Today, along with a couple fellow football players, our wonderful classmate Patrick Flanagan and I got extremely philosophical. We pondered what life after death would be like as well as what "nothingness" would be like. Eventually we landed on the topic of aliens after having a laugh about the absurd show, "Ancient Aliens." Obviously I believe that aliens and other life-forms exist, but the question is how do they live? Do they mutually recognize each other as Jessica Benjamin would hope? Or do they life in a world of submission and dominance?
Somewhat along the lines of nothingness, I believe that it is impossible to fathom a utopia where there is 100% mutual recognition. Since we live in a world where binaries define how we live it is almost impossible to imagine how the dynamics of society would flow with 100% mutual recognition. A government would nearly be impossible to form if no one could dominate another person. Maybe one day we will discover a planet where the natives live under mutual recognition but for now we are stuck wondering.
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ReplyDeleteDeep stuff Jack! You capture the essence of Benjamin's paradox: although we must strive for mutual recognition, we realize it's an ethereal concept.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably why most of the greatest utopian stories turn to dystopias by the end. Perfect mutual recognition on a greater scale would imply all are equal and a government shouldn't be justified or required, maybe even that laws and codes of conduct should not be written, as everyone should respect one another and treat them as such anyway. It's an impossible reality for our extremely fallible human race, and it's hard to imagine any other intelligent life forms, should they exist, having any more success with it. Like Riley said, it's a pretty much unattainable ideal.
ReplyDeleteI think that in a perfect society where everyone mutually recognizes each other it would still be possible to have a government, even if it were just for organizational purposes. It would just so happen that the government isn't corrupt, and everyone has calm, productive arguments. Even if everyone treated each other completely equally, there still needs to be some committee of overseers who deal with issues that affect society as a whole. But the role of the government would be a lot smaller for sure.
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