I suspect that most people stay with religion, or stay away from the matter all together due to the fear of a meaningless life. The fear of nihilism is nothing new, but with the evidence for Darwin's work so clear the spectre of nihilism is all the closer.
What if evolution is correct? What if the evolutionary psychologists are correct? What if all human behavior is motivated by selfishness?
Even Darwin feared this.
Seriously.
Go read the 'Descent of Man' or Darwin's Autobiography again...
Hmm? What did you say? 'What do I mean by again?' *sigh*
All hope need not be abondoned, dear Beatrice, there was a Russian radical who shone a light to lead the way.
NO! Not that Russian radical! The woman! The woman!
While she was certainly not perfect, it would be good to read 'Atlas Shrugged' or the 'Fountainhead' or at least enough of either novel to understand the virtue of selfishness.
Rand makes a very good case for why someone who is consciously (rationally) self-interested (selfish) will act in a moral manner even when they 'could get away with it'.
If you could steal without being caught, a man of rational self-interest would turn down such an opportunity. Why? Because the man himself knows he stole, and the injury will be to his own 'soul'.
Such an act would make his character erode. As we are already aware there are so very few things actually within our power in this world, and our character is one of those things. This loss of character would push that man further from the achievement of serenity in his soul and happiness in his life. Thus, such an act would be against his own selfishness.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
It doesn't matter if the world is evil... or good.
I read and post to various message boards. I wanted to keep this here to keep my thoughts together.
Quote:
“The most important decision we ever make is whether we believe we live in a friendly universe or a hostile universe.”
I understand where you're coming from with this and about how it effects our attitudes.
But the brutal truth is we don't get to 'decide' this – rather the world 'is what it is', and no amount of wishing can make things anything but what they are.
Maybe you're a Christian and that makes you an Original Sin kind of guy. Or maybe you know that Darwin was right – all human behavior is inherently selfish. Perhaps you're of a different tradition that says all human beings are inherently good. In the end it really doesn't matter...
You've got the idea right about having a 'good attitude' about things, but for the wrong reasons. A good attitude will help anyone out a lot in life, if nothing else it will keep you moving through the bad times. In good times it will push you further by making others like you.
If people are good, then fine.
If people are bad, then fine.
It doesn't matter either way. What matters is if you choose to have a good attitude about your life. Yes this is a choice. It's one we can make at any time under any circumstances. We can choose to be happy because you, the real you that lives deep down inside that flesh, cannot be injured by anyone else but you. If someone slips past your defenses and you have convinced yourself they can hurt you then they will, but even this is a small thing because you know you can heal yourself again. There is no injury of the 'soul' that need be permanent, unless you allow it to be permanent.*
There are some things in our power, and there are many things that are not. What is not in our power are those things over which we do not hold exclusive control. Some of these things are our health, our fortune, our reputation, our status, and all other such things are not in our power. What is in our power is whatever is directly up to us. Our choices, our will, our opinions, our intentions and all other such things are in our power.
If we choose to place our happiness in those things not up to us, then the world shall own us. Place your happiness in a woman's love? Then she owns you. Place your happiness in your reputation? Then that owns you as well. As someone's signature here says “Whatever you can't say 'no' to, is your master”. Is this what you wish? To be a slave to what the man down the street thinks of you? To be a slave to what a woman can give you?
Such a life does not befit a man. If you wish to live such a slavish life, the cut your d!ck off now, you won't be needing it anymore.
If we choose to place our happiness in those things that are up to us, then happiness becomes a choice. This is not the ecstatic high of a drug, or the ego thrill of some 'conquest'. This is the serenity that invulnerability brings. This is about “how you played the game”, because that is all which is in your power.
*Yes the flesh can be so destroyed that the soul is injured. Before my grandfather's death he was under the memory robbing sway of Alzheimer's. By that point, I wasn't looking at my grandfather any longer, I was looking at the thing that killed him. I say this because I know someone in the crowd will jump up and down “Oooo! Oooo! I have found an exception to your law of the invulnerability to the so-called soul” because they can't understand the limits of a metaphor.
Quote:
“The most important decision we ever make is whether we believe we live in a friendly universe or a hostile universe.”
I understand where you're coming from with this and about how it effects our attitudes.
But the brutal truth is we don't get to 'decide' this – rather the world 'is what it is', and no amount of wishing can make things anything but what they are.
Maybe you're a Christian and that makes you an Original Sin kind of guy. Or maybe you know that Darwin was right – all human behavior is inherently selfish. Perhaps you're of a different tradition that says all human beings are inherently good. In the end it really doesn't matter...
You've got the idea right about having a 'good attitude' about things, but for the wrong reasons. A good attitude will help anyone out a lot in life, if nothing else it will keep you moving through the bad times. In good times it will push you further by making others like you.
If people are good, then fine.
If people are bad, then fine.
It doesn't matter either way. What matters is if you choose to have a good attitude about your life. Yes this is a choice. It's one we can make at any time under any circumstances. We can choose to be happy because you, the real you that lives deep down inside that flesh, cannot be injured by anyone else but you. If someone slips past your defenses and you have convinced yourself they can hurt you then they will, but even this is a small thing because you know you can heal yourself again. There is no injury of the 'soul' that need be permanent, unless you allow it to be permanent.*
There are some things in our power, and there are many things that are not. What is not in our power are those things over which we do not hold exclusive control. Some of these things are our health, our fortune, our reputation, our status, and all other such things are not in our power. What is in our power is whatever is directly up to us. Our choices, our will, our opinions, our intentions and all other such things are in our power.
If we choose to place our happiness in those things not up to us, then the world shall own us. Place your happiness in a woman's love? Then she owns you. Place your happiness in your reputation? Then that owns you as well. As someone's signature here says “Whatever you can't say 'no' to, is your master”. Is this what you wish? To be a slave to what the man down the street thinks of you? To be a slave to what a woman can give you?
Such a life does not befit a man. If you wish to live such a slavish life, the cut your d!ck off now, you won't be needing it anymore.
If we choose to place our happiness in those things that are up to us, then happiness becomes a choice. This is not the ecstatic high of a drug, or the ego thrill of some 'conquest'. This is the serenity that invulnerability brings. This is about “how you played the game”, because that is all which is in your power.
*Yes the flesh can be so destroyed that the soul is injured. Before my grandfather's death he was under the memory robbing sway of Alzheimer's. By that point, I wasn't looking at my grandfather any longer, I was looking at the thing that killed him. I say this because I know someone in the crowd will jump up and down “Oooo! Oooo! I have found an exception to your law of the invulnerability to the so-called soul” because they can't understand the limits of a metaphor.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Only the good die young
There is a saying that goes: "the good die young". Billy Joel did a song about it, and in the song he was trying to convince some catholic schoolgirl named Virginia to sleep with him. However, Billy Joel gets it all wrong... the good die young because it is their reward for being good.
I was reading the Goddard commentary on Shakespeare when I came across the following:
“... “Call no man happy until he is dead.” Is that the last word in pessimism, the last word in optimism, or merely a warning against pride? ... “The good die young.” Is that just a statement of fact, fierce cynicism, or profound faith in life? ... ”
(From volume one of The Meaning of Shakespeare.)
Of course my natural response was to laugh. I don't know if Goddard is the type to regularly play tricks on his readers, but since the first quote came from Ancient Greece, and was in the play Oedipus Tyrannus, it's a bit misleading to a modern eye. Happiness in this sense isn't what the modern world means. The Greek eudaimonea means much more than the English word we replace it with.
Knowing that the first quote was a bit misleading it made me see the second one in a different light. I now understand why Goddard would say 'the good die young' is a a “profound faith in life”.
The good will grow young as they age and not grow old as they age. Obviously there is a double meaning here, regarding biological and mental ages. For the good, their childhood is the winter of their lives and as they get older they move towards summer. As they age their character/goodness will grow and strengthen them. Life will get easier for the good, but not because bad things won't happen to them. Rather life will get easier because they will have the strength to deal with the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'. Their internal strength will make their burdens lighter for them. Thus the good will die with the joy often associated with youth still inside of them.
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