Reflection 60 (tutelage)

Tutelage

Immanuel Kant wrote that many people are suffering from a self imposed tutelage and are scared and too lazy to think for themselves. People in control are willingly pointing to the  dangers of doing things without their approval. This is not good

Some people however want the opposite, absolute freedom to do what their desire dictate them to do and that also is  not good.

A good comparison of the first paragraph is the fish in a fish bowl. People take care of the fish by providing the fish safety and daily fish food and may actually think they do a favor to the fish but the fish is extremely limited in his movement, the fish may go crazy. It is not difficult to see that keeping the fish in a fish tank is not good for the fish but quite an egoistic act by humans who want to see fish.

Extreme religious control of people is sometimes compared to this image of keeping people in a fish tank. they control the people in the name of their safety and "well-being" but as a matter of fact they only want power and control and the whole thing is serving the egotism of the person exerting control.

Fish are not meant to be in a fish bowl, people are meant to think for themselves.

On the other extreme complete freedom is also not good. Sticking to the image of the fish. The fish has to remain in the water. the fish cannot just go anywhere, especially not out of the water. So are we humans to a certain extend bound by human priniciples and values which are universal and cannot violated, unless to our own detriment.