| July 21, 2002 | Christopher Cook | |
| An Ideal |
So here is the big question that philosophers have pondered over for thousands of years and will ponder over for a thousand more: What is the purpose of our lives? Why are we here? What are we meant to do? I think it is actually quite simple. It is to be happy ourselves, and to spread happiness all around us. Essentially it is an incessant pursuit to create peace, calm, and prosperity to all the corners of the world.
Since the beginning of human existence we have seemed to trip over an ideal that the world is greater than any of us, and that we are here to love, enjoy and help each other. We are here for the greater good of the whole.
You are probably thinking to yourself right now that this is a cliché topic. But what can you expect, he is only a high school graduate! He is pondering a commonly questioned topic, giving a commonly responded answer, while looking altogether common at the podium. The answer to one of your thoughts is 'Yes,' this is a very cliché topic, but, no matter how cliché it becomes we still do not have a steady answer for the question: "What is the purpose of life." But what I want to do today is far from common. What I want to examine today, is a possible answer to the age old quest to find purpose in human existence. I do not want to question the purpose of individual life, but rather the purpose of human life as a whole.
Personally, I see it as the same. Total and individual life are one in the same, and deserved to be looked at and approached likewise. But as a whole we have never viewed them connected. There is individual happiness, and then there is everything else. Our efforts to further our own individual success has blinded us to the need to improve the people around us, or promote global happiness.
I have faith, that whatever created me, created me so that I would enjoy life. I am here to smile, and do everything I can to spread smiles and happiness to other people. I do not know what I will do for the rest of my life. But I do know if I am not doing those two things, then there is something wrong with the way I am living. I think that the creating happiness is at the heart of human existence. I believe that the purpose of every other person is very similar. We all just are awaiting some kind of lead.
If anyone were to examine their conscience for even a second to search for an answer to the question of what we are to do, a simple answer would smack us in the face. We are here to work together, not against each other, in a pursuit of finding a way to help others enjoy life as much as we do. But we seemed to be confused that this could not be the purpose of life. If it is so that we are not here for a total pursuit of happiness for the whole, then what kind of happiness are we looking for? Is it individual happiness? Is it family happiness, or is it the happiness we maintain when we are inside a singular group such as a church.
I think the presumable answers would be Yes, yes and yes, it is all of this. I think shortly after this question was answered we would realize that this individual happiness can not be the only thing we are here to obtain. There is some emptiness about it. And so we question what else should we be working towards. And here is the question that comes up. Did God intend that we work more closely together, as he created humanity in hope and in faith? Did he/she want us to do everything we can in life for ourselves, but at the same time realize that part of ourselves is in everything around us, and that we should do everything we can for that happiness as well?
This is the ideal that one day we will all work together for the common good. All of humanity, for all of humanity. One for all, and all for one. But still even when we realize this, one thing stands in the way of this becoming a reality. It is ourselves. We have seemed to attach a standard of happiness to a personal gain. We have attached values to certain extremities such as money, cars, and power. Some of us will step on any of our fellow humans to get there, because we believe, these things will provide us with happiness.
It is not only individually that we seem to look out for our own well being, and neglect those around us. It is in our cultures, our religions, and our social groups that we also hold onto, and our concerned for that individual group's prosperity. We do not work to help others outside of this group to happiness. We take pride in being the best, or at least being overly successful, and we fear losing what we have. So we do what we can to insure that we will remain on top or stay on top while the bottom rungs of society will stay there. They will stay hoping for the break that will help them rise out of poverty, or climb from the class of the socially inept, or help a group find religious toleration. They hope for help to pursue happiness.
Having power over others, or just having more than someone else is what pushes us sometimes. We have a tendency to believe that if we obtain more, we are susceptible to happiness. The saying "money does not buy my happiness," is becoming less and less significant. But what I want to know is what does this all really mean?
Does having material possessions strengthen the bonds we have with our fellow human, or even our loved ones whether they be parents, kids, our husbands, or wives? In the movie "Contact", Scientist Anne Arroway says that "After all the suffering, after all the desolation of the world - one thing that makes the vastness of existence tolerable is each other. The one thing that makes it bearable is love."
Though we realize the importance of each other we continue to plant our foot in the forehead of those fellow humans that stand in our way of reaching the standard benchmarks of happiness. We constantly step on those who are in the same pursuit we find ourselves in. The pursuit of finding joy in life. I ask when will people stop stepping on each other? When does the hand extend to lift up those in our supposed ways, carry their injured lives by our side, help mend them, and then walk along side of them to happiness.
This past week I rented two movies that have helped me realize our need to work together to achieve total human happiness rather than individual happiness. The first was "A Beautiful Mind," starring Russell Crow who plays the brilliant mathematician John Nash. While in graduate school at Princeton, Nash sits around in a bar with his buddies toying over his work on what he calls "governing dynamics." The work that will eventually gain him recognition. As they sit there drinking and relaxing, in walks a gorgeous blonde girl with a group of friends. Immediately the men gaze at her, enchanted in her beauty. Nash comments that the world just went into slow motion. The other graduate students begin to get jumpy as their testosterone is tweaked a tad. Some of the men begin to quote Adam Smith's theory of economics, "Every man for himself." In the theory Smith theorizes that we are to be concerned with our own success and to do whatever necessary to win.
Nash ponders this theory and sees something deeply wrong. He formulates a new theory and immediately grabs the groups attention and says, "We are wrong. We should not concentrate on Adam Smith's theory. If we do we are all likely to fail. There is only one way for all of us to obtain satisfaction. We should not do what is best for the individual. We should do what is best for the individual, and what is best for the group".
Nash continues to explain his theory. If they all go for the blonde they will cancel each other off, collide, and ruin each other's chances. Then of course they can not go to the blonde's friends because no one likes being second best. If they choose who goes for the blonde then the one who is the lucky winner will be envied. The others will be jealous of the one who got the blonde. He explains that the only way they each are successful is if none of them go for the blonde, if they each go for a friend. None of the friends are hurt, none of the men are jealous, and they all are accompanied by a woman at the bar for the night. And that is really their ultimate goal. In this case it is the company of a woman, in life it may ultimately be happiness.
Nash proposes that by not being greedy and grabbing for the absolute best, we would be creating and spreading success among everyone, rather than limiting success to the lucky winners. We should do what is both best for us and what is best for a group of competitors. If we do this success will spread. Professor Nash would later use this theory in a direct application to economics, winning the Nobel Peace Prize years later.
I believe this theory could work also if we applied it to the spreading of happiness throughout the world. If we were to take a step back from wanting more, more, more and think about how we are really each other's purpose for existence, we could see that it is more important to help each other than to damage an existence. When God created the world he saw no limitations or boundaries among nations or the people who make up the world. But the individual need to have power has skewed the balance.
We can find proof that our purpose is to promote universal happiness by asking one question, and looking to our conscience for an answer. Would our creator want a world where the spoils of success go to a small group of people grabbing for the top, leaving only the scraps for the others? Would he want all people, religions, or nations to look out for only their best interest? Would he/she want a widening gap between those who are considered fortunate and the many more that are not? Or would he/she want a world where people lifted their competitors up instead of stepping on them? Would he want a world where its different religions worked together to spread a faith in God, instead of fighting over the claim who is more right about his word? Would he want neighboring countries who draw a line along a race boundary, a boundary which no one can cross and is even dangerous to go near, to rip down these walls and recognize those on the other side as their brothers as well? Would he want the purpose of governments to be not only responsible for insuring that every citizen of their country was well off, but that all citizens of all the countries of the world had the freedom and ability to pursue happiness as well. I think we know the answer to these questions.
But again we know this and it has helped little. Somewhere along the line of humanity, people stopped looking out for their fellow man, and began to look out for only themselves. We continue to hold ourselves back.
The second movie I watched this week was "Contact," starring Jodi Foster, who plays an astronomer, Anne Arroway, searching for extraterrestrial life. She is looking for more than a form of alien life however, she is looking for hope that what she believes in is true. She believes that individual human effort is so small compared to the infinite scope of space. Soon she makes contact with a life form on the planet system Vega, the life form sends back a blue print for a portal that will send one person through space to make contact with them. After the governments of the world decide to build the portal a selection process to chose the one person who gets to make contact goes on. Arroway and another American scientist are finalists for the position and a panel of judges questions them about their beliefs. Foster had made the discovery and initial contact, and was probably deserving of the spot. Yet when the panel asked her a question about her belief in God, her honest answer cost her the position. The other man, when asked the same question, told the judges what they wanted to hear. He was selected.
Before the chosen scientist boards the portal system he approaches Arroway and says, "Anne I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that's an understatement. What you don't know is, I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed in the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world." Arroway responds, "Funny, I've always believed that the world is what we make of it."
God's vision of the world in a nut shell. Emphasizing those words, "The world is what we make of it." Our own destiny is up to us, we can continue to work for ourselves and in the words of Adam Smith, "It can be EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF." Or we could work together to achieve something greater for all of us. Life is what we make of it.
The truth is that we are alive for such a short time that we can do whatever we please with our time. You do not have to listen to me, anyone else, or even your own conscience. We can continue to live our lives in search of material gain, and standard happiness. And for a lucky percentage of people, they may reach material happiness.
I am reminded of an e-mail I received this past Christmas season that gave a depiction of how rare and fortunate we all really are. It read: "If we shrunk the human race into a village of 100 people, the following statistics would be true. 70 would be non Christian, 30 would be Christian, 6 people would possess 59% of the world's wealth, and all six would be from the US. If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, and a roof overhead you are richer than 75% of the world. 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and can spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more fortunate than three billion people in the world."
Finally what I think was the most interesting fact in this e-mail commented, "If you can hold someone's hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch." So today we are confronted with a decision. Will we continue to stand alone worrying about our own happiness, or will we do God's will and offer ourselves to helping others at all cost the best we can, in order to fulfill our purpose here as humans?
I guess that is up to each and every one of us.