Dependant Rational Animals

Today, most of us operate with the illusion that we are self-sufficient autonomous human beings.  But life has a way of crashing in on us, sending us back again to the school of dependency.  Sickness, financial difficulty, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, ice storms, war, bombings such as OKC and NYC, etc. ought to teach us lessons from experience about our dependency and interrelatedness.  But, just like school children who empty the contents of their brains as soon as midterms end, we quickly forget the lessons learned in this school.

As I blogged yesterday, my latest school of dependency occurred on a beach in the Bay of Salerno.  Barefoot, with no ID, phone, or money, I was completely dependent on the charity of others.  What a gift to be brought again to this point. 

Although MOJ is not a travel blog, I burden you with this because from the beginning of the blog five years ago, I have continued to think that the most important contribution that we can make to legal thought is asking (and offering an answer to) the anthropological questions.  Often our discussions of left/right, conservative/liberal serve only to divert our attention from the sickness that pervades our culture, including our political/legal culture.  Let's face it, both left and right suffer in different ways from the sickness we might call radical autonomy.  And, we can offer a cure.  We can ask (and offer an answer to) what are our origins, purpose, and ends.

My latest school of dependency reminds me of how much I have breathed the noxious fumes of radical autonomy that are poisoning western civilization.  Only the law of the gift - the law of charity - can provide a cure.  And, what gives us hope that such a culture can be created?  Christ, the supreme gift!