Living Gor, Part I

The Gor books are works of fiction.  They were created in the mind of a man that teaches philosophy.  A lot of people have read the books.  Some of these people discovered that the way of life, the perspective on man written in the books appealed to them.  They found that the teachings and doings resonated within them.

So they decided to adopt these principles and practices into their own lives.  The understanding of the dominance of man, of the submission of women.  The purpose of men and the purpose of women and the way they relate to each other.  They sought to move beyond the boundaries placed on them by their experiences in life, the expectations that men should submit, should give up their own nature of strength and passion and aggression and become mild and soft and nurturing beings, that everyone "needs help" and that they should give it to them.  The expectations that women should be hard and fight the world and stand on their own in strength in opposition to men.  These expectations, these boundaries, they sought to leave behind.

In doing so, these people brought Gor out of a realm of fiction and made it real.  They made it a part of their very-real, day-to-day lives.  Not the planet, not the Kurii or the silver spaceships or the blue fire, but the self-perception, the self-awareness, the refusal to be unmanly or unwomanly.  The burning desire to be master of one's domain on one side, and surrender completely on the other.

The question is, where does the fiction stop, and the reality start?  For that matter, why couldn't someone immerse themselves in the fictional world and live just like the books?  Would it be bad to do so?  We all say, "Pshaw!" but it would be good to mention why, at least once.

To begin with, obviously, there is no Planet of Gor.  There are no silver spaceships, or tarns, or sleens, or blue fire.  As far as I know, there aren't intelligent monsters or alien forces trying to take over the world, or medicine that makes you young for a long time.

But the reason we don't exactly mirror the fictional Gor life in our own goes beyond that.  There are other things that are done in the books that it would be very bad to do for real, even though they are possible.  Murder in the streets, forced collaring, slave rape... Many of us know this intuitively, but haven't really taken the time to clarify the reasons why.  The reason is actually based on one of the biggest differences between the fictional society on Gor and real society in most of the civilized world.

In the books, humans have no inherent value.  A being's value is solely based on other's opinions of him.  If a Gorean character dies, the only loss is the value that others have in him.  If a slave is slain, then the only loss is whatever was paid for her, maybe a copper coin or two.  Thus it's not a big deal if someone dies.  And given that the death of someone is of so little consequence,  it's understandable that it's much less a deal if someone is lost to capture or raped.

That basic belief, so common in the books, is utterly false.  Each and every human being alive on this earth has innate, inherent value, completely separate from the view that others have of him or her.  The sanctity of the human soul is a basic tenet of human civilization, underlying the self-evident truths of the human being's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  When people "forget" that truth or decide to ignore it, horrible, insane, atrocious acts are committed.  Acts that are very accurately described as "inhuman".

Thus, we have to pull the Gorean paradigm from the false belief system in the books and reframe it around reality, with the basic understanding of inherent human value.  This understanding of human value places boundaries on the action of the individual that were not there in the fictional society of Gor in the books.  If an individual has an innate right to life, then if I take that life I am in deep violation of natural law.  If someone has an innate right to liberty, then if I enslave that person against their will, or rape her without her willing surrender, then I am in deep violation of natural law.  If I do collar a woman and take ownership of her (according to her own will and desire), it is BECAUSE I am providing her an opportunity to pursue happiness, which she and I both believe will be deeper and more intense within my collar that out of it.  If after I collar her I choose to place her in a lifestyle that is counterproductive to her happiness, then I am in violation of natural law.  Even though she becomes my property, she retains all these rights and her innate value, simply because they are a part of being human and she cannot become not-human (a discussion of inherent rights and value vs. complete surrender/property/ownership to come in another post).

This is why we do not kill, or rape, or kidnap, or force collar, or indiscriminately imprison people as is done in the books.  The hard-line border between fiction and reality in this area is the violation of the innate sanctity of human life and the natural laws associated with it.  Most of us instinctively understand these things.  Unfortunately, a few do not.

Beyond this, distinction between the fictional life in the books and reality becomes much more blurred.  Gor is not a religion, it's a philosophy.  Within those constraints listed above, people are allowed to align themselves as close to or far from that philosophy, as close as or as far from the practices in the books as they want.  A philosophy is a belief system, and the right to choose one's belief system according to one's conscience is a natural law.  Although we may believe that the Gor we have chosen to accept as our life paradigm is the true one, we cannot slight anyone else for picking and choosing, or modifying, or even completely rejecting our choice according to their own beliefs and perceptions.  Because of this, there are as many different perceptions of what Living Gor should be as there are people who love Gor.

On the flip side, neither can any one else slight me for deciding exactly what I believe is the right way to live, to pursue the Gorean philosophy, to practice the Gorean principles in my life.  My view may not be pleasant, it may not be nice, it may not be safe, but it is the way I see that the world works.  And it guides my choices and inspires me to be to strive to be better than the man that I am.

Next: My view of the Truth of Living Gor—Being a Man