WHAT IF KARL MARX GOT IT WRONG.....?
Remember when Karl Marx sneered, "Religion is the opiate of the people?" Given this secular view of the world and its problems, it's logical for an atheist to conclude religion's promise of an after life drugs believers into blindly accepting the miseries of this life. But what if we turn Marx on his head....?
What if, in today's scientifically secular world, we suggest reason is the opiate of the people? Especially the intellectual classes running our corporations, media, think tanks, and campuses? Reversing Marx, we could say our growing dependence on scientific reason in the West is drugging us with the hubris-tic belief science has all the answers. What's more, all the answers are to be found this side of heaven.
Admittedly, human reason has taught us to put aside witchcraft, voodoo, black cats and Virgin faces on potato chips. That's a good thing. And yet, hasn't the arrogance of human reason shut our eyes and hearts to other possibilities? Miracles, visions, eternity, angels, and gods? In throwing out the bathwater of past ignorance, we may have have mistakenly tossed out the baby of existential truth. And then, because no thunderbolt strikes us down, we self-righteously conclude: "See, there's no one up there!"
Today's atheists are less cautious than they once were. Far more aggressive, they are armed with new scientific hypotheses suggesting everything from moods to morality simply come from our evolutionary brain circuits and gene pools. They're on the New York Times best-seller lists -- Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and even Bill Maher.
No one can deny them their right to deny. On the other hand, no one can deny how atheists throughout history have found God in the most interesting places. Foxholes and hospices, yes; but also in marriage beds and nursery cribs. So...don't fire all your bullets quite yet, fellas. Save a few for when one surprising day you discover that great target in the sky.
SURELY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE GOT IT RIGHT........!
If you're like me, you like Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." But lets think about this. Besides liking the image, aren't we also living it....?
Motivational speakers love to tell us we're one-of-a-kind, and that everyone-is-an-exception. I even wrote speeches like that for CEOs. However, I'm here to confess that when I did I was prostituting my talents. I wrote the words for a fee, without ever completely believing them. Let me confess why.
One of the advantage of old age -- among its countless disadvantages -- is experience. No, no, I'm not playing the wisdom card! But experience does mean having been around long enough to realize Shakespeare was on to something big. Everyone of us since the dawn of time has walked across much the same stage, has spoken many the same lines, and will exit in almost exactly the same way.
This hard-core fact in no way denies the existence of a creator! the beauty of life! the purpose of living! But what it does say to us is we are far more alike than different. Regardless of our skin, our country, our faith, our features -- all tens of billions of us throughout history have had the same basic feelings and fears. hopes and joys, loves and losses. Come on now -- it's what we mean by the Human Condition!
However, rather than feel belittled by this discovery, we should feel connected. Once we discover this deep-down connection, it should free us to enter the stage smiling, read our lines with gusto, and appreciate taking our curtain call all together...!
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"In throwing out the bathwater of past ignorance, we may have have mistakenly tossed out the baby of existential truth."
ReplyDeleteLove that line!
I'm not an atheist, so I don't understand their thought process. Mine is kind of a naive faith that has just "been there" my whole life. Maybe unlike the athiests, I don't challenge or ask enough questions.
While I may not agree with them, they are entitled to their opinions...I guess :-) But I'm not so sure people like Hitchens, Harris or even the least threatening Maher, will ever change theirr minds....or find that target in the sky. (sadly for them)
Regarding your Shakespeare piece, I agree it's true...we are all merely players. But I don't like it. I'm waiting for the day (that probably won't ever come in my lifetime) when people would STOP running lines and just be their REAL selves and not play the "part".
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that "naive faith" is really the best faith. Real faith comes from the gut, not so much the brain. And thus what's naive to some, is wonder to others!
ReplyDeleteAs for "running our lines" on the stage of life, there may be two ways of looking at that. Yeah, much of the time we're pretending. But even beneath the pretending, much of what we are all saying is very much the same because we are all basically the same! We really are -- celebrity or vagabond, beautiful or ugly. We can't help it, because of the human condition. What we CAN do is discover this secret. It really helps get you through the play....!!
In your piece on "The old Neighborhood" Jack you say "And yet, in the realm of memory which often acts like a cure for death, not one blade or branch, not one school yard or candy store is really gone. Everything remains exactly in place." That reminds me of a philosophical question I ask during a lull in a dinner party: "If you could live your life over again but everything would be exactly the same - NO alterations - would you do it?" From your writings I surmise your answer is "Yes". Mine is "No". For many, and as a historian you know this, the old neighborhood was hell on earth - ask people in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, many places in Africa, etc etc.
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...and today you didn't deal with "What if Karl Marx was RIGHT?" (Also your Shakespeare quote left out the part about "the world...full of sound and fury signifying nothing!")
But hey, the sun is shining!
Jay, my man, I can't dispute a thing you say here. But still I come to the conclusion that Karl had most of it wrong while Will had most of it right. And then there's Chekhov had put a dark but insightful spin on things when he wrote: Life is a tragedy full of joys...!"
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