so given the tools I have mentioned… what would a society
with my tools look like?
I have mentioned justice which is simply the act of equality…
we must treat everyone equally, legally and morally…
and freedom which is about choices… the more choices we have the freer
we are and I don’t mean choices as to what kind of car to buy or any other
material goods, I would argue that buying material goods actually LIMIT
one’s choices… buying material goods limit one because it ties one
with society because materialism ties one down… once you begin to buy
you are trapped into society because you are a cog in the system…
you want a car and you need the money to buy that car… you
must become part of the capitalist system and every purchase
entwines you deeper and deeper into the capitalist system…
soon, you are materially invested into a system that only wants
you has as labor and being a consumer… that is your only value
in the capitalist system… you must produce something in which
you get paid and then you spend that payment on material goods
which is the other function you have… you are deep into a system
that only values money… that is not freedom… but dependency…
you have no choices in a capitalist system… just merchandise to buy…
and the second thing you need is freedom which is choice…
so every action needs to be address in these two terms…
justice and freedom… if you treat everyone equally, then
you must treat them equal in terms of both the political and
the economic… we cannot have the massive income inequality that
we have… this is a justice problem… massive inequality means
we are treating people different and that isn’t justice…
freedom means we allow choices and that means every action is taking
in terms of how does that action create choice and how does that action
increase justice=equality… so we have a template of how we approach
problems… we do we do that will increase justice and/or freedom in
that problem… every single action has increasing justice/freedom
as it goal…so by increasing justice/freedom, we become more just,
a more free society… equality and choices… that is the template
we follow for a better society…every single problem is looked at
in terms of equality or freedom… does this action increase equality or does this
action decrease equality… does this action increase freedom or does this
action/law decrease freedom… if we always choose equality and if we always
choose freedom, we will be making a better society, a freer society, a
more just society…and individually, if we choose freedom and if
individually we choose equality, we will be choosing to become better
people…
Kropotkin