Americans on the Left make a different mistake: they fail to acknowledge freedom as the value of values, preferring equality. Recognition of our equal dignity is, to be sure, necessary for any discussion of freedom. But equality is a beginning rather than an end. There is no tragic choice between freedom and equality. They work together. The forms of freedom, all five of them, create the conditions for less inequality in practice. Without the virtues kept alive by free people, equality loses all substance in politics. Stripping it away from freedom makes it meaningless. We can all be equally
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