Morgan la Fay (Druid sorceress of Arthurian legends) 

                           (credit: NeocoreGames, via Wikimedia Commons) 

Chapter 3.                                    (continued) 

How free are we? I’m free to shave my whole body every second day. I’m free to dye it purple if I want to. Under the customs of democracy, I’m free to get my food in any way that does not let me steal it, by force or trickery, from someone else who has rights to it. If he/she got the food from the natural environment by hunting or fishing or gathering, if he/she traded something to other persons who did the gathering or hunting, or if he/she grew the food, then in a democracy, I can’t just take it. But I can have it if the person who has the right to it gives it to me willingly or willingly trades something I offer for it.

This is the view of democracy, the Moral Realist view. It may be intimidating to some, but it isn’t banal. And yes, it could, if pursued by enough enlightened people, transform our species into a rational, responsible one without war.

I’m free to stand on the edge of a cliff and flap my arms and fly away. At least, I’m free to try. If I have comrades near, some of them may try to persuade me not to attempt so foolish a stunt. But they can’t be with me every hour of every day. They have their own lives to live. Their needs and wants likely will take them onto paths that do not coincide with mine. Thus, if I am to continue on in this life – day by day – probably, it will be because I choose to do so. Soon, I may be able to get my brain transplanted into the skull of a genetically modified, giant raven. I have, many times, longed to fly. Why? Why not?  

In some more likely real life scenarios, I’m free to study medieval lore to learn the chants of the witches of Wales and to cast spells on people that I don’t like. The spells may not work, but I’m free to cast them.

I’m free to grow coffee in Greenland if I want to. I probably won’t be successful at growing coffee in Greenland, but I’m free to try.

I’m free to devise a way of generating fields in magnetized gyroscopes so that they suspend gravity. Then, I can build a spacecraft capable of light speed and explore our galaxy as a private citizen, secretly, on my own. If I can build it.

More probably, I’m free to sit and play my guitar every waking hour, in spite of my parents’ hatred of guitar music. They may kick me out of their house. Then, I’m free to wander the streets and play outside of stores for whatever the patrons of these establishments toss my way. I may then use my earnings to pay for a meal at a fast food outlet or a room in a men’s hostel downtown. I don’t have to go to school. I don’t have to stay in my parents’ home. I’m 18. The law in Canada says I am responsible for my own life.

I may choose to go back to university at 48 and become a surgeon. Or to study Philosophy in a city 2,000 miles from my home when I turn 60. Why not?

Under Moral Realism, there aren’t many rules I have to obey in order to fill my role as a good citizen. In a democracy, I get to choose how I live, almost entirely.

I may not be much of a father. The law in a democracy has remedies for men who father children and then skip out on the nurturing responsibilities, but that same law is silent on whether a man or a woman should choose to have children at all. If he/she so chooses, a man or a woman may get surgically sterilized at 18 and never run the risk of creating children. A person may feel that being part of the nurture of children is more work that it is worth. No one in a democracy has a right to tell her/him otherwise.

A girl may choose to go out into the wilderness of British Columbia and build a rustic cabin for herself. She may hunt, fish, and garden for her food, thus supplying all her body’s wants. She may choose a solitary life, free from contact with any other humans. In a democracy, her life is her business. No one has a right to drag her back into civilization as long as she keeps to her life and does no harm to others. By this process of unregulated experiment, every so often, democracy gets a telephone, a movie camera, a phonograph, a symphony, etc.

At this point, it is also worthwhile to say the obvious because it may not be obvious to all: other than the very wide guidelines of courage, wisdom, freedom, love, and balance, for the guiding of human societies, there are no guidelines. No other comprehensive view has science behind it. That is how free we are, and that degree of freedom scares most people.

Most people don’t want to be that free. We have become very smug inside our cultures, each of us assuming that the way of life of his culture is “normal”. Just humans being properly human. Thinking about how free we really are, for many people, threatens their very sanity. But we are that free, nonetheless.

Our balancing force for maintaining sanity in Western cultures is science; it is enough. We humans may soon be dealing with a lot more than Chinese culture expanding into the West. We may soon be dealing with cyborgs of a complexity unimaginable at this time. But if they’re capable of reason, they’ll be deserving of “human” rights. As will genetically modified humans who swim like seals or fly like bats. The future may be awesome.  

I could go on, but the point for those who still feel that Moral Realism as a world view is so vague and lax as to be banal, I reply that they haven’t fully considered the relativist alternatives. Nuclear war. Ecosystem collapse. We must find a way to integrate our cultures. Then, we can tackle our challenges.  

                                     Man on cliff edge (This man is called 'Ab') 
                     (credit: Joe Roberts, iamjoeroberts, via Wikimedia Commons)