occupied by gratitude

The only popular thought about beauty today, the one that has the widest currency in the world, is the idea that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. It’s a kindly notion. It seeks to make peace between people who have very different tastes. People are delighted by wildly variant things and that’s how it should be, the thinking goes – so don’t get worked up trying to figure out which things are beautiful.
Yet the success of this generous approach keeps attention away from deeper, more important questions. Whether it is a Baroque Cathedral, the face of a child, or the coast of Sweden seen from a plane window, we have all had the mysterious experience of finding something beautiful. But what is actually going on when we find these things beautiful?
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In 1795, the German dramatist and poet Friedrich Schiller published a book with a fearsome title – On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. It has never become well-known, which is a pity, because it contains some of our most useful insights into the nature and value of beauty. Schiller’s starting point is an analysis of the human condition. He wants to understand our delight in what we find beautiful. Instead of asking which things are beautiful, Schiller is curious about what is going on in us when we respond with this distinctive, intimate thrill and enthusiasm that leads us to say ‘that’s beautiful’. Different things might provoke this response in different people. But why do we have it at all?
Schiller thinks of human nature as an arena in which two powerful psychological drives are at work. On the one hand, there is the ‘sense’ drive which lives in the moment and seeks immediate gratification. It craves contact and possession. It can be coarse, as when one yearns to swig great draughts of beer; but it can also be elevated. Schiller associated the sense drive with his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who longed to see things with his own eyes. Goethe was a direct observer, a natural empiricist who immersed himself in practical detail.
The second drive identified by Schiller was the ‘form’ drive: the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order. This drive, thought Schiller, seeks to leave behind the peculiarities of one’s own experience and discover universal principles. It is at the heart of justice – which is not about getting what you want for yourself – and is animated by principle. When we think that a person is entitled to a fair trial, we are motivated, Schiller says, by the rational ‘form’ drive. We are loyal to the abstract, general ideal of due process.
What he’s calling the sense drive and the form drive are powerful impulses in us. But they are often in conflict. The demands of the short term are at odds with the hopes of the longer view. Comfort and ease struggle against a sense of duty and responsibility. The allure of freedom clashes with the longing to be steadfast and rooted in existing commitments.
Schiller’s point is that human nature is fired by two divergent kinds of longing: we can’t hope to see why beauty matters to us unless we pay attention to them both. If we want to understand beauty, we can’t just talk about the things we find beautiful. We have to talk about our lives.
It might look as though Schiller is trying to resuscitate an old religious theme, the struggle between the flesh and the spirit. But there is a crucial difference. Thinkers ranging from St Paul to Immanuel Kant have all believed that one of these aspects of our nature – which they usually call the spiritual or rational – should triumph. But Schiller does not believe that one side is more important than the other. Rather, the two sides are in need of each other. If the sense drive dominates, we become brutish and superficial. If the form drive is too dominant, we become dry and callous. We need the two to interact harmoniously in order to see the role that beauty can play in our lives.
For Schiller, true beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time. When we find something beautiful, we are called towards a vision of harmonious perfection. This is not only a quality in the object, but a longing in ourselves.
Take the statue of Apollo – known as the Belvedere – which allows us to feel the sensuous joy of a body at the peak of development and ease. Apollo looks strong but not too muscular, and agile but not in any way skittish or unstable. We admire, and maybe desire, his physique. Has he just unleashed an arrow, we wonder, or is he about to set the arrow to the string? Either way, he is active, energetic and concentrated, and our sense drive responds powerfully to him.
At the same time, the form drive is also at work in the Belvedere. We respond to the artistic structure to it, its proportion and unity. The hands extend away from the body but not too far. The technical problem of how to imply motion in a still object has been elegantly resolved. The folds of the cloak round the neck and over the arm have been coaxed into a clear rhythm. Here is a man of self-possession and poise.
In this case – a case of beauty – both drives are at full power, but they do not work against one another. Instead, they co-operate, and Schiller’s point is that to experience a statue in this dual way is to find it beautiful. More importantly, these experiences of beauty teach us how we should be. Not that we should try to adopt the pose or hairstyle of Apollo, or to pick up a bow and arrow. Rather, we should seek to realise in ourselves the fusion of the drives embodied by the sculpture.
Schiller was obsessed with the way we seem to be able to read a person’s character in his or her face. And he thought that the beauty of a face was – as with the statue of Apollo – dependent upon the implied integration of the otherwise divergent drives that power our lives.
Portrait of Madame Duvaucey  by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1807. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Photo by Getty Portrait of Madame Devaucay by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1807. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Photo by Getty
The portrait of Madame Devaucay, painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Rome in 1807, exemplifies his ideal. In one sense, the portrait is highly organised. Each detail has been manipulated so that it fits with every other. The rounded back of the chair is calculated to take the eye to her mouth, but it also balances the curve of her draped arm. The point of her chin is exactly halfway between the top of her head and the neckline of her gown. Nothing is left to chance. A hugely determined will to order dominates the image, meaning that the form drive is at full stretch. And this clarity and organisation appear to belong to the sitter as well. She seems calm, lucid and intellectually elegant.
Equally, however, the sense drive is given free rein. She appears merely to be sitting in her natural way, as we might encounter her by chance in the corner of a salon. Maybe in a moment she will laugh or adjust her necklace. For all her finery, she looks as if she would be warm and understanding – the perfect person with whom to discuss one’s troubles. The beauty of the painting is the way it calls simultaneously to our need for control and our longing for tenderness and intimacy.
It’s not a problem for Schiller if someone happens not to be moved by the particular examples that excite him. What matters is that something does, and that something is what we call beautiful.  This explains why beauty can be so moving – why it can make us weep. When we recognise beauty in a piece of music, or the graciousness of someone’s conduct, we see things that we know we have neglected or betrayed, and we feel an astonishing combination of anguish and delight.
To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience
Like many people today, Schiller worried that beauty was too connected to social status. And indeed, many loathsome people own beautiful things, and the possession of these objects does not seem to make them more humane or especially gracious. Schiller was convinced that to regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience, because for him the point of beauty is to elevate the soul.
Schiller was an enthusiastic reformer, desperate to usher in a newly just and noble society. But he had grown pessimistic about what political reform could achieve. In his lifetime, he had watched the French Revolution degenerate into terror and what looked to him like a combination of mob anarchy and cold, bureaucratic tyranny. He saw the ferocious ‘san-culottes’ of his day as the sense impulse acting alone, and the French government’s Committee of Public Safety as the form drive manifested in a fanatical devotion to purity. The Revolutionary situation in France seemed to exemplify – on the scale of society as a whole – what happens when the basic drives of human nature are split off from one another.

Schiller’s diagnosis of the ills of society ran parallel to his account of the strife within an individual life. What was missing, he argued in both cases, was a full, harmonious humanity, and he thought it would stay missing – both in the leaders and the people. And he came to the unnerving – but perhaps correct – conviction that ambitious social reform would always be frustrated until a much larger number of people had reached a higher level of inner development of the sort enabled by beauty.
Sometimes, we seek to understand thinkers such as Schiller out of curiosity, or to understand a larger trend in the history of ideas. We are fascinated to learn how the cosmos was conceived before the revelations of modern science. Or how prehistoric times were understood before the advent of archeology. We encounter such thoughts as observers, sympathetic perhaps, but not as potential converts. We do not expect to be convinced. We have progressed, after all, and we live in a new world.  But every once in a while we encounter ideas from the past that are sorely missing from the present. And so it is with Schiller, whose notions about beauty are more than a dry record of what one man living in the town of Weimar at the end of the 18th century happened to believe. Instead, they are a guide, for how we might elevate ourselves with beauty today.
14 February 2014
http://aeon.co/magazine/altered-states/can-beauty-help-us-to-become-better-people/
http://dressingyourtruth.com/about/beauty-profiling/
http://alltypesofbeauty.com/findtype.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme

Anjo - Tubular Bells [ Trance Remix ] HQ

the plot named....."Ridiculous" ;)

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/apr/02/employers-lose-age-old-excuse
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http://www.grubstreet.com/2013/04/fast-food-workers-strike-again.html



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love this game! ;)

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both dying on the fiftieth anniversary of American independence.
Robert del Valle, Detroit USA
I once read that during WW2 a rail bridge in Belgium had been prepared with explosive in case it needed to be destroyed at short notice. Whilst not one but TWO trains were crossing on it, it was struck by lightning and blew up killing most or all involved. Work out the odds against that happening.
Paul Wright, Basildon UK
It's a pretty amazing coincidence that the sun and the moon appear to be exactly the same size when viewed from the surface of the earth, thus allowing total solar eclipses to occur.
Justin Rigden, Adelaide Australia
The one about someone phoning a person's National Insurance number instead of their home phone number and being connected to a payphone. The person that answered the phone - surprise, surprise - was the right person. Smacks a little of an urban myth perhaps.
Phil, Cardiff
Some years ago my brother- in law, who lived some 5 kms away, was visiting my house. We heard the loud sound of a Volkswagen car coming into my street, sputtering and then going very quiet. We looked out of the front door to see that it was in fact my brother in law's car being abandoned by would be thieves, breaking down right in front of my house.
Angela Shaw, Port Lincoln Australia
Perhaps the fact that someone's asked this question before; it's in the Speculative Science section, I believe.
John, Wellington, New Zealand
The fact that the apparent size of the sun in our sky is exactly the same as that of the moon. Making eclipses possible.
Matthew Payne, London UK
Check out the opening 20 minutes of the movie Magnolia for some amazing coincidences. I shan't spoil it for you, just rent it and be amazed.
Matthew, Cardiff Wales
A show on BBC2 a few years ago told the story about the AA guy who was walking past a phonebox in the middle of nowhere, when the phone began to ring. On a whim, he answered, and was amazed to find he was talking to his dispatcher. She had meant to ring his mobile, but had rung his staff number instead - which happened to be the phone number of the phone he was walking past. I thought that was pretty weird.
Caimin McGovern, Dublin Ireland
Do you know, I was going to ask exactly the same question.... (and a load of people gave this reply, I suspect)
Angus Dobbie, Oxford UK
I don't think that this question can be answered absolutely - there are many possibilities and it all depends on what definition of the word "coincidence" you accept (if any). That said, here's my contender: The late naturalist and artist Sir Peter Scott was a great believer in the Loch Ness monster as a real flesh and blood animal, so much so that he coined a new scientific Latin name for it, "Nessiteras rhombopteryx", meaning something like "the inhabitant of Ness with the diamond-shaped fins". He was very pleased with the name he had invented until a journalist pointed out that an anagram of it is "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S". This is the most amazing anagram coincidence I've ever heard of.
Martin McDonald, Manchester UK
This is from the Book of Lists, published 1976, under the heading "15 Favourite Oddities of All-Time": "On December 5, 1664, the first in the greatest series of coincidences in history occurred. On this date, aship in the Menai Strait, off North Wales, sank with 81 passengers on board. There was one survivor- a man named Hugh Williams. On the same date in 1785, a ship sank with 60 passengers on board. There was one survivor- a man named Hugh Williams. On the very same date in 1860, a ship sank with 25 passengers on board. there was one survivo r- a man named Hugh Williams."
Jacqueline Davidson, Belfast Northern Ireland
How about the fact that Papa Bush's (George Bush Senior) investment group just happens to own a chunk of BioPort the company that makes anthrax vaccine ?
David, Dothan Alabama USA
Scuba diving in the middle of the south pacific and bumping into your mother who had you adopted when she was younger. Doesn't that sound like a great idea for a Julia Roberts movie?
Adelina, Newbury UK
There was a fascinating TV programme on this subject a few years ago. My favourite was a man who had walked past a payphone which started ringing. He answered it, and on the other end was a secretary at his work who had accidentally dialled his payroll number instead of his mobile number...
Alice, Reading UK
Violet Jessup surviving the sinking of the Titanic and the subsequent sinking of its sister ship, the Brittanic.
Robert del Valle, Detroit USA
I remember hearing a few years ago, although I can't remember the exact details of an event which occurred in America (where else ?). Apparently a man was charged with his son's murder and the attempted murder of his wife. Not that unusual, but it turns out that the son had leapt voluntarily from the top of the building in which his parents lived. The son's descent from the roof to the pavement happened at a time when his parents were in the middle of an argument, and seeking to frighten his wife, the father picked up a shotgun and pointed it at her, thinking it was unloaded. To annoy her even more, he pulled the trigger and discovered to his horror that it was in fact loaded. Fortunately he missed his wife, but unfortunately the pellets went through the window and hit his son as he fell past their window and killed him before he hit the ground.
Keith Wood, Perth Australia
Local chap (Perth, Western Australia) lost his boat after it broke its moorings during a storm. It drifted out to sea and was given up for lost. Something like 8 months afterwards a close friend found the boat, and recognised it immediately - on a deserted beach on the east coast of Madagascar. As I recall, it was in such good condition it was transported back to Australia intact.
Robert, Perth Australia
While I suspect that the payroll/mobile mix-up is an urban legend, a very similar thing once happened to me. My brother Ben and I both worked at the same pub and the landlord was trying to get hold of me by ringing a number marked "Ben-Home" on the staff contact list. This was in fact another Ben's number which he then misdialled by accidentally reversing the last two digits. The number he actually rang was the pub across town where I was having a drink. The barman handed me the phone and my boss refused point-blank to believe that I wasn't at home, since that was the number he thought he'd called!
Jon, Cambridge
To add to Robert del Valle's answer, I think Violet Jessop was also aboard the Olympic when that sank (was sunk?) in World War I. Olympic was, of course, the other sister of the Titanic.
Benjamin Craig, Oxford UK
Some years ago, whilst watching "The Price is Right" I said "I wonder what would happen if Leslie Crowther called out a name (to choose the next contestant from the audience) and two people had the same name?" At that moment, he called out a name and two people, both with the same name, stood up!
Jan, London UK
How about Virgina Bottomley being a perfect anagram of "I'm an evil Tory bigot"?
Simon, Bournemouth UK
Another Titanic coincidence. In the 1880s, a novel was published about the biggest ship ever built, that struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank. The name of the ship in the novel was the Titan.
Jo, Pencader Cymru
When I was snorkelling in the Gulf of Mexico, my dad suggested we go on a 'Snuba' trip (a sort of scuba-like snorkelling involving a long pipe through which you breathe from an air cylinder. The gas tank floats on a dinghy on the surface). Two guys, an Australian and an English guy, were running the Snuba, and it turns out that the English bloke grew up my my village that I live in now. It's a small world, eh?
Dominic, Huddersfield UK
Not very impressed by these coincidences...This happened to me and is absolutely true. In 1992 before I left London to live in the Basque Country I arranged for a friend of a friend to take over my rented flat in Forest Gate. Four years later I went on a holiday to Morocco. I was playing the travel game with my friend - the one where you get points for meeting people you know when travelling. We hadn't met anyone in Morocco and the score was nil nil. On the boat from Tangiers we went to the bar and sure enough standing there was one of the last people I had seen in Britain before I left for Spain four years earlier. The guy I handed my flat over to. I won the game hands down!
John Hird, Al Khobar KSA
Isn't it an amazing coincidence that in America, the land of equal opportunity for all, the curent president is the son of the last but one?!
Micky Flick, Knotterby, UK
I was living in Paris, in the Neuilly area. A friend of mine travelled all the way from Portugal to see me but mislaid my address. He actually knocked at the door of my flat saying: "Arent'you famous! Leaving the underground (as he 'd managed to recall the name of the right station, Porte de Neuilly) I asked a lady passing by if she, by any chance, knew a certain Monsieur Melo...". "Yes, she said, he lives on the 3rd floor right of no. 43 Avenue de Neuilly". She just happened to be the 'concierge' of the building...
Alberto Melo, Faro, Portugal
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both were shot in the head. Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners. Both successors were named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names comprise fifteen letters. Booth ran from the theatre and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theatre. Booth and Oswald were both assassinated before their trials. A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.
S Whibley, Ryton UK
During the 1950s, my grandmother lost her wedding ring whilst digging in her garden on her 40th birthday. 20 years later to the day, her daughter (my auntie) was digging in the same part of the garden and did her back in. Amazing.
Stuart Goodacre, Lincoln, UK
Pursuant to the Titianic coincidences above, Morgan Robertson's book "Futility," published in 1898 (14 years before Titanic left her berth), details the story of the world's largest liner, some 800 feet long, with the rich and powerful aboard, striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage on an April night, and most of the passengers perishing for want of sufficient lifeboats. Better yet, one of Robertson's later books (indeed, his latest one when Titanic went down) chronicled a massive war in the Pacific beginning with a Japanese surprise attack on an American naval base in Hawaii and ending when American planes dropped massively destructive "sun bombs" on Japan.
Michael Cavanagh, Toronto Canada
The AA guy story I can confirm is TRUE as I was working for the company at the time, the odds must have been staggering.
Mark G, Wakefield UK
In the early 1950s my uncle Guus had a hitchhiking holiday together with his best friend in Belgium. In Brussels they meet a British cyclist, they become friendly and have a picture taken of them together. A few months later, my uncle is again hitchhiking in the Netherlands, on the way to Rotterdam to his best friend with in his pocket the pictures of that holiday in Belgium. A truck driver offers to take him, but says he should go in the back of the truck saying that there is another hitchhiker. And that is ... the British biker. My uncle takes out the photo and says: "here is your picture".
Bokke, Gdynia Poland
Once I took a picture of my girlfriend in Pompeii (Italy) with her standing on a column. Nice picture, clear sky and clear background. Years later, when she had a new boy friend, they browsed together through her photo-albums and he spots himself somewhere in the background of this picture. Amazing, and tempting to think they were meant for each other ...
Bokke, Gdynia Poland
My Uncle recently moved to Jacksonville, Florida. As a keen golfer he tries to play as many golf courses as possible. One day he tried to play at a course recommended to him by a friend. As it was a weekday he assumed that the course wouldn't be booked. He therefore turned up at the course and was told that the club championship was happening that day, but that as he had made an effort, if he started at the 10th he could play holes 10-18 followed by holes 1-9 without holding up or affecting the members play. My Uncle therefore started at the 10th and was met by the Club pro. The Club pro, who couldn't enter the club championship as it was for members only, then offered to play the round with my Uncle and show him the course. Well, after talking it turns out that the club pro was my uncle's cousin but the families had lost contact when they were both about 5 or so, when my uncle's cousin's family moved to Sweden. Amazed by the coincidence they agreed to meet for dinner. The club pro suggested my uncle swing by (pun intended) to his for a meal so gave his address. It was two doors away from where my uncle had just brought his apartment.
David Breach, Edinburgh, Scotland
In early 1988 I stopped William Hartston in the street and asked him to be the first person to read through a list of some 30 coincidences I had experienced. Whilst doing so he had what he regarded as the strongest coincidence of his life. 6 months later we discovered that in Stan Gooch´s 1978 book The Paranormal, Hartston is the first person mentioned in the section on Synchronicity and Coincidence.
James Plaskett, Cartagena, Spain
The most amazing coincidence I know of is this: in Bermuda in 1975 a man was hit and killed while riding a moped by a taxi. exactly one year later, to the day, his brother was killed while riding the same moped. By the same taxi. Driven by the same driver. Carrying the same passenger. 100% true story.
George Balorge, Dryden, NY USA
my grandfather before he retired working in a steel factory. The factory was under going some renovations and he spotted some old road maps in a skip. Being intrested in this type of thing he picked them out and took them home. When he got home and eventually looked at them a envolope fell out. It contained our family tree on his wifes side (my grandmother) from quite awhile back, all way up to her mother. My great grandmother.
sam allott, sheffield england
This coincidence is verifiable. It was seen on American television. On April 27 2008,CBS aired a The EDS Byron Nelson Classic golf tournament,which resulted in a playoff between Adam Scott and Ryan Morre. Later that same day CBS aired the finale of Big Brother 9, which consisted of two finalists named Adam Jasinski and Ryan Quicksall. Stay with me here. In both competitions Adam was the winner and Ryan came in second place. Think about it.
Michael "Hops" Hodges, Hyattsville MD USA
My father was in WWII and had an army buddy that he corresponded with for about 30 years. He lived on the other side of the country and they got together only once in all those years. In October of 1978 my father died very unexpectedly at the age of 55. My Mother, wanting to spare all of us of the heartbreaking arrival of the annual Christmas card, wrote to him with the news of his death. When she went out to put it in the mailbox to be picked up, our daily mail had arrived. In retrieving it, she found a letter from the army friend's wife saying that he had died also.
A Martin, Pittsburgh, PA, US
Anurag Basu, a Prominent director in Bollywood was once writing a death scene in a movie. As a method director he imagined 'how will he feel if his father dies. He indeed gave a good script for the scene but on the same night his father died. Leaving him alone saying "I blame myself for my father's death" ref: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-22/news-interviews/34003293_1_production-houses-cancer-cells-film
Shuaieb Anwar, Mumbai India
Our existence in this universe is by far the biggest coincidence of all time. The odds are beyond calculation. From the quadrillions of solar systems in the Universe, ours is still the only known one to support life.
Steven, Cuddebackville USA
This is just the most interesting thing that has happened to me: I was once interested in a woman by the name of Stephanie Cole. Her favorite genre of music happened to be Christmas music. Once, when I was conversing with one of her best friends about how to properly "court" Miss Cole, my phone suddenly began to play a completely random song of the nearly 1,500 I have on it (this happens from time to time for some unknown reason). Laughing about how strange it was, I found it curious that the song playing was The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. It was the only Christmas song I had on my phone.
Joseph Anderson, Chicago, Illinois, US
On my first overseas backpacking trip, I'd traveled from Australia to San Sebastian, Spain, and was introducing myself to the girl sleeping in the bunk above me. Only to find out she grew up over the back fence from me in a tiny town 80km south of Melbourne.
Aussie Lad, Melbourne, Australia
In 1838 Edgar Allen Poe wrote a novel called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket that tells the story of a ship wreck. Four survivors adrift in a lifeboat run out of food and draw straws to choose which of the four would be killed and cannibalized. The cabin boy, Richard Parker, drew the short straw. In 1884 a ship wreck occurred off of Nantucket. Four survivors end up adrift in a lifeboat. They run out of food and draw straws to determine which of the four would be eaten. The loser was the cabin boy ... named Richard Parker.
Mark Henson, Saint Louis, US
I once passed a closed second hand shop on the way home from shopping and there was a painting in the window of a morning winters scene with a sheep farmer and his sheep. I spent about 10mins trying to figure out if the painting was genuine or not as I really liked it then I went home. When I got home I immediately turned on the TV and the soap opera 'Coronation street' was on and Vera Duckworth was arguing with her husband in their frontroom and I noticed hanging above their fireplace the very picture I had just been examining about 5 mins earlier.
Nick C, Littlehampton UK
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21361,00.html

Amazing and Mind Blowing Coincidences

http://www.cracked.com/article_18421_6-insane-coincidences-you-wont-believe-actually-happened.html

Futility or the wreck of the TITAN by Morgan Robertson

7 Amazing Coincidences That Truly Happened

Chasing Perfection

Utilitarisme

Abort og paradokset om menneskeverd
Under gårsdagens bloggpost om foster-dukken endte kommentarfeltet i stor grad opp i en debatt for eller mot abort. Det var vel som forventet, og det er en debatt vi aldri kan, eller bør, bli ferdig med.
Hovedargumentet til de som er motstandere av abort er at livet starter i det egget befruktes. Fra det øyeblikk er det et fullverdig menneskeliv. Det har potensialet til å bli et fullvoksent menneske gitt nok tid, ergo kan man ikke definere noen periode etter befruktningen hvor man kategorisk kan si at dette ennå ikke er et menneske. Utviklingen fra befruktet egg til en 80 år gammel mann er gradvis og flytende, og det finnes ikke noe punkt på denne utviklingen hvor egenskapen «menneske» plutselig dukker opp – annet enn ved selve befruktningen.
Utilitarisme
Det er etter mitt syn en rimelig slutning å dra, og derfor finnes det ikke noe absolutt korrekt tidsgrense for når vi kan tillate abort. Man må innta et utilitaristisk perspektiv og tenke at konsekvensene av en handling skal være et gode for flest mulig mennesker. Sett i dette praktiske lys støtter jeg retten til selvbestemt abort til og med 12. svangerskapsuke. Alternativet er en grov undertrykking av kvinners rett til å bestemme over egen kropp, fryktelig stor helserisiko ved illegale aborter, og neppe noen reduksjon i antall aborter uansett. Et abortforbud vil altså totalt sett føre til mer lidelse for flere mennesker enn hva lov om selvbestemt abort gjør.
Abortmotstandere kjøper ikke den. De mener at man ikke kan innta et rent pragmatisk eller utilitaristisk syn på abort. På samme måte som vi ikke kan si at det i blant er greit å drepe et voksent menneske, eller en baby for den saks skyld, kan vi ikke drepe embryoer og fostre. Uansett når man tar livet av noen, fire uker, fire måneder eller fire år etter eggets befruktning, avslutter man et menneskeliv. Det er etisk sett fullstendig galt, i følge mange abortmotstandere. De likestiller abort med drap.
Det er lett å være enig. Det er som nevnt umulig å sette noe absolutt punkt på utviklingslinjen til et menneske hvor man kan hevde at det ikke ennå er et menneske. Man kan forsøke, men svaret vil alltid avhenge av hvordan man definerer et menneske, og det vil være umulig å komme frem til en generell enighet om dette. Men om man velger å se bort fra det utilitaristiske perspektiv og inntar en holdning hvor selv et embryo fortjener samme respekt og beskyttelse som et voksent menneske, så støter man på noen problemer. Man kan nemlig ikke bare se én side av saken, og her bommer abortmotstanderne grovt, etter mitt syn.

Dilemmaet
Tenk deg en 8 måneder gammel baby. Elsket av sine foreldre. Tilsynelatende frisk og sunn og utvikler seg normalt. En dag begynner babyen å oppføre seg rart. Den får en slags epileptiske anfall. Den gråter mye. Har åpenbart smerter. En legekontroll og etterfølgende undersøkelse av spesialist avdekker en svulst i hjernen. Heldigvis har vi kommet så langt innen medisinen at svulsten avdekkes tidlig. Et kirurgisk inngrep og strålebehandling klarer å fjerne den. Barnet overlever. Det får vokse opp til selv å bli lege en dag, 32 år senere.
Ingen av oss tviler på at vi må gjøre alt som står i vår makt for å redde livet til dette barnet. Babyer får jevnlige kontroller for å sjekke at de vokser og utvikler seg normalt. Oppdages noe galt, så får de den beste behandling helsevesenet kan tilby. Samfunnet bruker enorme summer på helsetjenester, og på å forske frem nye behandlingsmetoder og legemidler mot ulike sykdommer og tilstander.
Disse ressursene brukes primært på mennesker utenfor mors mage, men i blant også på fostre, i den grad det er mulig. Før et visst utviklingsstadie griper vi likevel ikke inn medisinsk for å behandle fostre. Kommer vi ned til embryonivå, altså før niende svangerskapsuke, eller helt tilbake til få dager etter eggets befruktning, så gjøres selvsagt ingen medisinske eller kirurgiske inngrep på det lille menneskelivet i mors mage. Det fullverdige menneskelivet.
Hvorfor ikke? Vi ville ikke tillatt at den åtte måneder gamle babyen bare døde. Vi ville ikke bare konstatert at det var livets naturlige gang, og så latt det dø. Nei, fordi vi anser en baby som et fullverdig liv som har rett på vår beskyttelse og på behandling, akkurat som et voksent menneske har. Men abortmotstandere mener det samme prinsippet gjelder et embryo. Det er et fullverdig liv, sier de. Ingenting skiller det fra en 28 år gammel kvinne målt i rent menneskeverd.
Paradokset
Da tvinger spørsmålet seg frem: Hvor er kampen fra abortmotstandere for å omdirigere store deler av våre helsebudsjetter over i å overvåke befruktede egg i mors liv? Hvor er den moralske indignasjonen over at vi ikke bruker millioner på millioner av kroner på å behandle embryoer som er skadde på ulike vis? Hvor er ropene etter å forske på hvordan vi kan sikre de befruktede eggene mot spontanaborter?
Man regner tross alt med at rundt halvparten av alle befruktede egg ender opp i en spontanabort. Rundt 10-15 prosent av alle bekreftede graviditeter avsluttes på denne måten, altså at embryoet eller fosteret støtes ut av moren innen 22. svangerskapsuke. Det betyr at rundt 50-60 000 små fullverdige menneskeliv går tapt hvert eneste år. Uten at vi løfter en finger for å forhindre det.
Dette er liv som kanskje kunne vært reddet. Men i motsetning til babyen med kreftsvulst, så gjøres lite for å jevnlig kontrollere det befruktede egget. Vi har ikke kunnskapen eller teknologien. Det gjøres lite eller ingenting for å behandle og redde de enorme antall fullverdige ukergamle menneskeliv som avsluttes naturlig på denne måten. Hvorfor er det slik?
«Jammen, dette er jo som regel naturlige konsekvenser av kromosomfeil eller andre utviklingsskader,» vil mange forsvare seg med. Dette er graviditeter som skal avsluttes naturlig, fordi embryoet eller fosterer ikke har livets rett. De har ulike typer skader, og det er bedre at de dør. Men gjelder ikke det i så fall også for babyen med kreft i hjernen? Hvis dette argumentet holder for det lille livet i mors mage, hvorfor da ikke for babyen? De har jo nøyaktig samme rett til å leve? Hvorfor sier vi ikke at kreft er en naturlig konsekvens av en eller annen genetiske skade, og dermed skal vi ikke behandle babyer eller voksne heller?
Konklusjon
I det man begynner å drøfte dette, så tror jeg at mange abortmotstandere vil møte seg selv i døren. For et sted bak i hodet oppdager de at de setter et skille i menneskeverd likevel. De føler intuitivt at det er feil å bruke store ressurser på å diagnostisere og foreta avanserte medisinske inngrep for å redde et 5 uker gammelt embryo slik at det ikke spontanaborteres, men ikke for å redde en åtte måneder gammel baby. De har satt et skille i menneskeverd et sted inni seg. Mens de mener det ikke finnes noe tidsmessig grense for når et barn kan aborteres, så mener de det finnes en tidsmessig grense for når vi skal sette inn ressurser på å redde det.
Jeg mener at man alltid må strebe etter å være konsistent i sin argumentasjon, og ulvene skal vite at vi alle feiler på det området. Men det er nyttig og sunt å peke ut slike inkonsistenser når de finnes. Det kan gi nyttige perspektiver.
Det er logisk selvmotsigende å si at et embryo er et fullverdig menneskeliv og dermed aldri kan aborteres, og samtidig ikke argumentere for at vi skal tilby nøyaktig de samme ressurser for diagnostisering og behandling av embryoer som av babyer eller voksne mennesker. Er du kategorisk motstander av abort på grunnlag av at celleklumpen er et ukrenkelig menneske fra og med befruktningsøyeblikket, ja, så må du strengt tatt også være enig i at brorparten av våre helsebudsjetter burde omdirigeres fra å helbrede barn og voksne fra ulike sykdommer, og over til å bekjempe de millioner av spontanaborter som skjer hele tiden.
I et samfunn med begrensede ressurser til helse ville selvsagt det bety at du selv kanskje ikke fikk den beste medisinske hjelp neste gang du er alvorlig syk. Det ville bety at vi måtte avslutte mye forskning på å bekjempe kreft og andre alvorlige sykdommer. Det dør tross alt 5-6 ganger flere mennesker i spontanaborter enn av kreft hvert år, så her må man åpenbart omprioritere helsebudsjettene drastisk. Det ville bety at enorme ressurser ville gå til å forsøke å redde små celleklumper som sannsynligvis ville ende opp født med store defekter og skader likevel. Det ville bety at mange flere barn og voksne ville lide og dø fordi vi ikke lenger har ressurser til å hjelpe dem.
Men det får vi tåle. Det finnes tross alt ikke noe sted på utviklingslinjen hvor menneskeverdet inntreffer. Dermed blir det uetisk ikke å yte også embryoene og fostrene den beste medisinske hjelp tilgjengelig. Embryoene er like viktige som oss andre. De har akkurat samme menneskeverd. Det finnes ingen grense for dette. Ikke sant?
http://tjomlid.com/2014/02/04/abort-og-paradokset-om-menneskeverd/

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