Cone Man had been put against a wall and reviewed. Consequently, he had ceased travelling to and from the Great Hall of Wisdom. In a way, this was not an untimely development, because his chariot had died, and refused resurrection without unreasonable recompense, and Cone Man was in the happy position of being able to answer this epic sulk with one of his own: "Sit there and rot in the driveway you ungrateful pile of steel and rubber" Cone Man shrugged as he quaffed a beer on the sofa in his man cave.
Savouring his beer, he also savoured the strange sensation of his newfound freedom. The prophetess Joplin had opined that "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose" but Cone Man cone-sidered that view futile and nihilistic. A fugitive from the law was free of the normal constraints and frustrations of the moral and law abiding, yet enslaved to the constant tyranny of having to choose between concealment of their true identity or having to flee from whatever locality they lived in. Freedom, then, was far more than "nothing left to lose".
Others viewed freedom as freedom from degrading work. But if the work had to be done, the worker had to be remunerated to the extent that they could live to work another day. And if they lived enough days they could train at night school and find a better job. So, even if you accepted the bleak view propounded by the prophet Say, that the workforce only received the bare minimum necessary for them to survive, they were still free, arguably, in that they could improve their lot in the course of time.
Others viewed freedom as exercising the choice to train for and pursue a "professional qualification", leading in due course to a "salaried position". For many this was the path to slavery in the form of a "student loan", followed in due course by slavery to a "mortgage". After that, you lived your man cave to be near your work and you worked to pay for your man cave. This was often referred to as a "career".
Writers were often envied by others who believed they spent their days quaffing flat whites in cafes in between travelling the world and being interviewed on National Radio. In Cone Man's experience so far, writers wrote much, were paid little, and lived unremarkable lives. "The other warrior's grass always seems greener" Cone Man cone-sidered. "Freedom" in this life then, could not be divorced from work, responsibility and suffering.
"Life" was widely known pack up and leave after three score years and ten, or by reason of strength four-score - and many found that "life" had a bad habit of leaving far sooner, suddenly and unexpectedly than that. Four of the boys that attended school with Cone Man had died in various accidents before any of them could turn 21. Seven or eight others had not lived long after turning 50. "Perhaps the question of life is not how to seek freedom from work tomorrow, but how to best use the freedom you have to work today" Cone Man mused.
