QotD: Power and Freedom

[. . .] the film explores the main theme of authority & freedom — when the Operative explains to Mal that Mal cannot win against the Alliance, Mal shrugs and says, (paraphrase) "I don't want to win. I just wanna go on my way." In one sentence the classical liberal objections to concentrated power are encapsulated. Mal doesn't care about power politics nor does he want to tell other people how to live their lives. He simply wants to go about his own and freely exchange value for value with others, shaping his own life and destiny as he goes, constrained only by the hard facts of scarcity in the universe and a respect for others' autonomy. Mal rejects the entire worldview of the Alliance, where there is ruler and ruled, and you are one and no other.

Brian W. Doss, "Serenity: Death and Rebirth", Catallarchy, 2005-10-10