Self-Discipline and Freedom
Self-Discipline is a part of the art of holding back.
Definition:
discipline n. : actions to bring about behavioural compliance with specific rules or a code of conduct, involving feedback and/or punishment when needed
President Eisenhower said,
Freedom has been defined as the opportunity for self-discipline. Other forms of discipline are imposed, but in freedom we must have self-discipline.1
Discipline as Control
Anything that provides feedback, or a kind that encourages something and discourages something else, constitutes a type of discipline. If the "thing" providing encouragement or discouragement is internal, then it is a type of self-discipline. In either case though, it is a type of control: a man exercising self-discipline is controlling his own behaviour.
Wanted or Unwanted?
We can identify things that control us, and distinguish them into different types according to whether or not we want to be controlled by those things. For example, an alcoholic may recognise that he is controlled by his alcoholism, to the extent that his behaviour is modified by being drunk and/or the desire to be drunk. If he enters a program related to the condition, he probably does not want to be controlled by alcoholism and/or drunkenness. Within this context alcoholism is understood to be an addiction, and addiction in general is understood to include a variety of conditions in which something, over which people initially have control, eventually becomes something they are controlled by. After becoming controlled by it, they recognise it as an unwanted controlling influence.
Unwanted Control Does Not Imply Addiction
It controls them and they do not control it. Self-discipline cannot apply to the condition of being in prison, but it can apply to whatever choices they have regarding behaviours they express while in prison.
When the prisoner is released on parole, they become part of a parole program often implemented with the participation of a parole officer. The parolee may them perceive the parole program as something that controls them — and they could choose to not be controlled by it, by breaking one or more of the requirements of their parole. Of they comply with the parole program then they are acting in alignment with a commitment (to serve the parole as directed). This choice is a type of empowerment and carrying out the compliance is a type of self-discipline (even in the presence of the parole program itself which is an externally applied discipline). But in no case is the state of being on parole an "addiction".
Stoic True Freedom and Free Will
In classical stoic philosophy, also a part of many regigious traditions, there exists a concert of total freedom sometimes called "free will". It does not mean a complete lack of contraints (the individual might be on parole and cannot chance that basic fact) — instead it means having the ability to control ones response to desires and impulses. Total freedom, or free will, permits self-discipline — and therefore requires self-discipline on the part of any man who wishes to successfully find the best path through the many choices of life.
Footnotes
1 : Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks Upon Receiving the 1958 World Peace Award at the AMVETS Luncheon, 1st May 1959. (Full text from the American Presidency Project)
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