We are most free when we are most bound to others

Robert Jensen makes the case:

When bonds are created under conditions of mutual respect and shared power, our freedom is deepened by such interdependence. Our strength is not sapped by these bonds but is enhanced by the emergent properties of collective human action. The individual efforts of numerous people cannot simply be added together and plugged into an equation to predict the outcome, but rather their simple actions come together in a collective result that is novel and irreducible. The most creative force does not come from a power, centralized either in one person or one institution and its bureaucracy, which imposes its will on others and treats people as inputs whose energy can be plugged into a formula for production. The most creative force comes from distributed power that channels the contributions of many into ends that people define collectively.

Via the Omnivore at Bookforum -- the same that I have failed to cite on numerous occasions in the past because of the way I open and close tabs going through the links to those posts. Get yourself on the Omnivore feed!