{"id":48,"date":"2021-11-15T21:51:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T21:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/?post_type=chapter&p=48"},"modified":"2024-08-17T16:19:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T16:19:31","slug":"flight","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/chapter\/flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Flight"},"content":{"raw":"

The Tenth Chapter,<\/strong>\r\nin which you ask yourself again<\/strong>\r\nWhat\u2019s Keeping Me Here?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/h3>\r\n

Preparation<\/span><\/h3>\r\n

Required Reading: Dashan, \"It is not you, but existence, that is fundamentally unsound<\/a>\" (Aeon<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Optional Reading: Cleary, \"Being and Drunkenness: How to Party like an Existentialist<\/a>\"\u00a0(Aeon<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Writing:<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. Dashan's key terms are \"split-group framing,\" \"everyman framing,\" and \"see-saw framing.\" How does she define these terms? Answer with paraphrase, not quotation.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  2. An argument is a\u00a0thesis <\/i>supported by one or more reasons. <\/i>What is Dashan's thesis? What reason(s) does she provide in support of his thesis? Paraphrase or quote briefly.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  3. What is your immediate reaction to Dashan's argument? Agreement, disagreement, or something else?<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Respond to the following question by writing at least one paragraph:\u00a0What might your day-to-day life look like if you spent less of it trying to \"improve your life,\" and more of it just trying to live<\/span> your life? Be imaginative and specific.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n
    \r\n\r\n

    Introduction<\/h3>\r\n

    Making a conscious, free choice is hard, but it\u2019s hard emotionally, spiritually even. It\u2019s not hard intellectually. If all that matters is that you choose, and that you\u2019re aware of it, then it doesn\u2019t matter what you choose. There\u2019s nothing for your mind to do, nothing to figure out. You just decide.<\/p>\r\n

    But if there are better and worse choices, then it does matter, and you need a way to decide. The author says the way is \u201cimagination.\u201d But what does that mean?<\/p>\r\n

    Maybe it means the kind of imagination you get when you pay close attention to the situations that confront you, and to the ways you react to those situations. It demands the kind of imagination you get when you reflect carefully on those reactions, by (for example) using the the Basic Move. It demands philosophical method, conversation, attitude.<\/p>\r\n

    Philosophy doesn\u2019t just help you realize that you\u2019re always choosing, and to do so with more self-awareness. Philosophy is how you answer questions that don\u2019t have Correct Answers, but do have better and worse answers. It\u2019s how you make choices when there\u2019s no Correct Choice. So philosophy can help with the question about what to choose.<\/p>\r\n

    Maybe the idea of fate, the idea that you you don\u2019t have a choice or don\u2019t have to make a choice, is not the only shadow on the wall. Maybe there\u2019s also the opposite shadow: the illusion that you can choose whatever you want, and your choice will be good just because it was yours. Suppose it\u2019s true that you\u2019re always free to choose. Does that mean you\u2019re also free to decide what your choice does to you? Do some choices make you unhappy, whether you want them to or not? Do you get to decide what\u2019s good and bad for you?<\/p>\r\n

    Maybe there are some limits that you can choose to cross; but maybe you can\u2019t choose what happens to you if you cross those limits. Maybe there really is some kind of \u201chuman nature,\u201d and getting out of the cave isn\u2019t just about learning to make choices for yourself: maybe it\u2019s about learning to freely choose what\u2019s naturally good for humans.<\/p>\r\n

    And maybe one of the ways you get stuck in the cave is actually to believe that anytime someone says \u201cyou can\u2019t do that,\u201d they\u2019re just trying to hold you back, just trying to tell you who you are, just trying to control you by making you afraid of something that\u2019s not real and won\u2019t happen. Maybe sometimes what they say is just true: if you choose to do this, you\u2019ll be unhappy.<\/p>\r\n

    Neo offers a world without limits, and then he flies away. But that\u2019s in the matrix. In the real world, he can\u2019t fly. In the real world, if a human jumps off a building, he dies.<\/p>\r\n

    We\u2019ve read a lot about what happens to you when you believe the illusion that you don\u2019t have a choice. The next story is what happens to you when you believe the illusion that you can do anything you choose.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nToure, \"The Sad Sweet Story of Sugarlips Shine Hot and the Portable Promised Land\"\u00a0<\/a>\r\n\r\nThis text appears in an academic journal that requires library access. If you cannot gain access with your library's credentials, ask your instructor for help. <\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    Discussion<\/h3>\r\n

    So, when you\u2019re doing philosophy you\u2019re trying to escape the cave, which is like a theater, full of illusions. Doing philosophy means seeing through illusions. These are illusions about who you are, and what your limits are. The idea is that you live in a world that tells you \u201cif you want to be happy, you have to do this, and you can\u2019t do that.\u201d What you have to do, what you can\u2019t do: that\u2019s what we call \u201cmorality.\u201d Morality is a bunch of limits. The idea is that the limits you grew up with aren\u2019t real. You\u2019re surrounded by people saying \u201cdon\u2019t go through that door, or else!\u201d Or they\u2019re saying \u201cgo through this door (not that one), and you\u2019ll get your reward!\u201d Philosophy calls their bluff, and says you can go through that door and nothing bad will happen to you. Or it says, you won\u2019t actually be happy if you go through the other door. The limits are all illusions. At least, you\u2019ll never know one way or another unless you go through the door, you should have the courage to find out for yourself. Doing philosophy isn\u2019t just about thinking; it\u2019s about having the guts to follow your thoughts through those doors. It\u2019s about how you live. Philosophers break the rules \u2014 and not just in their heads.<\/p>\r\n

    Now so far, all the illusions you\u2019ve read about have been things you see. They\u2019re hallucinations. A hallucination is the kind of illusion that stands in front of reality, so to speak. You can\u2019t see reality because all you see is the hallucination. It\u2019s like a mirage: because you can see the oasis, you can\u2019t see the desert behind it (which might be that \u201cdesert of the real\u201d Morpheus mentions). When Di Pizan sees herself through the eyes of men, or when Du Bois sees himself through the eyes of white people, they are seeing something \u2014 they\u2019re seeing the images other people have of them. Those images are nightmare versions of themselves, illusions of inferiority. So they can\u2019t see themselves as they really are, because they can only see the illusions others have about them. Those are illusions about who they are \u2014 about what it means to be a woman, or to be black. This means they\u2019re also illusions about what they can and can\u2019t do, if they want to be happy. Di Pizan and Du Bois have to work their way out of their caves. They have to dispel the nightmares that hold them back. But that\u2019s not easy: everywhere they look, they see those nightmares staring at them. It\u2019s hard to believe they aren\u2019t real.<\/p>\r\n

    But there\u2019s another kind of illusion. This is the kind where reality just goes blank, turns invisible. It\u2019s not that you\u2019re seeing a fake thing, a hallucination, which hides a real thing. It\u2019s that you just don\u2019t see the real thing. Like when David Blaine makes the Statue of Liberty disappear. He doesn\u2019t hide the real thing behind an illusion. The illusion is that the real thing gone, when actually it\u2019s still there.<\/p>\r\n

    Du Bois talked about just wanting to be able to live \u201cwithout having the doors closed roughly in his face.\u201d For Sugarlips Shinehot, \u201cwhite folk is like doors. You got to go through them to get most anywhere. . . . Doors don\u2019t always open up, and sometimes them doors get heavy and Negroes get tired of openin door after door to get anywhere, and mosttimes to walk through them doors you have to act a certain way you don\u2019t won\u2019t to. But if you want to go through there\u2019s lil choice.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    So, white people put Sugarlips in a box, and he feels boxed in. They are a limit on what he can do.The limit isn\u2019t so much that they don\u2019t let him do anything; it\u2019s that they\u2019re the ones who get to decide whether he gets to do stuff. Suppose you\u2019re a grown-up, but your mom still gets to decide how late you can stay out, or whatever. Even if she let you stay out as late as you want, wouldn\u2019t it still bother you that it was her decision? Wouldn\u2019t you feel unfree, deep down, even though on on the surface you were free to go where you want? That\u2019s what he means by calling them a \u201cdoor.\u201d Even if you get to go through it, you shouldn\u2019t have to be knocking all the time. You want real freedom. \u201cA world without limits, without borders and boundaries.\u201d Without doors.<\/p>\r\n

    Now, the philosopher comes along and offers you freedom from the illusions that keep you down, the illusions that tell you what you can and can\u2019t do, the illusions of conventional morality. Ask the big questions often enough, practice the Basic Move long enough, and all that stuff falls apart. But in this story someone else comes along and offers what sounds like the same sort of thing, and he\u2019s no philosopher. He\u2019s \u201ca Reverend and a Doctor,\u201d a \u201cshepherd\u201d who offers Sugarlips a new version of Gyges\u2019 ring. If Sugarlips takes it, he gets \u201cboundless freedom.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    It\u2019s like Gyges\u2019 ring, because it turns people invisible. But it\u2019s also not like Gyges\u2019 ring, because this one turns other people invisible. The white people, the ones who are putting him in the box. The doors that decide where he gets to go, the rules of his world, the limits that keep in inside his cave \u2014 all of a sudden they\u2019re all out of sight. He doesn\u2019t have to think about them anymore. From now on, he only sees what he wants to see.<\/p>\r\n

    This \u201cboundless freedom\u201d is peculiar. \u201c[H]e felt the weight of tuggin on door after door drop away. Without bein able to get at them doors, it was like he couldn\u2019t go nowhere, but then again, without bein able to get at them doors, it was like he could go nowhere. Wit no place to go and no place bein exactly where he wanted to be, he felt something like a jus-freed slave.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    All his life, the rules and limits have been imposed on him by other people, who used the rules to keep him in the box they made for him. He\u2019s had obligations every day, obligations to knock on the doors and wait for permission, to go through this or that door if he wants what he wants. And that\u2019s his only experience of what it\u2019s like to have an \u2018obligation,\u201d what it\u2019s like to \u201cfollow a rule.\u201d Then, suddenly, all the people who made the rules, the people who stood in his way, are just gone \u2014 even though they\u2019re all still there.Wouldn\u2019t it feel like heaven, like a \u201cportable promised land\u201d? Wouldn\u2019t it feel like the \u201cfreedom\u201d you\u2019ve been looking for? Wouldn\u2019t it feel like you\u2019d finally gotten out of the cave, escaped the master-slave dialectic?<\/p>\r\n

    It\u2019s not freedom-to do things. It\u2019s not positive freedom. The doors, the rules, the limits, are still there. You\u2019re still not free to \u201cdo what you want\u201d; you still have to knock on the doors, go by the rules, obey the limits. No, it\u2019s freedom-from something. Negative freedom. But this is key: because they\u2019re all still there, it\u2019s not freedom-from the doors, freedom-from the rules, freedom-from the limits. It\u2019s freedom-from your awareness of the limits. So it\u2019s not really freedom at all, not even the negative, freedom-from kind. It\u2019s the illusion of freedom. It feels like you\u2019ve got freedom-from, and so it also feels like you\u2019ve got freedom-to. And you like that feeling. You feel happy. Feels like \u201cyou\u2019re in the promised land wherever you go.\u201d Portable promised land. Utopia, but all in your head. Morpheus tells Neo: \u201cfree your mind.\u201d The Reverend frees Sugarlips\u2019 mind: but his mind is the only thing that\u2019s free. He\u2019s still in the matrix, and all the limits still apply; it\u2019s just that now he\u2019s free to pretend they\u2019re not there. He\u2019s still in the cave, but in his head, he\u2019s out. That is his cave.<\/p>\r\n

    What did Sugarlips do? He exchanged his nightmare, the nightmare in which he\u2019s always less-than, always seeing himself through the eyes of others who see him as a box, and who he can only see as doors \u2014 the nightmare in which there are only masters and slaves \u2014 for a daydream in which he is the master, and there are no limits on what he can do. The nightmare was not getting what he wanted, and not being respected. The daydream is getting everything he wants, and showing everyone \u201cexactly what bein a Negro could mean.\u201d The daydream is: \u201cI can do things no man has ever done before!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    You know what happens. He flies; he dies. The limits still apply, whether he wants them to or not. Sugarlips is the prisoner in the cave who gets free, sees that it\u2019s all been fake, and could keep going up and out to the sun, but gets sidetracked by the idea that since everything he\u2019s known has been fake, since all the limits have been imposed on him by people who just want power over him, then all limits are fake, and if he just has the courage to call their bluff and walk through the door, step over the limit, it\u2019ll be obvious, and nothing bad will happen to him. But then \u201cjealous Gravity snatchin him back, and, once Gravity caught hold ah him, she pulled harder and harder, and he fell faster and faster . . .\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    The point: even though philosophy shows you that familiar morality is fake, that lots of rules are just made up by weak people who don\u2019t want you to fly because they\u2019re jealous, or by strong people who want to keep the flying all to themselves, that doesn\u2019t mean morality itself is fake, that all rules are made up. Just because some of the limits don\u2019t need to be there doesn\u2019t mean there are no limits. Philosophy is for dissolving illusions; it\u2019s not for exchanging nightmares for daydreams.<\/p>\r\n

    He flies, he dies \u2014 but not before landing on a white man, Fat Jimmy, who also dies. The other point (and now we\u2019re going from philosophy to political philosophy): inside the cave, where there are masters and slaves, the slaves\u2019 temptation is to become masters, to confuse the freedom and happiness they really want (which is outside the cave) with the fake freedom that the master\u2019s have (which is inside the cave). The masters have the fake freedom of getting what they want without having to consider what others want, without other people getting in their way. But it\u2019s the masters who tempt the slaves with that idea. And at least the slaves want something more than they have. The masters don\u2019t even know how to want anything better. So the slaves get sidetracked on their way out of the cave, if in their attempt to get free they end up killing the masters (revolution!), well \u2014 it\u2019s not exactly the master\u2019s \u201cfault\u201d (Fat Jimmy was just walking down the street, minding his own business), but it\u2019s definitely what you should expect to happen when you keep some people down with nightmares, so you can keep living in a daydream.<\/p>\r\n

    The only way out of the cave, the only way to escape the master-slave dialectic, is to refuse to be either a master or a slave. And that means refusing to live either in a daydream or a nightmare. It means not believing you\u2019re better than you actually are, and not believing you\u2019re lesser than you actually are. It means trying to see the truth about who you are \u2014 like di Pizan, like Du Bois. And that means finding your true limits, finding what\u2019s truly right and wrong, good and bad. Know thyself. Not the self you are, or not only that: know the self you\u2019re becoming. But the self you\u2019re becoming isn\u2019t a person who just gets to \u201cfreely choose,\u201d; it\u2019s a person that gets better and better at making \u201cbetter choices.\u201d The better choice is to respect your true limits. That\u2019s how you respect yourself.<\/p>\r\n

    Sure, you\u2019re free to choose to jump of a building, but you\u2019re not free to choose whether it kills you. And maybe this too: you can choose to murder the king, sleep with the queen, take over the kingdom. But you don\u2019t get to choose whether it makes you happy or not. There\u2019s conventional morality, keeping you unhappy, or making you fake-happy. But there\u2019s also real morality, and you\u2019d better figure out what it is, if you want to be real happy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \r\n\r\n

    Reflection<\/h3>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. In Chapter Three you considered whether the shepherd was happy in the end. What about Sugarlips Shine Hot - is he happy in the end? Define your terms. Write at least 150 words. Refer to at least one other course text.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Whether or not Sugarlips is happy in the end, is he\u00a0free<\/em>? Define your terms. Write at least \u00a0150 words. Refer to at least one other course text.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","rendered":"

      The Tenth Chapter,<\/strong>
      \nin which you ask yourself again<\/strong>
      \nWhat\u2019s Keeping Me Here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/h3>\n

      Preparation<\/span><\/h3>\n

      Required Reading: Dashan, “It is not you, but existence, that is fundamentally unsound<\/a>” (Aeon<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Optional Reading: Cleary, “Being and Drunkenness: How to Party like an Existentialist<\/a>”\u00a0(Aeon<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Writing:<\/span><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Dashan’s key terms are “split-group framing,” “everyman framing,” and “see-saw framing.” How does she define these terms? Answer with paraphrase, not quotation.<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. An argument is a\u00a0thesis <\/i>supported by one or more reasons. <\/i>What is Dashan’s thesis? What reason(s) does she provide in support of his thesis? Paraphrase or quote briefly.<\/span><\/li>\n
      3. What is your immediate reaction to Dashan’s argument? Agreement, disagreement, or something else?<\/span><\/li>\n
      4. Respond to the following question by writing at least one paragraph:\u00a0What might your day-to-day life look like if you spent less of it trying to “improve your life,” and more of it just trying to live<\/span> your life? Be imaginative and specific.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n

        Introduction<\/h3>\n

        Making a conscious, free choice is hard, but it\u2019s hard emotionally, spiritually even. It\u2019s not hard intellectually. If all that matters is that you choose, and that you\u2019re aware of it, then it doesn\u2019t matter what you choose. There\u2019s nothing for your mind to do, nothing to figure out. You just decide.<\/p>\n

        But if there are better and worse choices, then it does matter, and you need a way to decide. The author says the way is \u201cimagination.\u201d But what does that mean?<\/p>\n

        Maybe it means the kind of imagination you get when you pay close attention to the situations that confront you, and to the ways you react to those situations. It demands the kind of imagination you get when you reflect carefully on those reactions, by (for example) using the the Basic Move. It demands philosophical method, conversation, attitude.<\/p>\n

        Philosophy doesn\u2019t just help you realize that you\u2019re always choosing, and to do so with more self-awareness. Philosophy is how you answer questions that don\u2019t have Correct Answers, but do have better and worse answers. It\u2019s how you make choices when there\u2019s no Correct Choice. So philosophy can help with the question about what to choose.<\/p>\n

        Maybe the idea of fate, the idea that you you don\u2019t have a choice or don\u2019t have to make a choice, is not the only shadow on the wall. Maybe there\u2019s also the opposite shadow: the illusion that you can choose whatever you want, and your choice will be good just because it was yours. Suppose it\u2019s true that you\u2019re always free to choose. Does that mean you\u2019re also free to decide what your choice does to you? Do some choices make you unhappy, whether you want them to or not? Do you get to decide what\u2019s good and bad for you?<\/p>\n

        Maybe there are some limits that you can choose to cross; but maybe you can\u2019t choose what happens to you if you cross those limits. Maybe there really is some kind of \u201chuman nature,\u201d and getting out of the cave isn\u2019t just about learning to make choices for yourself: maybe it\u2019s about learning to freely choose what\u2019s naturally good for humans.<\/p>\n

        And maybe one of the ways you get stuck in the cave is actually to believe that anytime someone says \u201cyou can\u2019t do that,\u201d they\u2019re just trying to hold you back, just trying to tell you who you are, just trying to control you by making you afraid of something that\u2019s not real and won\u2019t happen. Maybe sometimes what they say is just true: if you choose to do this, you\u2019ll be unhappy.<\/p>\n

        Neo offers a world without limits, and then he flies away. But that\u2019s in the matrix. In the real world, he can\u2019t fly. In the real world, if a human jumps off a building, he dies.<\/p>\n

        We\u2019ve read a lot about what happens to you when you believe the illusion that you don\u2019t have a choice. The next story is what happens to you when you believe the illusion that you can do anything you choose.<\/p>\n

        \n
        \"\"<\/div>\n

        Toure, “The Sad Sweet Story of Sugarlips Shine Hot and the Portable Promised Land”\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

        This text appears in an academic journal that requires library access. If you cannot gain access with your library’s credentials, ask your instructor for help. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        Discussion<\/h3>\n

        So, when you\u2019re doing philosophy you\u2019re trying to escape the cave, which is like a theater, full of illusions. Doing philosophy means seeing through illusions. These are illusions about who you are, and what your limits are. The idea is that you live in a world that tells you \u201cif you want to be happy, you have to do this, and you can\u2019t do that.\u201d What you have to do, what you can\u2019t do: that\u2019s what we call \u201cmorality.\u201d Morality is a bunch of limits. The idea is that the limits you grew up with aren\u2019t real. You\u2019re surrounded by people saying \u201cdon\u2019t go through that door, or else!\u201d Or they\u2019re saying \u201cgo through this door (not that one), and you\u2019ll get your reward!\u201d Philosophy calls their bluff, and says you can go through that door and nothing bad will happen to you. Or it says, you won\u2019t actually be happy if you go through the other door. The limits are all illusions. At least, you\u2019ll never know one way or another unless you go through the door, you should have the courage to find out for yourself. Doing philosophy isn\u2019t just about thinking; it\u2019s about having the guts to follow your thoughts through those doors. It\u2019s about how you live. Philosophers break the rules \u2014 and not just in their heads.<\/p>\n

        Now so far, all the illusions you\u2019ve read about have been things you see. They\u2019re hallucinations. A hallucination is the kind of illusion that stands in front of reality, so to speak. You can\u2019t see reality because all you see is the hallucination. It\u2019s like a mirage: because you can see the oasis, you can\u2019t see the desert behind it (which might be that \u201cdesert of the real\u201d Morpheus mentions). When Di Pizan sees herself through the eyes of men, or when Du Bois sees himself through the eyes of white people, they are seeing something \u2014 they\u2019re seeing the images other people have of them. Those images are nightmare versions of themselves, illusions of inferiority. So they can\u2019t see themselves as they really are, because they can only see the illusions others have about them. Those are illusions about who they are \u2014 about what it means to be a woman, or to be black. This means they\u2019re also illusions about what they can and can\u2019t do, if they want to be happy. Di Pizan and Du Bois have to work their way out of their caves. They have to dispel the nightmares that hold them back. But that\u2019s not easy: everywhere they look, they see those nightmares staring at them. It\u2019s hard to believe they aren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n

        But there\u2019s another kind of illusion. This is the kind where reality just goes blank, turns invisible. It\u2019s not that you\u2019re seeing a fake thing, a hallucination, which hides a real thing. It\u2019s that you just don\u2019t see the real thing. Like when David Blaine makes the Statue of Liberty disappear. He doesn\u2019t hide the real thing behind an illusion. The illusion is that the real thing gone, when actually it\u2019s still there.<\/p>\n

        Du Bois talked about just wanting to be able to live \u201cwithout having the doors closed roughly in his face.\u201d For Sugarlips Shinehot, \u201cwhite folk is like doors. You got to go through them to get most anywhere. . . . Doors don\u2019t always open up, and sometimes them doors get heavy and Negroes get tired of openin door after door to get anywhere, and mosttimes to walk through them doors you have to act a certain way you don\u2019t won\u2019t to. But if you want to go through there\u2019s lil choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

        So, white people put Sugarlips in a box, and he feels boxed in. They are a limit on what he can do.The limit isn\u2019t so much that they don\u2019t let him do anything; it\u2019s that they\u2019re the ones who get to decide whether he gets to do stuff. Suppose you\u2019re a grown-up, but your mom still gets to decide how late you can stay out, or whatever. Even if she let you stay out as late as you want, wouldn\u2019t it still bother you that it was her decision? Wouldn\u2019t you feel unfree, deep down, even though on on the surface you were free to go where you want? That\u2019s what he means by calling them a \u201cdoor.\u201d Even if you get to go through it, you shouldn\u2019t have to be knocking all the time. You want real freedom. \u201cA world without limits, without borders and boundaries.\u201d Without doors.<\/p>\n

        Now, the philosopher comes along and offers you freedom from the illusions that keep you down, the illusions that tell you what you can and can\u2019t do, the illusions of conventional morality. Ask the big questions often enough, practice the Basic Move long enough, and all that stuff falls apart. But in this story someone else comes along and offers what sounds like the same sort of thing, and he\u2019s no philosopher. He\u2019s \u201ca Reverend and a Doctor,\u201d a \u201cshepherd\u201d who offers Sugarlips a new version of Gyges\u2019 ring. If Sugarlips takes it, he gets \u201cboundless freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

        It\u2019s like Gyges\u2019 ring, because it turns people invisible. But it\u2019s also not like Gyges\u2019 ring, because this one turns other people invisible. The white people, the ones who are putting him in the box. The doors that decide where he gets to go, the rules of his world, the limits that keep in inside his cave \u2014 all of a sudden they\u2019re all out of sight. He doesn\u2019t have to think about them anymore. From now on, he only sees what he wants to see.<\/p>\n

        This \u201cboundless freedom\u201d is peculiar. \u201c[H]e felt the weight of tuggin on door after door drop away. Without bein able to get at them doors, it was like he couldn\u2019t go nowhere, but then again, without bein able to get at them doors, it was like he could go nowhere. Wit no place to go and no place bein exactly where he wanted to be, he felt something like a jus-freed slave.\u201d<\/p>\n

        All his life, the rules and limits have been imposed on him by other people, who used the rules to keep him in the box they made for him. He\u2019s had obligations every day, obligations to knock on the doors and wait for permission, to go through this or that door if he wants what he wants. And that\u2019s his only experience of what it\u2019s like to have an \u2018obligation,\u201d what it\u2019s like to \u201cfollow a rule.\u201d Then, suddenly, all the people who made the rules, the people who stood in his way, are just gone \u2014 even though they\u2019re all still there.Wouldn\u2019t it feel like heaven, like a \u201cportable promised land\u201d? Wouldn\u2019t it feel like the \u201cfreedom\u201d you\u2019ve been looking for? Wouldn\u2019t it feel like you\u2019d finally gotten out of the cave, escaped the master-slave dialectic?<\/p>\n

        It\u2019s not freedom-to do things. It\u2019s not positive freedom. The doors, the rules, the limits, are still there. You\u2019re still not free to \u201cdo what you want\u201d; you still have to knock on the doors, go by the rules, obey the limits. No, it\u2019s freedom-from something. Negative freedom. But this is key: because they\u2019re all still there, it\u2019s not freedom-from the doors, freedom-from the rules, freedom-from the limits. It\u2019s freedom-from your awareness of the limits. So it\u2019s not really freedom at all, not even the negative, freedom-from kind. It\u2019s the illusion of freedom. It feels like you\u2019ve got freedom-from, and so it also feels like you\u2019ve got freedom-to. And you like that feeling. You feel happy. Feels like \u201cyou\u2019re in the promised land wherever you go.\u201d Portable promised land. Utopia, but all in your head. Morpheus tells Neo: \u201cfree your mind.\u201d The Reverend frees Sugarlips\u2019 mind: but his mind is the only thing that\u2019s free. He\u2019s still in the matrix, and all the limits still apply; it\u2019s just that now he\u2019s free to pretend they\u2019re not there. He\u2019s still in the cave, but in his head, he\u2019s out. That is his cave.<\/p>\n

        What did Sugarlips do? He exchanged his nightmare, the nightmare in which he\u2019s always less-than, always seeing himself through the eyes of others who see him as a box, and who he can only see as doors \u2014 the nightmare in which there are only masters and slaves \u2014 for a daydream in which he is the master, and there are no limits on what he can do. The nightmare was not getting what he wanted, and not being respected. The daydream is getting everything he wants, and showing everyone \u201cexactly what bein a Negro could mean.\u201d The daydream is: \u201cI can do things no man has ever done before!\u201d<\/p>\n

        You know what happens. He flies; he dies. The limits still apply, whether he wants them to or not. Sugarlips is the prisoner in the cave who gets free, sees that it\u2019s all been fake, and could keep going up and out to the sun, but gets sidetracked by the idea that since everything he\u2019s known has been fake, since all the limits have been imposed on him by people who just want power over him, then all limits are fake, and if he just has the courage to call their bluff and walk through the door, step over the limit, it\u2019ll be obvious, and nothing bad will happen to him. But then \u201cjealous Gravity snatchin him back, and, once Gravity caught hold ah him, she pulled harder and harder, and he fell faster and faster . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

        The point: even though philosophy shows you that familiar morality is fake, that lots of rules are just made up by weak people who don\u2019t want you to fly because they\u2019re jealous, or by strong people who want to keep the flying all to themselves, that doesn\u2019t mean morality itself is fake, that all rules are made up. Just because some of the limits don\u2019t need to be there doesn\u2019t mean there are no limits. Philosophy is for dissolving illusions; it\u2019s not for exchanging nightmares for daydreams.<\/p>\n

        He flies, he dies \u2014 but not before landing on a white man, Fat Jimmy, who also dies. The other point (and now we\u2019re going from philosophy to political philosophy): inside the cave, where there are masters and slaves, the slaves\u2019 temptation is to become masters, to confuse the freedom and happiness they really want (which is outside the cave) with the fake freedom that the master\u2019s have (which is inside the cave). The masters have the fake freedom of getting what they want without having to consider what others want, without other people getting in their way. But it\u2019s the masters who tempt the slaves with that idea. And at least the slaves want something more than they have. The masters don\u2019t even know how to want anything better. So the slaves get sidetracked on their way out of the cave, if in their attempt to get free they end up killing the masters (revolution!), well \u2014 it\u2019s not exactly the master\u2019s \u201cfault\u201d (Fat Jimmy was just walking down the street, minding his own business), but it\u2019s definitely what you should expect to happen when you keep some people down with nightmares, so you can keep living in a daydream.<\/p>\n

        The only way out of the cave, the only way to escape the master-slave dialectic, is to refuse to be either a master or a slave. And that means refusing to live either in a daydream or a nightmare. It means not believing you\u2019re better than you actually are, and not believing you\u2019re lesser than you actually are. It means trying to see the truth about who you are \u2014 like di Pizan, like Du Bois. And that means finding your true limits, finding what\u2019s truly right and wrong, good and bad. Know thyself. Not the self you are, or not only that: know the self you\u2019re becoming. But the self you\u2019re becoming isn\u2019t a person who just gets to \u201cfreely choose,\u201d; it\u2019s a person that gets better and better at making \u201cbetter choices.\u201d The better choice is to respect your true limits. That\u2019s how you respect yourself.<\/p>\n

        Sure, you\u2019re free to choose to jump of a building, but you\u2019re not free to choose whether it kills you. And maybe this too: you can choose to murder the king, sleep with the queen, take over the kingdom. But you don\u2019t get to choose whether it makes you happy or not. There\u2019s conventional morality, keeping you unhappy, or making you fake-happy. But there\u2019s also real morality, and you\u2019d better figure out what it is, if you want to be real happy.<\/p>\n

        \n

        Reflection<\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. In Chapter Three you considered whether the shepherd was happy in the end. What about Sugarlips Shine Hot – is he happy in the end? Define your terms. Write at least 150 words. Refer to at least one other course text.<\/li>\n
        2. Whether or not Sugarlips is happy in the end, is he\u00a0free<\/em>? Define your terms. Write at least \u00a0150 words. Refer to at least one other course text.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":36,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/revisions\/221"}],"part":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/36"}],"metadata":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/48\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pressbooks.dbq.edu\/bigquestions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}