What he describes as "freedom" has an older name: liberty or liberties, as they applied to the nobility. I have argued in other areas that the arc from the renaissance to the modern era has been first to limit the liberties of the nobility so as to create a space for business, which depends on predictable behavior governed by contract law vs. class based decisions which, from a business point of view, seem capricious. The principle was secured in 1688, but the practical applications took until the middle of the 19th century to secure. The result was a largely market based society. This was quickly converted into a financial capital based economy, substantially completed by the 20th century. As the financiers have gained effective control over the media and the levers of government they have begun to exercise that control to their own advantage and changed, ignored, bent or broken any rules that might have impeded them. We have now come full circle, back to the position where a new elite, significantly based on inherited wealth, can again exercise the liberty that their position affords them.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."