#96: You already ARE the change + Stoic Week + Victor Frankl
Happy Friday!
We’ve all heard the famous injuction to be the change you want to see in the world. But these words (often and mistakenly attributed to Gandhi) skip over one far more salient point: each of us already ARE the change in the world.
Every little action (or inaction) we take in every moment of every day has consequences for the world we live in. That is an unassailable fact.
You may not feel like you have much of an influence on the future, but you are nonetheless an intrinsic part of its creation.
This is something that perhaps we don’t think of an awful lot. We look up to inspirational leaders to make giant leaps forward, forgetting that we are part of the marching crowd.
My only criticism of not-Gandhi’s famous aphorism is that it feels much too daunting. It’s all very well for enlightened heroes to stand up and embody the future they wish for, but what about us, the little people?
But when we realise how we are all already participating in the change, it becomes not only easier to imagine what kind of future we’re heading for, but how we might bend our own day-to-day behaviours to facilitate a future that aligns more closely with our own values.
We should ask ourselves bigger questions, be more demanding with our answers, and hold ourselves to account for our actions.
Is this really the behaviour of the person I long to be? (Obviously, I’m not talking about whether or not you are a qualified heart surgeon. I’m talking about the way you behave in the world, the things you indulge in, the things you choose to ignore. All of it is building a future you, and that version of you will be an integral part of our shared world.)
Is this really the world I want to live in?
Is this really the future I yearn for in my heart of hearts?
How could I change my behaviour to contribute to my vision of a better world, a better future – and not just for myself, not just for my descendants, not just for humanity, but for the entire cosmos?
The full weight of our past experience and culture drags us on down the same old road, but on the horizon we see our own vision of the future urging us toward something we know is better.
This is what psychiatrist Victor Frankl was saying about the essential tension in all of us between who we are now and who we wish to become. This tension is not a mental disturbance to be cured; it is what drives us on to a life of purpose.
Each of us can use this tension between what we are and what we long to become and take decisive action that will gently nudge the world toward our vision of a brighter future.
Every moment of every day I am creating the future for myself, my community, my descendants, the rest of humanity, the planet we share, and the cosmos.
So what kind of future do I yearn for?
What specific goals would be waymarks on the path to that future?
And how am I building towards those specific goals and that vision of the future in my everyday actions?
Because the truth is that I already am the change – we are already the change. The only question we have to answer is whether or not it’s the kind of change we really want to see in the world.
Stoic Week
As the title of this section would suggestion, next week iiiiiiiiis... World Space Week!
It also happens to be Stoic Week, a 7-day period in which hundreds of human beings from around the world undertake to act in a manner more befitting of a Stoic - or at least to learn why doing so might be of advantage to themselves, the rest of humanity, and, indeed, the entire living, breathing cosmos.
Stoic Week kicks off with the phlegmatically-anticipated Stoicon, a day of lectures and workshops with titles like ‘How to Think Like a Roman Emperor’, 'Stoicism and Partnered Relationships’ and ‘The Proper Application of Preconceptions: Curing ‘the Cause of All Human Ills’'. I can't wait.
Because Stoic Week is organised by geeks, you are invited to take a 9-page psychological questionnaire both before and after the philosophical intervention. This is so that data can be crunched and the Stoics can make outrageous claims like: 'Practising Stoicism for one week can lead to an increase in satisfaction with life of 16%' and 'Zest is the character trait most positively associated with Stoicism'.
Not bad for a philosophy that most people think is 90% not moaning about the weather.
It also means that I can tell you that I'm about 78% Stoic in my attitudes and beliefs. So, although I do accept outlandish claims like 'the universe embodies wisdom', I don't believe that the cosmos proceeds to any sort of 'overall plan'.
Anyway. There isn't much for me to add here, except that this year's Stoic Week theme is Living Happily and that you can read more of my exegeses of Stoicism on my blog.
Better to have a life philosophy than a life plan.
~ T.D., a pilgrim
Episode 1: GONE
Episode 2: GONE
Episode 3: GONE
and Episode 4 (The Ralf Little One) is only clinging on by its fingernails.
IMPORTANT: If you want to hear more from Foiled next year, then we really bloody need you to tweet about the show.
Yes, really: this is how showbiz works.
@bbcradiowales will do the job - THANKS!
>> INPUT
[MOTHERLODE] Slightly More Than 100 Fantastic Articles: A list of nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time by Conor Friedersdorf (The Atlantic). If you value your spare time, don't open this link. If you value excellent long-form journalism, go right ahead. I'm halfway through a long read from The Guardian about what happens when the Queen dies. (And, for ethical reasons, the list doesn't even contain any of the many marvellous articles published in The Atlantic.)
[VIDEO] Casually Explained: Evolution III - Life as a Video Game. The funniest, geekiest, most philosophically enlightening video I've seen this week. Taster: "Once you've chosen your starter region and race, you have to go through a 9-month loading screen while your character spawns.'
[INTERVIEW] Elon Musk interviewed by Joe Rogan (The Joe Rogan Experience #1169). I was a little late coming to this in the context of Twitterstorms about marijuana usage, but this is a perennially fascinating roam around the surface of the Planet Musk. So fascinating, in fact, that I was thought-provoked into writing what I thought was a very thought-provoking piece about the future that inspires you and how to make it a reality (or at least how not to make it a reality).
[PSYCHEDELICS] A Conserved Role for Serotonergic Neurotransmission in Mediating Social Behavior in Octopus (Human Biology) 'Human and octopus lineages are separated by over 500 million years of evolution, and show divergent anatomical patterns of brain organization. Despite these differences, growing evidence suggests that ancient neurotransmitter systems are shared across vertebrate and invertebrate species and in many cases enable overlapping functions.' So two researchers decided to give them MDMA. (Gizmodo write up)
[DUCK SEX] Interview with Ornithologist Richard Prum: What Duck Sex Reveals about Human Nature (Spiegel) A surprisingly profound interview with a duck sex specialist. 'Sexual autonomy matters to animals. It's not just a political idea invented by feminists, but an evolved feature of social species.'
OUTPUT >>
Not-Gandhi was wrong: you already ARE the change (September)
The First Stile (September)
The Victor Frankl 5-a-Day Book Cult: Day 21 (September)
Black Sheep Backpackers: A Mild Review (September)
Overwhelming Kindness (September)
...COMING UP...
Stoicon and Stoic Week (see above).
More hiking in the Brecon Beacons, this time from a YHA near Pen-y-fan. The hostel has its work cut out to beat The Black Sheep...
Now On: The Victor Frankl 5-a-day Book Club!
Membership Criteria: Read 5 pages a day of Man's Search for Meaning to complete the whole darn text in only 28 days. I'll be tootling through the text at just 5 pages a week, so you've got plenty of time to catch up online.
Day 22
Today's pages (113-119) begin boldly, with the sub-heading The Meaning of Life. But of course, Frankl has no catechistic answer.
For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour.
He likens it to a chess move: 'There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game'. Indeed, the very search for an abstract meaning of life is futile: 'everyone's task is as unique as his specific opportunity to implement it'.
Instead, Frankl flips the question on its head:
[M]an should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognise that it is he who is asked.
Thus logotherapy is a therapy of responsibility: we are each responsible for choosing our own (moment-by-moment) meaning(s) and acting accordingly.
We reach now the not-nearly-famous-enough 'categorical imperative' of logotherapy:
Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!
I've already mentioned this mind-bender (and its carpe diem power) elsewhere on the blog, but essentially Frankl is asking you to imagine that the present is past, but that you have this one opportunity to change the past.
Now: what do you decide to do?
Frankl's categorical imperative confronts us with the truth that life is finite, and that our choices are final. So we'd better do ourselves justice and take full responsibility for the actions of our short life.
Logotherapy stresses that 'the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system'. This makes logotherapy a therapy of self-transcendence.
The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is.
Frankl outlines the three ways in which we can transcend ourselves and I quote in full:
1) by creating a work or doing a deed; 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.
The first of these paths, Frankl declares, is obvious. The second, to find meaning in the experience of 'goodness, truth and beauty ... nature and culture or ... another human being' is to find the meaning of love.
Although Frankl mentions many forms of love, he concentrates on the love of another human being. For Frankl, love is 'the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality'. At its finest, love also enables the beloved to actualise potentialities that are seen only in the starry-eyed gaze of the lover.
The third way we find meaning is through suffering.
When we are no longer able to change a situation - just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer - we are challenged to change ourselves.
Frankl's logotherapy does not see man's 'main concern' as seeking out pleasure and avoiding pain, but 'to see meaning in his life'.
That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning.
Of course, suffering is not necessary to find meaning, and should be avoided if possible, but importantly suffering does not rule out a meaningful life - or death.
The acceptance that meaning can be found even in suffering is the key to understanding the power of logotherapy, and the foundation from which Frankl's worldview is built.
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We continue next week...
Have a great weekend!
Much love,
- dc
CREDITS
David Charles wrote this. David is co-writer of BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, does copywriting for The Bike Project and is pretty much always available for work. davidcharles.info // @dcisbusy
Planet Earth.