“Freedom in an industrial society…has a negative rather than positive connotation. It means a release from external restraints rather than a deep and abiding sense of self-control and purpose.  Man is not free: he is out on parole.  This freedom has brought with it frustration rather than fulfillment, isolation rather than integration.  …The eternal awareness of choice can drive the weak to the point where the simplest decision becomes a nightmare.  Most men prefer to flee choice, to flee anxiety, to flee freedom.   …Man longs to escape the pressures beating down on his frail individuality; and, more and more, the surest means of escape seems to be to surrender that individuality to some massive, external authority.”

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom, 1949