This is far from an abstract or academic argument. It has everything to do with how we think and talk about freedom and authority in our daily conversation. Essentialism tells us always to ask for the authority behind an idea or to demand the true origin of a person. What is she really? it makes us ask. Who said it? Where does it (or her) come from? When the questions we should be asking are: What relation does what’s being said have to what actually happens? Or, more simply: Is that true?
