As A Writer You Must Be Free To Think

I'm working on a social satire. So... I'm studying a lot of writers: Twain, Swift, Adams (as in Douglas Adams), and Orwell, of course.

I'm filtering my work through the eyes of a protagonist who sees a myriad of characters who call a modern metropolitan American city home. 

Here's a quote from Orwell that confronts my protagonist. 

"You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself."

The great thing about literature is that the writer may bring his or her meaning to what is written, but readers complete the thought and contribute their reality to bring it to life.

What does that quote mean to you?