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Schoolgirl sailor triumphs after battle with authorities →
Teenaged sailor Laura Dekker has completed her solo circumnavigation of the world, becoming the youngest person yet to do so. This BBC article about the voyage focuses on her battles with the Dutch authorities to be allowed to take the trip. I remember an argument I had with the child psychiatrist when Laura Dekker was setting out: I thought it was a great thing for her to do, and the psychiatrist explicitly characterized it as child abuse.
Of course I understand that the authorities have a legal obligation to do what they do, but it is just as important for individuals to thumb their noses at legal authorities and to live their lives as they will. As Foucault famously said, “…leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order.”
Those who believe that institutions are to be trusted more than individuals, such as those of the third temperament whom I recently mentioned, would find themselves on the rationalizing side of the Dutch authorities, and I suspect that those who put their faith in individuals over institutions will think it is a great thing that this young girl successfully fought the Dutch authorities to fulfill her dreams.
When an individual knows his or her destiny, and understands with a preternatural certainty that there is something they must do, there is nothing to explain this feeling, and there is nothing whatsoever that can be shown as evidence for it. Having a calling like this is a sui generis experience, and sometimes (thought not always) having a calling puts the individual in conflict with institutions and social collectives.
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