I’ll lead with the punchline. One of the most important concepts in all of social humanity is Free Will.
The wikipedia entry defines it thusly:
Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Every political machine in human history attempts to limit free will if left unchecked. Why does this occur? Quite naturally people are slightly narcissist and selfish. Not to be derogatory, it’s a genetic trait with roots in the very basis of survival and reproduction. Once in power they think their way of governing is the best way, obviously a function of self-selection bias (“goal seeking” as we call it in science), but it has the largely the same outcome on the governed. First, it’s OK to influence people, then to take away their voice, then to take away their right to vote, then to jail them for dissent, and finally, kill them outright. What is almost hard to believe, is the ease by which this thinking becomes justified.
I know it’s just a movie, but on a flight recently I watched “The Death of Stalin.” I’d describe it as a dark comedy really, however it needs to be because this was a very dark time for a large number of innocent civilians under Stalin’s rule. One individual in the regime in particular, Lavrentiy Beria, was the chief of secret police (NKVD), tasked with, among other things, carrying out the purges ordered by Stalin on his famous lists. This guy pulled teenage girls off the street and raped them while he was killing their fathers and family members in the gulags. If you need to fathom, for a moment, extreme, rage-inducing injustice, this is certainly a good example.
What struck me while watching this movie is the concept of the universal importance of Free Will. It is, at the highest level, absolutely what governors want to control, and absolutely, what the governed must never lose.
Here in the US politicians vie for votes. They will tell you what they think you want to hear. They’ll hold parties and rallies to try to get you to goose bumps. They’ll tell you how wonderful of a job they’re doing, how wonderful of a job they will do, and how the other side is equal to no less than exactly satan himself. Well-heeled individuals from coast to coast will donate millions. Citizen United armed Super PACs will spend billions of dollars twisting words and exploiting perceived weaknesses. News outlets, commentaries and blogs will post thousands of stories and posts and tweets.
But there is one truth, and they hate it. No matter how much they shout, rant, and rave, how much vitriol they spit over their opponent, and how much they spend, and how much money influencers spend, there is something so fundamentally powerful it makes my knees wobbly weak and my heart fill with pride just thinking about the beauty of it.
They cannot affect free will. They can try to manipulate it, they can try to coral it and persuade it buy it off, but they will never outright own it. It’s enormously satisfying. No matter what you’ve been told to believe, or think, or vote for, when you walk into the booth and close the curtain, it’s just you and no one else. A moment of true zen. And they cannot do shit to stop you. On Tuesday, November 6th, I’m having a pizza party and watching, for what I think anyway, will be this exact concept in action. Kornacki better snort some lines, because he’s going to be a busy man.
In a world where truths are seemingly becoming increasingly relative, voting becomes even more important. After all of the shouting and the money and crap, it’s the only way a nation cuts through the BS and states very clearly and particularly: “actually, this is where we stand.” Voting is the only absolute truth. It is the only mechanism where absolute power actually lies. This is why they want to take it away from you. Democracies are imperfect, but they best represent the embodiment of free will. This is what “Freedom” is to me.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” — WINSTON CHURCHILL
O! you sayeth it so well, Winston. Now, please, and I mean please please please, go vote. I don’t even care if you’re voting for the “other guy.” JUST VOTE!