Freedom is the great Western commitment, but we have lost sight of what it means ? and this is leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state power: we think we?re free if we can do and say as we please, and protect ourselves from government interference. But true freedom isn?t so much freedom from, as freedom to ? the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.