Freedom Together

Beauvoir held that freedom is not something we have alone, like a coat. We act within a world that other people have shaped, and their choices open or close ours. A person who cannot read a notice, or get into a room, has fewer options than one who can.

That gives a practical test. When I use my freedom, I can ask whether it widens the options of the people around me or shrinks them. To treat someone as a thing to be managed is to shrink their freedom, and it quietly shrinks the shared world I rely on.

To will my own freedom, then, is also to will theirs. This is not a duty added from outside. It follows from seeing that my projects need other people who can act.

The notice board

A housing block posts rules on a notice board in small print. Several older tenants cannot read them and miss a meeting that affects their rent.

Omar, who lives there, reads the notices aloud in the lobby and asks the office to print them larger. More tenants come to the next meeting, and the block decides things it could not before.

Try this today Name one way to widen a colleague’s options this week, and do it before Friday.