Last Sunday I saw the French film Jean de Florette.  While clearly not a film with a direct connection to America, it did raise another question about freedom to me.  Jean, the protagonist of the film, tries to establish himself as a farmer in the Provençal countryside after living most of his life as a tax official in a French city.  However, the residents of the nearby village are not exactly welcoming to this newcomer.  I think this is a good analogy to our good friends the Puritans.  Both the villagers from the movie and the Puritans differ from today's view of freedom in one very significant difference.  They put the group's definition of freedom ahead of the individual's freedom.  Unfortunately for the Puritans, the individuals in their society eventually diverged from the group, until that idea no longer resembled what it once was.