There is another path to freedom within society. Rather than making freedom an end in itself, with all the personal and social baggage the author rightly attaches to that approach, freedom can result from mutual respect. Mutual respect would in fact maximize freedom, as a practical matter.

If the ‘point’ of a society were not freedom for its own sake, but a network of social relations in which people were respecting one another (i.e. everyone taking one another into account in one’s actions), that would create a society in which social/psychological space would be organically generated for every individual by society, as opposed to the existence of such spaces being something contrary to the very notion of having a society, which spaces must be vigilantly defended against a constant threat of encroachment from the inevitable institutions of society as well as other individuals.

At the same time, whereas freedom as an end in itself does seem to encourage, if not require of people action for its own sake, mutual respect as a societal ethos would allow for, even encourage quiescence. That in itself would reduce the strain on society.

Ethical conduct requires an ethic, a rule for governing conduct. For society, justice requires an ethic of justice.

Neither ‘freedom’ nor ‘equality’ is an ethic of any kind. Think about it.

Yet, in Liberal societies those values are taken to be the twin pillars of justice. That is lunacy. That explains why Liberal societies are crumbling. [Why they are now crumbling, when they had been strong, is another topic.]

Equality does, however, imply an ethic of mutual respect to govern individuals and institutions in society. Of course, even if that ethic were to be formally recognized as the ethic of justice it could be — inevitably would be — violated. That’s what laws and their enforcement are for.

Recognizing mutual respect as our ethic of justice would not create a Utopia. It is, however, something we not only can, but, really, must do.

If interested at all, I do take this a bit further in “All We Need Is Equality” here in Medium (a “4 min read,” with more links at the end).