Freedom is something to use or lose – we must fight the antisocial behaviour bill | George Monbiot

If, as many are suggesting, our species’ future now hinges on our capacity to create something different (say, a system in which wealth cannot be freely transformed into power, or where some people are not told their needs are unimportant, or that their lives have no intrinsic worth), then what ultimately matters is whether we can rediscover the fr

Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it.

whether we can rediscover the freedoms that make us human in the first place.

Citizenship is human nature: an intrinsic inclination, always bubbling, often suppressed, never wholly conquered, and now at a moment of huge opportunity.

once liberty is relinquished, it is difficult to recover.

But for most of us the debate is no longer pertinent. We simply accept that we will live in consumer economies with some very unfortunate side effects to them (crass advertising, unhealthy foodstuffs, products that are disconnected from any reasonable assessment of our needs, excessive waste …) in exchange for economic growth and high employment. W