Justin Whitmel Earley

much of what is fundamentally shaping our existence is happening unconsciously.

This is really useful in general, but it has downsides. First, if we’re acting out a bad habit—one that reinforces an addiction, perpetuates a harmful pattern of thought, or encourages mindless submission to a technology that is designed to attract our attention and sell it to the advertisers—we don’t have much power to fight back.

As philosopher James K. A. Smith argues in his book You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, the habits we play out day after day are not tangential to our worship but actually central to it.

Wake up exhausted again, because I never get to bed on time.

I am not a creature; I am infinite. My body will be fine. I am a god.

Look at work emails on my phone before getting out of bed.

I can miss a quiet time, but I can’t miss a quick response. Unless I’m well regarded in the office, I’m not worth anything.

If a manager asks for something late in the day on an unrealistic deadline, always say yes. If a social invite comes up, always go for it.

I will become the best version of myself by expanding my options, so I can’t say no. I may be tired and busy, my family may be exhausted by my unpredictability, but if I don’t preserve choice, I can’t be who I really am.

Even when I sense all of the above is getting out of control, even when the best word to describe life is “scattered” or “busy,” resist any rules that would restrict technology use and work schedules.

To limit myself is to restrict my freedom. And I’m not fully human without my freedom of choice in every moment. The good life comes from choosing what you want.

My life was an ode of worship to omniscience, omnipresence, and limitlessness. No wonder my body rebelled.

Why is the freedom liturgy so dangerous? Because it perpetuates the slavery to all the other habits—ironically

The freedom liturgy is dangerous for two reasons. First, it doesn’t actually produce freedom. We think that by rejecting any limits on our habits, we remain free to choose. Actually, by barraging ourselves with so many choices, we get so decision-fatigued that we’re unable to choose anything well. Since we’re too tired to make any good decisions, we’re extremely susceptible to letting other people—from manipulative bosses to invisible smartphone programmers—make our decisions for us. The dogged pursuit of this kind of freedom always collapses into slavery, which leads us to the second reason the freedom liturgy is dangerous.