Freedom-from vs. freedom-to; the candy-father; the pea-soup parable; utilitarianism

texture · 30 April / 1 May YDAU

• When: 30 April / 1 May YDAU
• What: Marathe's political anthropology of the U.S.: its freedom is only "freedom-from" (from constraint), never "freedom-to" — how does one freely choose "if there is no loving-filled father to guide… how to choose?" (the rich father who lets his child eat only candy is not a good father). Steeply counters with "enlightened self-interest" and a delayed-gratification / "gestalt" education. Marathe's Habitant pea-soup parable presses whether U.S. utilitarianism ("maximize pleasure, minimize displeasure") can withstand scarcity between two "sacred individuals." His verdict on the American character-ideal: "The loyalty of a domestic pet." Threaded through: "You cannot kill what is already dead" — the appetite to choose death-by-pleasure is itself the death. (A rare tender aside surfaces here: his favorite off-duty place in Boston is the Public Garden's duck pond in summer — the doctrinaire of "temples" keeping one small private American one, which he is "missing" while stranded on the desert shelf.)