FREEDOM & EGALITARIANISM
[Also read Egalitarianism and Private Property]
[Also read "Freedom...But to Do What?"]
Freedom and genuine democracy are what egalitarianism is all about! Class inequality--which egalitarianism abolishes--requires the denial of freedom and the denial of genuine democracy.
Class inequality goes by different names and comes in different flavors: Communism, American-style "democracy"/free enterprise, socialism, libertarianism, Social Democracy, welfare capitalism, and so forth. They are all thoroughly anti-democratic and hostile to freedom for ordinary people.
Egalitarianism, being a society without class inequality, is one in which people are free to do whatever they want so long as it doesn't mean oppressing other people or hogging wealth unfairly. And yes, people still own private property.
Only in an egalitarian society are people free to enjoy the benefits of living in a society where people trust and help each other in a way that is simply impossible when there is class inequality and the upper class needs to pit people against each other to control them to make them accept their position at the bottom of an unequal society.
Only in an egalitarian society are people free to propose a new idea for an economic enterprise and have it actually happen merely because it seems like a good idea to one's fellow citizens.
Only in an egalitarian society can people have and truly enjoy a Bill of Rights like this.
Only in an egalitarian society are people free to earn a living as they wish. They are free to do this independently of everybody else. They are also free to do this in mutual agreements with whomever they wish on the basis of "From each according to reasonable ability, to each according to need or reasonable desire with scarce things equitably rationed according to need" and thereby enjoy as much economic security as people with equal status are capable of providing each other (which is a lot!)
Only in an egalitarian society are people who support equality and mutual aid free to live under no laws or policies other than ones they, as equals with all others like them in their community, are able to partake in writing themselves. Only in an egalitarian society are people thus free from the dictatorship of so-called "representatives." At the same time, people are free to cooperate with each other on the basis of mutual agreements, on a scale ranging from just a few people, to a local community, a large region or even the entire planet.
Only in an egalitarian society are people free not to be treated like dirt.
Only in an egalitarian society are people free to act individually and together with others to make the world as enjoyable and delightful and wonderful as human imagination, ingenuity, and the laws of nature combined with fairness and concern for one another could ever make possible.
Of course there will be a small number of people who will oppose egalitarianism on the grounds that it makes people less free. These are the kinds of people who say that the abolition of slavery made people less free because it denied them the freedom to own slaves. Such people use the word "freedom" in a way designed to pull the wool over our eyes, as is discussed in this article (click here.)