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66 | THe Puitosopny or Eco-Pouirics societies is based on the application of technologies of social organisation and transformation of nature which effectively direct people’s behaviour independently of their individual convictions and choices. The individual can only really choose between cooperation — the acceptance of the logic of the system — and complete rejection. Exiting society, however, requires sacrifices such as very few are willing to make. ‘The rest of us, as beneficiaries of this system, share in the aforementioned sins: the destruction of the natural (and cultural) conditions of a life worthy of man. ‘This sinful behaviour can be unintentional from our part, the poor choice can be impersonal and automatic and the connection between act and consequences can be impenetrably complicated, but all this does not change the fact that the individual bears responsibility for his own actions and cannot henceforth pass it on to anyone else. We are responsible for what, strictly speaking, we “cannot help”. What should I do (me, personally), in the knowledge of my responsibility for the preservation of the conditions worthy of human life? Thoreau’s axiomatic observation still holds true regarding the responsibility of civil disobedience: “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.””* But how can we satisfy this requirement? How could I refuse cooperation with the sinful structures, if without them I cannot fulfil my basic duties, such as taking care of my descendants or even acquiring the knowledge needed for telling between right and wrong? The thinkers of the Enlightenment tied man’s ethical dignity to the freedom of conscience, to which he is in all circumstances entitled. They hoped that the conditions of an autonomous moral existence would be created for everyone by the scientific-technological achievements getting the upper hand over natural necessity and by a political system that eases social pressure to the point of being tolerable. Later developments did not meet their expectations. The new technologies in service of mass production and the organisational and communicative procedures enabling their application created a closed system. Its operation requires strict conformity from the members of society in all areas of life and renders the autonomy of the individual illusory. If possible, the total 288 Henry David Thoreau: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, p.10. Libertas Institute, Salt Lake City UT, 2014.
