No Exit

I have been thinking a lot about authority and autonomy lately. I know I would like some standard–or algorithm, in today’s language–as to when to follow authority and when to follow our own judgment. The truth, though, is that it always comes down to the latter. Even if we defer to some authority, we have made the choice of which authority to follow–a choice already influenced by our own upbringing, values, experiences, etc. I guess there is comfort in projecting those values on an Authority “out there,” but that “plausible deniability” is really illusory.

In that context, we may need to reconsider some of some of our mythic heroes and the decisions that they made. Maybe the Biblical Abraham was wrong in offering to sacrifice his son, Isaac, at God’s command. Maybe Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita was wrong in suppressing his compassion for his kin because of Krishna’s demand that he fulfill his duty as a warrior. Or, put another way, maybe Jean Paul Sartre was right when he said that humanity is blessed…and cursed….with radical freedom, from which there is “No Exit.” It is interesting to note that Nietzsche said pretty much the same thing half a century before–and went insane, maybe as a result. (There is a comparable Talmudic tale where four illustrious rabbis entered “Pardes”–“Paradise,” a euphemism for the mysteries of mystical experience. One died. Another became an apostate. A third went crazy. Only the great Rabbi Akiba was able to reemerge with his psyche intact.) We may squirm at the thought of it, but we all really are responsible–“able to respond”–for all our choices.