Are we more free when we resist our desires, or when we do what we want? This is the question that governs the narrative of Paul La Farge's short fiction, Another Life.
The desire to differentiate between freedom that only seems so and freedom that is more fundamentally so, is inspired by Rousseau's essay on the origins of inequality. In the essay Rousseau says, "Nature commands every animal and the beast obeys. Man feels the same impulsion, but knows that he is free to acquiesce or resist."
Makes me re think the status of "acquiescence" in the world as being more than mere passive submission to the status quo. To acquiesce is also to exert a choice.
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