What has come of interest to me of late has been the relationship
between the individual and the state. That the conflict between the
state and the individual over such aspects of life as rights, obligations,
needs, desires, morals… to name a few conflicts between the state
and the individual. What rights do individual have within the state?
What obligations does the state have to individual and what obligations
does the individual have to the state? Which human needs are
to be procured by the state and what needs are to met by the
individual? What exactly is the role of morals in a modern state
between an individual and the state?
to be sure that much of what we call morals are really just actions and
interactions between individuals and nothing to do with the state.
for example, the politeness between individuals, saying please and thank
you and excuse me, are interactions, customs between people that don’t
require any state intervention. But at what point does the state need
to intervene in relations between two people? Violence of actions or
violence of words? or at what level of disagreements need intervention
from the state?
At what point does the state have the right to dictate and
interfere with our actions and beliefs? This change in
our understanding of what point does the state intervene becomes
apparent with our rapidly changing attitude toward Marijuana.
From arresting people to having a joint to arranging for
cannabis stores in dozens of states. A slightly different
change in the state and individual relationship is
the changing attitude toward homosexuality. From the state
attack upon individuals right from Oscar Wilde to Alan Turing and the change to
acceptance of individuals rights such as Rosie and Elton John.
This movement of changing attitudes toward social actions leads
me to suggest that our society is still in the process of changing
and this is a good, a very good thing. We haven’t become a static society
like Egypt and China and as long as change is possible within our society,
we are still a society that has a chance to have success and advance toward
some goal. Because of this movement of changing attitudes, it gives me hope
that we still can achieve and progress and continue the process of becoming
human, fully human. Once we stop growing and stop the process, we
begin the death of our society. And part of our continuing efforts
to change and grow is this ever changing process between the
the relationship between the state and the individual.
We must begin to understand this process and become
alert and aware of the process of change between the state
and the individual.
Kropotkin