SDCT0014: This episode continues the theme of synecdoche, which is a cognitive tendency to substitute parts for the whole or whole for the parts.
A nation, as a whole, is greater than the sum of its parts, which are the individual citizens. The freedom of the whole is different from the freedom of the parts; the freedom of the public and the freedom of individual citizens are symmetrical opposites.
If the public has all of the freedom, citizens will have no freedom and will be tyrannized, and if individual citizens have all the freedom, the public will have no freedom and will be tyrannized. It is therefore the duty of the public to support the freedom of citizens, and it is the duty of citizens to support the freedom of the public.
The Golden Mean — a state of perfect balance between the freedom of the whole (the public, the big circle) on the left, and the freedom of the parts (individual citizens, the small circles) on the right — is where there is no tyranny against either the citizens or the public. The goal of good government is always to maintain this balance between opposites.
It is a malpractice of government to give all the freedom to either the public or to individual citizens. In the United States, this balance has been disrupted, such that too much of the freedom has been given to powerful selfish individuals, and the American public has virtually no collective freedom to control its own government. (Google the phrase, “Study: US Congress Literally Doesn’t Care What You Think.”)
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