Up-In-The-Air Middle Ground
Morning Thoughts #165
Having a number of choices is clearly better than having none but a bad one imposed upon you. But having no choice but a good one (so really no choice) is best of all. Having both good and bad options to choose from is a kind of middle ground; danger and opportunity lurk side by side.
Similarly, if we take only the present tense into account, I would rather live in a country ruled by a good, absolute monarch that I had no say in choosing than in one ruled by a bad president, prime minister, etc., that I did. Why let my ego get in the way of general prosperity and order? (Is it really so important that I feel included in the electoral process?)
Of course, an evil king with a lifetime reign is obviously worse than an inept president who comes off the books in four years. So once again, we can see that choice presents a kind of up-in-the-air middle ground between heaven and dystopia.
Worth pondering, but it usually isn’t anymore. Why? Because we live in an age that exalts the means above all else. Few things are more valuable than finding and establishing a good means to reliably achieve a desired end goal, especially one you wish to be repeatable on a societal or individual level. Done organically and over time, this is how the best traditions develop. Still, as is well-documented, even the best traditional practices have a tendency to overstay their welcome in a society once the original intent of the practice (which is to say the intended result of the practice) is replaced with fanatic devotion to the practice itself.
No longer pining for an afterworldly heaven, we are left to worship the processes that once got us there. Every option has been put back on the table except for one thing: the choice between choice and no choice. This one is now in bad standing. When people speak against tradition, and to some extent all hierarchical understandings of the world, it’s a matter of rejecting no choice as a viable choice at all.
Modernity, though, in this late state, presents something radically unique to those of us who’ve grown sick of it through excessive exposure. There’s no heavy hand anymore, and if it’s grounded stability we want, we are forced to provide our own weight. Because the idea of the freedom to choose has enveloped us all, if we wish to rediscover long-traced but forgotten wisdom, ironically, we must actively choose to give up choice. And if we don’t, we ride out the status quo with indecision, drowning in options unless we train ourselves to become practiced choice swimmers. And lest you think I include myself in this category, I present to you my endless nostalgia for days gone by, when our choices were fewer!
Which isn’t a value judgment against choice; in fact, I think having choices is a good thing. But, also, I think swimming amongst their rushing number is one of the hardest skills to learn!
What has modernity been but a flood of choices crashing upon simple mankind! Mankind that has so long been unaccustomed to it!