For most of human history human life was one of fear, misery, and basic survival dotted ever so slightly by short periods of happiness and even contentedness if one was lucky.  Nowadays, for a percentage of people in the right areas of this planet, those times seem long past.  Now we have social media, Starbucks (and I like Starbucks!), and cynicism.  We have so much and more is yet to come.

Liberty is such an esoteric term, almost antiquated in its cute  and lovable self-importance; so different from the all-important happiness, so daring in its veracity.  The flag-waving crowd throws the term around along with “freedom”, but what is the difference?  First, it would seem that we do not have to “pursue” liberty.  Secondly, it would seem to have something to do with freedom.

Ah yes, freedom!  We are, after all, Americans.  And so, perhaps, when pursuing happiness, we have the liberty to choose non-fat or skim milk; we have the freedom to pay with paypal or with a credit card.  We can choose Whole Foods are another franchised food mart.  We can choose to shop today or tomorrow.  These are our rights…

But rights, those are a different story.