Ideologi

I threatened to write a post on what makes up my own ideological position a few days back, and I seem to have woken up this morning with the beginnings of that post in my head, so here goes. I've been trying to determine to what degree my beliefs (I suppose ideology really boils down to "belief," though maybe "conviction" is a better term?) overlap with the kulturradikalisme that I wrote about earlier, and what I've discovered is that although I share a number of their social critiques and their struggle for individual emancipation, my philosophical point of departure is quite different.

1. Active atheism
I am incredibly lucky to have been raised without religion. It was there in the background obviously, but everything I read and heard and observed about contemporary Christian or Jewish (the only religions I was exposed to as a kid) practices and beliefs seemed obviously pointless and misguided. As a young adult I ran into the awkward position of being in relationships with men who believed in God. I tried very hard to be open to their beliefs, and even spent a great deal of time in one case exposing myself to the guy's religion as much as possible in order to see if there was hope that our two world views could be reconciled. Believe me, there was a time when I was so infatuated that I desperately wanted to believe, but I simply have never experienced anything that even approaches belief in the supernatural or divine. I think that's partly why I go all the way and define myself as an atheist, even though intellectually (or scientifically) speaking I think the most defensible position is agnosticism (since there is no way to prove either the existence or non-existence of the divine without further evidence). Given that such a thing is currently impossible to prove, I find such questions totally irrelevant. If someone actually presents me with credible evidence I would certainly consider it, but I find the chance that this would happen is so minimal that I don't waste any time worrying about it.

2. The social contract
I'm copping that phrase from Rousseau, but what I really mean is just that I have a pretty rigid ethical code, not because I believe in good and evil, but because I want to live in a safe and nurturing society. I'm a rule follower because I think rules keep us from destroying ourselves and each other. I gladly pay taxes for the greater good. I try to keep to the speed limit. I want people in need to receive assistance not through the psychological drama and narcissism of charity, but through a rational and compassionate centralized government. It drives me crazy when people in the US talk about "big government" because as far as I can tell, the intention of democracy is that the government is really indistinguishable from the people--ideally we are our government. Of course most democracies I've seen don't work that way, and the US has been a democratic train wreck for as long as I can remember, but that doesn't stop me from believing in the principles of democracy.

3. Post-humanism
I don't believe human beings are the center of existence. We're just one species in a huge nexus of interdependent organisms. To be honest, on a macro level I think of the last 200 or so years of human history as a huge, rampant cancerous growth on our planet. I think that cancer is incurable. I don't believe in "God given rights" so I don't see any reason to think that my species has any more inherent value than any other. The fact that we are master manipulators of our environment, and that we are able to exploit so many other species in order to increase our chances of survival is interesting, of course, but it doesn't mean anything. Yes, I suppose this means that I'm an "environmentalist" and if I weren't so lazy and comfort loving, I would be living off grid. KE and I have spent a lot of time figuring out ways we can reduce our carbon footprint, but so far we haven't taken any big steps.

4. Chaos and patterns
I think the universe and everything in it is randomly generated (I leave the question of first causes completely open. On one level it could even be Jehovah for all I care). Humans have an uncanny ability to see patterns in the chaos. In the novel Grendel, John Gardner's monster calls human beings "pattern makers." I think that's beautiful and brilliant. We see patterns and tell stories in order to create meaning for ourselves. But ultimately, there are no absolute truths, only stories. That's why I don't find my job as a literary scholar irrelevant or parasitic. I'm fascinated by how and why we construct narratives, and what they can tell us about the state of being human at a particular time and place. All identity is narrated into being.

Gee, I think that's it, at least for this round.