Choose Wisely

Of all the things that Aquinas covers in his Summa, his discussion of free will and choice are to me the most interesting. The intellect is the key for most of what Aquinas dictates as the "image and likeness of God" that we has humans possess. Since we are material beings, made of matter as well as of spirit (which he focuses on as the intellect) we are the lower level beings. We apprehend ideas in our mind, we do not have the reality in our mind. We have an understanding of an object, we do not know the object in its reality. We can only know through the senses, thus our understanding and our knowledge is limited.

That alone opens a lot of doors to the idea of "freedom of choice" or of choosing right from wrong. It allows for a lot of "grey" area in moral teaching as we know each person has a different apprehension of this as they are understood in our mind. Two witnesses to the same event have different memories and truths. A person is neither focused nor in sync with another at a level that they both see the same thing and understand the same event in the same way. Take this thinking and this logic to its fullest and you have a true libertarian understanding of moral "truths". Yet, we all accept I hope, right is right and wrong is wrong. As for degree of culpability we all differ.

I look at the Muslim world and how they choose their governments, They are usually autocratic, with few governmental entities. There is no need for many of the entities, because in Islam, a lot of what governments would do, is in fact done by the local Mosques and the charities that they operate. From our advantage point in the west, we see this as religious interference in governmental affairs, they see it as normal and good. Alas, who is right or wrong is a matter of location, culture and religious belief.

But here in the United States, there is a great divide over many issues that could be simply resolved if (ah, that fine word of indecisiveness) we would just look at things differently. The idea that all countries must be a democracy as an example. Some of the greatest ideas came to us from people who lived and thrived under monarchs. Why is democracy so important. The majority can be wrong you know! We saw that in the democratic election of Adolf Hitler’s party to the Reichstag in 1932. They choose poorly. So too with the Italians and the election of the Fascist Party in with Mussolini in the 1920’s. Democracy does not always mean that just because the majority choose freely that all is well. And when you look at how choices are made in the United States today, with minority opinions and ideas, using courts to enforce their ideas onto the majority (yes, both the right and the left use the courts to this end, it depends on if you are in that minority whether you think it is a good idea to utilize the system for you minority view, be it the saving of a tree to the saving of a job) is not a true democratic ideal. Here you have a minority idea being enforced on the majority. The role of our courts have changed from interpreters of the law, to enforcers of the law.

Here is the crux of this rambling essay, freedom of choice is made with the apprehended reality we have, NOT the reality as it is. Thus, all our choices are poor choices. You see, it doesn’t matter if we live under a dictator, a monarch or in a democracy, the individual choices we make will always be flawed because we seldom look beyond our own comfort zones for information. I used Islam deliberately in this essay because just the mention of it makes people angry and they refuse to see that there are good ideals and practices in the faith of Islam. Have they read about the ideas of the faith or talked to Muslims about their faith? Just one example of not moving outside of our zone to look for more information to enhance our “apprehension of the reality” we are going to judge and act with our free will.

Knowledge is key, understanding is the lock. Together they make us better humans and better humans make better choices.