As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
Proverbs 26:11.
Every day our speech and writing, our conversations and media; the world of academia, medicine, officialdom, news and education... are such all replete with analysis, reforms and strategies for making the world "a better place", or making some class of people happier, or less miserable - or whatever...
Oh so many "good intentions" from so many directions, and unrelenting.
Yet it all adds-up to a Great-Big Nothing-Burger...
Indeed, things overall keep getting worse, the decline being actively fuelled by the endless affected-attempts at betterment.
Why?
Because our fundamental understanding of the world is false.
In other words:
When our basic understanding of the nature of life and the universe is qualitatively-wrong; then no amount of quantitative activity will make a dent in things.
When deep understanding is wrong; then our sense of the purpose and meaning of life will be wrong, feeble... or (mostly) absent.
Socio-psychological therapy and reform constitutes no more than patterns of evanescent ripples that sweep and swirl across the surface of an oceanic swell.
When our basic understanding of oceanic reality is that the universe is purposeless, meaningless, and (mostly) dead - then this underpinning assumption is the vomit to which the dog shall inevitably return; again, and again, and again.
When Men have become such fools as to pretend that they can have purposeful and meaningful mortal lives without anything to underpin this in fundamental and ultimate reality; such folly will always undercut all and any superficial efforts at betterment.
It's true that real development would have to accept man as a spiritual being. But is it true to say that it all adds up to a big nothing burger currently? Surely some political and other practical measures do improve peoples' lives? For instance, some 24-hour bus routes have been introduced in Dublin in the past few years. It's made a significant difference to me. That's just one example.
ReplyDeleteIt does recall the lines of Oliver Goldsmith:
"How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
Many of the people I know do not believe in God. I do not know whether they are living lifes of "quiet desperation" or not. It does not seem like it on the surface.
ReplyDeleteWhat I cannot wrap my mind around is that many of them do not appear to be confronted by the nothingness their worldview offers. If I did not believe in God I would probably grapple everyday with the ultimate lack of purpose of anything that happens or anything I do. But most just seem to live day by day, some through distractions, some anchored in things that do provide meaning such as family and friends. But even those things are without foundations if they are to take their worldview seriously.
@M - I'm talking about overall improvement. After all, corrupt systems of bribery (not to mention world wars) improve *some" people's lives considerably.
ReplyDelete@AB - It comes out in the insanity of our society (https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2020/12/are-people-insane-because-they-are-evil.html) - the civilizational self-loathing, and self-destructiveness (of cultures, and at group and individual levels). It comes out in value inversions (or which there are too many to list), and in historically (even in my lifetime) extremely low levels of motivation and courage. It comes out in the desperation for distraction, and then when life quality drops below the desired level - the demand for painless self-annihilation - suicide by other people (because of overwhelming fear of suffering for even a few minutes at death, if self-inflicted)
ReplyDelete"The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
ReplyDeleteshining ever brighter till the full light of day."
"But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what makes them stumble."
Proverbs 4:18-19.
Indeed, the corruption is such that it has become invisible to them. Deep darkness.