Escape bad faith by embracing free will
2026-07-12 11:58
Escape Everything by Robert Wringham is becoming one of my most ear-tagged books ever. It is going on the annual re-read list for sure. Some of the topics are completely new concepts to me, and others are resurfacing feelings I can relate to and which the author communicates ever so eloquently (and humorously).
This topic was new to me, and one I want to try and understand a little deeper here. It appears in the chapter titled "Escape from our stupid, stupid brains".
"Bad faith" Wringham describes as "the fear of acknowledging a reality of infinite choices." I always thought bad faith as something you act out towards others, exploiting others when you know full-well that you are deceiving them. After a quick Wikipedia read, I see that Wringham is describing self-deception concept of bad faith, so this all happens within oneself. Your mind is playing two parts - the deceived and the deceiver. Heavy.
The other part of what Wringham discusses is how to escape this bad faith towards onself - the book is called "Escape Everything" afterall. He says we can do this by "embracing free will" which in turn is experienced by "exercising motility".
By utilising our gift of motion, we can squash that deceiver inside us, and begin to act with free will.
Below are two little and one bigger current real life examples of mine, which I think describes a bit of this process. I have unknowingly been utilising motility to escape both mental and physical traps, resulting in unlocking chains that have led to freer experiences.
Staining the house
Bad faith - I can't do it because I don't have the skills or equipment, or even know the product that the painter used previously.
Exercise motility - Ask the painter, deny he'll be peeved for not using his service, explain I can't afford to pay him for his service, go to hardware store and look at options, talk to staff, explain my situation, trial an area, sit on it, read labels.
Results - Painter absolutely happy to part his wisdom, skills learnt, money saved, enjoyable activity.
Compost run
Bad faith - I need to have a full bucket of food scraps, travel by car, bring back some potatoes or fresh compost. People think I'm weird carrying a bucket and garden fork down the street.
Exercise motility - Walk, with or without a full bucket, with or without hand tools, return with or without potatoes or compost, return via a long-walk around the river, have a chat to neighbouring allotment owners, sit in the garden, potter, don't even make it to the allotment because of some unexpected event, brush off the weirdo anxiety, be weird.
Results - Interactions with community who are friendly believe it or not, exercise, sunshine, feeding the compost, keeping a pulse on the state of the allotment, potatoes or some other unexpected self-sown crop harvest.
Work
Bad faith - I need to stay, that I will not be able to afford to live comfortably without work. I need to work on myself to be happy here.
Exercise motility - Accept work as a clear source of stress caused by bad actors and escape it, quit, welcome the unknown.
Results - I can afford it afterall, it is exactly what my emergency bucket was for. I'm more comfortable, stress departed, regain my time, my life, energy returning for creative endeavours.
Conclusion
Not entirely sure if I've got the concepts right, but it was good to flesh it out a little. I might be more talking about squashing anxiety. But my rebuttle to that is that the self-deceiving bad faith is the precursor of that anxiety, and without exercising my gift of motility I do not ever act with free will, or achieve freedom.