The basic impulse: We require and desire some rules to get along with each other. People seek an equal basis for doing so, recognizing that the whole point is that we will differ with each other. The impulse to homogenize (and, more specifically, to impose a homogenization) is undercut by a basic recognition of our common contingency and imperfection, leading to tolerance for others and a commitment to fair systems of representation.
The basic impulse: We need to be on guard against a system of exploitation — but first we need to define what "exploitation" means. There are two separate reasons for being on guard against it, though: one is resentment at vast inequalities of wealth and power; another is grief at the alienation of humans from each other. These two reasons give rise to distinct traditions.
The basic impulse: Our traditions are corrupted from birth by the exercise of power, but we then forget (or repress, in a psychoanalytic sense) the process of power, retrospectively naming and abstracting our traditions as "knowledge", creating what at a social level we might term (again, in a psychoanalytic sense) the "shadow self".
The basic impulse: Social theory and social action (i.e., theory and praxis) are dialectically related. Neither has priority; both are necessary (as long as we remain finite, mortal beings), and our concrete relations with each other (and, to make this explicit, our social structures) have to reflect that awareness.
[I might also add something about the fable of the genie in the bottle, angry at his rescuer. Harvey Jackins tells us to apologize to our client for not having been there. Any real counseling means being willing to face that anger and accept our own existential culpability.]
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