
shoulders, if I take a decision with bad consequences, then I will
end up being held responsible instead of fate and am I strong enough
to accept that?...
I only exist function of the society in which I live and according to
whose rules I must live. I must fashion and refashion myself
according to its standards, I must play a variety of roles and act
accordingly to be accepted, noticed, respected, etc.
If there is a clash of values between me and the world, then I end up
in loneliness, isolated from the world and its norms I do not want to
respect. Is this freedom?
I believe freedom is only in the mind, freedom of thought that is.
More or less, as we are largely the products of different patterns of
thought, ideologies circulating in a society at a given time...
is all in your had same for power and happynes 