September 7, 2024
Principle 9. Liberty. Week 2
When you harm others, you remain enchained, but if you do not harm anyone, you may freely do whatever you want.
Last time: A Radical Proposal
This time: Do No Harm!
This Week:
Last week we looked at the principle trying to understand its general structure and scope. This week we’ll look at how we applied, or could have applied, this principle in the past.
Can I recall a time when I harmed someone? Did it leave me enchained? In what way? What was that like? Can I recall a situation where I did what I wanted, and enjoyed myself freely?
To help gain some new perspectives we will also play
The Game of the Week.
Ask About It!
The basic idea is simple: turn to someone and ask them what they understand this principle to mean. Asking them may involve the difficult task of taking a little risk, and overcoming any initial self-censorship. But, why the hesitation and inhibitions? You’re only asking someone’s opinion.
Try it out. Simply ask a friend, your neighbour, family member, or some stranger on the street. The point is to solicit their opinion, and then the hard part. You need to listen — whatever they say whether you find it: brilliant, silly, or misguided.
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
These are personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
Another aspect of this principle that I stumble on whenever I start thinking about it, is the idea of “harm”. It’s also something a few of you mentioned in our meeting this week, so lets think about it a little more. What exactly does that mean? When am I harming someone, and when am I simply doing something that they don’t like, or of which they don’t approve? I don’t want to harm anyone, but I also don’t want to be manipulated by some kind of emotional black mail.
Meditating on that question takes me to the more general idea of violence.
But first consider the limits suggest by that adage of uncertain origin which appears in various versions, but runs more or less:
“Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other’s nose begins.”
Silo points out in the chapter on law in The Human Landscape that there is something suspicious in these kinds of formulations. He notes:
“Your rights end where the rights of others begin.” Therefore: “The rights of others end where your rights begin.” However, since it is generally the first and not the second phrase that is emphasized, we are led to suspect that those who maintain this position see themselves as “the others”—that is, as the representatives of all other people, as the representatives of an established system that needs no justification.
Be that as it may, to harm someone implies some kind of violence, but what are the limits of violence? We know that violence isn’t simply something physical. There can be emotional violence, psychological violence, racial, religious, and sexual violence, etc. These can be as real, and as harmful as physical violence. It seems to me that all forms of violence (or harm) come from treating people as things or objects. In that sense the principle could read “…do not do violence and you can freely do whatever you want”, or “treat others as you wish to be treated, and you can freely do whatever you want”.
Does that resolve everything? Far from it. but what is important is that I increasingly reflect on my actions and as a result give them a clearer more coherent direction. A direction where the (perhaps elusive) marker of nonviolence is of central importance.
Certainly, all the principles can be seen in their social dimension, that is in relationship to how we treat others. But there are two (9 and 10) that address that question specifically. I see principle 9 as laying out the fundamental field of action, our freedom and its limits. And specifically, in this case showing us where to start thinking about those two aspects: Do what you like - but when you harm others you enchain yourself. This doesn’t just lay out the whole field or direction of our action (our freedom) but rather the minimum.
Do not harm anyone! It’s reminiscent of that famous line from the Hippocratic oath — “first, do no harm”.
For Hippocrates “primum non nocere” indicates the minimum limit of how to treat a patient. Hopefully, it’s not the maximum, and as a good doctor you try to do much more for your patient. It’s the minimum requirement, the starting place, but not the upper limit of what you hope to achieve. It seems to me that, in much the same way, principle 9 (Liberty) points to the minimum limit of valid action and of course not the maximum.
The ancient doctors agreed that if they broke this oath, they “should forever lose their personal and medical reputation”. In our case we are asked to recognize that if we infringe this principle rather than liberating ourselves, we are doing precisely the opposite and enchaining ourselves.
Remember:
- Reflect on how this principle applied or could have applied in your past.
-Play the game of Ask About It! And remember to listen.
Worth Repeating:
We want to move from a situation of internal conflict to one of internal unity. We want to liberate ourselves and work for the liberation of each other.
Remember:
First, do not harm anyone. That includes not harming yourself!
Coming up:
Next week we will continue with principle 9 “The Principle of Liberty”. Our focus will be on considering how we might apply it in the present moment.
Note:
Houdini says: Don’t Enchain Yourself.
These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list, and, on my website www.dzuckerbrot.com
Don’t forget:
In some moment of the day or night inhale a breath of air and imagine that you carry this air to your heart. Then, ask with strength for yourself and for your loved ones. Ask with strength to move away from all that brings you contradiction; ask for your life to have unity. Don't take a lot of time with this brief prayer, this brief asking, because it is enough that you interrupt for one brief moment what is happening in your life for this contact with your interior to give clarity to your feelings and your ideas.
Silo_ La Reja, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005
