He committed suicide in 1972. Fake Freedom One issue that freedom presents is telling the genuine from the fake. We use the word so much that we may be in danger of debasing the ideal itself. Walk down the aisle of a drugstore. You can purchase freedom from embarrassing foot odor, freedom from dandruff, freedom from cellulite, freedom from acne, freedom from dental plaque and gingivitis.
Political freedom is something on which the world now agrees, more or less.
About other kinds of freedom, we're much less sure. A thousand years ago, the name of the game in economics, insofar as economics existed, was feudalism. With the exception of a few nobles and tradesmen, people were tied to the land, and to the cycle of the seasons. The rise of capitalism and the startling changes sparked by the Industrial Revolution freed us from the soil and began a massive migration to the cities that continues to this day. Free markets are the operating system of the world's economy, more firmly entrenched, even, than Windows in our crash-prone desktops.