# The Power to Label By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-08-10 Among the greatest superpowers is the ability to label things. Who gets to call what is a privilege? If this power is ever in doubt, one should examine the history of asylums. If an unauthorized person starts labeling things differently, that person might find oneself institutionalized. Authorities do not like it when unauthorized people label things. One of the most important labels that get affixed within any society is the label of freedom. Humans have an inherent desire for freedom. But what is “freedom”? At the most basic level, freedom is the ability to do or avoid what one doesn’t want. Very few people are free. Work is filled with the ability to do what one wants and the inability to avoid what one doesn’t. At work, people are seldom free. Libertarians would say that a person has the freedom to work or not. Whereas there is a choice there, it isn’t freedom. The selection is made under duress. If a Libertarian is willing to concede that point, they might say one is free to choose where one works. Again, this isn’t how things work. Anybody who has looked for a job can attest that one cannot select between all the existing companies. They don’t all make offers, and the offers don’t all come at the same time. One can choose the offer at hand or wait for something else. Or one can select the offer, continue searching, and then select the next one. One can’t work wherever one wants or decide not to work. Freedom is beneficially examined in at least three realms: personal, political, and economic. Each category contains a different set of potential freedoms. Personal freedoms consist of how a person lives and loves. If people can live according to their preferences, they have personal freedom. Political freedoms consist of pursuing policies consistent with one’s thinking. Economic freedom consists of being able to afford to do the things one wants, which might be to work less and live more. Despite persistent reference to vague notions of freedom, our society has very little. It is no coincidence that the definition of economic freedom offered by those in power over our society has focused on the freedom to select among consumer goods. Economic freedom in our society is the freedom to purchase the product one wants. During the Cold War, comparisons would be made between our stores and those in the Soviet Union. These comparisons would reveal how many more different varieties of consumer goods are offered under capitalism. The point was that we were free because we could select from various products. We weren’t, and we aren’t. Freedom is more than consumption. If we want productive advancements in personal, political, and economic freedom, we must move from vague generalities to specifics. There is no “freedom,” only freedoms. One has the freedom to do X or the freedom from Y. It is a list of specifics, not an abstract generalization. Those in power wish to convince us that it is the other way around because it allows them to control the demands the majority will make against them. They can label things through the many institutions they control. Only in solidarity can the masses rebel against the labels that constrain them. #### Related Items [[Freedom]] [[Power]] [[Economics]] [[Analytics]] [[Solidarity]] [[Control]] [[Beliefs]]