So the regular four folk that read my blog haha, I am adding an extra weekly blog about my awesome Critical Theory English 200 class. I love my prof and the topics in class so it should be an interesting read! Just thought I would put that out there...
So all of these philosophers tell us that humans are meaningless and there really isn't any point of us being here. If you look at the amount of time we have lived to the amount of time the Earth has been orbiting the sun, we make no dent in its history. This may seem depressing and if you take each word of the essays we have been reading literally, you may indeed want to slit your wrists and feel as though life is pointless, but if you go deeper than the surface most of the writers seem to be saying that we should just accept that our life is simply to live and enjoy what we make happen. It's not going to change how the world turns or really how the world ends up, not saying that there aren't things like the environment that must be protected, but in general if you become a writer or an engineer, its really not going to make a difference once the next generation of people show up. Or at least in the grand scheme of things it shouldn't.
All of this talk of human existence not being as meaningful as everyone lets on helped me out. Made me realize that I might as well do the things I truly enjoy and take a leap of faith in my own life; giving myself one major goal, to be happy. If there is happiness with or without lots of income or "material" wealth, my life wasn't spent being angry or depressed or alone. Which in my mind makes more sense then just living for some new gadget. But besides my whole take on it, I'd like to bring up a new point that the philosophers didn't really get to. Why is it that we put ourselves above everything living? We are always the alpha dog, but seriously, we have created our own languages, how do we know that other living being on this earth haven't also created their own way of speaking. Other animals obviously have their ways of communicating, but why do we put ourselves above everything else. Just because we don't understand their terminology doesn't mean they don't have their own language or common speech. These philosophers tell us that we are nothing to this earth, that in a couple hundred or thousand years our existence won't matter, so why do we make ourselves so important. Why is it that the other animals may not just be as smart and "intelligent" as the humans? They haven't brought it up and I don't understand how it couldn't be a possibility. Would it just be to scary to admit, does fear stop us from believing that maybe we aren't the only ones "existing for no reason at all"?
Why do we try to "make ourselves important" by creating languages? I suppose one answer can be because people wanted to survive. Creating languages, forming governments, having laws...these are all about organization. For what? We organize because it is efficient and allows a competitive advantage over other groups. Why we even bother is probably the real question. Good to be reading your blog again!
ReplyDeleteAttack of the run on sentence!! But on a serious note, I'll be Plath-ing it up with the "slit your wrists and feel as though life is pointless" school of philosophers. I see life as a sort of Matrix-esque choice: as Aristotle said: "To perceive is to suffer." The more open we are to the world around us, the more we see nature's inherent traits and the traits inherent in humankind: all the selfishness, the hate, the pain, and most of all the apathy. If you had to go through life truly understanding and feeling all of it - the pain of the cattle that made your hamburger, the hopelessness of the children that mass produce your clothing and electronics, etc. - slitting your wrists wouldn't seem like such a harsh fate, in comparison. The only other option, then, would seem to be one of ultimate immorality - choosing to ignore all the pain and awfulness around it as society sanctions us to do and live very narrow lives that focus only on us and perhaps a few significant others.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's my take anyway - modified slightly, perhaps, by that half a dozen or so valiums. But no less valid, I feel.
Good points about animals and what not. In fact, Nietzsche is often credited with being one of the first Westerners to articulate a kind of environmental philosophy. In later works, especially _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_, he begins to articulate a world-view based on preserving the Earth and how this is one of humanity's main purposes. While one could say that Nietzsche's nihilism opens up a space for not caring about the future, in fact Nietzsche comes to view the future as a space in which the human condition (so fraught with suffering, violence, etc.) might be overcome. In later works, he starts to speak of an overhuman (ubermensch in German) who will come after the human and be comfortable with the meaninglessness of the human life (he says that the overhuman shall be the meaning of the Earth and no longer look for meaning outside itself), instead of constantly striving against the inherent nothingness of existence. So, this is how nihilism is actually productive within Nietzsche's world view, instead of just a depressing moment.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, enjoyed your post. Glad you're liking the class.