I wonder if Frankl's thought represents a lot of what is wrong with so much of society today.
The idea of the tensionless state - a sort of Edenic existence, where all our needs are met and there is no conflict or strife - has been a sort of theoretical construct in Western civilization since at least Plato and The Republic. The closest state I thin the West can now project on this is the "idle" rich, who have all of their needs met and spend their time doing what they want.
In one sense, the idea of a "worthy goal" has passed: there are no more great explorations left to be taken on Planet Earth - no terra incognito - and the idea of great causes has passed, to dissolve into petty wars and political maneuvering. The concept of building - a society, a country, a way of life - has largely passed out of style as well, to be replaced by conforming to the overall economic culture. And while frontiers remain - scientific and medical for example - these largely remain the preserve of trained and specialized experts with years of education and training, leaving the bulk of humanity behind.
The problem is that we failed to replace the lure of exploring, great cause, and building with anything else that could fire the imagination, that the many - instead of the few - could see themselves doing. The Old Gods died at Ragnarok and the New Gods to failed to appear.
I submit that we are rapidly approaching a time when all goals will become realigned. Because in a time of dire need and unrest, goals become very focused on a very few things.
Who knows. Perhaps we will discover worthy goals again.
We will probably have to go for a long hard ride with the four horsemen first, TB. Most of our problems today are centred around flat out sin, and no bones about it.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do not disagree with you Glen. We have plenty of that to go around. I just think that the fact we have stripped ourselves of anything worth doing is not helping the matter.
DeleteI've seen pictures around the web of "when men get bored". It is their worthy goal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've had times of comparative ease in the past, I've been driven to do something. Make something, don't just sit there... I'm not sure where the constant political maneuvering idea got traction, but that seems to be all anyone wants to do nowadays.
I am not sure, although I wonder STxAR if when bored, we drift towards machination for the purposes of gaining power because that makes us feel as if we "doing" something.
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