The Defense Of A Condemned Man By Preston Dexler

THE DEFENSE OF A CONDEMNED MAN

a work of fiction by Preston Dexler

DISCLAIMER:

Ladies of Dominion,

I apologize in advance for the content of Lawrence's speech, since it will appear as an attack on the principles we stand for. I have tried to imitate the dramatic irony of the dialogues of Plato, but since I am no Plato, I may well have missed the mark. I have also drawn liberally on the views of Kant, but put them in a context he probably wouldn't have wanted to imagine.

Finally, I apologize for the overwrought style. I felt it was appropriate, but You may well think differently.

THE DEFENSE OF A CONDEMNED MAN

I will now relate the story of a man who made the unforgivable mistake of meeting the eye of a high ranking Lady, and the consequences of his indiscretion.

The Ladies, in Their wisdom, realized that allowing such an infraction would only encourage even more outrageous behavior, and so decided that Lawrence, the transgressor, would have to suffer for his misdeed. Because he had once claimed he could make speeches, he was ordered on a particular day to deliver a speech defending some position with which the Ladies would disagree. This was so they could exact surer vengeance afterward, when it was decreed that he would be dragged off to the great hall and subjected to all kinds of humiliations.

These conditions naturally filled Lawrence with fear on the appointed day as he ascended the stage and prepared to speak. And just as he had composed himself, one high ranking Lady called out that he must first strip off his clothes, as a sign of his unworthiness to address Them. This he reluctantly did, since it was commanded, but he trembled at the crowd staring at his body, exposed and defenseless. Needless to say, when he spoke, his voice trembled as well.

"Distinguished Ladies, because I was instructed to do so, I will now convince You that You ought, by Your Own free wills, to call off my punishment. This is because it is a violation of my autonomy, and to show contempot for my autonomy is to show contempt for Yours as well."

"Let's stop you there," one of the Ladies called out, "since you have consented to live here and obey the rules, and know full well that you can leave at any time."

"I know all of that," Lawrence replied, "but what I will argue is that, in consenting, I have violated my own autonomy. And if You are party to this, then You are accomplices to the crime. I will try to show that no matter what I consent to, I do wrong to allow these punishments and not to demand that You treat me as an equal in every way."

Of course, the Ladies burst out laughing at this remark, so contemptuous of the natural order. And one called out, "It is only in serving Women that you can be autonomous, and that is why you consent."

"This is part of my rationale--true--but I am also driven by desire to submit to Your Wills. When I imagine myself disobedient to a Woman, I am filled with revulsion, and when I imagine myself obedient, great pleasure. But desires and pleasures do not always make actions right. They can also reveal defects in perception, or clouded thinking.

"Consider this: My desire is to obey, and the thought of obedience makes me feel as though I am realizing a deeper calling. But obedience is a surrendering of one's will. And sometimes what one is commanded to do fills one with dread. And the actions might humiliate and degrade such that at the moment of performing them, one feels only pain and discomfort."

"But this is nonsense," a high ranking Lady called out, "You are free to set limits on what can happen to you, within reason."

"I can, it is true, but it is not obedience if I play a Lady's Will like a secret puppeteer. So I only rule out what would obviously harm or seriously disturb me, or go against my deepest moral principles. Otherwise, I consent to being treated as the Ladies see fit. And as is all too vivid in my mind in light of what will happen when I am finished speaking today, this is often contrary to what I would want at the moment, or even what at the moment I judge to be appropriate. Such is obedience, and such is my higher order desire to serve according to Your Wills.

"But in this I show contempt for my own will, for my desires of the moment, and for my judgments. Thus, I also show contempt for my own reason, submitting to the judgments of others and selling my autonomy for pleasure and a feeling of fulfillment."

"This is nonsense," one of the Ladies called out, "If you see the path of submission to be in accord with the natural order, and derive deep pleasure from it and find fulfillment from it, then how can it be a mistake to pursue it? If this involves a loss of autonomy, then why not conclude that autonomy isn't always the most important thing?

"I see the force of Your reply, and this is why I consent to obey. But autonomy is the highest expression of one's nature as a rational being posessed of will, and thus it seems sacred--even the source of all value. For it is only because I'm a rational being, conscious and possessed of will, that I can choose to submit, and it is that choice that lends value to submission.

"But in submitting freely, I paradoxically forsake the very autonomy that allows me to submit. And this is to desecrate the most sacred thing: the rational will. For if I allow You to determine my will, then although I willed my submission, I cannot will what I do out of obedience. If I do, it is not genuine obedience, since genuine obedience is to submit to the Will of Another.

"So in consenting I show deep disrespect for autonomy. And in commanding me, You are an accomplice to that crime.

Lawrence paused for a moment, nervously looking out at the Crowd, which seemed rather unimpressed. He continued, but clasped his hands in front of him: "One thing is certain: You are autonomous beings. And You are owed respect as autonomous beings. But this respect is grounded, in part, in the value of autonomy itself. So if You are complicit in my degradation of my own autonomy, then You also exhibit disdain for Your Own. Even though I genuinely and deeply desire to obey You--even if it means subjecting myself to the humiliations that await me--You ought, out of respect for Yourselves, to refrain from treating me in this way."

And with this, he was silent. As you can imagine, some of the Ladies were snickering at the sight of a naked man making such lofty claims. Others were whispering about his impudence, since here he was telling Them what They ought and ought not to do. And at length the dignified Lady whom he had first offended spoke,

"Well lawrence, you have done as you were instructed and argued for something with which we all disagree. But in your foolishness, you chose to moralize and claim higher ground than your Mistresses. And you did this with sophistries and spurious reasoning, appealing to abstract notions but failing to ground them in convincing argument. So let's take him into the great hall and have our way with him, fulfilling his desire to submit and our commitment to the natural order both."

And so, They shackled his wrists and dragged him to the great hall, fixing his hands and feet to separated pillars. There they proceeded to make use of his body as They saw fit.