“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n” - Satan, Paradise Lost, Book I Line 263
Independence is an interesting thing. How much do you value it? Is it not reasonable to believe that it should be valued above all else? Is sovereignty subject to pleasure? Should independence be sought only when it will be of utility (see Utilitarianism)?
The essential question that I place before us is this: Which is of more value? Independence? Or happiness?
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” – John, Brave New World
Dependence is essentially a weakness. Although we’re all dependent upon certain things; we have to be. But at what point is it too much? John realized that the world in which he was thrust was one of debasement in which no one could live for themselves. The choices they made were unimportant and were laid before them by others. What meaning can an action have when one has no choice in it?
Ironically, Satan felt the same way, and rebelled against God. John reveals a telling insight when he notes that his brave new world was not only godless, but also sinless.
How much do you value your independence? After John’s line above, the conversation between John and Mustapha Mond continues:
“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.” There was a long silence.
“I claim them all,” said the Savage at last.
It is my conviction that independence is the schemata through which actions acquire valuable meaning, and through which happiness can be absolved.
