There are certainly different kinds of freedom. I've written elsewhere about how squirrels seem freer than us in that they can go where they please, ignoring social niceties. Culture empowers us in some ways and constrains us in others. There's a big debate about that in Chinese philosophy, between Confucians and Taoists.

Autonomy (self-control), though, depends on being isolated from the environment. The more porous our membranes, as it were, the more the genes and stimuli can control us like puppets. Only when we're detached from those factors, when we're able to make up our mind, do we get anything like authentic decisions made by an independent self or mind in the first place.