The balance between individual freedom and the common good

THE wind had persisted and the sky was a bruised silver blue when Tomas and Sara started walking the next morning. A black eagle soared and drifted high above them. They walked for a while in silence.

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They were absorbed in the landscape, and Tomas wondered how and why he should retrieve the threads of the conversation of the previous day. Yet they had embarked on this project, and he felt it necessary to at least try to complete it, without there being any expectation of a resolution.

I don't know if these concepts of the common good and social freedom are not themselves mystifications, articulated elsewhere and something imposed, and not freely chosen, he said. If we are going to consider freedom at a very basic level, I don’t understand how we can get away from an individual making very personal choices about how to lead one’s life.