freedom for ...
One thing that always stands out to me when reading debates such as the Chomsky - Foucault debate discussed below ... some know what they want freedom for and others do not. It seems to me OK for youth (those under the age of, say, 49?) to desire freedom for freedom's sake, but at some point i would like to think most people figure out what it is they want to do with their lives.
Chomsky certainly has this in spades, social justice. The "for" of freedom is social justice to Chomsky.
Reading Foucault, even at that stage in his life, either he has not found a task in life and therefor wants to keep all options open, or the task is freedom itself. I'm sure his devotees will say it is the latter, and i guess i have no reason to disbelieve in his case. In his case that may well be true, albeit i find the notion very strange.
Why would a human care about freedom itself, not freedom as a tool?
For me it is going to turn back upon the evolutionary stance. Humans have needs and desires and the well-balanced human has a plethora of such entities they wish to fulfill. Not so well formed entities are over delighted by one or a few of the natural desires and seek them at the expense of all others (the Picasso-esque artist i have here in mind). All of these people will yea-say for freedom, the freedom for themselves to do what they need to do and the freedom for others like themselves, and others they can understand, to pursue the same.
All these goals and desires, though, are human and, as all human desires are, also cultural. To deny them is to deny the humanity in oneself.
There is no greater humanity than that which is now, that which is before us, that which i am a part. There is no absolute standard against which we are any better or worse than those before us and those after us ... but it is simply a denial, a saying no to life to not want to partake of this life.
If you cannot describe your goal in the human tongue (of your time and temper), then you do not have a goal ... you are merely a back-worlds-man.
The pursuit of freedom, or any other tools to human needs and desires, is a saying of the same thing. "My goal is something else".
The truth, that can be something else, sure. What is the absolute, "neti neti neti". Fine. But truth is another of the tools, not the ends. Like freedom, it is a noble well yea-sayed tool, but in the end, still a tool.
All that said ... and still ... i do not have a goal, and i do not forsee one rising in my lifetime for me.
Nihilism, at its purest.
"Run, save yourself, i failed Time's happiness quiz in their latest issue!"
... worse, i know why ... and i would rather not fix it.
Chomsky certainly has this in spades, social justice. The "for" of freedom is social justice to Chomsky.
Reading Foucault, even at that stage in his life, either he has not found a task in life and therefor wants to keep all options open, or the task is freedom itself. I'm sure his devotees will say it is the latter, and i guess i have no reason to disbelieve in his case. In his case that may well be true, albeit i find the notion very strange.
Why would a human care about freedom itself, not freedom as a tool?
For me it is going to turn back upon the evolutionary stance. Humans have needs and desires and the well-balanced human has a plethora of such entities they wish to fulfill. Not so well formed entities are over delighted by one or a few of the natural desires and seek them at the expense of all others (the Picasso-esque artist i have here in mind). All of these people will yea-say for freedom, the freedom for themselves to do what they need to do and the freedom for others like themselves, and others they can understand, to pursue the same.
All these goals and desires, though, are human and, as all human desires are, also cultural. To deny them is to deny the humanity in oneself.
There is no greater humanity than that which is now, that which is before us, that which i am a part. There is no absolute standard against which we are any better or worse than those before us and those after us ... but it is simply a denial, a saying no to life to not want to partake of this life.
If you cannot describe your goal in the human tongue (of your time and temper), then you do not have a goal ... you are merely a back-worlds-man.
The pursuit of freedom, or any other tools to human needs and desires, is a saying of the same thing. "My goal is something else".
The truth, that can be something else, sure. What is the absolute, "neti neti neti". Fine. But truth is another of the tools, not the ends. Like freedom, it is a noble well yea-sayed tool, but in the end, still a tool.
All that said ... and still ... i do not have a goal, and i do not forsee one rising in my lifetime for me.
Nihilism, at its purest.
"Run, save yourself, i failed Time's happiness quiz in their latest issue!"
... worse, i know why ... and i would rather not fix it.
posted by Thomas F. Schminke at 4:03 PM
1 Comments:
I agree - I don't have a Big Goal either, and I don't foresee myself getting attached to one in the near future. That used to bother me, before I embraced the nihilism. But a revelation that I had a couple of years ago, while at Tufts, is that you only need to be (only CAN be) a nihilist with respect to the Big Goals, or the Big Questions. The collection of little mundane details, the minor victories and defeats that make up your daily life, that's all that's really important, tractable, or worth worrying about. Most of the bigger picture trends are largely beyond personal control, and many times rational comprehension (at least pre-hoc), so it's not worth to try and wring any deep meaning out of them.
One of my favorite passages in literature expresses this idea if a pretty brutal, oblique way. It's in _Tropic of Cancer_ from about page 97 to 100, and ends with the fantastic line, "If I am a hyena, I am a lean and hungry one; I go forth to fatten myself."
That passage suggests another line of thought, too. The question you raise is about freedom for, as if it we're wondering about what end the freedom is a means to. Maybe a better question to start with would focus on freedom from - what do you want freedom from? An answers are probably telling, in addition to being a good place to start thinking about what you'd do with it if you got it.
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