Real Autonomy

I have found myself unable to define 'real autonomy'. What does it mean? What can it mean? What will it mean? What should it mean?

'Autonomy' is a concept. It is, an ideal. It is a concept of an ideal. There are different conceptions of it. I have, in past writings, described at least three: Kantian Autonomy, Kazcynskian Autonomy, Late Capitalist Herd Autonomy. I have also suggested that there is a legal fiction called a 'person'. That too is a conception of autonomy.

The idea of autonomy as the property-owning Lockean, Nozickian "get off my land" prospector has come to an end. In the coming age we will find that our political lives are more infinitely complex than we ever dreamed. The collective trance of a national identity broadcast over the major media will remain, but the interest in knowing the network of local power structures will be key to survival. The sphere of our real concern will focus more on the region rather than the country. We will discover that our autonomy is rather a skillful interdependency.

The reason autonomy is an important philosophical question to ask about, is because autonomy is the rubric under which our lives have been lived. We act and live out our lives in a political space in which our autonomy is a birthright, an entitlement. But that sense of entitlement has been realized in the space of a material culture unprecedented in its capaciousness. We have enjoyed the ability to fly back and forth across the country, hour long commutes to work, and collectively heat our homes. For all of its benefits, this has also meant a separation from real control over our lives. Much of the material culture is given to us through a system of distribution and we don't really think about what it means. But when things get scaled back from their present galactic proportions, smaller spheres of power will become more important. We will not be free to act as we have been.