UR Part of It

The experience of freedom is generated through our expanding scope of consciousness, because the individual becomes aware of a wider range of alternative possibilities. Freedom of imagination is not limited. The primary constraint on human freedom is that the separate aspect of the individual can not actually become free from the non-separate aspect of the individual.

The experience of power comes from being able to choose between alternative possibilities revealed through the expansion of consciousness. Expansion of freedom and power have lead to increased human forcefulness that now dramatically exceed the natural forcefulness our species can generate through physical capabilities alone.

Expanding the range of choice alternatives through increasing the scope of consciousness does not mean the separate individual decision maker is able to become free relative to their non-separate self. Freedom from non-separation is not possible. It is possible to presume that human beings are free, or becoming free of their environment, or non-separate self, and to act as if this is true. However it is not possible to actually become free from the non-separate aspect of who we are. We are an ongoing product of everything, constantly related to everything, constantly effecting and being effected by everything, because we are not separate from anything.

This imaginary freedom of the individual nerve cell from the greater body of life can be imagined as if it were true, and action based on that imaginary situation can be taken, but it does not change the fundamental fact that the distinct individual always lives in non-separate unity with all else that exists.

Power is the result of combining possibilities with conscious choice. Where there are no conscious possibilities choice is not possible. In circumstances where there is only awareness of possibility and no opportunity to take action based on those possibilities, there is no conscious experience of power. When both possibilities and the ability to act on them exist consciously, then power is experienced. In the realm of conscious choice of action the individual is confronted with the existence of other individuals. The choice of action taken by an individual can enhance the freedom and power of another individual, be neutral relative to effecting the freedom and power of another individual, or reduce the freedom and power of another individual.

Creating a political and economic system that supports the expansion of power for the population that is creating and functioning within the parameters of that system is more difficult than creating a system that only supports the expansion of freedom. A system that would increase the collective power of a population necessarily involves limiting the power of individuals to take action that reduces the power of other individuals without their consent.

The legal prohibition against one individual killing another, outside of the parameters of the motive of self-defense, is an obvious example of this type of constraint. In systems where individuals have the right to acquire private property, the legal prohibition against theft as a means of acquiring private property is another example of a constructive constraint on individual power. Both constraints increase the power of all individuals collectively by constraining individual freedom of action that non-consensually damages the power of others affected by the action.

The general nature of individual action that should be constrained through the action of collective political and economic systems is action that non-consensually damages or harmfully invades the boundary of another individual.