'Hunter Gray' hunterbadbear@hunterbear.org [marxist]
2014-05-14 13:45:37 UTC
Redbadbear has been having a good discussion on the death penalty -- and a commendably civil one in contrast to some of the much earlier traditions of the list. If I may, participants tend to respect one another. No advocates of the death penalty have surfaced in the RBB context. If they were to do so, I doubt that this would produce a pitchy pine fire.
I have good friends who earnestly support the death penalty. I should add that I also have good friends who support various gun control measures. One old friend is presently quite active in upstate New York on that score. No sweat. We all remain good friends.
The Free Will issue has always intrigued me from my teen years onward. It's also intrigued a vast number of other thoughtful people over the ages. Philosopher and psychologist William James (to whom our family is always greatly indebted), spent a fair amount of time on this fascinating question. Trained as an M.D., James was very well versed not only in "things unseen" but also in human physiology. (This is reflected in his massive two volume Psychology. We have had a first edition of this set which we recently gave to grandson/son Thomas -- himself an M.D. in psychiatry and internal medicine.) In his pursuit of free will, William James searched in vain, among other dimensions, for some sort of "muscle" associated with the brain that might extend much insight into the Question. He did reject the concept of "iron block determinism" and certainly appears to have recognized some free will.
Clarence Darrow frequently mulled free will. He often, in looking at some of his less savory clients, essentially reflected that "There but for my heredity and environment go I."
For myself, a reasonably astute observer and trained in sociology (with lots of history and anthropology), I certainly do not buy free will in total. I do reject iron block determinism. Since, like everyone on Life's trail, I have had to grapple with various challenges in the practical sense -- in my case, an ethically pragmatic approach mixed with social justice vision of a better world to come -- I've avoided becoming bogged down abstractly in the free will question.
Yet I have felt obliged to work out my own Answer of sorts. Long ago, I came up with this personal approach.
We hatch individually into a canoe on a mighty river which has two tributaries: individual heredity and individual environment. That lifelong river of no return is the basic, primary earthly force in our existence. Within the bounds of the river's respective banks, we do have some -- some -- individual maneuverability from a free will perspective. But compared to our great and most forceful individual river of heredity and environment, our free will is very limited. I am aware that this concept of mine can be critiqued endlessly but, frankly, that's my take on the Question.
I also lost the ability to "hate" adversaries. I have faced literal death on a number of occasions and have absolutely no fear of it. I never talk about some of those situations and, in the human sense, would prefer to forget them. But I have talked about the rigged auto wreck of June 18 1963 perpetrated by whites on the outskirts of Jackson, Mississippi, which -- in the final stages of our great Jackson Movement -- totally wrecked my car and very seriously injured myself and an associate, Ed King.
I hated those particular white people with intensity for seven years. And then I somehow came to fully recognize where they came from -- environmentally. And I personally and physically shook hands in the forgiving sense. I felt a burden lift -- and they, too, felt comparably.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)
I have good friends who earnestly support the death penalty. I should add that I also have good friends who support various gun control measures. One old friend is presently quite active in upstate New York on that score. No sweat. We all remain good friends.
The Free Will issue has always intrigued me from my teen years onward. It's also intrigued a vast number of other thoughtful people over the ages. Philosopher and psychologist William James (to whom our family is always greatly indebted), spent a fair amount of time on this fascinating question. Trained as an M.D., James was very well versed not only in "things unseen" but also in human physiology. (This is reflected in his massive two volume Psychology. We have had a first edition of this set which we recently gave to grandson/son Thomas -- himself an M.D. in psychiatry and internal medicine.) In his pursuit of free will, William James searched in vain, among other dimensions, for some sort of "muscle" associated with the brain that might extend much insight into the Question. He did reject the concept of "iron block determinism" and certainly appears to have recognized some free will.
Clarence Darrow frequently mulled free will. He often, in looking at some of his less savory clients, essentially reflected that "There but for my heredity and environment go I."
For myself, a reasonably astute observer and trained in sociology (with lots of history and anthropology), I certainly do not buy free will in total. I do reject iron block determinism. Since, like everyone on Life's trail, I have had to grapple with various challenges in the practical sense -- in my case, an ethically pragmatic approach mixed with social justice vision of a better world to come -- I've avoided becoming bogged down abstractly in the free will question.
Yet I have felt obliged to work out my own Answer of sorts. Long ago, I came up with this personal approach.
We hatch individually into a canoe on a mighty river which has two tributaries: individual heredity and individual environment. That lifelong river of no return is the basic, primary earthly force in our existence. Within the bounds of the river's respective banks, we do have some -- some -- individual maneuverability from a free will perspective. But compared to our great and most forceful individual river of heredity and environment, our free will is very limited. I am aware that this concept of mine can be critiqued endlessly but, frankly, that's my take on the Question.
From that perspective, individual responsibility is relatively minimal. And virtually all of the criminal justice systems anywhere in the world are bereft of basic rationality. I see, at the least, relatively serious criminal offenses as mental illness. (I am aware that the mental illness concept in this context can be officially and unscrupulously extended to political hatchet jobs.) I do recognize that society must be protected within reason. But I see far better approaches than prisons and executions.
At some point after my mid-teens, I lost, within myself, any semblance of vengeance. That's been absent from my being for virtually all of my life. I do consistently protect -- in the self-defense sense -- my life and that of my family, my projects, and certainly, if necessary, my associates -- with every ethical resource at my command. But I never try to "get back" at an adversary in the vengeance sense or try to "settle old scores."I also lost the ability to "hate" adversaries. I have faced literal death on a number of occasions and have absolutely no fear of it. I never talk about some of those situations and, in the human sense, would prefer to forget them. But I have talked about the rigged auto wreck of June 18 1963 perpetrated by whites on the outskirts of Jackson, Mississippi, which -- in the final stages of our great Jackson Movement -- totally wrecked my car and very seriously injured myself and an associate, Ed King.
I hated those particular white people with intensity for seven years. And then I somehow came to fully recognize where they came from -- environmentally. And I personally and physically shook hands in the forgiving sense. I felt a burden lift -- and they, too, felt comparably.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)