What do we really want, take 2

Unlike a cat chasing its tail, sometimes it's simply good to get back to where you started. We need to talk, find consensus, listen, discuss, debate. It should be clear that the reciprocity of which I spoke a couple of posts ago when discussing the establishment of moral standards is actually applicable in more realms than just the moral. Personally, I think all decisions are moral decisions, but I understand that some others might want to take a more restricted view. Nevertheless, we can't make any headway at all if we don't recognize certain truths as being self-evident. And, regardless of how self-evident they may be, we should still be clear on what they mean.

To reduce it to simplest terms, as I see it, two conditions must be met in order for a true discussion, for true discourse to take place: the participants must be free, that is, free to express their views, free to think differently, free to think outside or inside the box, free to think in directions that you may have never thought of; and, the participants must be equal, that is, when it comes to discourse, serious discourse, there can be no hierarchy, no better-than, no smarter-than, no tougher-than.

I know, I know ... I can hear some of you squealing already, but sorry, we need to have a common understanding of what the terms "freedom" and "equality" mean, and beyond that, we need to understand what it means to live by those understandings and not just play lip-service to them. For the most part, most of us have given up our equality to the experts (cf. "Roszak and Eliot", "Expert terror"), and most of us have given up our freedom, most often for security (cf. "Fear of freedom", "Free – really?") . But I'm here to tell you: we don't live in a safe world. We never did, and, chances are very good, if we ever do, it will be a long time coming. And moreover, a whole lot of the mess we're in these days is simply because we let the so-called experts have their way.

At the end of the day, then, don't you think it might be about time to finally realize that if we're going to be affected about whatever is decided, maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be a bad idea if we were part of the decision-making process? I do.