The word “choice” appears constantly in our advertising, almost as often as the word “new.” It’s as effective at moving products as skin or Old Glory.  It strokes the country the way it likes to be stroked – with the notion that a free market means a free people.

The truth is much harder.  The truth is that freedom lies not in the number of choices available to you but in the self-knowledge that comes once you have chosen.  The harder the choices are, the better they define you.  The real choices are the ones you make alone, far from the marketplace, with nothing but your heart and conscience.

General Motors would like you to believe that Cadillac owners are a special breed of humanity.  In fact, owning a Cadillac tells you precisely nothing about your character.  Decide not to own a car at all, however, and you begin to get a glimmer of what kind of person you might be… Decide anything for real and you will never forget who you are.

– Jonathan Franzen (Harper’s Magazine, Nov. 1992)