I should use my power to empower others. That's the Christian way. But you're right, ultimately it's an individual journey.

The real issue is that people are not all individual, rational actors. People mimic the behavior of others and love to follow cultural trends and do what their peers are doing.

If you have a culture which allows and promotes self-destructive behavior, you'll get a lot of self-destructive people. That doesn't have anything to do with 'freedom'. It's a different form of mental slavery.