{"text":[[{"start":5.44,"text":"American folk hero turned vice-president JD Vance was to be found doing his best intellectual-man-of-the-people impression this week, combining searing sociocultural commentary with all the butter-wouldn’t-melt energy of a man who has never told the president of a country under heavy invasion by Russia to say thank you, publicly, to Donald Trump."}],[{"start":26.416,"text":"“Let me give you my meta-analysis of Emily in Paris and why it’s genius,” Vance said in a TikTok video posted on Tuesday. “It’s obvious to everyone watching the show that she should end up with the French chef and they should start a family . . . The fact that they keep on making atrocious decisions is kind of like the best bit of cultural commentary — I would say cultural criticism — of my generation.”"}],[{"start":49.04,"text":"Fox News gushed that Vance was “using one of Netflix’s biggest pop culture hits to make a much broader point about modern adulthood”; about “a culture increasingly questioning marriage, having children and building a family”."}],[{"start":63.197,"text":"One might be forgiven for pointing out that adulthood is also about responsible decision-making in one’s professional life, particularly when it may have a profound impact on America and the rest of the world. It could be said, for instance, that sane-washing each mad Trump idea — take annexing Greenland (“we can’t just ignore the president’s desires”) — is irresponsible in the extreme."}],[{"start":85.52,"text":"But Vance was, nevertheless, touching on a point worth exploring: the prevalent modern notion that happiness in adulthood lies in keeping your options open, minimising your responsibilities, and being able to do whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want."}],[{"start":101.76,"text":"Many people would describe this as freedom, and indeed it would probably fit with the definition provided by the English political theorist and philosopher John Stuart Mill. “The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it,” Mill wrote in his 1859 essay On Liberty."}],[{"start":127.38,"text":"All very well, one might think. But there’s a problem. We don’t always know what it means to pursue our own good. We might think that it makes us happy to do as we please, but actually part of growing up is realising that some degree of discipline, commitment and narrowing down your options can lead to greater contentment. Furthermore, if pursuing our own good means impulsively following every urge, is that really freedom?"}],[{"start":148.24,"text":"That question is explored by Patrick Deneen, the Catholic conservative political theorist (and intellectual influence on Vance) in his 2018 book Why Liberalism Failed. In it he argues that modern liberals wrongly equate liberty with absolute personal autonomy. This, Deneen argues, is a relatively new conception of freedom. Of the ancient world, he writes: “To be free, above all, was to be free from enslavement to one’s own basest desires, which could never be fulfilled, and the pursuit of which could only foster ceaseless craving and discontent . . . Liberty was thus the condition achieved by self-rule, over one’s own appetites and over the longing for political dominion.”"}],[{"start":196.32,"text":"I don’t quite buy the book’s core argument: Deneen romanticises the premodern world while not fully acknowledging the huge leaps that liberalism has brought in science, human rights, social mobility and overall wellbeing. Further, I am grateful that I live in a world in which I largely get to decide how to live my life, rather than having it dictated to me by society."}],[{"start":212.929,"text":"But I do find the argument that freedom has been misunderstood persuasive. Surely the freedom from one’s own worst impulses, and therefore the capacity to live a considered life of virtue, contentment and purpose, is just as important as the freedom to follow one’s desires, if not more so. As children, we face all sorts of rules, which give us the courage to explore without fear. As adults, we have to find other ways to govern ourselves."}],[{"start":239.92,"text":"It is precisely the kinds of constraints that are often imagined to be the antithesis of freedom that can in fact give our lives meaning: not just the Maga obsession with babies and marriage, but things like being a member of a real-life community that entails shared burdens, committing to regular voluntary work, or even following a somewhat prescriptive moral framework."}],[{"start":265.04,"text":"“Everybody’s freeeee to feel good,” sang the Zambian-Zimbabwean singer Rozalla in 1991. But the lyrics to the rest of the song, with its nod to making it through life together, are worth reading. Feeling truly free, and good, requires showing up, shared problems and mutual responsibility — without them, we’re anchorless."}],[{"start":280.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789903321_1298.mp3"}