Power and Freedom: The Legend of the Dragon and the Void

Power and freedom. Two sides of the same coin. Everyone wants power in order to gain freedom. But what they receive is a golden cage.

Introduction

People think that power is when you give orders and others obey. A mistake. Power is when you are obligated to give orders just to feel alive. And freedom is not "doing what you want." It is "not knowing what to do." And that drives one mad faster than a prison.

Chapter I. Power (The Parasite Crown)

In Evgeny Shvarts's fairy tale, the knight kills the dragon and becomes a dragon himself. This is not a metaphor. This is biology. Power is a symbiotic virus (like Venom). The crown is a helmet that grows into the skull. It gives the wearer superpowers (an army, money, the right to execute), but in return, it devours their personality.

Look at any dictator at the beginning of their journey and at the end. At the beginning: "I want to save the people!" At the end: "The people are expendable material for the preservation of my power." A dictator does not own the country. Fear owns the dictator. He is the most unfree person in the state. He cannot go out for bread. He cannot trust the cook. He sleeps with a pistol. Power is a solitary confinement cell with a golden toilet.

Chapter II. The Genie (Slave of the Lamp)

We envy the Genie. He is omnipotent! He snaps his fingers, and palaces are built. But we forget a detail: the Genie is a slave. He sits in a cramped lamp for thousands of years. He has no will of his own. He can perform miracles only on the command of some idiot (Aladdin).

Any president is a Genie. He can start a nuclear war, but he cannot go on vacation without security. He is a slave to ratings, a slave to elites, a slave to geopolitics. And the more power you have, the less choice you have. A homeless person at a train station is freer than an emperor. The homeless person can go south. The emperor can only go where the protocol demands.

Chapter III. Freedom (The Horror of the Void)

Everyone screams: "Freedom!" Imagine that you received it. Absolute freedom. No boss. No laws. No God. No family. No debts. You are standing in an open field. And there is silence. The first 5 minutes — euphoria. After an hour — panic. "What am I supposed to do?"

Before, the tsar, the boss, or the wife was to blame. But now there is no one to blame. You are one-on-one with your own worthlessness. Freedom is a vacuum. A human does not know how to live in a vacuum. Therefore, having cast off one set of chains, we immediately look for others.

We voluntarily take on a mortgage (financial slavery). We get married (family slavery). We look for a "strong hand" (political slavery). Just so someone would tell us how to live. Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" actually depicts a woman leading people from one prison to another, simply with a new sign out front.

Chapter IV. The Statue of Liberty (The Trojan Horse)

The symbol of America is the Statue of Liberty. But what does she hold in her hands? A torch (to watch you at night) and a tablet (the law, which is to say, the limitation of freedom). And she stands on an island surrounded by water (a prison). True freedom has no statues. True freedom is invisible. It is a state of mind when you don't need to prove anything to anyone. But such people are put in psychiatric wards. Because they are dangerous to the system.

Finale. The Choice

Power is a drug for those who have no soul. Freedom is air for those who have spirit. But most people choose neither power nor freedom. They choose comfort. A warm cage with Wi-Fi and a feeding trough. And this is, perhaps, the most honest choice.