JOSEPH: Sophia, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! Ever since I heard that you got the notice that you’re supposed to be drafted into the war, I’ve been running all over trying to get ahold of you. I didn’t think that I’d find you wandering around town like it was just another day!
SOPHIA: Well, Joseph, it is another day. Besides, I’m not in prison yet. If I should begin to live any differently just because imprisonment is awaiting me, wouldn’t it reflect poorly on how I’ve decided to spend my time thus far in my life?
JOSEPH: I suppose… But what do you mean you’re going to jail? You can’t give up just like that! You need to get out of here! Canada’s only a few hours away by car, or if you take a plane, you could be in Sweden by tomorrow. Whichever one you choose, you won’t have to go to prison or join the war. Come on, I’ll help you pack!
SOPHIA: Joseph, if you want to be of assistance to me, then don’t help me pack. Help me examine the predicament I’ve found myself in. As you’ve just laid out for me, I have three choices: join the war, refuse to join and go to prison, or flee the country. But it seems you would have me think that there’s only one option to consider! Now, why is it that I should run away?
JOSEPH: Why do you have to question everything, Sophia? Especially now, when the correct path is so obvious! But fine, I’ll play along if that’s what will get you out of here faster. You’ve spoken in length about the contempt you have for this war. Countless innocent people are already dying for sins committed by their government, which they have no responsibility for. They are losing their lives because of the misguided blame of their enemy. Yesterday, didn’t you say that to inflict pain onto those who have wronged you only does more harm?
SOPHIA: I did.
JOSEPH: Then you couldn’t possibly support joining a war and committing acts of violence against people you don’t even know just because the government tells you to!
SOPHIA: Very good. It’s true that I’ve been outspoken against the war. Of all the people planning to fight whom I’ve questioned, none have been able to explain themselves to my satisfaction. They tell me they fight because they need to defeat “the enemy.” But when I ask them who that enemy is (for they must know them very personally if they are planning to take their life!), they can’t give me a first name, last name, or even a nickname of those they are going to be in direct combat with! But what about the other two options?
JOSEPH: Well, Sophia, you know the situation as well as I do! Public opinion- and the government- both strongly favor fighting in this war. Now, you and I both have opposition to it for the reasons I already mentioned. If you remain in the country and refuse to participate in this egregious fighting, you’ll be locked up, stripped of your freedoms! In what way can this be just? Even once you’re finally released from prison, you’ll be an outcast for not obeying the general will of the people. There is nothing left for you here. But all your problems can be solved if you take my advice and run away! Then there will be no fighting, and you’ll be in a land that is sympathetic to your refusal to join the war.
SOPHIA: Ah, now Joseph, you’ve made some promising statements! But let’s take a closer look at what you’ve just said. As you’ve stated, if I remain in the country but refuse to fight, I will likely become a social outcast even once I am out of jail. But those words you used, saying that there will be “nothing left” for me here… could that really be true?
JOSEPH: Definitely.
SOPHIA: The public is comprised of two parts: the minority and the majority. Is it not? If a majority of the public is in support of the war, then they will turn against me. And if a minority is against the war, they will be pleased with my refusal to fight. Is this not reasonable to assume? I see you nodding your head. Continuing along that line of thought, if I stay in the country, go to jail, and then am released from prison, even if most of the public wants nothing to do with me, does the minority not still remain? And in that case, can I really be said to have “nothing left?”
JOSEPH: Well, Sophia, you don’t always have to take things so literally. I guess there will still be some people like me who support you, but when most of the public turns on you it’ll still feel like nothing and no one remains for you here., Tthe way you’ll be mocked and harassed!
SOPHIA: Well, I’m sure that they will ridicule me! But Joseph, answer me this: is something the right thing to do because it is the right thing to do, or because somebody thinks it is the right thing to do?
JOSEPH: The former.
SOPHIA: Very good! Then in that case, what’s right is what’s right, regardless of what others think of it?
JOSEPH: Yes. What’s your point?
SOPHIA: Well, Joseph, we’ve concluded that opinion can’t change what’s ultimately right. By that logic, then, even if vast amounts of people believe something moral to be immoral, their opinion alone doesn’t have any power to change reality. If this is the case, can an unwise opinion be said to have any value at all if there is neither any truth in it nor any power to turn the moral immoral, or the immoral moral?
JOSEPH: I guess not…
SOPHIA: So then, even if most of the country turns against me, since I am acting morally by not contributing to the combat, then their disagreements with me have no consequences that truly matter- besides, perhaps, being barred from running in the same circles as this unwise majority (not a real punishment at all if the only thing they do is cycle half-baked ideas back and forth amongst themselves)!
JOSEPH: Alright. But think about it this way: isn’t going to jail letting the government win? Even if you’re not fighting for them, they still get your life, your freedom! Why are you giving it to them when they have already taken so much from our country by plunging it into conflict? Deserting will not only allow you to maintain the morals you value so highly by avoiding the fighting altogether, but it will keep your life out of the hands of an unjust power.
SOPHIA: Joseph, it seems you are speaking of vengeance, taking revenge on the law which plans to do me an injustice. But didn’t you say earlier that vengeance is wrong when we concluded that I shouldn’t join the war because it would involve harming innocent people? It seems you didn’t entirely understand my point that to inflict pain onto others just because they have wronged you only creates more harm when you quoted it back to me earlier. I know why you are suggesting that I run away. It might be tempting to flee because I may feel better if I get some form of revenge on the government for creating this war. But just because I might feel better, does that mean that the wrong will have been righted? In my head it may seem that circumstances are better, but in actuality, one wrong would only have been swapped out for another. And where I was legally guilty but morally innocent before by refusing to partake in the war, I would now be morally culpable for breaking the law by evading my prison sentence… and still legally guilty! Can that truthfully be called an improvement? And even if some good came from that injustice, wouldn’t I still have created a new evil? Regardless of what has been done to me, doesn’t it strip me of my honor to knowingly do harm? But I know what you are going to say next, Joseph. You mean to tell me that by running away to Sweden, I will be free, but if I remain here then I will lose my liberty by being tossed in prison, don’t you? And, in that sense, running away would be justified?
JOSEPH: Yes. And if you really do care about putting an end to the war, you’ll do what I say! There’s nothing you can do to help stop it while you’re sitting in a prison cell.
SOPHIA: You’re right, Joseph, that remaining in the country and being sent to prison will mean losing my physical freedom. But tell me, would being locked away mean that my morals would be lost as well?
JOSEPH: What do you mean, Sophia? Where are you going with this? SOPHIA: Although my body will be confined, they can’t put my mind in shackles. I will still be able to think whatever I please, and act according to the morals I believe in even within a jail cell. However, if I flee the country, my body may be free, but I will have lost my honor instead- and what is a life without honor? Everything I’ve said about principle and virtue when speaking about the war will be rendered meaningless if I don’t uphold those same values when a test like this challenges me to put them into practice. If I leave, then I’ll have gone against all that I have stood for my entire life because I will have unjustly broken the law of the country that raised me. Don’t you agree, Joseph, that it is better to have no life at all than to live ignobly?
JOSEPH: I do, Sophia, but I still don’t see how staying here could be considered noble. The government jailing you for refusing to participate in the war is unjust. Why should you obey this nonsense and stay in a land where you are persecuted for standing up for your beliefs?
SOPHIA: We seem to agree on the point that refusing to join a war may not be immoral, but it is illegal. So, then, what is moral is not always what’s legal, and what’s legal is not always what’s moral, correct? You and I both see this as an issue. Do we not, as citizens, have an obligation to try and resolve issues when we have the ability, and should I not do so here?
JOSEPH: We do, and you should. Like I said before, remaining here won’t help!
SOPHIA: If you agree, Joseph, then you should be telling me to stay and be arrested! If we are displeased with the laws in our nation, then will running away solve our country’s issues? I see you shaking your head. I would then ask; would this country be able to go on existing if its citizens did not obey the laws which bind it together? You see, I’ve broken it once in the name of honor, by refusing to be drafted. However, if I broke the law a second time by running away, would it still be honorable? Wouldn’t it be unreasonable to expect others to continue to respect me if I did this, violating the very foundation of the society we collectively share for no reason aside from my own personal gain? What’s more, this is the country I was born in, and which has given me everything. After benefiting from it all these years, don’t I have an obligation to live by its rules in return, so long as they are just, and if they are not just, to try and change them? And shouldn’t I be careful not to betray my own country by abandoning it in its time of need, when instead I could make an impact through the attention my disobedience generates, and try to change public opinion? I believe you will come to see that, if I truly care for my country, I have a duty to remain here and let my unhappiness with the war be amplified through my imprisonment. If I aim to preserve my honor through my actions, then I need to face the consequences of doing so. Otherwise, there is no hope for change, and there is no hope for me.
JOSEPH: I see… You’ve given me something to think about. I think I need to be alone with my thoughts for a while.
SOPHIA: Then, my work here is done for today! If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to head downtown and discuss the war with whoever I see there, while I still can. Goodbye, Joseph!