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Personal Freedom

Choice. This is about choice.

—Neo, in The Matrix Reloaded1

Sweet are the uses of adversity.

—William Shakespeare2

A lot of what humans do is crazy. Some crazy things we can’t seem to stop. Making war and despoiling the planet are two examples.3 But other crazy things come and go, even if they last for generations. They’re popular for fifty or a hundred years, and then the culture wakes up and says, “Gee, that was nuts.”

Back in the 1950s, smoking and drunk driving were both standard. There were ashtrays on flat surfaces everywhere. Homes, offices, cars, buses, trains, planes, and restaurants ...

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