Jul 21 2008
Choices
One of my favourite philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard, wrote about choice. He said that most people live their lives like drunken peasants on a cart, letting the horse wander where it will. They make no real choices in their lives. For Kierkegaard, the process of becoming a realised, authentic self is the act of choosing to base one’s life on one principle, and then letting other choices follow on from that. He wrote about “stages on life’s way”, and gave different examples of what one could base one’s life on.
Why should we still care about ethics?
In the modern world it can seem very old-fashioned to care about ethics or to hold ones self to a rigid set of values. Mainstream culture is about being an independent individual, being able to choose anything you want as long as you don’t break the rules or directly hurt anyone. In intellectual circles post-modernism has done away with old boundaries and teaches us that anything can be true. And modern spirituality is radically individualist. It is about seeking something for yourself, and then not bothering anyone else. We are told, quite reasonably, that we cannot impress our spiritual beliefs on others, so the easy conclusion is to find our own peace and then use it to console us as the rest of the world seems to rage against us.
But let me remind you: we are a culture that is at war with the natural world. Quite literally. We, you, are contributing actively to death and the destruction and degradation of life. We live in toxic environments, assailed by chemical toxins; kept emotionally stunted and confined; and we simply don’t understand how to listen to our bodies. So the answers that are around at the moment: consumerism, new-age spirituality, democracy, monotheism, domestication, have failed us. They were one or more generation’s attempts to deal with the world, and for a time they looked promising. The pioneers of these ways meant the best: they meant to find a new way to give people power, freedom and happiness. But sometimes new is not good. Sometimes things that worked for millions of years worked for a reason.
Some things do not change.
Common amongst indigenous cultures is the idea of preserving the land for the next generations. In Native American culture there are a lot of reference to the next seven generations. What decisions are we making now, and how will our successors benefit from them?
The modern (and by modern I mean the last one or two thousand years, if not right back to the beginning of domestication) approaches to choice, from religious dogma to extreme liberalism, have failed. We still need to consider ethics, and we badly need to remember how to do this authentically and with responsibility and respect.
Where do we begin?
To turn to ethics in philosophy, we find thousands of years of recorded debate. But every choice begins with values. What do you value, and why? If I go to a shop and I have to choose between two kinds of bread, how do I make my choice? If I just randomly pick one, or I don’t know what I’m looking for, I’m not making a choice. But if I know what I want, and what is good, then I will actively choose the loaf that meets my needs.
When I buy bread I know that I want rich flavour, freshness, and a lack of artificial ingredients. I have my bread-choosing values worked out.
What are your core values? What lies behind your choices (your active, lifestyle defining ones)? 99 people out of 100 will not be able to answer this question. It is hard to find these answers. Really, really hard. It took me years, and I had a lot of advantages. I will write more about finding your values another time.
Finding, questions, justifying, and possibly altering your core values is the start of living a good life. No matter how much balance you find otherwise, no matter how developed your body, your mind and your spirit become, you will be as a house built of shifting sand. Finding your core values, those things that lie beneath everything else, is the beginning.
What next?
Kierkegaard wrote about three possible things to which you could dedicate your life. The categories are pretty broad, so while he wrote about specific examples withing these stages, the three of them do seem to encompass all possible choices. The stages don’t form a progression. Although Kierkegaard is clear on which he sees as the best, there is no suggestions that one person will pass through them in any particular order.
- The “aesthetic”. Here, a person has made an active, fully authentic and realised choice to live for themselves. This is not the same as being recklessly selfish. The person in this stage has chosen what is good for them, and shrewdly and actively plans every aspect of their life to further their own goals. They may enjoy entertainment, intellectual pleasures, sex, fine cuisine, owing certain things, being spiritual, being seen as a good person… The constant factor is a dedication of the will to one goal: their own.
- The “ethical”. In this stage a person dedicates themselves wholly to the people around them. They actively structure their lives to do whatever they can for other people. Clearly these people must have an idea of what is good for others, so Kierkegaard gives us the example of the Judge as someone in an ethical stage.
- The “religious”. Here, one dedicates onesself fully to the eternal. Kierkegaard couches everything in Christian terms, but a particular religion is not necessary. One is living, with total dedication, for the divine, whatever one’s experience of that is. He seeks to understand it, to know it’s ways, and to devote himself to fulfilling his part in it. It is a life of going beyond one’s own will, of leaving behind the ethics of one’s culture.
So, what do you values tell you is important? Do the rules of society really matter? What really matters to you? Do you feel the presence of a divine being or source that can inform what you do? Do you want to devote yourself solely to your own ends?
The Warrior
Many, many cultures make reference to the idea of the warrior. In most, at least where this idea has been explored over many generations, it goes far beyond the idea of a fighter. Martial prowess becomes a way to maintain physical health, to defend ones self and the things one loves, and it becomes highly ritualised and symbolic.
The fight of the true warrior is not often found on the battlefield or in the dojo. The fight of the warrior is to keep his footing on his path, to take each step no matter what it costs him and no matter what forces try to push him off the mountain. I say “he” figuratively: every woman is a born warrior as is every man.
The second one makes a choice, one is open to self-doubt and to attack. That is, in truth, why choice is so widely avoided. The more profound the choice, the more likely one is to meet conflict and adversity. Thus is the warrior tested and tempered. He or she can stop at any moment, can sit upon the earth and go back to a life of following and despairing.
So this is the final, necessary step. One finds what one values, possibly being surprised, revolted, or intrigued by what one finds, and one learns enough and reflects enough to settle one’s values in place, creating a firm foundation. Next, one follows this through and up, into the mirky world of the practical, and one makes ones choices and creates one’s ethics. And then, knowing that the foundations and the house are strong and reasonable and sensible, and the best that one can find, one commits to the path that one has found and made, and dares the wind to blow and the earth to shake.
True choice, that leads to an authentic life, must consist of these steps.
