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Sunday, May 15, 2005
Fran’s Sunday Ruminations: Darkness At The Edge Of Life
Recent decades have seen a development in fiction, both written and visual, that I'd never have been able to predict from what preceded it: the embrace of purposelessness, with a hearty side dish of incoherence.
Let me clarify that a bit: major figures in the entertainment world are presenting us with "heroes" and "protagonists" who, consciously or otherwise, disavow all purpose in life. The depictions of their lives emphasize their immersion in disconnected sensations and their constant struggle to evade the logical conclusion of their rejection of purpose: suicide.
It's my belief that this fashion in entertainment is neither leading the trend in human affairs nor following well behind it, but is depicting it more or less accurately as it currently runs. An increasing number of Americans are electing to live purposeless lives. Lives squandered in pursuit of ephemeral pleasures. Lives in which commitment to a goal larger than oneself has no place. Lives in which nothing that endures is allowed to matter.
Some persons slip into purposelessness from a lack of awareness of their responsibilities to themselves. Others embrace it willingly, even enthusiastically. Persons in the latter group are usually called nihilists.
A bit overseasoned, even for the Curmudgeon Emeritus of Eternity Road? Perhaps. Judge for yourself.
The human psyche is a thing propelled by desires and braked by inhibitions. The desires can be weak or strong; the inhibitions can range from mild reluctance all the way to absolute self-prohibition. In this regard, we are very like our lesser brethren in the animal kingdom.
But men are not beasts. We have extra capacities: the ability to embrace a desire or an inhibition consciously, and then make a case for it out of reason and evidence; the ability to rationalize away an inhibition as a relic of "less enlightened times;" and the ability to reject a desire -- or many desires -- as unworthy of pursuit, no matter how strong. All of these require the exercise of conscious volition: the defining human power by which a man asserts his individuality, his cognitive competence, and his spiritual potential.
Purpose arises from the conscious evaluation of some clearly conceived desire as worthy of one's dedication. Such a desire rises from the pre-conscious or subconscious substrates of one's nature and becomes a pole star toward which he will strive. He will be inhibited from pursuing his purpose through certain methods -- one would hope so, anyway -- but he'll work toward it as best he can within the cone of morally acceptable means at his disposal. If he has more than one purpose, he must prioritize them and divide his assets of time, money, energy, and passion among them accordingly.
Purpose shapes human life. It drives our choice of trade, our free-time avocations, our religious affiliations, and the sorts of people with whom we associate. It's inherent in the way we refer to ourselves: an engineer, a novelist, a conservative, a Yankees fan, a homemaker. A life without purpose...well, what would you call it?
Not all purposes are good ones, of course. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao had purposes no decent man could condone. Many less destructive purposes are equally unworthy: the drive to personally deflower all the virgins on Long Island, or the determination to amass the world's largest collection of parking tickets, for example. Even a purpose formed from some perfectly wholesome intention can run onto the rocks, if its pursuit requires the violation of others' rights. Generically, there are very few purposes in which one can repose confidence:
- The formation and nurturance of a family;
- Contributing to an enterprise of enduring importance;
- The quest for new knowledge of the physical world;
- The devotion of one’s labors to charity, or to God.
Other, more exotic or "original" purposes can be hit-or-miss propositions. That's not solely my opinion; it's the verdict of human experience.
Yes, I've ranted on this subject before. In fact, I've done so twice. And no, Eternity Road readers are a bright enough, thoughtful enough bunch that you don't need to be told all this. No doubt each of you already lives a life filled with purpose. But you might have a friend or acquaintance who suffers from purposelessness. If you found yourself in his company when he was in particular pain from it, would you be able to articulate the matter to him? Could you do so clearly enough that, whether or not he agrees with your assessment, he'd be able to grasp your reasons for it?
Careful, now. No evangelism. Remember that purpose must arise from desire, and desire must arise from within oneself. Go no further than diagnosis, and be your most respectful even at that.
Purpose appears to be a requirement for good mental health. But the purposeless seldom appreciate that. Nor can they be hectored into accepting it. Most nihilists who recover from their malady are struck by the focus, vitality, and good cheer of someone else in their sphere of acquaintance. It doesn't necessarily lead to a transference of purpose from one to the other -- we're not talking about Agent Smith from the Matrix movies here -- but it can plant a seed in the purpose-deficient man's mind, and get him to reassess his deepest convictions about the nature of a life well lived.
Why this topic today, you ask? It's not a religious matter, though my religious beliefs did contribute to my decision to write about it. It has much more to do with my desire that Americans be happier and more decent toward one another than they often seem to be. One of my own purposes is to advance courtesy and humility among men, as best I can, on the grounds that these things were key characteristics of the cheerful, well disposed community in which I grew up. Mostly, that's a matter of living according to one's convictions and letting others decide for themselves whether or not they deserve to be emulated. But it doesn't hurt to write about them now and then, especially when one is consumed by the sense that the preponderance of our cultural messages can be reduced to "every man for himself."
Comments
I wonder, does the process of learning, growing and seeking a purpose constitute a purpose in and of itself? At what point in life does one’s purpose need to become clear? If one seeks purpose for a lifetime and is unsucessful, has this life been wasted? Is it enough for a person to desire purpose and not find it, as opposed to those who shun purpose altogether? Questions I struggle with daily.
Posted by on 05/15/2005 at 12:04 PMCraig,
Looking for a purpose works for about 5 or 6 years tops, in my experience. After that, it just gets wearisome and quickly drains the seeker. Different people probably have different tolerances for it, and I suppose it is possible for someone to be looking for his entire life. I doubt he will enjoy it however. If you have been looking for a number of years, perhaps you have looked in the wrong place.I think the worth of your life is determined by the actions you make, not by the purpose or lack thereof behind them.
Enough for who? If you are trying to please God, then you have to ask him. If you are trying to please yourself, then you have only to ask yourself what is acceptable. If you are trying to please other people, I would suggest taking acting lessons.
Posted by on 05/15/2005 at 02:19 PMWow. That’s a pretty short list, there. And I’d have real trouble attributing any of the things that define my life under any of those four criteria. #1 requires the active cooperation of at least one other person, which I have yet to obtain and no immediately apparent prospects for obtaining. #3 locks out everyone but physical scientists, and #4 likewise excludes anyone but priests. So for the rest of us, we’d better hope that our definition of “enduring” allows our life’s work to slip in through #2. Indeed, to me it sounds more like hubristic pride (which one doesn’t even have to be Catholic to recognize as not a virtue but a sin) than a worthwhile goalpost for one’s life.
The only endeavour we involuntarily single, lay, non-scientists can thus aspire to which meets these criteria is...politics. (Political changes surely do have enduring significance beyond the likely effects of any individual’s likely impact in the field of mere commerce.) And surely _that_ isn’t what you meant to say!
I’ve got to say, it’s quite a shock to be baldly told “your life is worthless” by someone whose opinion one has come to respect immensely, especially someone who is, by his own description and all prior appearances, Catholic.
There have certainly been times during my life when I’ve sincerely believed exactly that. One of those times, I made the best effort to kill myself that I could manage at the time. Another, I came perilously close to repeating the pattern...with what would have been a more “successful” technique.
Now, I’m certainly not going to try and pretend that reading one blog post can undo the sense of the value of life that took me 26 years to learn and another two to really internalize...that would be absurd. But it is disheartening, to say the least.
Posted by Matt on 05/17/2005 at 02:00 AM
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