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%ALWAYS ON DEFENSIVE ALERT RESPONSIBILITY 850515
People who hold us to be responsible to always be on
defensive alert do not permit us to be vulnerable in
intimate relationships; for, while we are involved in
intimate relationships we can not be on the defensive
alert ready to defend ourselves and those who hold that it
is our responsibility to always be on the defensive alert.
We can never safely relax. Vulnerability is forbidden,
except that we may be and are required to be vulnerable to
attacks upon us for failing to always be on defensive
alert. It is held that we must be made vulnerable for
letting ourselves be vulnerable.
Suppose we try to make ourselves invulnerable to
those who would attack us for being vulnerable during
intimate relationships. We would be on defensive alert
against their attacks upon us---following their own advice
but directing it against them. They will not praise us
for following their advice. We must be vulnerable to
them. It is our responsibility to be vulnerable to them,
but invulnerable to their enemies. We must not exercise
power autonomously. Power must be concentrated in them
sufficiently to corrupt them. They will not be satisfied
with less.
The need to always be on the defensive is justified,
rationalized, in terms of the high purpose which will be
served thereby. Always being on the defensive is
ultimately good because it is dedicated to an ultimately
good cause. The end justifies the means. It is only
necessary to show that the selected means can be used in
the service of some high end. Which is chosen first need
not be said. What the ultimate consequence of the choice
of means will be need not be said, even if the ultimate
consequence is the disintegration of the community which
is asked to accept the justification. At Pearl Harbor we
were not sufficiently on the alert; that must never happen
again even though seeking to prevent it leads to nuclear
war and the disintegration of human species.
Ultimate dedication to specific means needs to be
examined in the light of the questionable survival of the
human species within an ecological context which
contributes to human integrity and survival. Dedications
to ideals which can not contribute to the survival of the
dedications and ideals are dedications and ideals which
should be questioned.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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