The Meaning of Life

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It has come to this.  After 4,000 years of civilization and a search for meaning, finally we now have a Wikipedia page with the intrepid title “Meaning of Life“.  So much for that.

In Viktor Frankl’s remarkable book Man’s Search for Meaning, the psychiatrist author recounts his early days first, as a therapist who organized probably the world’s first suicide prevention program, and later, as a prisoner in the death camps of the holocaust.  In the camps, he is confronted with prisoners who seek their own end of suffering by throwing themselves against the electrified fence.  In order to save them from suicide, he must give them hope, a reason to live in the face of astounding horror and probable extermination.  His method is to show the prisoner, even in extremis, that in the manner of the existentialists, each human must choose to make a purpose, a meaning, in life.  While Freud’s answer to the question of the meaning of life was To Love and Work (he didn’t really say quite that), Frankl’s answer is that we are compelled to find meaning in compassion, love, creativity, and an embrace of suffering.  He quotes Nietzsche (in several places) in saying that if one knows why we live, one can endure any how.  Nietzsche also said that to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in suffering.  Even the earliest Greek philosophers sought to find a meaning in life, particularly one that had its basis in the natural world.  Thales, the original Greek philo,  looked to the world itself, and my friend Diogenes sought a life based in nature and consonant with the natural human condition.  And Buddha, who lived at the same time as the pre-Socratic philos, discovered by “awakening”, that all life was suffering and the way to end suffering was to unhinge oneself to the yoke of desires by mindful acceptance of the immediacy of life.

VJ’s Nonprofit Class

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This is a succinct list of recommendations on how to actually apply ethical standards in the workplace by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in the HBR: http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/06/ten-essentials-for-getting-val.html.  When I have the privilege of teaching the ethics section of VJ’s course for nonprofit managers, I emphasize that ethical decisions are commonplace but difficult ones pose a dilemma, a controversy, and always a tough call for the nonprofit executive.  Judging the consequence of taking one path or the other is a choice between shades of gray, with both yin and yang on either side.  Kanter’s list reflects how dialog and stories that reflect values can help instill and promote ethical behavior.

A Refutation

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I always liked the story about Samuel Johnson and the Platonic world of ideals.  Boswell says he can’t refute the claim of Bishop Berkeley that what we sense is not real, only ideals are real.  So Johnson delivers a swift kick to a stone saying “I refute it thus!”  There is a story about Diogenes where he wants to give a Diogenean response to a definition of man as a “featherless biped” made by Plato.  Diogenes carried a plucked chicken to the Academy and said “Here is Plato’s Man!”

Lake Worth City Manager

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In my last post about Lake Worth, 22Jan2010, I mentioned that I thought that the city was wonderfully transformed (even in these hard times).  I had assumed Susan Stanton, the former mayor of Berea (as Steve Stanton), was largely responsible.  Maybe.  But regrettably, he has recently been fired.  I know that Lake Worth is a town friendly to the LGBT folks so it can’t be that.  Still and all, Lake Worth is a lovely place filled with quiet streets, walk and riding paths, parks and a vibrant nightlife.

more Diogenes’ replies

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At the mansion of a wealthy young man: “Since I had no where else spit, I spit on the fellow himself.  He rebuked me but I responded that he had himself to blame because I didn’t decorate this extravagant hall with such excess, leaving only yourself as a fitting place to spit.”  D. claims the young man then gave away all his wealth and put on a coarse cloak and followed Diogenes.


Since the writing attributed to Diogenes was not actually written by Diogenes, it is possible that the reports of what he said may have been spoken by others.  The Cynic Epistles (Malherbe, 1977) contains passages (trans. Fiore, SJ) ascribed to Diogenes of Sinope who probably did write some letters such as these, but the ones available were written long after Diogenes’ passing into the eternity which he doubted.  Someone revise D.’s words, so I revised them too.


To Aroueca D. writes:  “Know yourself, and if you have anything wrong with you such as stupidity, get a doctor for it and pray he does you more good than harm.”


To Zeno he advises:  “One should not wed or raise children, since our race is weal and marriage and children burden human weakness with troubles….If the human race should thus become devoid of people, how could this be regretted?”


Sometimes it is claimed that Diogenes was stolen by pirates and sold into slavery.  At the sale of the slaves, D. is displayed for purchase and asked if he has any talents.  “Yes, my skill is to rule over men, so if any of you need a master, then I am available.”


Diogenes Laertius reports (D.L. in Google books) of Diogenes (of Sinope)  that D. had issues with Plato who called him a dog, but of course, D. called himself a dog so this should not have offended.  D.L. says Plato defined a human being as a two-footed, featherless animal.  So D. brings a plucked chicken to his school and says, “This is Plato’s man.”


D. L. also says that after the “stand out of my sunlight” reply, Alexander states that if he had not been Alexander he should have liked to be Diogenes.  I suppose Alex would not have liked the living in a barrel thing.

Lake Worth, Florida

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My first job, of my 54 jobs, was in Lake Worth, Florida in the 60’s.  Lake Worth was a scruffy place with an aging downtown, aging population, and a high school with a football team more famous for their team name, the “Trojans,” than for their playing.  But a recent visit to Lake Worth showed me how a small town can be transformed from a sweaty spot on the coast of Florida to a thriving, artsy, intelligent, and highly attractive location.  The Lake and Lucerne streets area downtown is now filled with busy restaurants, galleries, shops, and the obligatory Starbucks.  There is a deli, Greek and Italian restaurants, there are nightclubs and al fresco eateries.  And the smelly movie house where I was a 14 year old usher is now a well respected contemporary art gallery.  The other theater in town, formerly a seedy porn palace, is now a real theater offering plays by local and traveling acting groups.  Next door is an “art” cinema house showing trendy movies.  Friday night there was music all over the downtown and folks were out walking and enjoying the fun.
A regional community arts group is re-locating to Lake Worth and local galleries are full and not too expensive.  I was told there is an active gay, lesbian, and trans community in LW and the city manager is a trans.  When Steven Stanton showed up at his prior job and apparently was in the process of a personal and sartorial transformation, his city council went berserk and tossed him.  But LW welcomed Stanton, now Susan, and it is obvious he is doing a fine job.  The city just received a major grant to help the economy revive from the housing crisis and has been praised for its revitalization efforts.  Stanton actually was, some years ago, the city manager here in Berea, Ky.  I had told people he was the city manager who lived on my street, but my friend D. corrected me.  That must have been his successor who lived near me and was not a bad manager either, but I wonder if Ms. Stanton could have done wonders for us here.
A remarkable theory by Richard Florida asserts that cities that progress economically and show improving quality of life are those with a “creative class” of urbanites such as artists and gays  and lesbians and musicians and other talented bohemians.  He approves of Lexington, Ky and Pittsburgh, PA and I am familiar with both cities–he is correct I think, these cities with an artsy, gay, and progressive class are beautiful, livable cities.  I think he would approve of Lake Worth.  It is not at all yuppified, like Delray Beach or Boca Raton, rather, it remains an inexpensive, walkable, and working class town.  I kind of felt comfortable there.  Also it was 75 F. on the beach while Berea was frozen solid.  I wrote about my first job in LW on another blog…more about that later.

Carnivore’s Loss

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Today we mourn the loss of Al Bernardin, the inventor of Quarter Pounder, the artery clogging concoction from McDonald’s carnivore paradise. This signals the end of the American way as we know it. Reported to be a lovely man, volunteer for hospice, business leader, and Dean of Hamburger University, Al died of a stroke at 81 years of age. Al also invented the frozen french fry, a McDonald’s delicacy equaled by no other. I will think of Al this afternoon, and every afternoon when I step over to Dogwood Drive and pick up the McD’s bags and rappers tossed by passing motorists who graciously offer me their trash without charge. Al’s contribution to demise of cattle everywhere is not well recognised, nor is the cause of the clearing of South American jungles, where 70% of such deforestation is due to the expansion of cattle ranches in order to feed fast-foody Americans.  We cannot speak ill of the dead, and I know of nothing ill to be said about this gentle soul, and the Donne poem tells us every death diminishes us all.  Our rear views are undiminished by the consumption of Quarter Pounders, those oily fries, and I, believe, Mr. Bernardin’s other contributions to the culinary world such as McDonald’s pies.  I will think of him every time I see a party of fat bottomed folks pull into the golden arches and hope that Al has plenty of burgers where he is going and I trust they won’t be well done.  Bye Al, hope you’re lovin’ it.

The Old Time Religion

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That Old Time Religion would be Jewish, so I don’t understand why the Southern backwoods churches sing about it. A McClatchy news item today http://www.kentucky.com/faith/story/1079670.html reports a study showing religious belief and prayer is most strong in the South and to a lesser degree in the Western hands-off-my-guns states. Mississippi is the very epicenter of churchiness.  It also sports the lowest median family income of all the States.  One can’t help but think that there is a relationship of fundamentalist belief and the prevalence of violence, racial animosity, parochialism, poverty,  tobacco spitting, and garden variety ignorance. As old Scrooge was told, the worst of these is ignorance. A Wiki posting on Religiosity and Intelligence cites numerous studies that show that intelligence and education are negatively related to religiosity. It may be that brighter and more educated persons are also more agnostic. Not only in American states, but in whole nations, as education is high, religion is low. The Wiki article mentions a controversial study by Helmuth Nyborg and Richard Lynn that showed that well educated nations are less religious. ‘Among the sample of 137 countries, only 23 (17%) had more than 20% of atheists, which constituted “virtually all the higher IQ countries.” The authors reported a correlation of 0.60 between atheism rates and level of intelligence, which is “highly statistically significant.” ‘

The McClatchy article carried in the Lexington Herald-Leader displayed a map which was striking in showing how prayer and church-going is most strong throughout Dixie-land. It is only natural to conclude that this seems to be trait that goes along the worst of Southern sentiments. The map has a prominent outlier: Utah, where Mormons reign supreme. Utah in general has a population that is relatively high in education and income. There is some evidence that Mormons who are more highly educated are more religious. This seems to indicate that perhaps one type of religious belief or the nature of literal belief systems is related to intelligence and education. The history of formal education, of universities and universal education is also the story of religious leadership at least in Catholicism, both in its aggressive Jesuit tradition, and in Catholicism-lite, the Anglicans. Possibly in Islam too, some of the great advances in education and science were made by highly religious persons and institutions, although in Muslim countries it seems like everything is religious except in Ataturk’s Turkey. Probably Jews have a corner on the greatest advances in literacy and science but Jews, at least today, are not often highly religious at least in the US and Europe.
Nonetheless, the map of the praying South is striking and scary. It may just be those stomping, snaky, shaking Bible-thumpers, but it is true that God and Guns and Goober go together.

Last Day

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Chris Hedges’ book Empire of Illusion was lent to me by T.B. and I finished it on this last day of anno domini 2009. Hedges is not a happy man. In this book, subtitled “The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” Hedges records the demise of the American Empire and its crushing devolution into the celebrity culture, the hyping of know-nothingism, the rapacity of the corporate economy, and the sleaze of pornography. T.B. cautioned me against reading Hedges’ chapter on pornography, and the first few pages of it convinced me to take his advice. Hedges is in serious need of an increase in his Prozac dosage, but his record of the swift decline of our culture, while decidedly over-the-top, was entirely appropriate to my final reading for the end of a decade where humanity endured, but did not prevail.

 
On a more positive note, I had been given, by E. as a Christmas present, the collection of essays What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, one of my favorite writers. Last week David Brooks awarded Gladwell a Sidney, the annual David Brooks award for magazine essays. Gladwell is always fascinating and perhaps criticized as not a deep thinker, he is an out of the box thinker and never fails to provoke thought and amazement. Brooks wrote that some critics assault Gladwell as “being too interesting and not theoretical enough. This is absurd. Gladwell’s pieces in The New Yorker are always worth reading.” I read several of the pieces and indeed they are worth reading. How any writer can learn and convey so much from an essay on ketchup of all things is nothing short of astounding.
Brooks himself is always worth reading and he also reminded me of some websites I had visited before and have neglected and some he helped me discover. “Fortunately there are a few Web sites that provide daily links to the best that is thought and said. Arts and Letters Daily is the center of high-toned linkage on the Web. The Browser is a trans-Atlantic site with a superb eye for the interesting and the profound. Book Forum has a more academic feel, but it is also worth a daily read.”
The Arts and Letters Daily led me to a Kevin Carey article about college Pell grants http://www.democracyjournal.org/that_old_college_lie.html , which are so often wasted those colleges and their students, perhaps better called customers, who teach and seek higher education as some form of job training, and endeavor that generally ends in failure. Carey does regard the best of universities as truly worthwhile, however the costs are shameful. Graduate tuition and living expense at Princeton is more than $55,000 for a year. Carey says, “At the trend-setting high end of the market, higher education has become a luxury good, the educational equivalent of a Prada shoe. These are unusually nice shoes, of course, just as Harvard is an unusually good university. But in both cases consumers aren’t paying for quality alone–they’re also paying extra for scarcity and a prominent brand name, the primary value of which is to signal to the rest of the world that they’re rich and connected enough to pay the price.” Harvard is like Prada. I like that, it was worth reading.