Hi, Jacuzzi! Very thoughtful post, and I see where you are coming from. Let me start off by saying it's my opinion that humans are designed to be "self-governing" but getting to that state is an evolutionary process, and we haven't reached that level of evolution yet. I'll explain by responding to a few of your points directly.
We’d live in a place where no one’s life is of value unless they have power.
To overcome this we need to mature as a species to acknowledge, value and respect the rights of all other humans as much as our own. I believe maybe about 1/2 the human population already do - maybe even more - but that the remainder either don't respect the rights of others or just don't give it any thought when directing their own actions.
In order for there to be true freedom, there needs to be some boundaries.
By natural law, there is a boundary. It's the rights of others. The instant a person's actions violate the rights of another person, they have crossed that boundary and broken that law.
What if that one person would climb up the tree and some branches then broke, and then he fell out and got hurt? I imagine he would then feel that he wasn't really free.
By this it sounds as if your idea of "True Freedom" includes freedom from accountability or negative consequences from taking risks. No society can function under that condition. Not even a family can function that way.
With great power comes great responsibility." And what is more powerful than true freedom? Therefore, with true freedom comes great responsibility. That responsibility is to be always aware of the effect of our actions on others, conduct our behavior such that it respects and protects the rights of others and accepts responsibility for the consequences of our actions. We'll never be perfect at this and there will occasionally be unavoidable accidents and actions that unintentionally negatively impact others. In such instances it is imperative that the "violator" acknowledge and accept accountability.
I agree with you that we aren't there yet and that in the meantime we do need some institutionalized laws to protect everyone's rights. But I believe that it is our raison d'etre to grow and evolve beyond this limitation and in time achieve a state where we can be self-governing and truly free.
That is a really fascinating idea, that the minority could promote change if they come together in unity.
One concrete action "the minority" could take in this case would be to promote the mandatory teaching of ethics in schools with emphasis on Emmanuel Kant and the impact his ideas would have on society. About 250 years ago philosophy and ethics were a mandatory part of education. We need to bring that back.
Great post, and I hope others jump in with their thoughts.