roots are the necessary condition for happiness

[keannu]

Page 185, Test 2 -04 by Korean Education Broadcasting System

The freedom to choose one’s identity is critical, since the sources of identity are shifting from “belonging” to “achievement.” Speaking for many, Kymlicka says that “identification is more secure, less liable to be threatened, if it does not depend on accomplishment.” But this is absurd. Achievement increasingly is the basis for a satisfying life.

To be sure, some people want unconditional acceptance by their “in” group. But more and more, people in rich countries achieve many of their identities. They choose their careers, friendships, allies, mixing and matching pieces and styles. Even their ethnic, racial and national affiliations are forged in various ways, despite the fact that a person’s self-image depends partly on how he’s viewed by others.

Indeed, the ability to make one’s own self is the essence of freedom. A good society recognizes and does not pit roots and wings against one another. If roots are the necessary condition for happiness, then wings are the sufficient condition. A good life is not possible without both.

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By using mathematical comparison of "necessary condition" and "sufficient condition", is this paragraph saying that "wings" are more important and influential than "roots" or the other way around?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The writer is using the words in the logic sense, not the mathematics sense. The writer is saying they're both important. To be free, you need the necessary condition of roots (maybe a family, culture, or place) and the sufficient condition of wings (maybe education, opportunity, or effort).

To be free, you need both roots and wings.

Do you agree?

Here's more: Necessary and conditional

 

[Tarheel]

I understand that both the roots and the wings are metaphorical, but it's hard to understand how anything can have both. (I'm trying to imagine either a tree with wings or a bird with roots.) Generally speaking, we are more likely to associate wings with freedom.