It May Be Time To Talk About Human Autonomy

Freedom of choice is about more than our bodies, it is also our body politic, and the planetary body we call Earth

The right to your own life

Autonomy is simple enough. Choice, freedom, the right to do with one’s body as one chooses, is an uncomplicated idea. That one is privileged to work at home, have children, thrive in education and/or STEM, dress as one chooses, walk when, where, with whom one chooses, just to generally be what one wishes to be, or NOT. These entitlements and privileges are taken for granted, especially by the most “privileged” members of any community.

For women, any such choice very quickly becomes mired in the morality, traditions, economics, and even laws, that restrict her ability to be whatever she chooses in a world she can walk free.

But most human society is unable to allow this kind of autonomy.

Let’s say you have made up your mind that abortion is murder. It won’t matter to you that the woman considering she is not ready for another kid, may have no knowledge as to her pregnancy before she is restricted to have no right to choose. It won’t matter that more than 90% of all abortions happen long before a fetus develops. They are safer than getting a filling at the dentist, and twice as quick and straightforward. No surgery of any kind is usually employed, and all the restrictions in place are not about safety or health, but about enforcing the restrictions themselves. That this practice is legal and safe creates an ongoing war.

Murder, is murder, after all. We can’t simply allow (even men!) to murder without consequences, at least outside the military or police force. (Even this idea is seeing fierce debate in many places right now.) Therefore, in the minds of many, allowing a woman to have the autonomy to be the one who gets to decide her fate and future must be restricted.

Internalized non-autonomy

Let’s look at a related, but indirect form of restricted autonomy. Women generally do not play in professional sports leagues at the same rate that men do. There are few world-famous NBA, NFL, MLB, Boxing, Hockey, or even Soccer, players who are not male. This has been slow to change, and again, has more to do with tradition and expectation. Even in the non-physical competitions, the only world-class player I can name is the fictional Queen’s Gambit champion. It is the same with non-professional games. When I see people on motorcycles, four-wheels, gun ranges, skate-parks, and community recreational centers, I see majority male players.

This kind of autonomy is shaped by a general attitude that women share. They become uncomfortable, and feel “weird” in mostly male spaces. They are not restricted by outdated rules as much as by their own self-imposed, and easier to live within, preferences.

Even when I was a mountain climber in my twenties, alpine and rock climbing was very clearly dominated by men. I certainly hope that has changed, but I think there are few statistics to tell us this is the case.

Most people do not recognize such limitation as a slap down from the iron hand of the patriarchy, or as being based in misogyny, it is far more subtle than that.

Most of our assumed choices are imposed upon us by internalized concepts, or from external restrictions that few have the power to question.

When equality becomes domination

At present, the world is shaken by new proposals for equality that propose people of color and every gender should insist upon equality.

Bills, laws, and new curriculums — such as CRT — are proposed. Most are then countered by restrictive proposals.

Depending on what is in your heart, mind, and head, you already know this is right and just, OR, you have already decided it is divisive and a ploy by progressives to push an agenda quite apart from equality. “They” may actually have domination, or replacement, in mind. Thus, we learn, those who claim to want equality, actually just want to dominate, somehow.

What I hear in this rural community is not about domination, but evil. “They”, the blanket statement goes, “are just evil.” The very concept of Satan’s existence can instantly annihilate any construct of autonomy.

Despite how even the general public understands this a psychological defense mechanism called projection, we still live with it in every person who suffers under confirmation bias — that’s all of us.

The chain of command and the chain of events

We can know of a thing — say the climate crisis — and still go on buying, living, and discarding as if the problem is not really real.

It explains why the world still runs on the very toxins that are killing more life on Earth every single day. An odd choice. We are simply taught to live in conformity, that we are helpless against something so huge, and that, our little efforts are simply a waste. It explains that while world leaders meet regularly to discuss solutions, they come out empty-handed in terms of making enough crucial, and life-saving, bold actions. They view substantial change as coming at a cost of someone’s “freedom.”

All of these concepts have to do with autonomy.

That is, we go along to get along, and seldom do we demand choice. We are entirely engrossed in trying to make a living, feed our family, and adapt to shifting new roles and rules.

Speaking about male autonomy, we see a great many rules are unspoken, and non-legislative. You simply don’t dress a boy in pink, or encourage him to choose dolls over toy trucks and guns, because that’s “what girls do.”

Not all men like sports, and those who prefer ballet, opera, or poetry are pegged as “effeminate.” When a boy is crying — or even a man, sometimes — we shame him, and don’t allow his feelings to be accepted as normal. Weeping, sobbing, or “carrying on” is seen as feminine, weak, even as hysterical. It is not recognized as the human body’s way of cleansing, healing, and refreshing the eyes, body and emotions by their free and healthy expression as nature designed.

Biology, is a handmaiden best called upon when you want to support your argument, but ignored when you wish to assert your world view. It was once presumed that nature had a domination order, and was employed as justification for oppressing and alienating others.

Even women, learn very quickly to hide tears, or to repeat “sorry,” at the first sign of a tender emotion. Our own autonomy is policed from within, and affirmed by others as best suppressed.

That suppression is not at all the same medicine as expression is also suppressed.

Polarization has more say than any one of us

Autonomy — or our accepted lack of it — it could be argued, is a great hazard to human progress. How are we to create an equal and collaborative economy in a world where some people are held down by self-imposed, or outside enforced restrictions?

Government, and how the world struggles to rule itself, offers further evidence of how a few manage to subvert, and even twist, the hopes and preferences of the many. Especially in the USA, polarization through a limited number of choices is the first obstacle. We are not given more than two political parties — one must choose one side only — and ranked voting is not available in most elections. Ranked voting would allow that your second choice, third choice, and even fourth choice might be given some pull and persuasion.

Now we are in more PC and enlightened times, right? Even now most leaders in both private and public sectors are not just male, but white, and not just male but rich male, and not just rich, but usually older male. Let’s add to it, that we also have real bias against some faiths and atheism, even though our nation is the one founded on supposed freedom for such choices!

It does not take long to see that autonomy is a very real privilege for a few, that we restrict in one thousand ways for the majority.

What about human privilege?

Even though education and science has shown centuries ago that the great chain of being was one forged in wishful thinking, we each have vestigial beliefs that see humans as the important being that is superior to other organisms that support life on Earth.

We are all, literally, linked in a large network of systems that require water, weather, plants and other animals, some on a macro scale, and others, of our internal biomes and bacterial biomes on a smaller scale.

Yet, because we have thoughts, and can conceptualize things like thought, future, and death, we see ourselves as special. We invented other systems such as borders, nations, economies, and most importantly — hierarchies — in order to thrive. This has always worked imperfectly for the serfs and those who serve.

Today, the most abused and oppressed of Earth are those we view as resources, rather than fellow members of our tribe. Whether this be a bat in Wuhan, China, or an Amazon forest, we pay a heavy price for exploitation of others, including non-human beings.

We continually tweak the stories we create to support our actions. If religion can no longer justify conquest and genocide, we find other ways to enforce rules that limit autonomy.

We are now at an absolutely unique threshold on the planet. We have to choose whether or not we can reclaim enough autonomy to forestall many of our unfolding disasters. Or, at least, we must mitigate the worst effects of our prejudices and, for some of us, our privileges.

To belong to the Earth is a privilege that is far more righteous than to be “owned,” by any corporation, regime, government, or group. We grew up with tribalism, but perhaps the time has come when we have to see Earth as a tribe, and all inhabitants as vital beings in need of protection and preservation.