for months, amy & i have had the movie hereafter on our directv list of movies to watch.
it probably sat there so long because the subject matter is a little daunting for your typical “date night”. in fact, after a good philosophical discussion after the movie, we found ourselves watching another movie that was in our list: the 1938 classic holiday with cary grant and catherine hepburn. what a great movie.
later that evening, catching up a little on twitter, i saw a re-tweet from one of my favorite tweeters to this article in the LA Times entitled “pondering a universe without purpose”.
these things emphasize something i do a lot, but for which there is a not-so-surprising dearth of mainstream discussion in this country (and probably worldwide): a true debate on “why are we here?”
now, as i see it, the reasons these things are hard to think about are very different than the reasons that they are hard to talk about.
to me, what makes them hard to think about is that you have to ask yourself questions for which the answer may be “i don’t know, and i may never know.” and for some, correlating purpose in life without a reason we are here becomes an existential conundrum, one i would guess most find somewhat paralyzing. individuals will have all sorts of reactions. leaders probably don’t wish to deal with the consequences of populations filled with people who give up because they don’t see a purpose.
of course, another thing that makes them hard to think about is that we live in a socio-political cultural environment that stymies such discussion. fundamentalist religious zealots have grabbed the microphones and won’t let go, and tend not to be of a mindset that allows discussion of existential questions that we have no hard and fast answers for. individuals who don’t feel a stable underpinning for their own existence cling to whatever first story answered their questions on the topic, even if others are able to point out the obvious logical inconsistencies in their belief sets.
i don’t have answers. only questions. and i want to have the discussion with others who are willing to accept that their beliefs are beliefs but not answers, and who are willing to believe something else if it makes more sense … and who are willing to have discussions with me that may not answer the questions we come up with.
i want to know the answer to “why”. and i’m willing to live my entire life in pursuit of the real answers to “what exactly is consciousness?”, “why are we conscious?”, “what is the relation between the ‘what’ and the ‘why’?”. and i’m ok knowing that i don’t have answers to these questions now, and may never have answers to them.
and i’m okay knowing that i strive to live a just and moral life, that i strive for good in all that i do, and that i do not need to flagellate myself when i falter, and that absent answers to the above questions, if i live my life with the purpose of making the lives of those around me better through my actions and existence, it seems likely that the way i live my life will not be that far from any meaning that may truly be the answer to the unanswered questions above.
johnkdoe 