Those who want to make a positive contribution within a basically corrupt system, who find some way to enter and avoid being corrupted, are probably in the most difficult place in which to continue to listen to their inner voice. In some ways, the lonely hero has an easier time. Another academic is a good example of the other sort, the one who enters the system and bides his time. This man spoke of his notion of creating his inner secret police, being in synch with how they functioned so that he could learn patience and still not be corrupt. He wasn’t a party member, but he was able to travel and to publish at least some of what he wrote. He enjoys considerable respect among his colleagues.
The inner voice speaks to the essence of freedom for the individual, the manifestation of freedom for the individual. If the individual’s inner voice is a din of obsessions or fears, he or she is hardly free. Our collective state of freedom is influenced by the extent to which our actions are constrained by our con text. Neither in America nor in Eastern Europe is the mother of three small children free to spend her time self-indulgently. If we assume responsibilities freely (having three small children may or may not be a freely assumed responsibility), then presumably we also freely assume the constraints and limitations the responsibilities impose.
In the American ideal, shaped over a couple of centuries of looking across a vast stretch of land populated by civilizations that the Euro-Christian didn’t know how to understand or respect, freedom came to be associated with an unlimited horizon. A harmony of interests, as extolled by Anonymous, allowed for and even encouraged the expansion of enterprise in both size and location. Compare that to the Eastern European penchant for responsibility. Perhaps, Anonymous offered a biased perspective when casting many European societies (and other societies in the world) as examples of failed harmony. We might find not only that Anonymous ignored the abuse of labor in American mills (and in American cotton fields), but also the unique challenge of finding harmony of interests in countries where there is an emphasis on collective responsibility. Perhaps, this harmony is hard to achieve without the driving force of personal interests. Adam Smith might have been at least partially correct in declaring that self-interests are built into the human psyche. But doesn’t this mean we are inviting all self-interests to the table?
The concept of freedom resonates for people all over the world. Some qualities of it are universal; some are socio-culturally determined. The writings of Vaclav Havel demonstrate most clearly how freedom is an internal state of being, distinct from one’s relationship to society. Limits and responsibilities come with the social context. The West has long claimed the patent and proprietary rights to individual freedom. The European culture that transplanted itself to the “New World” was formed by refugees and exiles, slaves and adventurers. The concept of self that informs this culture includes a sense of infinite possibilities—within the context of a rational harmony of interests.
The great expanse of land that opened the way for expanded horizons also contributed to releasing individuals from the constraints of fixed social expectations. Generations of people in the United States have lived their lives at the end of a journey from their families and points of origin. The inner voice claims greater authority in a setting where the social milieu is diluted by miles of open space and discontinuity between generations. Yet, the harmony of interests by all accounts has not been sustained in the United States. Polarization exists alongside silo perspectives. The center does not hold and interests no longer (if they ever did) intersect. Not everyone is invited to the table and wage slavery still exits inside (as well as outside) the American boundaries. What must be done to re-introduce (or introduce for the first time) an actual harmony of interests that involves all members of the American society. And how would such a state contribute to the emergence and maintenance of true freedom?
