Brett_McS
2011-11-24 02:30:50
The normal human society is a tribe or a kingdom. In both one knows ones place and any attempt to rise above it results in sanction.
The West brought us the concept of the sovereign individual who could accumulate capital of his own, breaking down restrictions of birth and caste in the process.
This makes people a bit uncomfortable; most people in the world, and many in the west, are more comfortable living in a static hierarchy where they know their place.
This unease with the results of freedom creates the opportunity for power-seekers. To hold onto and extend this power in the west they have to undermine the concept of individual sovereignty, and this they have been doing with gusto for the last hundred years.
