Liberation Unlimited:
A Mission StatementDavid Sztybel, Ph.D.
I. Clarifying Liberation Unlimited
Liberation Unlimited is not a group, academy, or institution, but anyone can belong to it in a sense if they come to share in that overarching ideal.
The aspiration of all materials in this domain is unlimited liberation. There are limitations inherent in reality, to be sure, but that does not prevent us from recognizing as an ideal emancipation without boundaries. An aspiration of liberation unlimited is never blind to limitations, for paradoxically, an unlimited liberation movement must include a realization of finitude as well. We need, as some fail to do, to distinguish between the factual and the ideal. Of course factually we are finite, but should our ideals be deliberately limited? Never. Should we compromise our ideals when they cannot be realized? The ideal and the factual sometimes clash and compromise is sometimes called for, such as when insufficient food rations must go around. However, that does not mean we should ever give up on our ideal that everyone should be well fed.
My current idea for unlimited liberation, which I offer in my own limited way, is called best caring ethics.
Many ideals may seem static, or defined with closure, but liberation unlimited inherently continues ever on with dynamism and change.
Absolute infinity, with all of its paradoxes (and perhaps self-contradictions) need not be the operative concept here since that would go exceedingly beyond our limited realm. Rather, there is relative unlimitedness that we might consider, or what so easily transcends our humble limitations, lifetimes, and generations.
Liberation Unlimited is an expression of exuberance for the best that is possible as much as it is an intellectual endeavour.
II. Orientation of Liberation Unlimited Website
Liberation would indeed be limited if it were not progressive and evergrowing like a magnificent garden, or a map of exploration. No pretensions to absolute thought are assumed here, and learning anew, revising beliefs, and modifying shared discourse is a cherished goal.
Liberation unlimited, for me, means promoting the best I can for others in general, therefore I do not limit the number and kind of helpful resources that I offer on this site.
People will not liberate without limit unless they are educated to do so and to be so. Education means not only transmitting information, but encouraging morale and focus, and informing our characters through enlightened choices and resulting habits.
Critical analysis has learning as an ideal outcome, not “beating” others intellectually. One never loses with such a goal. An ideal vision will incorporate advantages of existing views, praising what is praiseworthy, while hopefully dispensing with disadvantages.
No hard-and-fast limiting boundary is assumed between so-called academic writing and material that is directed towards more general audiences, but rather a form of vital interfluidity.
Unlimited liberation includes the abolition of oppression, but true liberation goes beyond just the negating of what is bad. It is also best to radically affirm what is good. We wish not only to close the book on one phase of history but to help open up moral spaces within which future history might unfold. Liberation from the bad is essential, but liberation to realize good things is also important.
It is most like unlimited liberation, or what is the best in caring that we can achieve, to get the most we can out of the short-term, rather than insisting on forms of perfectionism which lead to failures rather than to partial successes. Unlimited valuation of what is good cherishes degrees of progress and is far from dismissing imperfect realities with wholesale contempt.
Mourning or anger will manifest in the most caring lives, but we do not need to constitute our lives so that negativity predominates. Partly that is a matter of conscious choice. There is not only the vision of universal liberation which helps to sustain us, but oases of liberation in the world which we can help to bring about. A life with mourning need not be a life of mourning, especially since we may well be continuing to witness the morning of total liberation in world history. While we aspire to liberation unlimited, we can see, from the broader lens of history, how very limited oppression is in some ways, and not just as a way of thinking: tyrants die and are overthrown, and racism and sexism are drying up wherever there is real education to clear up stinking bogs of prejudice. We can hope the same for animal liberation, although the microscope of history that our everyday perceptions constitute may present a daunting picture at times.
One can sometimes laugh about one's limitations while taking liberation seriously at the same time. Indeed, I believe that the joy of humour is often to be found in lives liberated towards their highest realization.
III. Issues
Animal Rights Includes Human RightsAll forms of liberation interconnect, even as all forms of oppression against humans of different so-called “races,” sexes, sexual preferences, economic classes, abilities, religions, and so on, interrelate.
Nonviolence A commitment to nonviolence is part of liberation unlimited since those who are subject to systematic violence are oppressed rather than liberated. Definitive liberation is not a limit to liberation so much as a realization of its general form.
Environmentalism Liberation Unlimited does not imply a freedom to glut without limit. That would be inconsistent with future generations of beings also living in conditions of liberation. Thus deep environmental concerns remain in the forefront of the social imagination that seeks unlimited emancipation.
Socialism The form of political economy which is best in caring for all sentient beings is perhaps socialist, rather than either capitalist or communist. Socialism can value best caring for sentient beings above all, whereas anything else is more or less antisocial. Capitalism by contrast values profiteering at the expense of respect, and communism oppresses by violently and rigidly foisting a collective, generic template of society over and against individuals' liberty and well-being.
Globalization Globalization of the capitalist free market system is often read as a sign of despair, however, difficulty is often a window of opportunity as Einstein wrote. There is also tremendous potential for social democratic reform in the phenomenon known as globalization.
Diversity Liberation without limits loves and honours diversity, so long as that variety itself be both loving and honourable.
Respect for All Spiritualities Although the conception of everexpanding liberation takes on the form of sentientism in my own thought, this idea in no way disrespects, for example, many Aboriginal spiritualities, which sometimes rest on visions of universal sentience, or a kind of animism. I believe that what I have to say is at least respectful of such a world view that is often oppressively dismissed and denigrated by cultural imperialists. It is racist to be spiritually accepting or tolerant only of Eurocentric religions and spiritualities, and narrow-minded only to accommodate what oneself and likeminded people believe. Respect for all outlooks on the spiritual also includes agnosticism and atheism.
Unideal Communication Much discourse about liberation is limited by a culture dominated by media sound-and-sight-bites. Even academic discourse is often woefully truncated, lacking a sustaining and systematic approach to theory. This site is dedicated to exploring topics relatively thoroughly, including by providing introductory material to more advanced writings. Obviously, however, one cannot be a specialist in all areas.
Idealism In this too-often hard world, people sometimes lose their dreams and idealism. Affirming liberation unlimited accomplishes just the opposite of this tendency towards cynicism. Some people fear going mad if they hang on to their ideals in the midst of dire difficulties. However, our ideals are the highest expression of our reasoning, and it is perhaps closer to madness systematically to choose contrary to our best reasoning.
IV. Conclusion
Univesal liberation is an idea that will be nourished and grow globally regardless of anything the Liberation Unlimited site either has or lacks, and irrespective of whether anyone happens to be acquainted with it.
May universal liberation expand over the whole Earth not only as an idea whose time has come, but as a welcome reality. May oases of total liberation expand into a general affirmation of what is best for all sentientdom!
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