Potter sees the betrayal of our own principles as inevitable. A Buddhist teacher recently said he had spent his life searching for freedom, truth and self knowledge. In the end he discovered that there is nothing to be free from, and that both truth and self are unknowable. We need to define both truth and self at every stage of our lives in order to live a life that is full. That both truth and self are changing and variable is something you can better appreciate with hindsight, but at any moment of your life you can only act on the basis of the truth and self that you understand now.
Freedom is a product of personal commitment to objectives.
Freedom is only meaningful within the constraints of nature, economics and social conditions. The real world exists and we must make choices that are functional in that world. Life has a way of making available and of denying you the activity, challenges, knowledge and wisdom you need so that you can continue to grow. It seems that having an abundance of assets often makes us blind to the best way to use them. In contrast those who have deficits in their lives may find ways to turn their disadvantage into knowledge and later into advantage.