Humans are, fundamentally, spiritual creatures. The ancient Greeks recognized this, which is why their word for mankind (anthropos) literally means “the worshipping creature.” Humans are also social creatures, as evidenced by our general affection for friends and family, which stems from how our brains are wired. Unfortunately, American culture tends to undermine these aspects of our humanity, and so American society has become increasingly dehumanized.
In the first place, we ignore our spiritual side or try to replace it with something meaningless.
Nihilism appears to be the most common way in which we reject our spiritual side. Simply put, nihilism is the belief that there is nothing beyond this life. There is nothing to live for; there is nothing to die for. There is no purpose to life, and thus there is no value to life. This line of thinking runs counter to our inherent nature, which is why it is literally soul-deadening.
The solution, then, to this philosophy is to find or create meaning in your life. The most obvious way to do so is to find God or some other higher being to worship or follow after. But if religion is not to your taste, you can instead focus on creating a legacy for yourself. How do you want to be remembered? What do you want to be remembered for? The answer to these questions can help you to give your life meaning, provided you focus on trying to establish a legacy.
Rationalism is another way in which we try to suppress our spiritual side. Rationalism, as used in this context, is the belief in the superiority of reason as a means to determining truth and establishing value. More broadly, this means that the only things that are true are those things that can be explained rationally. This is loosely tied to empiricism. Rationalism suppresses our spiritual side by causing us to ignore the things that cannot be explained rationally.
The antidote to excessive rationalism is to embrace the unexplainable. That something cannot be rationally explained is not proof that it did (or cannot) happen. In essence, we simply need to have a little faith in the things that don’t make sense. Again, this can be applied broadly to any supernatural thing, although the more obvious application is religious beliefs. Since we are finite beings, it is wise to accept that there are some things beyond our comprehension; and instead of denying those things, it is better to simply embrace them.
In the second place, Americans have a tendency to satiate their social needs with watered-down substitutes.
The most obvious substitute is physical goods. Far too often, we think that things are an adequate substitute for people. We use things to give our life meaning. We define ourselves in terms of what we own. Ultimately, though, this is an inherently shallow method of self-definition, for the things we own end up owning us. The solution, then, is to get rid of those things cluttering our lives.
Social media also is used as a substitute for face-to-face interaction. Yes, there are many ways in which social media can strengthen interpersonal relationships. However, there are just as many ways in which social media can undermine interpersonal relationships. When one has more interaction with social avatars than with, say, one’s family or real life friends, then there is likely a problem. When one spends so much time online that one stops interacting with actual people, then there is likely a problem. Again, there are many wonderful benefits to social media; there are also pitfalls, which must be avoided.
To this end, I recommend that each person dedicates some time to interacting with people on a weekly basis. This could mean having a family meal, like Sunday dinner. This could mean setting aside Friday nights as time to spend with friends. This could mean joining a church group. It could even mean hitting up the clubs on the weekend. Just make sure to spend time with people, to enjoy the ups and downs of actual relationships.
Entertainment media is also used as a substitute for relationships. Television viewership is remarkably high, and this means that less time is spent interacting with others. It’s simply the nature of opportunity costs. Many people would rather stay in and watch TV than go out and spend time with friends and family. Worst of all, those who watch a lot of TV have a strong tendency to overestimate the number of friends they actually have.
I recommend monitoring how much TV one watches. There are plenty of things TV has to offer, but it can be a mindless distraction, pulling us away from the things that actually matter in life.
Porn also serves as a relationship surrogate. In this case, it serves as a substitute for sex/intimacy. Note that porn is being used in the broader sense of sexually stimulating media. Yes, ladies, this includes romance novels. Porn has the ability to provide inflated expectations for those who consume it, making the real world appear boring and dull. It thus also has the tendency to cause people to avoid seeking actual relationships. Naturally, porn users need to monitor how porn affects their social side, and adjust their consumption accordingly.
Politics, or, more accurately, political theater, serves as a substitute as well. People listen to their favorite pundits spout their inane analysis, simply so they can agree with the pundits. This is not inherently bad, but can lead to an us-versus-them mentality, which has a spillover effect of leading people to alienate themselves from friends and family with whom they disagree. Really, there is little reason to get worked over politics since there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats (or even Liberals and Conservatives), and politicians subvert the will of the electorate on a regular basis anyway.
As should be obvious, the things that we use as substitutes for real relationships are not categorically bad. Instead, it is how they are used that determines whether they are good or bad. Thus, the question that each one of us must ask is, does this make my life better or worse? How each of us answers this question tells us what changes we must make in order to reclaim our full humanity.
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Great post. Switch off the politics/pop culture firehose and focus on your own life. Ration your TV, stop following the daily ups and downs of political theatre, and yes, even take regular breaks from the internet and blogosphere. Perspective is impossible unless you keep your world quiet sometimes.
The etymology of “anthropos” is highly disputable.
E.g.:
http://engforum.pravda.ru/index.php?/topic/144072-anthropos-human/
[quote]
The Greek word for Human is the word ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ (Anthropos) and becomes from the words ΑΝΩ ΘΡΩΣΚΩ (ano throsko).
ΑΝΩ (ano) = high
ΘΡΩΣΚΩ = 1. I fly, 2. Jump high, 3. Dashing against 4. I run
So we can say that ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ (Anthropos – Human) is he who gazing up high, or predestined to be up high…
[/quote]
http://etymonline.com/?search=anthropo
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%84%CE%BD%CE%B8%CF%81%CF%89%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%82
One could multiply objections without end – as far as the linguistics goes.
‘But if religion is not to your taste, you can instead focus on creating a legacy for yourself. How do you want to be remembered?’
I want to be remembered as one who beat the religionists at mysticism. That’s why I know Greek – all those years in seminary…
Greeks were spiritual because first they had religion, while America is determined to be secular by an all-powerful Liberal elite.
Then, Greeks had at least Philosophy, but most Americans are too ill-educated and stupid to understand in-class reading or topics other than recycling and MLK Day.
That’s why we have a degenerate USA.
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As for letting our guard down to unwind, relax and sniff the roses, that is dangerous advice. We are in a cultural war. In any war, you keep alert, lest your enemy snipe your brainbucket.
Remember that last scene in All Quiet on the Western Front.
I agree.
The West has a spiritual crisis. The important part is not the necessarily the truth of a doctrine, but that it unites the people. That it provides similar world view.
Language reveals psychology. Today there are “human resource” departments. Any person in any job is replacable, with all the power invested in the position itself. Human life is a cypher in the accounting of commerce. Everything has a price and a value.
“Excessive rationalism”? On what planet are people “excessively rational”?
They aren’t too rational on this planet, that’s for sure.
That’s exactly the reason why rationalism is useless as an ideology, Joe. It presupposes (a) that human reason is absolute, and (b) that all people are equally endowed with reason and equally capable of exercising it (and inclined to do so). It’s basically the big glaring weakness in leftism.
It’s the reason why EVERY enlightened liberal society based on rationalist principles ALWAYS degenerates into grim, mystical despotism. Socrates’ rationalism gives way to the Thirty Tyrants; the Enlightenment thinkers give way to the barbarism of the French Revolution; and the benignity of the Weimar republic gives way to the revolutionary nihilism of the Nazis. Eventually people realize there are epistemological limits on their ability to make sense of the world, and in their desperation to do so they jettison their reason and embrace mysticism instead.
Hmmmm. I smell a blog post in this.
The Weimar Republic was sewer like modern America that was fumigated and cleaned by its successor.
And I suppose you think this outcome was actually desirable?
When we were creating the milieu in SoCal in the late 80′s we concluded that pioneering is the true basis of spiritualism. Spiritualism that is not based on pioneering is meaningless.
@Proph
A tale of two societies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlIQ8lPO1Sg
and so did these people.
Jewsish Soldiers of the Third Reich
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJlJbIso_U
Oops!
Jewish Soldiers of the Third Reich
LOL.
Material privation is nothing.
19th century Britain and America produced more of enduring value in their poverty and squalor than the Nazis could ever hope to in their technical proficiency. Because at the end of the day, organization as an end in itself is no basis for society — as the Nazis discovered to their chagrin, right before their God-Fuehrer led them over the cliff.
You go on about societies being “filthy.” Can you even concoct a reason why they ought to be clean? Why they ought to live at all?
As for the “Jewish” soldiers, that’s hardly a surprise given that pre-Hitler Germany was the least anti-Semitic nation in Europe, Jews there had enjoyed full connubium, and intermarriage was common. Vast swaths of the country had some Jewish relative in their recent family tree.
On the topic of things you don’t know, do you even know why Hitler persecuted Jews by blood, rather than by religion?
@Proph: And why weregeld gives way to modern tort law.
As weird as it might seem to my mind the best example of excessive rationality is the insanity that is tort law in the US. While some of the lawsuits might seem irrational the underlying issue is a refusal to believe things can just happen. There are no acts of God anymore or accidents. Everything has a cause due to negligence by some other person.
That’s an excessive reliance on the rational, the explainable to the point of insanity.
@proph
Resorting to patronising language is a clue to your ethnicity.
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