https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=OetYaHFJw10
We take it for granted that slavery is wrong, but why we think it’s wrong is not so bloody obvious. And so, one of the things I wonder about constantly, for example, is the Marxists complain about oppression and slavery constantly, but I have no idea why, within the confines of their ideology, it’s wrong. Because in order to believe that slavery is wrong, you have to believe that individuals are sovereign, that they should be autonomous, that they have free will, and that they shouldn’t be subject to the arbitrary dictates of other individuals. So you have to believe in individuals, you have to believe in sovereign individuals, you have to believe in free will. You also have to believe in intrinsic value, right? Because if you have no intrinsic value, why can’t I just impress upon you my will if I can get away with it? You know, you might object, but who cares? That’s irrelevant. Why is that relevant that you object? There has to be a reason that’s relevant before it’s relevant. And so, one of the things we know about God by the time the Exodus story shows up is that whatever he is is equivalent to the voice that calls a leader to lead his people out of slavery. Or maybe it’s equivalent to the voice that calls you to lead yourself out of your own slavery, your own tyranny. So then we think about it as maybe part of the impulse towards, I don’t know what, towards freedom, towards responsibility. And we tend to identify the impulse toward freedom and responsibility as positive, as good. And so to give it an ethical, to give it a high ethical standing, that drive, that call, isn’t an unreasonable thing to do. In any case, God tells Moses that the Israelites need to be free. Now, by that time, we also know something about Israel. So I learned this, I did a series of biblical lectures in 2017, and I learned that the name Israel means those who wrestle with God. And that just flattened me when I learned that because Israel is regarded as the chosen people. And it’s so interesting that the chosen people are those who wrestle with God. Think, well, what does it mean to wrestle with God? Well, it comes from the story of Jacob. Jacob wrestles by a river before he goes to meet his brother, who he betrayed. He wrestles with God on the banks of a river. God, an angel, it’s not exactly clear in the text. It’s often interpreted as God. And God breaks his hip or dislocates it. And then, but Jacob survives the encounter, although his leg is damaged after that. And then he’s renamed Israel and he’ll be the father of those who wrestle with God. Think, what does it mean to wrestle with God? Because Israel isn’t those who believe in God, interestingly enough. It’s those who wrestle with God. And I would say, well, that’s what we all do. Because we all wrestle with meaning and purpose and significance. And we all wonder about the reality of ethical endeavor. We wonder about the difference between good and evil. We were tormented by our consciences for not living up to our moral obligations. We shirk our responsibility or don’t. We’re wrestling with these, with good and evil. And you think, well, why would you damage your hip if you’re wrestling with God? And I would say, if you’re wrestling with questions like that and all that happens is you dislocate your hip, you go out of way pretty bloody easy. Because it can be a lot worse than that. And so I’d say, you know, who is God to break Jacob’s hip? It’s like, no, you’re not. If you’re torn into pieces by questions of ethical orientation, and generally those are the questions that tear us into pieces, then mere damage of that sort from which you recover, that’s mercy. That’s for sure. And so Israel, that’s the real problem. And so Israel, that’s the people who are chosen by God, but they’re the people who wrestle with God. And then you think, well, there’s got to be an association between that and this idea of being called out of slavery. And so I’ve been thinking about that. It’s like the people of Israel are not to be enslaved. Why? How do you determine the course of your life under conditions of duress? You think about it. You think painfully about it. You search your conscience. You try to reconfigure your life. You think in every way you possibly can about the problems that beset you, and maybe you talk over your problems with people that you love, and you try to generate a solution in your discussion, and you do that all honestly. And that’s all wrestling, and maybe you can’t do that without freedom. And so if your highest moral calling in some sense is to wrestle with God, then freedom is a precondition for that, because if you’re doing what someone is telling you, which is what you would be doing if you were enslaved, then you’re not wrestling with God. You’re just doing what the tyrant tells you. And maybe it’s necessary for this wrestling to take place so that we can continually orient and reorient ourselves towards what is good. And so that… And I’ve thought about this partly because I’ve been thinking recently about the right to free speech and why you have that right. You know, is it one right among many? It’s often conceptualized that way. You’re granted a set of rights by the state, one of which is the right to freedom of speech. And why do you have that right? Well, so that you can pursue your own interests, let’s say. So you can say what you want to say. Maybe there’s a hedonic element. You can say what you want to say, and you can do what you want to do. And because you’re a free person, you’re granted that right. But I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s why functional states necessarily grant their… No. I don’t think that’s why functional states are necessarily predicated on the idea that their citizens have the right to free speech. I think the reason that that right exists isn’t because the state allows it, but because the state that doesn’t allow it, doesn’t allow its citizens to think. Because that’s how you think. You think with speech. You think yourself with speech. Maybe you ask yourself a question and you get an answer. That’s thought. God only knows how that works. You have an answer that emerges to a question you ask yourself, and then maybe you analyze the answer, and maybe you discuss it with other people to see if you can sharpen the answer and test it. And all of that’s a process of thought. And maybe without… Maybe any society that doesn’t make sacred the space around each individual so that they can think freely, fails precipitously, rapidly. It ossifies into something totalitarian, where no one has to think ever because everything’s already known, and obviously that’s never the truth. Or it degenerates into chaos because people get so lost because they can’t orient themselves anymore by thinking. And so that seems to be in accordance with this notion that the people of Israel, if they’re the people who wrestle with God, must be free because they can’t do that wrestling if they’re operating under compulsion. And so… And it’s necessary to wrestle in that manner to move forward because life is actually complicated and difficult. And so… Unless you’re able to contend with the conditions of your life in some deep manner, there’s no possible way that you can move forward.