Imagine a spectator who watches your life pass as we might watch a film. Imagine one who watches your civilisation pass in the same way. It seems to me that for this spectator the genre of our lives and of this civilisation would be a particular form of tragedy.
Jul 27, 2022·edited Jul 27, 2022Liked by FFatalism
I heard the notion somewhere recently that left and right are stuck in different stages of grief, at least in regards to climate change: the right in denial, the left in bargaining. I quite liked that.
Something else that Buddhism and Christianity (Orthodoxy, anyway, which I know most about) have in common is the importance of cultivating detachment as the only way of surviving life with some sanity intact. In Orthodoxy the aim is to 'die to the world', to refuse to allow the passions (lust, greed, etc) to tie you too closely to this reality. For a Buddhist, detachment is the key to ending suffering. It makes intuitive sense. It is also extremely hard work! But possible.
Again this is excellent. I have been pondering along similar lines. The Arsenios Option i.e., flee distraction and avoidance, be silent, dwell in stillness. I say yes. But how?
I think of people like Kierkegaard or maybe Thoreau, and the Holy Fools and Zen Poets, etc. They often cut a ridiculous figure (e.g., beating on a washtub after the death of one's wife) and are objects of ridicule, but they are also inescapable reminders of all the things the rest of us try all so hard to ignore. We've built an entire civilization dedicated to this denial, of death, or our need for one another...and it has made us crazy and miserable. And when the whole thing gets fundamentally shaky--as it now seems to be--instead of returning to reality, we double down.
At this point the childish response is probably too embedded in our "way of life" to be curtailed all that much. Where are the Kierkegaard's and his ilk to remind us of what he try so hard to forget? Do any of us have the courage, let alone the depth?
Jul 27, 2022·edited Jul 27, 2022Liked by FFatalism
Christians have a set of beliefs (dogma) and rituals to help people deal with tragedy. I’m Catholic so I’ll discuss the ultimate tragedy, death, from a traditional Catholic perspective. We believe that death is not the end. The resurrection of Christ shows that persecution, suffering and death do not have the last word. There is always hope. And hope is actually one of the three theological virtues.
If a Catholic is terminally ill, he will receive Extreme Unction, a sacrament that provides a lot of comfort for a dying person, knowing that if he makes an act of sincere contrition, he will be forgiven and end up in heaven (he could spend some time in purgatory but eventually heaven). Hence we pray for the dead, have requiem masses said for our dearly departed (note how beautiful Mozart’s Requiem is), and find solace in praying for God ‘s mercy to shorten their time in purgatory. Every year, we commemorate the dead on All Saints Day (Nov. 1), while at the same time, meditating on the death, the shortness and fickleness of life. This forces us to reorder our priorities, placing the spiritual over the material. The meditation on death occurs, too, on Ash Wednesday when we receive ashes on our forehead and the priest says, “Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris” (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return). Meditating on this at different points of the year makes you less materialistic, less grasping, less obsessed with stuff, less upset when things don’t go your way. You can actually become happy because no matter what happens to you, it isn’t the END. It’s not a total catastrophe.
I’m not saying all Catholics meditate on death, but the sacraments, masses, prayers and rituals have been around for over 1000 years to help people deal with death, and have provided much solace to many who otherwise would have been overcome by nihilistic despair.
The societal-level denial seems to popularly manifest as utopianism and optimistic scientism. One sees this quite a bit in films and series, along with increasing displays of death and tragedy; not necessarily more tragedy than in movies of the past, but more vividly and sensually than in the past. It’s as if only here, in the unreal (virtual) space of film, that people can stop denying, and indeed (perhaps in a compensatory manner) symbolically indulge in the tragedy with perverse delight.
Really great essay. For me there is a lack of seriousness in the way we are living now, or a lack of seriousness regarding the most important things. Undercutting every attempt to come to terms with life’s inherently tragic nature is, I often find, a default reflex of irony.
Having imbibed deeply of The Life of Brian at young age I personally find engagement with the Christian faith quite difficult. Just when I think I’m grasping the tragedy, some snippet of dialogue from that film will pop into my head.
I’m not a massive fan of the ‘positive thinking’ trend, and I lament the often absurd lengths that people will go to polish turds, I do think there’s an element whereby the effort of thinking positively is akin to the virtue of hope. After all, virtues require effort.
Wonderful! Thank you! I feel like many Buddhist and Christians these days are focusing more on the “mystery” or “not knowing” approach you describe as the 4th “path”. I’m no expert and would love to hear if others have a similar sense...?
I heard the notion somewhere recently that left and right are stuck in different stages of grief, at least in regards to climate change: the right in denial, the left in bargaining. I quite liked that.
Something else that Buddhism and Christianity (Orthodoxy, anyway, which I know most about) have in common is the importance of cultivating detachment as the only way of surviving life with some sanity intact. In Orthodoxy the aim is to 'die to the world', to refuse to allow the passions (lust, greed, etc) to tie you too closely to this reality. For a Buddhist, detachment is the key to ending suffering. It makes intuitive sense. It is also extremely hard work! But possible.
Again this is excellent. I have been pondering along similar lines. The Arsenios Option i.e., flee distraction and avoidance, be silent, dwell in stillness. I say yes. But how?
I think of people like Kierkegaard or maybe Thoreau, and the Holy Fools and Zen Poets, etc. They often cut a ridiculous figure (e.g., beating on a washtub after the death of one's wife) and are objects of ridicule, but they are also inescapable reminders of all the things the rest of us try all so hard to ignore. We've built an entire civilization dedicated to this denial, of death, or our need for one another...and it has made us crazy and miserable. And when the whole thing gets fundamentally shaky--as it now seems to be--instead of returning to reality, we double down.
At this point the childish response is probably too embedded in our "way of life" to be curtailed all that much. Where are the Kierkegaard's and his ilk to remind us of what he try so hard to forget? Do any of us have the courage, let alone the depth?
Or is that even possible anymore?
Christians have a set of beliefs (dogma) and rituals to help people deal with tragedy. I’m Catholic so I’ll discuss the ultimate tragedy, death, from a traditional Catholic perspective. We believe that death is not the end. The resurrection of Christ shows that persecution, suffering and death do not have the last word. There is always hope. And hope is actually one of the three theological virtues.
If a Catholic is terminally ill, he will receive Extreme Unction, a sacrament that provides a lot of comfort for a dying person, knowing that if he makes an act of sincere contrition, he will be forgiven and end up in heaven (he could spend some time in purgatory but eventually heaven). Hence we pray for the dead, have requiem masses said for our dearly departed (note how beautiful Mozart’s Requiem is), and find solace in praying for God ‘s mercy to shorten their time in purgatory. Every year, we commemorate the dead on All Saints Day (Nov. 1), while at the same time, meditating on the death, the shortness and fickleness of life. This forces us to reorder our priorities, placing the spiritual over the material. The meditation on death occurs, too, on Ash Wednesday when we receive ashes on our forehead and the priest says, “Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris” (Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return). Meditating on this at different points of the year makes you less materialistic, less grasping, less obsessed with stuff, less upset when things don’t go your way. You can actually become happy because no matter what happens to you, it isn’t the END. It’s not a total catastrophe.
I’m not saying all Catholics meditate on death, but the sacraments, masses, prayers and rituals have been around for over 1000 years to help people deal with death, and have provided much solace to many who otherwise would have been overcome by nihilistic despair.
The societal-level denial seems to popularly manifest as utopianism and optimistic scientism. One sees this quite a bit in films and series, along with increasing displays of death and tragedy; not necessarily more tragedy than in movies of the past, but more vividly and sensually than in the past. It’s as if only here, in the unreal (virtual) space of film, that people can stop denying, and indeed (perhaps in a compensatory manner) symbolically indulge in the tragedy with perverse delight.
Really great essay. For me there is a lack of seriousness in the way we are living now, or a lack of seriousness regarding the most important things. Undercutting every attempt to come to terms with life’s inherently tragic nature is, I often find, a default reflex of irony.
Having imbibed deeply of The Life of Brian at young age I personally find engagement with the Christian faith quite difficult. Just when I think I’m grasping the tragedy, some snippet of dialogue from that film will pop into my head.
I’m not a massive fan of the ‘positive thinking’ trend, and I lament the often absurd lengths that people will go to polish turds, I do think there’s an element whereby the effort of thinking positively is akin to the virtue of hope. After all, virtues require effort.
Wonderful! Thank you! I feel like many Buddhist and Christians these days are focusing more on the “mystery” or “not knowing” approach you describe as the 4th “path”. I’m no expert and would love to hear if others have a similar sense...?
I really like this post
Thank you!
To Dance is not to deny
Simply to be caught up in a greater Story
Off-topic, but this line spoke to me of the pleasures found by progressive participants in the culture wars;
‘a cathartic dwelling in fear and pity’