Philosophical Dialogues, Are we Free to be free?, Hunter and Bain, Jake Jackson, Freedom?

Dialogues | Are We Free to be Free?

Hunter and Bain are back on the Earth for the first time in many journeys. They sit in quaint, straight, basket-weave chairs, their attempt at silence and recovery threatened by the squalls of noise from children and exasperated carers scattered around the cafe. Hunter glowers at his coffee, while Bain sighs in gusts of exhaustion.

The time does not matter, nor the year.

Bain: Will they stop?

Hunter: Seems unlikely.

Bain: Can’t we stop them?

Hunter:  I think we’d be ejected.

Bain: Well, why can’t the parents stop the noise?

Hunter: In this place, they’re free to exercise their particular form of freedom.

Bain: You mean freedom to inflict pain on others.

Hunter: That’s our perspective, not theirs. Freedom is subjective.

Bain: You mean it only depends on how free we feel, not some sort of unadulterated ideal?

Hunter: For humans anyway. That attitude infects your attitudes to government. Humans allow examples from a powerful micro-group to become the policy of the macro-society.

Bain: You’ve lost me already.

Hunter: It’s simple, you humans don’t like absolute truths because your systems of government are either elected democracies dependent on short terms of power and appeals to an electorate, or totalitarian rulers who impose their impulses on their subjects.

Bain: That’s pretty bleak.

Hunter: Tell me it isn’t so.

Bain: Well, I’ve not thought about it so much.

Hunter: That’s the problem isn’t it? You humans value something such as freedom so much, you don’t think about its consequences, until it’s too late to do anything about it.

Bain: That’s a bit of a leap.

Hunter: Not really. Anything that’s admirable or difficult is not going to look after itself. Unless you think about your actions, your freedoms, what’s important to you, then others who care more about what’s important to them will steal in and make their own views the most dominant.

Bain: I’d not thought of it like that. When I was young I had friends who always talked about freedom being worth fighting for, but that didn’t make sense to me then.

Hunter: Well, freedom is a slippery concept – it defies definition except at a local level. Everyone views freedom in their own terms, especially in an apparent democracy like the one that surrounds us now.

Bain: You seem to know more about my home planet than I do.

Hunter: It’s my job to. My curse actually. And that’s a denial of freedom too. I’d rather not know about your planet and it’s problems with its various forms of democracy, the lack of motivation of those affected by the governments they choose not to vote for. I can’t exercise my freedom to ignore this, I have to know it, in order to act, to be effective.

Bain: You’ll admit that you don’t care for freedom or democracy.

Hunter: I will, not because I’m totalitarian by instinct…

Bain shifted from an awkward twinge in his legs.

Hunter: …but I don’t see it as relevant to my task.

Bain: That’s always your let-out. Your task is so important, that nothing else matters.

Hunter: Of course, but don’t you think that’s true of everyone here? These children running wild, in our opinion, are allowed to let off steam by parents too weary to stop fighting every battle.

Bain: Or their carers don’t care what anyone else thinks – perhaps they’re androids? Anyway, their freedom still intrudes on ours.

Hunter: Yes, but freedom is a sophisticated ball of self-interest and altruism. There’s an element of both in every sense of freedom. For those suffering under some tyrant or despot, whether in a family, or local town, freedom to do anything at all is a small victory in a personal sense, but it can inspire others to feel the same, and ultimately, to act.

Bain winced: I suppose so. Or they take the tiny personal rebellions as a secret signal of freedom, enough to feed the human spirit, to survive. The idea of freedom seems like a luxury. We’ve been on many places where the repression of freedoms is so severe whole communities are destroyed. If freedom was such a pure and unattainable ideal it would have no value to everyday lives.

Hunter: In the short term perhaps, but the victories on your planet, for freedom of expression, for recognition of racial difference, gender difference are hard won over decades, centuries even.

Bain: I suppose so. As conditions improved so attention turned elsewhere to decency and tolerance. But the battles still persist. Perhaps there’s a reactionary impulse within all sentient beings, especially when natural disasters overwhelm, and we sink back to an instinctive state of brutal choices.

Hunter: So freedom is under constant evaluation, it’s always relative to circumstance, always under threat because it’s not essential to the survival of the species.

Bain: And if that’s all that matters, then freedom can seem like a luxury, delightful but disposable.

Hunter: So even if you feel free you’re not. Even so, for some, just the feeling helps them survive.

Bain lapses into silence, and watches the children running around, one of them veering close to the table that Hunter lounges behind. A small knock against the edge and Hunter’s half-empty mug is sent leaping into the air. For a moment Bain considers the arc of coffee, wondering if he should take action and be drenched by the hot coffee, or leave the mug to smash against the floor. Just as he acknowledges the freedom to choose his instincts force him to lunge forward and rescue the mug, which he does expertly with a swift flick of his outstretched metal arm. From the corner of his eye he catches Hunter’s ironic smile and lands shoulder first on the floor, as the children continue to scatter across the cafe, like atoms tossed in waves, oblivious and disinterested.

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