Freedom – Tyranny

[Martin Hash]

I’ve been investigating philosophy & political theory for decades. During that time, I’ve filled out perhaps a dozen questionnaires that purport to indicate just what it is I am, but was never completely satisfied. I could discern a pattern just under the surface of my comprehension, something to do with liberty, defined as making decisions for yourself and reaping the rewards or suffering the consequences of your own actions, but knowing just exactly what that relationship was to other philosophical theories eluded me… Until now; I finally hit on the simple chart of how other people’s political thoughts related to my own!

It’s not surprising that it has the same basic structure of two axis like most of the other philosophic explanations. I might have been close a couple of times in grasping the concept perhaps even heard it before but it didn’t sink in at the time. I hope my description here is a simple as it seems to me. First off, the chart is in the form of a circle: the left and right sides being the familiar political Left and Right. The top and bottom of the circle are freedom and tyranny, also with the definitions most people know. The insight I made was how the circle is labeled around the circumference; for example, the top of the circle, “freedom,” has anarchy to either side, ultimate freedom that only lasts until the first stone is thrown. The next notch down on both sides is libertarianism, with still too much freedom to actually succeed. Liberals, modern and classical, are to hardest to explain because the word “liberal” has be totally compromised, more clearly recognized as Progressives vs. Conservatives. As the circle again begins to merge, it becomes more and more authoritarian, fascism ending in a dictatorship, whether it be Communism, Theocracy or a monarchy. Interestingly, democracy, tyranny by mob rule, works for both sides. The thing to note, what explained it all to me, is that the political philosophies match horizontally, only differentiated by whether individuals or groups should be given preference.

Freedom - Tyranny.png

p.s. I’m an old JFK-Democrat, just like most of the leaders in the MAGA movement, including Trump.