Driving home from having dropped my son at his tennis camp one morning last week, I was delighted when my iTunes shuffle threw up this exquisite song by Michael Nesmith.
Mike was, of course, the guitarist in The Monkees. However, he was a musician and songwriter before joining that band, which was created to deliver a comical US TV series. Hence, it is no surprise that in 1977 he released this lovely tune with wistful lyrics.
Listening attentively in the car, I was suddenly aware of the way in which this gorgeous number has the potential to offer some insight into what is meant in existentialist philosophy by the linked concepts of freedom and choice.
This resonated for me in light of having published a book last year called “Being at Work” that explores our working lives through existentialist notions…and then recently having released a reflexive research paper based on the method referred to as verstehen that explores people’s experiences of existing when they are expected to spend a great deal of the limited time that we have on earth in the realm of paid employment.
Breaking Free…
So, first of all, we hear the traveller in the song describing his feet coming loose from their moorings, an important reminder that we are bound by others but, at the same time, unwittingly choose to constrain ourselves, despite the fact that we are free to live our lives as we choose, to a certain extent.
Coming free from the moorings crafted by those around him – or by himself – leads him to declare that, as a result, he’s feeling ‘quite wonderfully free’. There is much talk of freedom in liberal democracies and in our contemporary corporate contexts. But way too often it’s something of which we are aware and yet feel unable to properly occupy. The first step in realising and actualising our human agency is to cut loose from the moorings!
The Joy of the Unknown…
Secondly, despite asserting his intention to travel down to Rio, the traveller candidly confesses that there’s nothing he knows of in Rio. This is a powerful reminder that, if make the choice to exercise the freedom that exists for us as human beings living a finite life on the planet Earth, we will constantly be finding ourselves stepping into the unknown, which is challenging but potentially fascinating.
Importantly, only by actively inhabiting that space will we be in a position as a human being to interrogate the choices that we face. The alternative is to live in Bad Faith, as Sartre described it, denying the reality of where we find ourselves and the fact that it is choosing that shapes our existence – and hence defines us as human beings.
The Choice is Yours…
Thirdly, our traveller openly concedes that his planned journey is a whimsical notion…but it ceases to be that as he engages in the act of choosing whether to head for Rio or not! He then goes on to sophisticatedly define what freedom means in existentialist terms, namely that he may or may not fly to Rio…but crucially that decision sits exclusively with him.
That said, we do face what Sartre called facticity, namely the potential restraints arising out of the circumstances into which we find ourselves thrown in life. But even if we choose not to choose, a choice has still been made. We need to own that choice, having actively engaged in it.
Owning our Own Well-Being…
Lastly, the traveller observes that he is enjoying a strong sense of well-being in light of his relationship with what he describes as problems. This well-being feeling may have arisen in light of the problems appearing and expecting to be solved…or, alternatively, a sense of well-being on his part, in light of looking to take ownership of his life, may have preceded the clarity that has arisen in respect to what are being described as problems here.
A Lived Life…a Working Life…
These are deep observations in respect to how we might look to live our lives. But the message here also transfers into the world of work, prompting us to think about how we might take ownership of our freedom and choice – and compelling those who are charged with managing or leading in the workplace to actively seek to craft an environment where those around them reconnect with their human agency and find ways in which to authentically live their lives.
Radical OD 