Liberal democracy and metaphysical liberalism have created legal freedoms and liberated us from spiritual, moral, cultural, and psychological pressures to conform, but the authorities we do retain seem to have only shifted their methods of abusing powers. Instead of tightly regulated state and church laws that limit our behavior, we have an expanding number of institutions that use modern psychology, microeconomics, and mass communications to “nudge” us toward certain behaviors—to incentivize and pressure us to act in particular ways, often without our knowledge.
