Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War,… return to article
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Reader Comments (154)Perhaps I come to this thread too late and it has gone cold? I found it by chance and read all 150 posts. It has been very interesting and the jousting between the adversaries has thrown up a host of points. Broadly speaking, the topic seemed to be that of the “meaning” or “purpose” of life and humankind’s place in the “scheme” of things.
It would be nice to think that I could write a succint post that addresses all the points raised, to everybody’s satisfaction. How we all long for a blueprint. How useful to have the Truth, on a planet full of lies and false trails. We need to examine our premisses. Back to first principles.
It’s a big place, the known Universe.
They’ve just discovered another galaxy, a little smaller than the Milky Way (itself a minor affair) that contains several thousand billion stars. Extrapolate. The human species exists somewhere between the unimaginably vast to the unimaginably minute in terms of distance, size and time. The dimensions involved are totally, utterly beyond our capacity to grasp. We grope towards an understanding of matter and energy, talk of quantum physics, whilst still dragging ourselves from the primeval sludge, malodorous, murderous monkeys all. Any entity responsible for (what we already grasp as constituting) Creation must be as beyond our understanding as nuclear physics is to an oyster’s.
If anybody can truly explain the nature or will of “God”, then I can receive colour television on my electric toaster. Can we agree on this at least? We are completely unequipped to know or to understand “God”, or whether it exists. All we can say is Man has always made God in his own image, not the other way round, so I believe I should be able to suggest without fear of rational contradiction that no “God” would give a flying feck whether someone names a toy bear Mohamed, or puts a latex hat on his dick. Anyone who tells you different claims knowledge they simply do not possess.So, Religion. That’s come up a lot in this forum. It’s a complicated balance sheet: it’s produced some wonderful art and music and formed and shaped civilisation and our culture. But we have had the Enlightenment; we are capable of rational thought and scientific methodology, it’s time to grow up now and put the silly stuff away. I am less tolerant of people’s “faith” and “belief” than others on this site, because I’m sick of how it impinges on other people’s lives. Spirituality is a private, individual thing. Religion is always a public thing, hijacked by power-brokers and twisted to evil ends. This could be worth a book, but space here is limited.
The Human Condition then: see Survival Value. Want something explained? Look to that: it ‘s the first and last court of appeal. We are all in competition for resources and mates. That’s the deal. Cain slew Abel, his brother, we are told. We’ve been competing for gene pool survival ever since. Do unto others before they do unto you? Take a look around and go figure. You know it’s not a lie. All our ills “come with the territory”. We are born, live and die alone. Form allegiances to assuage the loneliness - family, friends, lovers. Look at the songs written about loneliness. We hate it. We are all exiles. How many of our impulses, for good or bad, derive from this state of solitary confinement?
Back full circle. Vonnegut. Flawed? Negative? Cynical? Probably, but brave and honest enough to grasp the nettle. Would that our leaders and captains of industry were made of the same stuff as he. Yes, a humanist, and as such, with every right in the world to feel as full of sadness and despair, often presenting as resignation, as he did. For he is now departed, to share what is the fate of us all, in all probability, to disappear like a lost sock in the Laundromat of Oblivion for eternity. And so it goes.
Posted by robstalux on Dec 4, 2007 at 8:12 PM Have to disagree with you there. The world has become increasingly more wealthy, peaceful, and educated with every generation. It may not seem like that much has changed in 80 years, but it really has. Building the perfect world for the human race, a people who are at once violently casting aside the shackles of nature while simultaneously clinging to it for dear life, is going to be our greatest feat ever. We know better now how corrupt our governments, peoples, and companies are. Only now can we begin to change them.
Posted by cyberella2002 on Nov 29, 2008 at 9:59 PM -
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