Man's Search for Meaning

In an example of Synchroicity** Swizec Teller swizec@swizec.com who wrote  "Why Programmer's Work at Night" sent me this eMail: A few weeks ago I finished Man's Search for Meaning. You can read about what I learned on my blog, here, or keep scrolling. “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.” ― Viktor E.Frankl  Man's Search for Meaning is a book about many things. It comes in two parts: he saw in the camps. the first about Frankl's experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz, and the second about logotherapy - the psychotherapy principle he developed based on what he saw in the camps. Frankl puts forward the idea that we all seek meaning. That as long as our lives have meaning, we are happy. When life loses meaning, we fall into existential despair. This idea is in stark contrast to Freud's will to pleasure, and Adler's will He builds this idea from behaviors observed at concentration camps. When a person first arrived at camp, they were in a state of shock. They could not fathom what is happening. That it's happening to them. "It's just a fluke", they would think, "No way are they going to ask me to stay here.". They would beg and plead and try to offer trinkets in return for favors or release. They would explain that they are influential people in their communities and that this must be some sort o mistake. They were doctors, merchants, businessmen, scientists, scholars. Surely they do not deserve this treatment. Surely they should be released. Whoever is in charge will soon realize their mistake and let them go. Surely. All were selected either for immediate death, or for months of slave labor followed by death. Doctors and peasants alike. Based solely on whether they looked fit enough to work after a five second inspection. A limp meant instant death. After shock came apathy. Prisoners cared only for what was immediately important to their survival. They fought for scraps of food, they watched people get beaten to death and did nothing. They even got angry with the injured person on a crew that slowed them down. If a guard noticed, they'd all get beaten. With no ambition, with no personality, with no human decency, their life was no more than surviving until the next hour, the next day, the next week. Without a visible end to the suffering even hope could not exist. Not really. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl Despite all this, despite having everything taken away, despite the starvation and the beatings and the work, one freedom remained: their attitude. They could choose how they reacted. They could give in or they could fight. They could plead and beg, or they could keep their honor. They could bring harm to other prisoners, or they could help as much as possible. When somebody had a cough, they helped hide it. When somebody limped, they propped them up. When a friend came for soup, they could scoop deeper and get more meat scraps. If it did not put them in danger, they helped. As Frankl put it, they all had someone looking down on them. Someone or a something that would expect to not be disappointed. There was family waiting back home, or they had a business to get back to, or a life's work to complete, or even a god. Something kept them alive. Gave them reason to keep going. And so they lived. “Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.” ― Viktor E. Frankl  But many lost the something. For some reason or another, they stopped fighting. They stopped surviving. Frankl says you could always tell when this happened to a person. They stopped doing the little survival tricks. They didn't stuff their shoes with newspaper, they didn't patch a hole on their shirt, they ate all their food in one go, they smoked rather than traded cigarettes. The next morning they would not get out of bed. Not go to work. Never get up again. Malnutrition, overwork, disease. They'd kill them in less than a week. Frankl tried to remind his fellow inmates that suffering can have meaning in and of itself. If suffering is unavoidable, then withstanding it with poise and honor has inherent meaning. Not in the least because it gives strength to others with a similar fate. Entire careers have been built on withstanding suffering. Nick Vujicic - the man with no limbs, but happy about having at least a chicken drumstick - for instance. He is happy despite having no limbs. He inspires people. His life has meaning. It's why fat loss instagrams are so popular. It's why cancer patients share their lives online. It's why Rudimental used the BMXer who lost a leg for their music video. Person suffers. Person perseveres. Person inspires us to beat down our daily struggles. But if suffering is avoidable, we think the person not inspiring, but stupid. That's why we roll our eyes at bridezillas and those insufferable sweet sixteen twats. For those who survived, after liberation came a third stage. Stripped of their identity as prisoners, stripped of the singular focus on survival, they found themselves lost once more. Life after camp had no more inherent meaning than life during camp. Some looked for justice, but found themselves the monsters they escaped from. Some looked for loved ones, but found the homestead empty. Some looked for recognition, but found the world didn't even know of Auschwitz. Some found themselves marked as evil men because they had survived and somebody else did not. Whatever kept them going before, did not exist now. Once more they would have to find their own meaning, Because life cannot give you meaning, you have to give meaning to life. No matter how silly. Bruce Lee quote about goals And that is why I train for marathons, why I punch things at the gym, why I have a bet about net worth with a friend. It may be stupid, but it gives me something to do. Cheers, ~Swizec Copyright © 2015 Swizec, All rights reserved.

Call To Action

When I am feeling powerless.  When I am feeling down.  I just listen to a song by Carol King, entitled "Legacy" [See Tab at top of Blog]

The words to this song, always bring me back to the central philosophy of Personal Responsibility.

I was fortunate to take the est (Earhart Seminar Training) in the late 70's.  Werner H. Erhard freely admitted that his training was re-packaged ancient wisdom  (Taoist and some Zen Buddhist through his exposure to Alan Watts) combined with some contemporary thought, (Books such as  Think and Grow Rich Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and  Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, and  Scientology courses and the writings of its founder L. Ron Hubbard). No-one has a patent on the Truth.

The primary purpose of the course was to "Transform your Experience of Life".  Through a self confrontation process, we were shown how taking responsibility for everything that happens in our life is really the key to satisfaction in life.  By taking responsibility, we forego taking the "victim" role and acknowledge ourselves as the creator of our experience and the author of our story.

In practice, this is sometimes a difficult position to take, especially when circumstances do not turn out according to our plan. None-the-less, it is the only enlightened response to life.

An even earlier influence for me was a book by Alan Watts entitled The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

I just watched an inspiring talk by Alex Collier, in which he suggested that we all focus on how we can design a society that is holographic rather than hierarchical. Nature has lots of examples of holographic organization, the most obvious is the cell.  Within the cell is the DNA for the entire 

organism. This kind of design is very robust.  A multicellular organism can survive the death of many of its individual cells and continue to function. 

Man, since the beginning of recorded history, has attempted to organize society hierarchically.  There was first the Chief of the Tribe, then their were the Pharaohs, Kings, Tzars, and Emperors.  All hierarchies. 

Even the geniuses of the American Revolution, could only attempt to limit the power of government, through three supposedly equal branches at the Federal level that were supposed to create checks and balances on each other as well as the States which were supposed to be sovereigns that were each left to have those powers that which was not specifically granted by the Constitution to the Federal government, or was reserved by the Bill of Rights to the People. It worked reasonably well for about 100 years.  World War II was the excuse for the growth of the Federal Monster and things have gone down hill for freedom ever since.

Power corrupts, and as the Defense-Industrial Complex grew, it took on a life of its own.  Money bought the politicians and the government as grown like a cancer taking over our lives and our freedom.  The United States which saved the world from Fascisim during WWII has now become the world's biggest bully, engaging in Wars, Police Actions, Covert Operations, and every and any intervention into other people's business as the Power Elite desires.

The System has failed!  We need to figure out a way to organize society that will not devolve into the "few" controlling and exploiting the "many".  Hierarchies do not work!

So the problem is, how to create a holographic society?  This is the greatest challenge of our time. Maybe, the greatest challenge of ALL time, since our failure to solve this problem could become an existential problem for the human race.

As I Sit Here

Here I sit in front of my modern computer with a high speed Internet connection.  I literally have at my finger tips, potentially all the accumulated knowledge of the human race.  I potentially have the ability to communicate to with 3 Billon Human Beingings**.

This is an unprecedented opportunity.  So what am I going to, do with it?  Show cute photos of my dogs?  Get into arguments over the Presidential Candidates?

I think, I have a better idea.  

They say that "The Pen Is Mightier Then The Sword".  That nothing is more powerful than an "Idea who's time has Come."

**Number of Internet Users

Anti-war Prayer

One of the things I like about Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate is his anti-war stance.  I have been anti-war since I marched against Nixon secretly bombing Cambodia.  Well, I just discovered something interesting about Mark Twain.  He wasn’t generally shy about upsetting people in his day.  He pretty much spoke his mind, however, he did write a short article which, at the time was deemed “not fit for publication,” however, he instructed his publisher to publish it after his death, which his publisher did.  The article was entitled “War Prayer” and was published in 1916.  I have reproduced it here as a page on my blog.

Federal Taxes (Grrrrrr)

This weekend I will complete one of the most distasteful things that I have to do each year.  I will complete my research and & paperwork so that my accountant can file my 2010 Federal Tax return before October 15.  You say “What?  I thought everyone’s tax return is due on April 15."  Well, what is actually true is that our TAXES are due on April 15.  The TAX RETURN can be filed four months later.  All those silly people lining up at the post office in order to get an April 15 postmark could just fill out a simple form for an "Automatic Extension" and include a check (for the most money you could possibly owe them – accounting for the money that you already have paid).  Of course, if you were due for a refund then you have an incentive to file earlier ( I usually just assign any refund due me to pay for next years taxes.)  Come August 15, my accountant files a second form  for an "Extension for Cause”.  This second extension always uses the following excuse: ”Client needs more time to collect the materials for the return”.  This extension for two more months is always approved.  This is how I get to my end of September crisis.  I need to get the material to my accountant so he can have it entered into his computer, produce a return, and get it back to me in time for me to sign it and get a October 15 postmark.  Given that he is thousands of miles away, we have to use the EXPRESS mail services twice.

This bad behavior of mine has gone on for three decades.  I ask myself why I put this task off until the last minute every year.  The best answer that I can come up with is that: I HATE PAYING FEDERAL INCOME TAXES.  I not only hate paying Federal Taxes (even though I have kept my taxable rate low) I hate that they make me fill out all these complicated forms and waste all this time keeping track of all my expenses.  I think of it as if I were being crucified AND they even make me carry my own cross up the hill before nailing me too it!  All the time it takes me to prepare for filing the return is “salt in the wound” of having to pay the taxes in the first place.  AND if that were not bad enough, some additional “salt in the wound” for me is the BAD things the government does with my money.  IF the Federal government stuck to its constitutional limits and the tax system was SIMPLE and FAIR, I would not mind paying for my share of  “Government Services”.  I am a Libertarian NOT an Anarchist.

Let us dream for a moment about an ideal Federal Tax system (other than no Federal Tax).  How about a tax return on which you first use a simple formula to calculate the tax amout that you owe. (Some have called taxes the price we pay for civilization.)  THEN (this is the GOOD part) you get to allocate your dollars for the “tasks” that you want the government to perform.  Most of us would fund the military, the interstate freeway system, and give some money to support the old and the disabled.  How many of us would support 2+ foreign wars?  How many of us would support the “Drug War?”  How many of us would support keeping a military presence in 100 other countries?  IF we could allocate our taxes to the functions our government performs AND congress could only spend our money within the categories that we allocated, how different would our country be today?

On the Value of Philosophy

A quote from Ayn Rand:

In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is—i.e., he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts—i.e., he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance.– Ayn Rand, “Philosophy and Sense of Life,” The Romantic Manfesto, 30

The Platinum Rule

The supervising minister for my Buddhist Temple, Rinban Don Castro of the Seattle Betsuin, wrote an article in the Wheel of Dharma, September 2011, where he suggested that Buddhists follow what he called the Platinum Rule rather then the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule in this context is meant to be "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" [and is not to be confused with the Golden Rule of Business which is "He who has the gold makes the rules."]  Rev. Castro defines the Platinum Rule as "Do unto others the way they want (or need) to be done unto."  The difference is quite profound. Rev. Castro points out that the Golden Rule is self-centered (I would say egocentric) where as the Platinum Rule requires one to see the world as others see it. The Platinum Rule requires wisdom. "True believers" (you know who you are) use the Golden Rule as a justification to perform suicide bombings or to wage "Holy Wars" (e.g. "Wars for Freedom.") Any intelligent application of the Platinum Rule would effectively rule out those "kind" actions. One imagines that indigenous people often wish to be "saved"  from the western missionaries sent to “save“ them. [A point brilliantly satirized in a popular Broadway play "The Book of Mormon" by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.] So the next time you want to perform an act of charity, consider whether it can meet the higher standard of the Platinum Rule.