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JonathanBoyerFirstPaper 5 - 27 Apr 2010 - Main.JonathanBoyer
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*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* | | | After all, it's just a ride, it's just a ride -- no need to run, no need to hide. Sooner or later, it all comes crashing down, and when you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to loose -- you're invisible now; you got no secrets to conceal. And when I'm at the pearly gates, this'll be on my videotape. It all might seem dumb . . . or maybe just happy -- I think I'm just happy.
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< | Should this Nirvana-esque retreat to an inner citadel remain free of impediments as a kind of negative liberty, or must one be protected against any tendency to "go too far, contract [one]self into too small a space, [where one] shall suffocate and die"? Such a conflict of interests between Nirvana seekers and appointed protectors necessarily extends the call for negative liberty into a debate about the positive, as these two concepts of liberty are often in conflict themselves. On the one hand, those concerned about privacy reform in the digital age might argue that positive liberty in this context necessarily requires the knowledge and will to protect against threats to one's privacy. Nirvana seekers, on the other hand, might argue that, in its essence, positive liberty entitles individuals to be sufficiently equipped to reach the potential of their own self-directed pursuits. But regardless of the side chosen in this debate, and withstanding the Kantian axiom that paternalism is the greatest despotism imaginable, it is an inescapable reality that compulsive education is a societal imperative -- to a debatable extent of course. | >
> | In a free society, should this Nirvana-esque retreat to an inner citadel remain free of paternalistic impediments, as a kind of negative liberty, or must one be protected against any tendency to "go too far, contract [one]self into too small a space, [where one] shall suffocate and die"? Moreover, such a conflict of interests between Nirvana seekers and appointed protectors necessarily extends any disputed call for negative liberty into a debate about the positive, as these two concepts of liberty essentially funnel into each other, often with opposing currents. On the one hand, those concerned about privacy reform in the digital age might argue that positive liberty in this context necessarily requires the knowledge and will to protect against threats to one's privacy, which in turn necessitates active combating of contrarian apathy. Nirvana seekers, on the other hand, might argue that, in its essence, positive liberty entitles individuals to be sufficiently equipped to reach the potential of their own self-directed pursuits. But regardless of the side chosen in this debate, and withstanding the Kantian axiom that paternalism is the greatest despotism imaginable, it is an inescapable reality that compulsive education is a societal imperative -- to a debatable extent of course. | | | "Children cannot be expected to understand why they are compelled to go to school, nor the ignorant [or dumb] - that is, for the moment, the majority of mankind - why they are made to obey the laws that will presently make them rational. 'Compulsion is also a kind of education." . . . You want to be a human being. It is the aim of the state to satisfy your wish. 'Compulsion is justified by education for future insight.'" | |
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> | Given some necessary degree of educational compulsion, ultimately these disputes over rationality, dumbness, and apathetic Nirvana boil down to a divergence in basic assumptions about concepts of liberty and despotism. Do humans have "one true purpose"? Is that singular purpose underpinned by "rational self-direction" such that "all rational beings must of necessity fit into a single universal, harmonious pattern"? | | | **Note: All unlinked quotations were taken from Berlin's "Two Concepts of Liberty"
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