Freedom vs. Power

Hi PK here, been wanting to bandy this about for a while. In politics, names of PACs, etc. we hear words like 'freedom' being thrown about in ways designed to elicit an emotional response more than anything. But rarely do we talk about what it really means.

But many political debates boil down to essentially one conflict: the individual vs. society - the 'many' vs. the 'few', the 'me' vs. 'they' etc -- it embodies the basic struggle facing humans ever since we became civilized.

After all, if we were 100% self-centered, it would be impossible to maintain families, societies, nations, etc - everyone would be fending for themselves, killing or growing their own food etc - and we could certainly survive that way, but it would be impossible to make real, long-term progress along multiple generations.

On the other hand, if things become 100% society-driven, we can survive, even make progress as a society, but progress as an individual becomes more difficult. Some of the self-centered drives that drive other things can become blunted to the point where it impacts society as a whole, as had been seen in Soviet-socialist type societies.

Much of right-left debate lies in where that balancing point is, but I've realized it's far more complex than that. Society has component bodies, institutions of one type or another, that have interests and power structures against which individuals are arrayed. These institutions are often called 'Big' something when spoken of in a politically threatening manner: Big Government. Big Oil. Big Labor. Big Pharma. Big, big, big.

Charged lingo, obviously, but which is chosen deliberately to reflect widespread individual unease about one's own freedom/power up against the power of these institutions - particularly when each of the two viable political parties back one type or another. Another chapter on this later.