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There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.

William S. Burroughs#12

SocietyFreedomPoliticsDependency

About this quote

What does it mean?
True freedom is impossible because modern life depends on government infrastructure.
In plain terms
You need government for basics so you can't be totally free.
What can you take from it?
Complete independence is impossible in modern society.

Where it applies

  • political debate
  • civil rights
  • urban life

Putting it to work

  • understanding dependency
  • critiquing freedom
  • urban planning

Questions to consider

  • What does freedom mean now?
  • Can you live without government?

Another view

It presents dependency as absolute rather than negotiable.

More from William S. Burroughs

  1. Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words.

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  2. Remember the Italian steward who put on women's clothes and so filched a seat in a lifeboat? 'A cur in human shape, certainly he was born and saved to set a ne…

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  3. As a young child Audrey Carsons wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow…

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