A Greater Principle

There are certain concepts that underlie everything in which one believes. Equality is a good example, especially for those on the political left, who seem to hold it sacrosanct above all other concerns. Obedience to God is another good example, especially for social conservatives and the religious right. I have stated many times than mine is individual rights. However, something else exists beneath the very assumptions that go into my valuation of individual rights. After all, I don't mind collectivism when people choose it. For example, a volunteer military or an athletic team don't bother me in the slightest, even though, as coaches and corporate executives are fond of reminding us, there is no, "I," in team. Furthermore, the fact that I have no issue with accepting a balance of rights and interests when it comes to individual rights means that I am open to compromise. What I am valuing above individual rights that makes me willing to compromise on them? The answer occurred to me during the recent controversy over a rape scene in the television series Game Of Thrones, which I have never seen. As one hopes you are all aware, consent is a fundamental concept underlying our modern conception of rape. Old-fashioned notions of rape relied primarily on force as the defining factor of the crime, which was and continues to be unfortunate, both because of how victims are judged and because of the fact that this tends to cause people to misunderstand the character of the evil involved in the act. Statutory rape, child molestation, date rape, bestiality, marital rape, rape facilitated by coercion, rape taking place while the victim is unconscious, and likely other forms of rape of which I am unaware, can easily be accomplished without the use of violent force and can only be acknowledged/properly understood by application of the concept of consent. Thinking about all of this led to me contemplating consent as a concept quite deeply and I realized that all of my worldview, from morality, to philosophy, to politics, to religion, to whatever else you'd care to name all stem from my insistence that consent must be given. Name any action a human being can do to another and, if a person capable of consenting consents to it, I will consider it entirely harmless. To justify this, I will need to define consent, and I'll get to that in the next paragraph. As I proceed with this piece, I will do under the assumption that I am right and that all morality and any world that wishes to call itself just should base itself on consent. While there are many things in the world about which I must confess nearly total confusion, such as the U.S. government, or things I have an inkling about where I stand but must defer to experts, such as with global warming, that consent should be a foundational principle upon which we all should be able to agree. Not everyone will agree with me, of course, but, like anyone who has come to a conclusion about anything, I do think I'm right and will proceed accordingly. 

Consent seems like a simple enough concept to define. That is deceptive. Sure, a decent enough working definition would be something like, "The state of having given permission for action to be taken directly affecting an individual." However, not everybody has the ability to give consent. This includes children (not mentally developed enough yet to give consent), animals (not intelligent enough to give consent), the mentally handicapped (lacking the wherewithal to give consent), the intoxicated or drugged (not of sound mind to give consent), anyone in a situation where not consenting isn't a viable option (self-explanatory), anyone unconscious (again, self-explanatory), and probably more exceptions I can't think of right now. In the case of children, their consent is the responsibility of their legal guardians (and that status can be revoked if abused). Other cases involve proxy to someone with power of attorney. Now, I've heard it said that sex is a woman's power, but, really, our consent is all the power any of us has and its violation is a terrible thing. Sex is such a powerful thing for human beings and I think that's the reason why consent's role is so heightened with it. This is why rape crisis counselors will tell you that rape is about power, not sex. All violations of consent are about power. Rape (all forms of it, including child molestation) is just the most intense version of that consent violation that can happen to a human being. Murder is about taking your life without consent and removing all chances you would've had to consent or not to any and everything for the rest of your life. Theft is about taking your property without your consent. Rape with consent is not rape, it's sex. Murder with consent is not murder, it's assisted suicide. Theft with consent is not theft, it is charity. Plug any crime you like into that formula and you'll find a similar endgame. Crimes that are not, in my view, crimes at all are the exceptions to that rule. Prostitution with consent is prostitution. Gambling with consent is gambling. Drug use with consent is drug use. With less straightforward crimes, the formula gets a little wacky. Drunk driving with consent is doing so on closed off private roads where every last one of the other drivers is completely aware of it and agrees it's fine. Arson with consent is a big controlled fire with proper safety equipment available in accordance with fire codes. Illegal immigration with consent is, um, becoming an immigrant the legal way. Assault and battery  with consent is, um, S&M? Anyway, you get the point. Like individual rights though, consent is a matter of rights and interests, and I'm fine with that. Eminent domain, for example, violates a person's consent, and is such a libertarian bugaboo for precisely this reason. Essentially, anytime the government wants to do something against the consent of an individual, all I ask is that the debate be robust and that nobody forget the gravity of the situation. 

The importance of consent has been etched into my very being by my life's experiences. From the early stories my father told me of the days of the Vietnam War draft, to the mandatory pep rallies that amounted to parties for my bullies I was forced to attend, to the many rape survivors I have known, to my own abusive relationship, to my rejection of a divine creator who would have the gall to create me sick and then demand me to be well on pain of infinite torture, to the many moments of open defiance I've had to show as business owner to more people than I ever expected. For this life to be of any value whatever, the first thing you've got to have is the ability to move without a boot heel on your neck. There's not much I think I know about politics anymore, but I do know that there will always be people from all over the spectrum who know the power of the consent you have to life your life on your own terms and think, with intentions good, bad, and indifferent, that they know better than you how to live your own life. You see it with the right trying to control the lives of gays, women, and gamers and you see it with the left trying to control health care, education, and business owners. Know that you in control of your own life is the way things ought to be and that you've got to fight the bastards trying to take that control away with everything you've got. What is your life, after all, if not a collection of the things you've consented to and not? Change any one of the decisions you've made throughout your life, however, slight and it could Butterfly Effect things so drastically that you would not, in any real sense, be the one reading these words anymore. Once we reach an age where we are capable of consent, everyone, our guardians and our government, need to get out of our way and let us make our own mistakes. Consent is that important.

-Frank