The Stoics were fond of saying "The inner part cannot be delivered into bondage." In other words, we are free when we decide to be. Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King may have been more free while in jail than most people are on the outside as they go about their daily lives.

The upshot is that society doesn't owe me (the inner part) freedom. Society can't give that to me. It can't take that away from me. Only I can do that.