This piece is an excerpt from the book, One Life at a Time, Please, written in 1988 by Edward Abbey, an American author and essayist. In this excerpt, Abbey writes on the various ways in which power corrupts and is exercised in society. Additionally, he illustrates the importance of resisting such forms of power that deviate humans from what he sees as their true state of freedom.

“New dynasties will arise, new tyrants will appear–no doubt. But we must and we can resist such recurrent aberrations by keeping true to the earth and remaining loyal to our basic animal nature. Humans were free before the word freedom became necessary. Slavery is a cultural invention. Liberty is life: eros plus anarchos equals bios.”