War and Apathy
All this gay talk started with a discussion of The Wanting Seed, but there’s much more to this book than a discussion of sexual orientation. What about war and political philosophy?
Having majored in philosophy in college, this book appeals to me because Anthony Burgess doesn’t seem to make any judgment about the things that are happening to his main character, he just reports on them matter-of-factly. The society is what it is, they eat what they eat and call it meat, and wars are started in the interest of public safety and morale. I don’t know, if I read it again, I might not feel that way. Maybe I’m just projecting my own ethical ambiguities.
In my youth, I wanted to be appalled by Plato’s philosopher kings, the only people with all the facts, lying to the masses to “protect them.” But after studying ethics, I know all about hard decisions and hidden truths. I’m fine with governors making hard decisions about wars; I can’t judge them because I don’t have all the facts; and honestly I have other interests, so I don’t want to spend my time looking under rocks for truths I may never find.
You can call it apathy if you want. You could even call it irresponsible, but then I don’t really care, which brings us back to apathy. So there.