Sovereign Self
I, being of sound mind and body, do declare sovereignty over myself. I alone have the right to decide what I put into my mind and what I put into my body. I alone have the right to decide what I expose my mind and body to.
Wearing a seatbelt in a car is a good safety measure and wearing a helmet on a motorcycle is a life saving measure, but I should not be told that I have to do it. If I don't use seatbelts or helmets, than it will be my cold, dead body lying on the ground, not yours. It will be my life that I have wasted, not yours. So do not take something that is a good idea and make it law.
Smoking pot or smoking opium may not be things that you want to do, but that doesn't mean you should make them things that others don't want to do. If somebody wants to shoot, sniff, snort, swallow or otherwise ingest something into their body, it is none of my business. So long as they don't come to work that way or drive that way (just as they wouldn't be able to come to work drunk on alcohol) and they don't do it at their desk or on the job (just as they wouldn't be able to sit and smoke cigarettes at work all day), then I have nothing to say about what they do in their off time. Just because I don't do drugs doesn't mean I have the right to legislate whether or not other people do drugs.
No matter what anyone is doing in their bedroom on a cold and dark night, it does not affect anyone else who is not in the room with them. I could be reading a book or watching television, and moralist types would think that was okay. Or, I could be in bed with my husband, having unprotected sex for procreation, and those people would think that was okay. But if I am alone and I am masturbating, that's gross? If I'm masturbating to porn, that's even more disgusting? What about if I just so happen to be in bed with my girlfriend? Well, that is an abomination. And, if I am in bed with my client, because I am a prostitute, then that is illegal. Buy why!?! Whatever I am doing in my bedroom, it does not affect anyone else, regardless of how badly they want to think that it does.
I suppose I could go on about a few more things that are really pissing me off about this nanny state that seems to be imposed more and more frequently - but suffice it to say that people really need to start minding their own affairs and letting others do the same.
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Comment by Kirk Holden on November 5, 2010 at 11:43am -
According to materialist philosophy I have the illusion of a permanent self or free will. My [sic] motivation [sic] propels me ballisticly into collisions with the material world. As autobiographies go, you could do worse than attributing seat belt fastening to preservation of a phenotype. But by heterophenomenological consciousness theories there is not a self to decide to write blog posts. So there is that. I rock on. My rocking is a fanciful illusion.
Note that the illusion of "purpose" or pure trajectories immune to contingencies or random redirections of 'will to power' sears the synapses of blind faith - which in itself is a narrative driven by habitual reactions to brain states. I am no different than a faithful person except in my reports from my subjective experience. A heavy drinker can be faithful or heretical - alcohol still binds to the same GABA receptors. Narratives are just sound waves in the atmosphere. Nothing to see here.
But I tend to agree with your sentiment even though I consider it an illusion.
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Comment by Taylor on November 5, 2010 at 6:18pm -
You make a really good point in your last paragraph(and well the whole thing). I'v always said that, how does two men or two women getting married change my life for the worse? It doesn't! So, why doesn't the government just make gay-marriage legal. I'm guessing it's because of religion. And i think the reason for wearing seat belts is that maybe the government does care about well being, or maybe it's for rep? Look at it this way, If almost every car crash in the world results in at least one death, who the hell would want to drive a car?
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