Bureaucracies are not flowful. Startups are flowful. Kids raised in a home where they are challenged yet secure will be more able to achieve flow. Parents who push their kids, while setting firm boundaries and giving lots of support, will find their kids eager to flow. But a free society enables more different kinds of flow experiences, and more outlets for flow, than an unfree society.
Religion can be a powerful aid to flow.
If you believe you know why the universe ticks, and if you believe that your actions somehow affect the balance or at least your own fate, then almost everything can become flow. Conversely, without some core set of beliefs to make sense of the universe, flow can be difficult to achieve at all. Combine this with the point above about freedom, and you see why modern culture is currently struggling with these ideas. It is crucial to remember that flow is about finding life enjoyable for its own sake, rather than about structuring life so there are more external rewards. This makes flow a very difficult thing to think about.in conventional terms.