Summary of Maggie Nelson's On Freedom

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Maggie Nelson's On Freedom in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom’s long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept’s complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669341604

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Maggie Nelson's On Freedom

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We constantly switch back and forth between talking about freedom and actually living it.

#2

Words have meaning because of use, not because of their origin.

#3

The author was initially annoyed by the fact that the phrase freedom for us, subjugation for you was constantly being used by right-wing extremists, but she eventually understood that it was crucial to reclaim the word freedom.

#4

The third and final stage of liberation is the ongoing practice of freedom.

#5

The rise of Trump and the authoritarian Left in the 2020s has caused the word freedom to lose its meaning, as it is now just used to describe anything that the authoritarian Left wants to control.

#6

Exploring the knot of freedom and unfreedom can help us see the true nature of freedom, and its many paradoxes.

#7

Addiction, like all behaviors, stems from a set of underlying motivations. Understanding those motivations is the first step towards recovery.

#8

There are two problems with the notion of freedom versus obligation. The first is structural: liberated beings defined as unencumbered rely on encumbered beings for their very existence, which creates a never-ending cycle of debt. The second is affective, in that the call to obligation, duty, and debt can quickly turn into a morality centered on shame, capitulation, or assurance of our own ethical goodness in comparison with others.

#9

The author points out how inner freedom is not relevant to political freedom, and