The Liberty not to be Subordinate

I once asked a wise professor of mine what the best thing about being a professor was.  He replied, "The fact that I can go into the office of the department chair, tell him he’s an #*$!%! and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it."  Shocked, I said, "but you’re a level headed, nice guy, you would never want to do that."  He replied "yeah, I never would, but the thought that I could if wanted to is worth a huge amount."

The lesson?  Liberty is not always an instrumental value subordinate to positive capabilities.