Notes on the Will to Power and the "Freedom of the Will"

In section 19 of Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche posits the eye-opening idea that “freedom of the will” is not as free (or as innocuous) as many of us would like to believe. Nietzsche writes: “‘Freedom of the will’ is essentially the affect of superiority in relation to him who must obey: ‘I am free, “he” must obey’.” In other words, every act of will requires a corresponding act of obedience, even if that obedience means little more than “putting into motion our arms and legs,” as he writes. The notion that there is “freedom” at all, Nietzsche argues, is a falsehood; it is simply the domination of one will over another, which, of course, is a manifestation of the will to power. To put it yet another way, every act of will comes at a cost. “In all willing,” Nietzsche writes in the same aphorism, “it is absolutely a question of commanding and obeying, on the basis, as already said, of a social structure composed of many ‘souls’.”

Reading this brings to mind two concrete examples, one of which is the entrenched notion in American society of the freedom (or right) to bear arms. As we’ve seen again and again across the United States, that “freedom of the will” comes at the very real cost of those who end up obeying with their lives. Or, maybe a better example is the anti-mask movement. Mandatory mask-wearing, they argue, is an infringement of their rights and freedoms, their liberties. “My body, my choice” is their spurious argument and what’s often seen on placards at their protest rallies. But here again, the imposition of the “freedom of the will” (the “freedom to choose,” as they generally phrase it) results in very real, very tragic consequences upon those within their vicinity who also end up “obeying” with their lives.