Professor Guy McPherson on how we use distractions to make our lives meaningful.
My prior essay in this space posed a series of questions. Culture discourages us from asking, much less answering, most of these questions.
Throughout our lives, we spend considerable time seeking feedback from people and institutions, but the feedback we seek generally falls within a small subset of important issues. Furthermore, I question the wisdom of seeking validation, much less approval, within the realm of an irredeemably corrupt system.
Some of us seek to conduct meaningful lives. However, the universe imposes upon us a meaningless existence. There is no meaning beyond the meaning(s) we create. In attempting to create meaning, which often involves attempts to outrun our mortality, we generate distractions. We occasionally call them objectives, goals, or acts of service to others. With the result being our legacy.
Yet it’s too late to leave a better world for future generations of humans. The concept of leaving a legacy becomes moot when staring into the abyss of near-term human extinction. What, then, is the point? Are we, in the words of English poet Frances Cornford, “…magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life”?
As we seek feedback about the conduct of our lives, we simultaneously seek distractions. The distractions include the movies we watch, the books we read, the trips we take, the discussions in which we engage. The line blurs between distractions and authentic work until we are defined by the combination. The totality becomes who we are. The nature of our distractions is what makes us human, in the sense of differentiating us from other primates. Non-human primates don’t read books, much less discuss them. Such distractions do not enable our survival and in that sense are not “necessities” (cf. food, water, shelter). However, they are not necessarily “luxuries” either. Apparently there are shades of existential gray.
–Photo: Pierre Torset
The late anthropoligist, Ernest Becker’s said that it is our evolution to “symbolic creatures” rather than our “animal natures” that is the root cause of evil and destruction caused by humans in this world. Our worldview, our society provides a personal line of defense against our natural impotence by allowing us to believe we can transcend death by participating in something symbolic of lasting worth. Becker states that since our worldview and self-esteem defenses symbolically confer god-like, immortal status to humans, then these structures by their very nature take on covertly religious significance. Ideological conflicts between cultures are essentially battles… Read more »
Dr McPherson writes… “The nature of our distractions is what makes us human, in the sense of differentiating us from other primates.” The human vehicle is uniqe in yhat it allows the high focus of attention, which can be in Transcendence of this world. All the urge to build space craft and go and be free of this realm is the deepest desire in us, but the materialist framework that inflects that urge into a heroic saga for the very few ….naughts that do, (and do come back) shows how futile and inappropriate it is to attempt such a process… Read more »
Nothing new under the Sun… What then is our task? Are we to descend into the darkness and seek some way to hold up a candle of light for others like ourselves? Perhaps, but I think we should try to discover why we failed to bring the light to those who desperately needed it. For they lived amongst us in a darkness and we ignored or could not meet their need. Or, shall we say that some can never participate in things divine because they lack the means to enter the noetic realm? I ask you, Theodorus, if justice permeates… Read more »
I agree with Guy Mcpherson. I will not go into a discussion about the purpose of life, that has a big relation with the concept of a meaningful life. Instead, I would say that we if we only make a small change to the concept of a meaningful life, even with “business as usual”, things would be much different. Our legacy should be our experience, our mistakes, our misses. And what we can conclude and learn out of them. I can see that we do not pay attention to our personal mistakes and misses. We even try to hide them.… Read more »
Can’t say I agree with you. When you say “Some of us seek to conduct meaningful lives. However, the universe imposes upon us a meaningless existence.” – The meaning of life is just that. Living. The opportunity to enjoy all this extraordinary planet and all upon it. (Poet and philosopher Khalil Gibran: ‘Your children are not your children, they are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself’. I write as a father of three.) I spent the day working in my garden and examined the depredations of slugs and caterpillars on my leaves (bastards!). It is fascinating seeing… Read more »
Puts one in mind of Terror Management Theory. Thanks, Guy.