I have rights, is the post-modern rallying cry of society that seeks justice. The right to freedom, and to express myself as I please as long as my rights do not impinge on others.
I think of the philosopher who once posed a difficult question: “Is it right that a young man should lose his job because, in his own private life, he chooses to take recreational drugs? What fundamentally makes drug use wrong, if indeed it is wrong?”
Heavy stuff. Which boils down to one thing, which I think is fundamental. And I venture to say: rights could be expandable.
If in public life my rights are curtailed, in my private space it is possible to get away with murder, in a manner of speaking. I do what pleases my heart’s desire. This because private life is my sacred home – it intersects with my ancestors and God.
I can smoke cigarettes or my cigars, in the presence of my children and friends. After all, I am not in a public domain. Julius Malema can go to town with his famous but borrowed slogan, “Kill the boer, kill the farmer”, without having to look over his shoulder. Or is this oversimplifying things… complex things, nogal?
Bill Clinton was in the public eye, as the US president. Small parts of the world knew about him.
The people of Qunu knew more about Nelson Mandela. South Africans loved him. Made him the first president of a democratic country. A far cry to the famous Robben Island prisoner of conscience.
Clinton, censured by the so-called upright society, with its morality values. Ethics. Petite Monica Lewinsky. Private life. Private overseas travel. Clinton escapes with young intern in tow. All in the name of seeking sacred space for private matters.
Philosophy seeks to pursue truth, public and private, without batting an eyelid. We are all implicated in this debate. The desire to intrude is always palpable. So, in the final analysis there is a thin line between private and public. And that will remain so, until the end of time whether you have religion or not.
Yet all of that should not gainsay the dichotomy that exists between what is private and what is public.
We all want to go to heaven, even though the heavenly concept is murky, and controversial. We can do good, without tampering with people’s private space.
I end with the words of philosopher, Julian Baggini. He writes: “…If there were such thing as heaven, it would … provide meaning for life, in that the purpose of life could be to gain entry to heaven… life is the means to the end of heaven. However, fewer, and fewer people believe in heaven…”
I do believe in heaven. But I think it ought to be created in our world, by us. The lesser we worry about what people do in their private space, the more we will see the vistas of heaven.
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