I would say that there's an enormous amount of energy put into making people perceive freedom in ways that benefit the ruling class. "Democracy" for example, is generally used as a synonym for freedom but as has been said, democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

I'm beginning to understand that real freedom begins with freedom of the mind, which requires taking responsibility for your mind - your thoughts, beliefs, opinions etc. Most people are not really in control of their own minds. Sad but true.

It goes back to the ruling class again, and their means of perception management - one of which is the mainstream media. If you want to know about propaganda in the media, how deep it goes, the best resource I've found so far is Jon Rappoport's interviews with Ellis Medavoy (pseudonym), which you can get online. Finding out about how freedom has been eroded is the first step to getting it back, which I do believe is actually happening, slowly but surely, on a global level.