There was an advertisement about an
Automatic sex shop that ran like this
– non importa se un angelo o diavolo:
totalmente anonimo –
[it does not matter whether you are an angel or devil: totally anonymous].
This advertisement captures the present condition of the
modern man.
Freedom today is understood to be one
without constraints.[1] This is the world that has
created an ambience in which one can do what one likes to do when one is being
watched by the other. It is a kind of total freedom that one enjoys or wants to
enjoy. This culture of freedom is expressed by many activities done by men
facilitated by modern science. The automatic shops are one of the symptomatic
expressions of this phenomenon. But this can also be seen to augment the condition
of the modern man in which one can do what one likes freely, even without an
iota of inhibition of what the other would think of it. Anybody in the liberal
world can choose to buy what he or she likes to without external constraints,
invisibly. I am only reminded of the mythical ring of Gyges.[2]
Further, the advertisement also captures
the condition which insists on the detachability of a person’s being from his
acts.[3] Modern world concentrates
on what one has to do rather than what one is: it does not matter whether you
are an angel or devil but you have the freedom to choose and act anonymously.
This can also strengthen the view of those who are angels – to be angels and
act as angels even when no one sees. In this way, this autonomy can also lead to
what we call to be authentic self-realization.
Additionally, the advertisement also
indicates that there are people who still feel ashamed of certain
acts being done in public. This is to say that the human person has an inherent
notion of the other’s credibility. Even nobody in the auto-bus knows me; I do
not behave wrongly due to the fact that it can endanger my identity. My
identity is also shaped by others that transcends beyond my freedom of doing.
But it is not merely because the law forbids. For example no law forbids poking
one’s nose with his finger, yet one does not do it in public because it does
relate to his character and with his identity.
In
spite of the fact that after the construal of the human person as the
individual by the contractarians and liberals who appeal to the rationality of
the individuals, the advertisements only appeal to the consumers emotionally.
Emotions can be triggered more easily than rationality. While the business
world today encourages and appeals to emotionality for its profit, it is
ridiculous to say that religion appeals to emotions and therefore leads to
fundamentalism. If the statement about religion is true, then it is doubly true
that the capitalistic business world is more fundamentalist than religion.
[1] Freedom today is understood in the sense of ‘negative freedom’ that
is defined by Isaiah Berlin who distinguished it from ‘positive freedom.’
[2] Cf. Plato, Republic,
Book II, 359d – 360c. Glaucon makes a strong case that people act justly
precisely because of the law or what others think of them. Therefore when one
becomes invisible with the magical ring, the claim is that even a just would
act unjustly. In this advertisement, even an angel would behave in devilish
ways!
[3] This can take us to further reflections. Charles Taylor is right
when he says that the moral domain has given more importance what to do rather
than what to be. He says we are more worried about determining our actions in
terms of rules rather than the good to be.
