For Rick, if I am to be free I must realise how I am manipulated by society and work with my neighbour to change society. To do so I must put relating to people above material objects. Rick chose to be free.
Here is the final paragraph of Rick Turner’s 1966 thesis. Translated from French by Frederik van Gelder:
“I am only truly free in a society where I control the system by cooperating with my neighbour. … [A]s soon as I realise my alienation and powerlessness, I can begin to gain my freedom by cooperating with others to change society. It is in this sense that wanting my freedom necessarily implies wanting the freedom of others. Sartre said that existentialism is the attempt to follow through on the denial of God’s existence. It seems to me that it would be more accurate to say that it is the attempt to follow through on the idea that there is no human nature. This idea implies that man can consciously create and control his own society, because it is he who sustains the present society. … But it also implies that, although I can explain to [another] that he is responsible for what happens in his society – the world – he can both agree and say that he doesn’t care. Man must choose to be human.”
RICK TURNER'S PHILOSOPHY 