The role of the self-model for self-determination

Tillmann Vierkant

pp. 209-226

in: Sabine Maaßen, Barbara Sutter (eds), On willing selves, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Abstract

In our modern world the language of freedom is everywhere. We live in a free country, we have the freedom to choose, the military forces of many Western states are fighting in an operation called "Enduring Freedom" and in the United States, one could, at one time at least, even order freedom fries. Freedom is everywhere. Democracy is freedom: we are free to choose our government and if they do not do what we want them to do, then we are free to vote them out of office. The free market defeated its communist rivals, and it seems only a matter of time until we live in a world in which no trade restrictions will hamper our freedom to exchange whatever we want with whomever we want, as long as we freely decide to do so.