“You have to be ready for this kind of thing. Cities will kill you if you don’t have the stomach for this kind of shit. A few years ago a man jumped off one of the highest buildings in Los Angeles. Some bank downtown. When he landed, he pretty much exploded. The father of a guy I know has his office right near where this guy hit and his window got splattered with blood and stuff. I imagine he kept right on working. Being in a city for years gets you used to this kind of thing. When they can blow your mind, they can control you. On the other hand, when you’re numb to everything then it’s just as bad.”
Eye Scream, Henry Rollins
The one thing that fiction often asks us to do is suspend our disbelief. The simpler the intention, the more we should put aside our rational side and give into whimsy. There is no doubt that doing so allows us to exist on a freer intellectual level, allowing us to detach from the ground like Hot Air balloons and soar above the landscape, taking the beauty all in. But at the end of the day, the balloon comes down, the air escapes and it is folded away for another day. When the ride is over, where did we really travel?
The Why and Why Not
Every day in which we live in the world, we merge with it. We sew our sleeves to the walls, we plant our feet on the ground, we shut the door to keep out the wind, we light a fire and hope to God it keeps us warm. We are taught, from the very moment we are born, how to be and how to act, what is acceptable and what is not. Good and evil, right and wrong, are massaged into our behaviour from birth. The reason why pop culture undergoes very little change structurally (aside from micro changes/passing fads) is because of society’s adherence to a system they accept as the mainstream. It is because of the insufficiency of the human brain for complex thought. It is because of the ease of tradition and the struggle that progression brings.
When I say that the human brain is insufficient I do not mean to say that we, as human beings, are simple or dumb creatures. In fact, I believe the human mind to be an amazing thing when applied. The problem is that we are close to incapable of applying our brains 100% of the time for a psychological phenomenon one might have once called confusion, but now labels as ‘stress.’ To think of everything all of the time would overwhelm us. If I had to examine the elements of automation, I would never find time to turn the key in the car. If I had to consciously contemplate the range of motion before I moved a limb, I would never get anywhere. It has been the punch line of many jokes that an airplane should not, at first glance, be able to fly. Combining our knowledge of gravity with a limited knowledge of aeronautical engineering we come up blank. But why then, do we still choose to fly? Because it is a necessity. It seems at first glance that we have two options, either to gain a knowledge which assures us that the plane will not fall from the sky, or have faith that somebody else has covered. Most of our everyday living is based upon this level of faith; the inexplicable notion that someone else in the world has thought of the things we have not, that things will be alright on the night, that the world continues to turn of its own accord. For the sake of a simpler day to day experience, we apply this faith to almost every part of our lives, and when things fail to run the way we have naively convinced ourselves into believing they should, we fall down.
I propose that we take a leap away from this concept of faith, in a very small way. I wouldn’t ask anyone to understand every facet of everyday life; such a feat would be impossible to achieve. What I do ask is that you give a moment of your time to understand ‘Why’ and ‘Why Not.’ This simple question and its antithesis can help to a much firmer understanding of the world you live in, which is my basic impulse behind writing this column every week. When it comes time to make a choice, whether it be simple or complex, ask yourself ‘Why’ a few times… The chain will get finer…
“Why vote for Joe Smith?”
“Because I like him.”
“Why?”
“He looks trustworthy.”
“Why?”
“He’s a family man.”
They may be simple answers (we are definitely not tackling the intricacies of space travel here) but in a little bit of exploration, we may (for example) discover that our voting choice is based on our values of trust. These simple answers give us purpose, a lot of the time it is purpose we already had but just didn’t know it. But it might surprise you. “Why and Why Not” are not the only questions but they are a starting point.
“I don’t like immigrants.”
“Why not?”
“Never have.”
“Why’s that?”
“They’re different.”
“Different to what?”
“Different to me.”
Of course, this is just the very beginning, the reason I feel drawn to the concept of The In-Between is due to a consistent fascination with things that seem beyond control. This week’s column is a sort of intellectual call to arms. There are amazing things going on in the world, get amongst them and enjoy the triumphs and horrors of the modern condition. The power of metaphysical forces, the structures behind thought patterns, the impact of aesthetics on our spiritual interaction with the world. All of these seem uncontrollable until we break them down into their parts. We can understand the human desire for a monotheistic deity, we can examine where our psychological impulses originate and we can change our physical environment and connect with ourselves on a greater spiritual level. All it takes is a little bit of extra understanding. In this instance, Knowledge is indeed power because we cannot escape the shock of the everyday unless we know its capabilities. We cannot change a world we cannot fathom. We cannot live a better life if it is unimaginable.
Some recommendations for where to go when asking ‘Why’ leads on to bigger questions:
iTunes University: I recommend the MIT lectures in Psychology.
I agree, Sam – asking ourselves why we hold certain beliefs or live a particular way is one of the most important things anyone can do. I remember being on a tram once, listening to a conversation the people opposite me were having about religion: the guy asked his female companion whether she was religious, and without missing a beat she replied that yes, she was Christian – not that she went to church or really thought about it or had read the Bible at all, but she believed in God and heaven. She said this just as it was my stop to get off, and I felt like asking as I left, ‘Then how are you really Christian?’ She was upfront about how little she’d thought about it, and yet completely oblivious to the fact that maybe this selfsame lack of thought might actually put lie to her claim. As you say, there are assumed beliefs in the world, everyday faiths in structural engineering and the kindness of strangers, and the human world is build on them. But I don’t think that any beliefs we hold for ourselves – morally, politically or socially – should fall into this category. To sit on the fence or admit a lack of thought about a thing is fine: not everyone is a philosopher, or needs to be. But that’s not an excuse to claim beliefs lazily: if you haven’t thought about it and don’t really understand it or have an opinion on it, how is the belief yours? As angry as the apathy of others can make me, at least I can understand how some people aren’t interested in a given sphere, and therefore have no desire to investigate the possibilities. But someone who acts this way about morality? The mind boggles.
Faith is powerful – very powerful in fact. Like you say, if we didn’t have faith we would never get anything done. Every single element of our existance: the society we live in to the very bodies we occupy, functions on such a fine balance of things going right AND going wrong that we almost have no option but to just believe in it. It allows us to be.
But there is a dark side of faith. A form of faith that’s been made because we didn’t have faith in the possibility of just existing without the help of something bigger in the first place. Faith shouldn’t blind us, shouldn’t make us delusional. We *should* ask quesions, but if we’re brave enough to ask, we shouldn’t take the easy way out
I find it bemusing that an “intellectual call to arms” would be riddled with grammatical errors and tired similes (hot air balloon? Oh please…)
Simplistic, uninspired piece that meanders over well-trod territory. Nonetheless, your heart seems to be in the right place. Here is David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech from Kenyon College, which I think elaborates upon some of your points:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html
You need an editor and you need to venture a little farther beyond your undergraduate circle if you wish to be truly engaging.