I really don't understand what freedom is. I don't think anyone does. Why do we all claim to desire something we don't understand? I think Sartre may have been right when he said that humans are "condemned" to be free.
Is freedom just the ability to have choices? Then that means you are subject to the consequence of that choice. Also, with freedom comes the responsibilty to actually make a choice. And finally, the more free people there are, the more other people exist who are free to make choices that can contradict your choices, and thus diminish your freedom. It's as if there's only so much freedom around, and you can't spread it too thin.
Ram Dass said "if you think you are free, there is no chance of escape." We live in a "free" country where the government tells you who can marry, who you can have sex with, what you can consume, etc. But of course those laws are implemented, allegedly and often falsely, to keep people from infringing on the freedom of others.
But are we as humans truly free? "Free will" is a nice idea, but where can we see evidence of it? We are slaves to effects. Every action besides the first is just a reaction to something else. And since none of us caused the first action, we're all just in a very complex domino effect. We believe that when we react we choose in what way to do it. But we weren't there to choose which genes mixed to form our brain to form the thought that we mistake as our own. I didn't control the circumstances that led me to writing this right now, nor did I choose to be the kind of person who would react to those circunstances by writing this.
Unfortunately, even realizing this does not change it. I don't feel free, but I also don't see any method of escape, because I don't know what I would escape to. The world is a prison, yet the world contains prisons, so a prison must contain the world. We're just the middle section of a Russian doll that goes on forever.