We must not be afraid...

In case one finds one's guilt impressive enough and wants to live it through dutyfully, mass attitude does not suffice. In our times we are subordinated to the power of mediocrity that is represented by anybody, the subject that is nobody but still valid for everybody. We have been taught to think that one is not supposed to raise one's head upon the others since no one is better or more qualified than others are. Consumerist democracy describes the subject as anybody. In this merry-go-round of xbodies not one of us is able to find a source that gives a start to independent thinking.

Ethical philosophers have stressed the importance of axiological authorites. Even though anyone may act as a source for ethical thinking, axiological authorities may give us the picture: what does it mean to be ethical, what are the axiological principles that may guide you, what are the real-life examples that show that ethical life is possible? Anyone can suppose that persons like Gandhi, Weil, Jesus, Gautama, and other religious or philosophical leaders are real-life examples of good life and perhaps axiological authorities, too. Why only stick to dead people? Are there no living people that may guide you?

The great question is are we to become such leaders. Is there a way to detach oneself from mass behavior and have a metamorphose of which the result is that one becomes an axiological authority, becomes what a human being is able to?

When we abhor the idea of elite, the self-lifting of oneself to the level of authority, or deny to declare oneself a person who knows and is responsible, we - at the same time - give us an excuse not to do anything. That is immoral. That entitles us to non-commitment of life, also our own life. We may talk of moral and the good life until the end of world but only active spelling of the principles of good life will make the difference. We need the courage of founding fathers and mothers who knew they may have misspelled the principles but trusted in generations to come and their courage to re-spell the principles, anew and anew.
Mostly, we have been gathered around the ancient ideas of life. We try to hatch the dead ideas. We have not the courage to re-open the box of Pandora, fight against the plague it still may give us, and strenghten the hope that lures on the last corner of the box. Evidently, however, the hope is still there and alive. Someone must seize upon it and force it to work for us, in our steps. One have to take the lead if there is any hope.

The black fright describing the examples of yesteryear authorities that became monsters who compeled others to their slaves... that fright must not paralyze us. We are not aiming at political or economic power but at moral decency, honesty, and sincerity. We are not manipulating the mass, on the contrary we try to dispel it, to show that life is not frightening although it may be more open ended, creative and one's own.
Moral authorities cannot be manipulators or leader of the mass. Axiological authorities must only call the good as good, the bad as bad. We must not be afraid.

JV