What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty; freedom from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by way of winning.
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow.
A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few, as we have learned to our sorrow."
Judge Learned Hand, 21 May 1944
“The world says: 'You have needs— satisfy them. You have as much right to it as the rich and the mighty. Do not hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.' This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, and for the poor, envy and murder.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
"Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we wish when we wish however we wish, to serve our passions as ends unto themselves, to be rude and demeaning to those who we think are weaker at the moment. This self indulgence is the act of small and mean spirited souls when they yearn to show that they have a little power.
True freedom is to know what is good, what is the right thing to do, and to have the will to do it, even when it goes against our selfish inclinations. It is to free ourselves from fear and all those things that hold us down, which prevent us from finding and fulfilling our part in the great renewal of creation and the triumph of life over death, of being over nothingness.
The most powerful in the eyes are the world are often the most enslaved, victims of basest passions, servants to the most undeserving and meanest of ambitions, lashing out in their insatiable misery. With obeisance they serve and nurture the willfulness that delivers them first up to slavery to themselves, and then to darker powers, and finally into the jaws of self destruction.
Jesse, A Light on the Road to Damascus, December 2010
Truth dies from the neglect of many, and thereafter liberty, at the hands of a savage few.
The adults have taken a long holiday weekend, and left the markets on this holiday shortened day in the hands of the most junior, who are under strict instructions to do as little as possible.
And so we see a flatness across the markets.
Have a pleasant holiday here in the US.
And for the rest of the world, please try to carry on without us.
See you on Wednesday.
