“[Man] is free to make the wrong choice, but not free to succeed with it. He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see. Knowledge, for any conscious organism, is the means of survival. To a living consciousness, every is implies an ought. Man is free to choose not to be conscious, but not free to escape the penalty of unconsciousness: destruction.”
Ayn Rand