Inherent Vice, belated

[Mark Kohut]

I cannot find Ian Livingston's post a while back where he reminded again of the use of the phrase "inherent vice" in Mason & Dixon.......

an import from England with an "inherent vice", sayeth Mason....

I've not looked anything up, but it has occurred to me belatedly that
perhaps 'freedom' is what was one of the intended meanings here? That religious freedom so many came from Emgland for, the textbooks have told us, that 'liberty' we than fought Emgland to have........

when added to that "freedom' that was available, for a time, for some in the sixties, 'doing something for nothing', freely that is a theme in Inherent Vice..........

we might infer the fragility of the import?