Whose Freedom?

Sidney Mintz: "The choice between a ‘Danish’ pasty and a ‘French’ doughnut during a ten-minute coffee break is a choice, but the circumstances under which this choice is made may not be freely chosen. Like the choice between a McDonalds hamburger and a 'Gino’ chicken leg during a thirty-minute lunch hour, the choice itself is far less important than the constraints under which the choice is being made...[t]he proclaimed freedom to choose meant freedom only within a range of possibilities laid down by forces over which those who were, supposedly, freely choosing exercised no control at all (Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, PP.182-83)"