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     If one takes the absence of freedom of the will at all
seriously, then one realizes that an individual's actions or
omissions flow not from what he "wants" or "wills" or decides or
determines to do, but from the sort of individual he is, from his
character, and his character in turn is a result of his
sensitivity to and of his assimilation to the social environment.
It is his character which makes one person timid, another bold,
makes one person obsequious, another haughty; makes one person
respectful of the laws he doesn't understand, (or can't explain)
and another person disdainful of the laws that he does understand
and that he can explain.

     All adjudication is a leveling: the outliers, those who are
different, those who are not integrated or assimilated to the
norm are eliminated, are imprisoned or killed. A single simple
explanation for the fate of Jesus and of Socrates.  Thus the more
diverse a society, the greater the freedom of the individual.
There more homogeneous, the stricter are the constraints on the
individual. Witness Puritan New England.

     The individual's anguish that arises from this situation is
one persuasive explanation for the popularity of Jesus; and
Judaism, the emblem of the society that destroyed Jesus, has
become the symbol of society as destructive of the individual,
hence anti-semitism.

     The homogeneous society may give a sense of home, of
belonging, of comfort and protection to the individual who is
integrated into it, but it is oppressive to the individual in
proportion to the value that he places on his separateness. The
pluralistic society creates the spiritual space that is essential
for the individual's survival.

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