Our political and cultural system never let fresh air in; it squelched the alternatives as quaint or feeble-minded. Appearances to the contrary, this is what “democracy” always meant in America—the freedom to become rich. The alternative tradition, in the work of the figures mentioned above, sought to question the definition of “wealth.” If the dominant culture was following the template of “they eat each other,” the alternative tradition can be encapsulated in that famous line from John Ruskin: “There is no wealth but life.”
-Morris Berman

http://www.alternet.org/world/154453/why_the_american_empire_was_destined_to_collapse/?page=4

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it's pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” said Franzen, who famously cuts off all connection to the internet when he is writing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9047981/Jonathan-Franzen-e-books-are-damaging-society.html

it arrives upon me as I make a smoothie

People that consume fast food, me included, often take a preference and then that becomes what believe is a choice, yet they aren't composing the burgers or frying the fries, so how could they really have choice?

Thus, true liberty and freedom (especially of choice) is the ability to utilize internal components to achieve a desired outcome. A person must be the ultimate decider of how they live and they must use internal reasoning to decide who to be. Now with a community, this means absolute democracy must be upheld. The people must work together to achieve a desired out come and the power must be centralized in the people who compose the society, not people who privatize and own the resources and means of production. Thats like believing in God to help you digest food.