Basia says: I don’t understand it, you were raised here, your parents raised you, they formed you in some way. She means – how is it possible that I do not conform? A good question, since everyone else seems to conform not just without opposition, but without the slightest notion that one might not conform.
I was perhaps 18 or 19 and struggling with the concept of not conforming, when, at an Anglo-Saxon philosophy group I attended the subject of good and evil was proposed (with the usual and boring but immediate slide into utilitarianism: “is what is good for me also good for others?” Er, really, who cares?).
After the company had a few attempts at the subject, I was ceased by an uncontrollable laughter. The Anglos looked at me with puzzlement, and I finally managed to cough an explanation through my tears: how comfortable, how lucky you all are to be able to think such lofty thoughts. If you are Polish, or Serb, or anything East European, you do not have the liberty to think such thoughts. What is good and what is bad has already been decided for you. What is good is your nation, what is bad are its enemies. Nonviolence is not an option; universal humanitarian rights are not an option; personal liberties are not an option. How I envy you.
They didn’t understand. Now I no longer understand it, either. But I still remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment