it's a crazy world we live in...
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they all laughed at chicken little because he kept running around saying the sky was falling... g-d knows what he'd say if he read the news these days... yes, it's old hat, there are disasters and killings and bad things always happening, and one can't help but feel overwhelmed sometimes... all the time, really... it's hard not to feel what's going on out there... whether it's a typhoon in asia, where relatives are in its path... whether it's the war in iraq, where a friend just came back from a tour of duty... whether it's an innocent girl being shot on a bus, taking the same route i used to take home from school... entire families dying in a fire or by violence at each other's hands...
crisis after crisis after crisis, ad infinitum...
with so many causes to fight for and things to worry about, how can one keep his sanity and not get jaded? no one wants to have their holiday mood spoiled focusing on negative things... but it would be disingenuous to pretend that all is right with the world just because it's "that time of year"... would it were that there existed a simple solution for what plagues this world... if only all the sympathy and compassion we could muster were enough to erase all the evil and hurtful things from existence...
i remember being really touched by the movie "pay it forward"... yes, it was hollywood kitsch at its best, but even the most clichéd stories can still have significance (see reference above to chicken little)... now, anyone with a grade 4 math education can tell you the significance of exponential growth... imagine what it would be like if, instead of just being a cute plot, "pay it forward" actually was practiced... how far would it go to make the world a better place?
will that stop earthquakes and hurricanes and typhoons? will it bring back feeling in the paralyzed gunshot victim's legs? will it bring back to life those children dead of hunger and illness? i don't pretend for a second that reading a single article, donating $1 a day to CCF, writing a letter to your MP/MPP, chaining yourself to a tree, etc. will make a considerable dent in the mountain pile of problems facing our world today... i'm idealistic to a point, but it's tinged with a very pronounced pragmatism... i do understand the "what's the point?" mentality, and sometimes even i wonder why i -- or anyone else -- should bother...
is there a solution that you or i could come up with to achieve a utopia? probably not... will bitching about the futility of this exercise bring us any closer to this ideal? even less likely... the point is to simply try to make a difference in your own way as best you can with the admittedly limited options you have... if one wants to adopt a nihilistic stance, then why even bother getting up in the morning yourself? on the other hand, what sensible argument could you make against someone hellbent on feeding their own selfish desires, or a world full of such people? quite frankly, there's no "sensibility" that will make sense to them... these are the very real dimensions of human freedom and choice, and because there is a moral void in our world today, nothing binds us necessarily to any particular concept of goodness... will these problems be solved in our lifetime? most likely not... will anything i do make a significant impact? i'd like to think so, but i'm not banking on it... until such time the world accepts that greed and selfishness and indifference are self-destructive, we can't really make forward steps to alleviating suffering... so what do we do? do we just sit here and wring our hands and bemoan the state of the planet? do we say "fuck it all" and let it come down to "survival of the fittest" (which in this case would mean, the greediest and the strongest)? can we not simply do good for goodness' sake?
yes, i do appreciate the irony of all this vehement high-minded rhetoric arising from a suburban-bred, raised-in-a-3-car-household, middle-class, university-graduate, employee-of-a-bank, law-student-and-practitioner-to-be, smack in the middle of the 18-34 pseudo-yuppie demographic that defines me... it is a constant source of existential guilt... i don't need any more reminders about it as i do plenty of reminding to myself... and maybe all this is nothing but some selfish form of atonement... but i will not be made to feel guilty about wanting the best for humanity: as depraved as we can be, i still believe in the moral and intellectual heights we can achieve... this is my reality... and i accept responsibility for it... and i accept responsibility for trying to change it for the better...
now if only everyone would jump on board...
*sigh*
--------------------
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence commeth evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence commeth evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
-- Epicurus (c. 341-271 B.C.)
they all laughed at chicken little because he kept running around saying the sky was falling... g-d knows what he'd say if he read the news these days... yes, it's old hat, there are disasters and killings and bad things always happening, and one can't help but feel overwhelmed sometimes... all the time, really... it's hard not to feel what's going on out there... whether it's a typhoon in asia, where relatives are in its path... whether it's the war in iraq, where a friend just came back from a tour of duty... whether it's an innocent girl being shot on a bus, taking the same route i used to take home from school... entire families dying in a fire or by violence at each other's hands...
crisis after crisis after crisis, ad infinitum...
with so many causes to fight for and things to worry about, how can one keep his sanity and not get jaded? no one wants to have their holiday mood spoiled focusing on negative things... but it would be disingenuous to pretend that all is right with the world just because it's "that time of year"... would it were that there existed a simple solution for what plagues this world... if only all the sympathy and compassion we could muster were enough to erase all the evil and hurtful things from existence...
i remember being really touched by the movie "pay it forward"... yes, it was hollywood kitsch at its best, but even the most clichéd stories can still have significance (see reference above to chicken little)... now, anyone with a grade 4 math education can tell you the significance of exponential growth... imagine what it would be like if, instead of just being a cute plot, "pay it forward" actually was practiced... how far would it go to make the world a better place?
will that stop earthquakes and hurricanes and typhoons? will it bring back feeling in the paralyzed gunshot victim's legs? will it bring back to life those children dead of hunger and illness? i don't pretend for a second that reading a single article, donating $1 a day to CCF, writing a letter to your MP/MPP, chaining yourself to a tree, etc. will make a considerable dent in the mountain pile of problems facing our world today... i'm idealistic to a point, but it's tinged with a very pronounced pragmatism... i do understand the "what's the point?" mentality, and sometimes even i wonder why i -- or anyone else -- should bother...
is there a solution that you or i could come up with to achieve a utopia? probably not... will bitching about the futility of this exercise bring us any closer to this ideal? even less likely... the point is to simply try to make a difference in your own way as best you can with the admittedly limited options you have... if one wants to adopt a nihilistic stance, then why even bother getting up in the morning yourself? on the other hand, what sensible argument could you make against someone hellbent on feeding their own selfish desires, or a world full of such people? quite frankly, there's no "sensibility" that will make sense to them... these are the very real dimensions of human freedom and choice, and because there is a moral void in our world today, nothing binds us necessarily to any particular concept of goodness... will these problems be solved in our lifetime? most likely not... will anything i do make a significant impact? i'd like to think so, but i'm not banking on it... until such time the world accepts that greed and selfishness and indifference are self-destructive, we can't really make forward steps to alleviating suffering... so what do we do? do we just sit here and wring our hands and bemoan the state of the planet? do we say "fuck it all" and let it come down to "survival of the fittest" (which in this case would mean, the greediest and the strongest)? can we not simply do good for goodness' sake?
yes, i do appreciate the irony of all this vehement high-minded rhetoric arising from a suburban-bred, raised-in-a-3-car-household, middle-class, university-graduate, employee-of-a-bank, law-student-and-practitioner-to-be, smack in the middle of the 18-34 pseudo-yuppie demographic that defines me... it is a constant source of existential guilt... i don't need any more reminders about it as i do plenty of reminding to myself... and maybe all this is nothing but some selfish form of atonement... but i will not be made to feel guilty about wanting the best for humanity: as depraved as we can be, i still believe in the moral and intellectual heights we can achieve... this is my reality... and i accept responsibility for it... and i accept responsibility for trying to change it for the better...
now if only everyone would jump on board...
*sigh*
--------------------
posted by þΛųL jØŋαŦhΛŋ @ 23:35
1 Comments:
At 1:45 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
Hey,
I am having a mini-existential crisis and thus found my way to your blog. I like what you said about doing what you can to make the world a better place. I think if I serve more in some tangible way, that will help me feel better.
For you, I wish a ceasing to your middle class guilt and instead a deep appreciation for your luck and a choice to live honorably and sustainably. (Living sustainably will help ensure that your good fortune doesn't come at a cost for others.)
Also, no matter what your background, we are all in this life together. I for one, am happy for all happiness you can experience. Wishing us both peace of mind!
-B.
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