For they go on saying that the big fish eats the little fish,
without asking whether little fish swim up to big fish and
ask to be eaten. They accept the devouring dragon without
wondering whether a fashionable crowd of princesses ran after
the dragon to be devoured. They have never heard of a fashion;
and do not know the difference between fashion and fate.
The necessitarians have here carefully chosen the one example of
something that is certainly not necessary, whatever else is necessary.
They have chosen the one thing that does happen still to be free,
as a proof of the unbreakable chains in which all things are bound.
Very little is left free in the modern world; but private buying
and selling are still supposed to be free; and indeed still
are free; if anyone has a will free enough to use his freedom.
Children may be driven by force to a particular school. Men may be driven
by force away from a public-house. All sorts of people, for all sorts
of new and nonsensical reasons, may be driven by force to a prison.
But nobody is yet driven by force to a particular shop.