Political theorist Isaiah Berlin’s distinction between negative and positive freedom explains why so many nomads get stuck. Negative freedom is the absence of external constraints—freedom from something . Positive freedom is the ability to shape one’s life with agency—freedom to do something meaningful .

In the past, for example, freedom has sometimes been imagined as a release from oppression or as an act of pure imagination, alternative visions we might want to bring back into circulation. As it turns out, choice doesn’t always produce freedom, and freedom itself often looks very different.

Para poder ser libres, necesitamos que el gobierno resuelva ciertos problemas. Un gobierno es el único capaz de parar a un invasor o acabar con un monopolio. Pero eso es solo el principio. Cuando la gente tiene la sanidad garantizada, está menos preocupada por el futuro y tiene más libertad para cambiar de trabajo. Cuando los niños pueden ir a la

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There is an idea that comes from the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard that, whereas pre-modern people were lost in finitude—that is, their choices were constrained by tradition or religion or economy—modern anxiety comes from an opposite affliction. We are lost in infinitude , the boundlessness of choices. “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom,”... See more