* Do you believe that you (personally) have some kind of freedom?
* If so, you would have to decide how to use that freedom. Otherwise, it's not really freedom, is it?
* Finally, in order to make any decision you have to put yourself in some coordinates, orient yourself. Otherwise, it's not a decision, but a random choice. Remember that avoiding coming up with any decision is also a decision.
I'm not sure how we can tell whether we do have freedom or if it's illusory. It's not clear how much we are biologically and socially determined. Imagine being in a river with a strong current. Everything you do is still subject to the current. You can't stop the river. You can't swim upstream. The bigger problem is that we can't see the river until we've been in it for a while. It seems we're mostly swimming blindly.
The concept of freedom is one of the major philosophical questions.
However, if we look at our own personal (subjective) experience, it becomes obvious that everyone actually behaves like we do have some sort of freedom. No healthy individual thinks that they are just a dead rock in a river.
You think that there should be a guide rail, or you should orient yourself towards something for meaning to work. My point is that we come into this world with more or less a trajectory (think of it as an orientation if you will). I think you have to be socially isolated or depressed to not see how your values lead you to meaningful action. Someone who is well integrated into their culture or subculture does not care to question if there is a meaning to life because they are already doing meaningful things.
I agree, we don't live in a vacuum of meanings. Quite the opposite, we are bombarded by all kinds of values and meanings, coming from our social environment.
The problem is that some people realise that those meanings do not satisfy them, they do not work in some circumstances, that there is something more. So the people start raising difficult questions. They search for other kind of meanings and profound values, from the inside.
