[MD] Keep on Truckin'

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Mark]
Freedom is a rig full of gas, a wide open road, a stack of audio CDs, 
and some sweet rock and roll.  Oh, yeah, and truck stops full of 
coffee.  Just watch out for the ones full of Vampires...

[Arlo]
A nice metaphor for "freedom", since the agency one is able to act 
upon above is constrained by many structures; the road, the 
availability of gas, the adherence to "rules of the road", acts of 
weather (my "freedom" was constrained one night in South Dakota by 
heavy rains that led to the temporary closing of the Interstate), 
one's health, etc.

The key is seeing that these structures both enable the agency of the 
driver as well as constrain it. Our range of agency is not merely 
constrained by structure, the structure provides the opportunity for 
agency as well.

The road allows us to move, at the same time it limits our 
directions. Without the road, the best we could manage is perhaps a 
5-10 mph romp on a moon rover across unpaved terrain. The road lets 
us get anywhere on the continent fairly quickly, but the price we pay 
for this "freedom" is that we follow the road.

Someone once suggested to me its like corrective lenses. You "have" 
to wear them to see, but this "loss of freedom" is combined with the 
"freedom" that seeing enables. So we are constrained by the road, but 
at the same time the road enables us to travel.

Of course, all this (structure and agency) are not "fixed", but 
evolving mutually, structures change and adapt as agency is applied, 
and in turn agency changes and adapts as structures change.