When I was young, I came upon the quote: “life is absurd”. I am pretty sure it was from Camus, for I spent some time in my middle twenties reading him extensively, for a year or so. I think I kind of got it, yet as I get older this quote has become more and more real for me. It is obvious to me that as a species we are far from rational, well at least in the way we live our lives, treat each other and our environment. There seems to be a strong self-destructive streak that is perhaps inherited and passed on from generation to generation. It also seems to expand and get worse; at least it seems that way to me, as a man living in the United States at this time. It is as if the whole human race is delirious from a high fever and it seems to be rising from year to year.
We look for groups to blame for this phenomenon…. that of our continual slide into chaos and it is not too far of a stretch to say our mutual destruction. It is as if something has us by the scruff of the neck and shaking us. We can be like the proverbial frog placed in water and as the temperature slowly rises to a boil; it does not sense it and it dies. Our adaptability in the end could be our own undoing, for we adjust ourselves to certain circumstances and it soon becomes the new norm.
Those who see the broader picture and in their desire to alert others, tend to look for certain segments of society to place all the blame, therefore deflecting any attention to their own sub group that they belong to; which I believe is not intentional…it is easier to see the darkness in others than in oneself or ones tribe. We all have something we identify with no matter how loosely and often fail to see the truth about said groups history. It is just another symptom of the absurdity of our situation. The cure for our continued decline into irrationality, hatred, and warfare are shouted from the house tops by assorted segments of society, even if no one is really interested in what they have to say.
Religious people say, follow my faith and all will be well….forgetting to look at their own history and perhaps if they did so, they would gain a little humility from what they discover. Atheist, well some of them, scream “we need to become more rational”, often spewing hatred for any one who dares think or believe differently, failing to see how irrational that actually is and how it sounds to those who do not share their simplistic beliefs. They to fail to look into their own history and see how atheist run governments often fall into the same trap that religions do when they acquire too much power. For then the state then becomes god, having the power over life and death of those who belong to such societies, which are in reality prisons, some exist to this day.
Perhaps one day we as a species will be backed into such a tight corner, with no room to wiggle out (which I think is fast approaching), that we will all be forced to work together to get some breathing room. Or perhaps not……I am not optimistic about the outcome, for the belief that our societies will continue to evolve, that it is somehow guaranteed, is false and dangerous. As a species, if a certain age could be attributed to it, I would say we are about 15 years old, teenagers with too much energy and not having the maturity to handle it in a productive manner. The majority of suffering on this planet is man made, the will to power and greed will perhaps be our undoing.
To believe that one segment of society can be blamed for our situation is just another example or our irrationality and yes our immaturity as a species. Life makes little sense to me. All of our running around, driving ourselves mad, being brainwashed, not only by our governments but also by our entertainment media (of which I am a part, I don’t think for a minute that I am also not manipulated), leaves little room for hope. Yet, I believe because of my faith that there is perhaps something deeper going on, that some how all of this mad chaos has some meaning and purpose, though for the love of God, I don’t see it at all, at least at this time. I feel like I am in sort of end of the world novel, though I doubt the end is near, or that as a species we will soon be extinct. However our societies, our technological advances can easily be lost. There are no guarantees; in fact science in the hands of our leaders could be what brings us down, not with a crash but with a whimper……..don’t forget the frog in the pot of water quietly being boiled to death.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
