What I might discuss is "subservient", as in "and tend to believe in the individual as subservient to society."

That each individual is "subverient to society" is beyond debate. For instance, in my day there was something called "The Draft", SSS. Could snatch you for 2 years, and plunk you down in the middle to some hellhole with instructions to be ever more subservient. Even stressed HOW to be subservient. And they didn't care if you were libertarian or not.

Now, the right-wing would say, "Tough - that's the price of freedom". True. Now, what the conservatives are saying is in that case subservience is the price of freedom. (Easier to say if you aren't paying that price, if someone is paying it for you, though.)

So is "subservience" antithetical to "freedom", or is "freedom" dependent upon "subservience"?

We pay taxes and have to live in houses which meet zoning codes. And that is probably necessary to get along peacefully. I would just as soon not have you demonstrate your particular brand of "freedom" by not being connected to a sewer or having a septic system. We will both have to be subservient to a higher authority in order for each of us to be able to express our freedom in a manner which doesn't adversely impact someone elses legitimate expression of freedom.

The connotations of "subservient" sound grim, though. So,in order to sound good, the right-wing conservative/libertarian says that liberals believe in subservience and conservatives believe in freedom. That is neither honest, nor accurate, but does sound good.

And, it's obviously a crock. Doesn't pass the smell test after the, say, 6th grade.

Otherwise a good explanation.

One more observation: The only freedom which can't be taken away is the ability of the individual to choose his/her own attitude in any given situation. I used to think they could kill you, but they couldn't eat you. Was somehow comforting. Then I realized they coud eat you. What they couldn't do is change my attitude. Period. That takes a lot, a very lot, of work sometimes, but what the hell. If that's the ultimate freedom, then exercise it in a meaningful way.

Arf