Any manipulation of a human being is a manipulation of that human’s free will.
This includes lying, intimidation, seduction, and so on.
Human beings have some degree of free will, but it’s not infinite and it’s not absolute.
It has limits.
Think of the ‘freedom’ of your will as similar to a muscle that can be cultivated, strengthened, and developed.
Most of us are not even that interested in free will; rather we’re interested in pleasure.
The “freedom” we want is the freedom to have as much pleasure, enjoyment, power, or gratification as we choose.
Once pain comes into the picture, most of us have no desire for freedom at all.
The same goes for happiness and good fortune.
A truly “free” person would be as open to pain as to pleasure; as open to misery as to happiness; as open to horrible fortune as to good fortune; as open to utter weakness and impotence as to strength and power.
Most of us are not. Rather we have clear and extremely predictable biases to one side of each of those dichotomies. And that’s generally pretty healthy. Not “free”, but quite healthy.
True freedom (which includes the freedom to be miserable, to suffer, to be in great pain, and so on) is actually a bit over-rated. Funny how people often avoid discussing those parts of freedom. And yet, if you are unwilling to explore those sides of things, how free are you, really?
Seems like fairly predictable programming, doesn’t it?
