Open slightly your heart to me, and I will reveal the world to you

where is my freedom of choice?

if we assume that will has no freedom, we are all like machines, operating and creating through external forces which make it act the way it does. we are all incarcerated in the prison of providence, which using these 2 chains, pushes and pulls us to its will, to where it sees fit. there seems to be no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free and stands on his own two feet.

when i examine the acts of an individual, i find them compulsory. we are compelled to do them and have no freedom of choice. like a stew, cooking on the stove, with no choice but to cook.
PROVIDENCE HAS HARNESSED LIFE WITH TWO CHAINS: PLEASURE AND PAIN.
living creatures have no freedom of choice, choosing pain or rejecting pleasure, and the only advantage men have over animals is that we can aim at a remote target. i can agree to a certain amount of current pain, out of choice of future benefit or pleasure, to be attained after some time.
there's no more than a seemingly commercial calculation here. the future benefit or pleasure, seems greater than the current pain or agony that we have agreed to take on presently. the pain is deducted from the aspired pleasure, and some extra remains.
only pleasure is extended.
and so sometimes, it happens that one of us is tormented because one didn't find the pleasure one attained, to be surplus one had hoped for, compared to the agony one suffered, and therefore one is in deficit. it's all done as merchants do, you could say.

there's no difference! here between man and animal. there is no free choice whatsoever, but a pulling force, attracting toward any bypassing pleasure and rejecting from painful circumstances. providence leads them to every place it chooses by means of these 2 forces without asking their opinion.

even the determination of the type of pleasureand the benefit are entirely out of one's own free choice, but rather follow the desire of others.
example? sally sits, sally dresses, sally speaks, eats. sally does all of these not because she wants to sit that way or talk that way, or dress or eat that way. sally does it because others want sally to sit, dress, talk and eat that way. it's in accordance with the desires of society, not sally's own free will.

but i...

i do all of these things against my will. i would feel a lot more comfortable behaving simply, not carrying any burden. i am chained in every movement to the flavors and manners of others, which make up the society around me.

in my near past state, i operated according to the understanding of my egoistic nature. i regarded this or that as good or bad; i learned from my environment and acted accordingly.

the more i connect with my surroundings, the freer i feel in this world. and i see. i see that the world around us changes according to how we want to see it.