- I am old enough to vote, but I'm afraid it's just more complicated than that
- I don't have a duty to do anything except look after myself and anyone else I wish to
this ties in nicely with the main topic though. it all has to do with whether you feel a sense of duty, how strong is that sense of duty, what is that sense of duty directed towards and would you ever value a cause more than your own life?
I've been reading about this in relation to Socrates, and also some Stoics, they sort of astound me, just how I feel presently, by how little terror death had for them, it is unavoidable and awaits us all (Fromm stated that he thought human beings were the only animal whose existence was a problem for it and if I'm not wrong Tillich wrote a book about having the courage to be) but it can still be terrifying and something you would wish to postpone indefinitely if possible.
Although I found out today that some versions of events suggest Socrates was in his mid or late forties, so about ten or more years older than me, which would perhaps have been old age in his day, it still seems courageous what he did, I confess I would have tried to escape my fate if I were him.
The accounts of Stoics suggesting as they were marched off to execution or to await execution that they got the last word contra whatever tyrant was arguing with them or told their fellows not to fear for them because they planned to discover whether or not there was an afterlife are incredible to me, perhaps they happened, perhaps it was naivety as much as courage.
The fact of death perhaps makes for thinking about what sort of death, the idea of a good death contra a terrible or bad one, however I do think that in contrast no one should pursue martyrdom, it is better to live as an example or in hope in an imperfect, and necessarily so, reality than sacrifice yourself, possible others in the process, to the perfect vision or cause. To me that is some how idolatrous. I am a theist and believe that if God can tolerate imperfection then so should we but there are secular versions of this, steering a course between idealpolitik and realpolitik for instance.