bunnu had a choice : either to mend the plate with certain shards missing or out of their proper positions ; or to leave the shattered plate unmended , thereby granting those newly liberated ceramic particles their freedom from the molds which had once oppressed them and which had invariably limited their potentialin this latter case , however , it would have been difficult to determine whether these newly liberated entities would value their independence , or crave again their safer and less exceptional place in union with the larger homogeneous super-entity .