RE: [OT] Re: Sticking point

Well said, Laurent.  The freedom to walk away from a paying job is always
there, though it may be much harder for an individual to do when they own
more possessions and have taken on more debt.  It's easy to look back on the
days when I had little and say I had more freedom, but I still have the same
freedom.  It just takes more courage (or Courage) to exercise that freedom,
now.

It's a situation where I could easily (and sometimes do) say I *can't* make
that choice, but where it's really true that I *don't* make that choice.  Or
that I don't make it right now.  I weigh the alternatives and choose to keep
my house and worldly possessions rather than take to the road like Woody
Guthrie or Jack Kerouac.  I try to keep this choice a conscious one, rather
than mere inertia.  Most days I just do what I've done the day before.  Once
in a while I bring this choice out in the open and take another look at it,
weighing the options and remaking my decision.

And maybe this discussion isn't so far off-topic after all.  Even in a
highly-regulated industry with deeply traditional expectations of certain
standard practices, if one had sufficient Courage, one might attempt to
change those expectations.  And if one were skillful or lucky enough, one
might even succeed.  It might take a long time.  It might not be easy.  But
it's still a choice.

 - George

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Laurent Bossavit <laurent-lQPDYUS/wmpWk0Htik3J/[email protected]> 
> [mailto:laurent-lQPDYUS/wmpWk0Htik3J/[email protected]] 
> Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 6:53 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [OT] [XC] Re: Sticking point
> 
> 
> > Exactly, he enjoys a unique privilege know by few, the ability to 
> > choose ethics over mortgage and college tuition payments 
> obligations.
> 
> I'm not sure I would characterize it as "ethics". I am exercising a 
> freedom. I would like to suggest that the freedom is not a "privilege 
> known by few", but just that - a freedom, which we may or may not 
> choose to exercise.
> 
> Ethics, to my way of seeing, would consist of a discussion of just 
> how dire your circumstances have to be before it can be argued that 
> this freedom has been taken from you. Ethics would be a matter of 
> drawing the line, a line which would stand somewhere between an Iraqi 
> or Chechen peasant (no freedom of that sort) and a Western hi-tech 
> professional with three kids (a lot more freedom).
> 
> Ethics would be entering into the discussion of how my choosing *not* 
> to exercise the freedom of expressing my beliefs, even in the 
> workplace, is possibly tantamount to endangering the same freedom for 
> others, such as my coworkers.
> 
> To say that "I have no choice", for someone with access to the 
> material and intellectual resources which I was granted as a result 
> of my social class, nationality, etc. would be an obscene 
> exaggeration. That is just one more belief that I happen to hold, 
> mind you.

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