The Average Person

The captive balloon is obviously not free. And the average person is moored to the bonds of things, to public opinion, to governmental and economic realities, like the captive balloon on its cable. But it is not so obvious to everyone that the drifting "free" balloon, subject to every whim of the wind is not free either.
There is no freedom in being stirred by every opinion, steered by every spirit of the times, governed by every urge of instinct. Mere feeling - reeling, moody mysticism - is a variety of emasculation, but it is not freedom. Freedom is there only where a holy moral imperative and a mature will shows us the way we must steer our lives. "Command yourself, or be a slave forever." As long as you are not master of your self, you are not free.

- Eberhard Arnold