What is Liberty?
01 07 09 - 19:34 Liberty, equality, and fraternity! This has been the call of countless revolutions since the dawning of the revolutionary period. The three are co-equal and co-dependant: without equality, there can be no liberty, without fraternity there can be no equality, without liberty, there can be no fraternity. As is logically customary, let us provide cursory definitions of each before proceeding with further discussion.Fraternity is the natural disposition of mankind. It is a sentiment of empathy and understanding; knowing that at all levels of interaction, the human condition is shared and universal. It is an appreciation that individuals, regions, and indeed the whole world, are dependant upon one another, and an understanding that to improve the lot of those close to you improves your own lot, thus carrying to every economic and political interaction, from the smallest to the largest. Above all, fraternity is the expression of altruism and frienship, of kinship and of comradship. For a sentiment of fraternity to prevail, it is essential that a condition of equality among people is prevalent.
Equality is a condition in which no one individual, organization, or institution possess more rights or privileges than another; a condition wherein political and economic advantage are not used for the sake of exploitation and domination, and in fact wherein such advantages do not exist. Joeseph Conrad wrote in his seminole work The Heart of Darkness that "power is an accident arising from the weakness of others." Indeed, power only exists in a tangible form when it is used by one group against another, and only when one group percieves advantage in the domination and exploitation of another. As such, power is not itself evident of any fundamental or existential difference, of superiority or inferiority, of providence or propriety, between the two, but is rather a manifestation a temporal difference in disposition and opportunity. Equality prevails when advantage is not derived from the temporary condition of power, or the abuse of power for the sake of advantage; it prevails when the distribution of power is such that the creative processes and productive energies of the people are not misappropriated by force or guile for the sake of maintaining the status of an unequally powerful and influential class, political party, organization, or individual. When the distribution of power is unequal, fraternity is impossible; iniquity breeds hostility and strife among people, and is the root source of most social problems and personal woes.
For either condition to exist, the people must know their Liberty. Liberty is ubiquitous, which is to say it is held in common by all people. This is true today as it has always been. Indeed, the greatest feat accomplished by ruling classes throughout history has been to convince people that they are not possessing of liberty. Liberty is a natural right, above all; by this it is meant that all people are born with liberty--- it cannot be given, nor can it be taken away. It is intrinsic and universal to the human condition, regardless of time, place, social standing, or sanction. Liberty is, in short, individual expression. It is your right to be who you are, and to express that as you personally see fit. It is your right to produce what you want to produce, to accomplish what you want to accomplish. To live your life the way you want to. To be free. In reality, all people everywhere have total liberty at all times of their lives. However, self-perpetuating institutionalized hierarchies of power utilize inequality, dissinformation, and brute force to dissuade people from expressing their liberty. They establish means of indoctrination, such as governments, laws, religions and state-run education, in order to control the flow of information and enlightenment, so as to prevent the people from seeing through the carefully constructed (and entirely false!) "reality" upon which the power and justification for and the existence of the ruling class are totally dependant. Through control of basic economic and political resources, the ruling class are able to provide severe sanctions and punishments against "deviant" (an arbitrary distinction made at the discretion of the ruling class) actions and behavior, principally the withholding of food and other vital resources. And underscoring all forms of oppression and domination are the use of violence and force, manifested through armies and police, to deprive people of their precious and already too-brief lives in the event that all other means of control prove inadequate. The purpose of centralized power is to maintain itself and the status of its membership, and this is accomplished through the subversion of Liberty from the majority of the people for the service of a small ruling minority. The productive and creative energies, the blood and sweat and tears, the hopes and dreams of the people, of WE the people, of WE the workers, are harnessed and exploited to this end. This is why Anarchism is called the social revolution- it is a revolution of thought and perspective, every bit as much as it can be a revolution of arms and armies. Through revolution, we utilize our liberty to establish equality, and fraternity is the natural result of that.
Liberty is the ongoing condition of human life. It is the supreme struggle and ultimate goal of all human endeavour. At the same time, it is the primary motivator for all action, it is that which drives us all to our own individual goals; it propels us throughout the course our lives as individuals and as members of our communities. Liberty is the perpetual and universal pursuit of self-improvement and social interaction. Through our common liberty, we are bound to share our condition as equal human beings, simultaneously independent from and dependant upon all others, in our shared situation on our shared planet. Liberty is not an ending, it is not a singular purpose--- it is a continuing process of development and learning, of growth and of evolution, expressed and bourne through the lives of each of us. Each of us uniquely expressing the sum total of our own individual humanity, in turn building upon that humanity which came before and developing that humanity which shall yet come, unceasingly and without end. Liberty is the supreme good; the good at which all others aim at.
The most important question anyone can ever ask themself is "What does Liberty mean to me?"
The most important question anyone can ever ask anyone else is "What does Liberty mean to you?"
What does liberty mean to you, comrades?
-Hale
{post-script: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muHg86Mys7I }
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