Responsibility

When I heard of Hillary Clinton’s comment on deplorables ... basket of deplorables. Right? They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – Islamophobic – you name it. I thought it a foolish remark. These supposed deplorables have been hit hard by the crash of 2008 and are likely getting their heads above water only now. It was and is understandable that these people were looking for those responsible for their plight which includes their economic situation and perhaps the perceived decline of the United States, their security and moral fabric of the country. If we listen to the clarification, it ameliorates the damage but far from sufficiently. If I were in the crowd, I would have been horrified by that statement, I would not have been cheering in the background. Since the election I have met a couple of Americans who are relatively wealthy and well educated, who voted for Trump. They are for me smart people. They seem to believe Hillary is a murderer and not above board when it came to some financial dealings. While I don’t think Hillary comes across as being a particularly likeable person (she may well be quite likeable), I wondered whether Hillary was pointing to the wrong half of Trump supporters … and she should have been pointing to the intelligent, wealthy, erudite, principled people who would be expected to know better.

Unfortunately, I fall into the same trap as Hillary here; believing everyone could have done otherwise.

So, the fundamental question is (if free will is false, we could not do otherwise) then how can Trump supporters be responsible for their beliefs and their votes? How can we call anyone deplorable other than we have been caused to do so? We are definitely responsible in the sense that we are proximate causes … people do put Xs next to Hillary’s and Donald’s names. By and large we are smart enough to understand there are a myriad of competing causes that push and pull us in one direction the direction of Hillary, Donald, someone else or not voting. This myriad of causes or causal mesh we find ourselves in, we are all part of it and ultimately, we affect that mesh by our actions. Now some of us have been ‘afflicted’ by destructive or constructive tendencies. Wise or unwise, caring or uncaring … I could no doubt add more dualities. In what way are we responsible we responsible for our ‘afflictions’?

But we do have a sense of morality and this implies a capability of being responsible in a way other than just being a proximate cause. Where does this sense of morality come from? Well of course (if we are materialists) the answer is biochemistry and evolution. We (well most of us) definitely have a sense of shame, guilt, disgrace, regret, remorse and the positive side pride, honour, satisfaction, and perhaps ego. These of course are feelings and can be manipulated by others and chemicals. We can read from an evolutionary psychology point of view how these feelings can help us navigate our social circle. From a materialist point of view these feelings are a product of outside actions and the way our bodies have been configured by evolution and ultimately physics.

Now what? We can come to the conclusion that our sense of morality, like my sense of the kitchen chair being red, is an illusion (not what it seems). This is no way a disaster, only that we tread carefully as to the conclusions we draw. Some might argue we can (and do) hold certain actions as moral, ie pushing someone down an elevator shaft is immoral while falling down an elevator shaft morality does not come into it (amoral). Again, from a materialist’s point of view both are the same in the sense it could not have been otherwise, and both are by and large undesirable.

We don’t hold (anymore) animals morally accountable. We might breed in certain traits we desire. Bruce Hood has argued that mankind has domesticated itself. This has and likely still is happening. So, in this sense, a sense of morality has been bred into us. We can hold onto a semantic sense of morality where certain types of particularly undesirable actions are considered immoral or desirable one’s moral. I am drawn to Joseph Campbell’s quotes though:

You yourself are participating in evil, or you are not alive. Whatever you do is evil to someone. This is one of the ironies of creation.
and
… one of the greatest challenges in life is to say “yea” to that person or act or that condition which in your mind is most abominable.

Personally, I try to approach things amorally. I try to assess whether that person, action or condition will meet my ends. Sure, I can, and no doubt will play the morality card in certain situations to manipulate people’s actions. But, in the moments I remember, like when Donald says or tweets something stupid, I remind myself he could not have done otherwise and I cannot feel differently about his comments.