Victor is depressed at the realization that life can be viewed as a ditch leading from birth to death — a grave with the ends kicked out, if you will. I well remember the first time I had this kind of thought . . . it was shortly after I started my first full-time job. The feeling that I'd have to do the same thing every day for the rest of my life (let's just say that my first full-time job wasn't quite intellectually fulfilling). It's a horrible sensation, and I don't have any easy answers to offer that don't sound trite or even condescending.
The world is the same size... There's just less in it.
I guess you could say I'm having an existential crisis, but not quite. I've recently woken up to the fact that life itself has become rather pointless. I don't mean this as a "I'm going to kill myself" kind of way, but life just doesn't seem to have as many opportunities for one to fulfill himself if he's thinking like me.
We go to school. Why? So we can get good grades and get accepted into University. We get into University, college, etc, and we study the higher learnings for what? a high paying job which will hold up you and your family... In my opinion, there's something missing there, and I realize it's why I always have a part of me that at its very core, isn't happy with things. Where is the freedom? Where is the ability to choose one's own destiny, over the established norm of society? [Captain Jack Sparrow in} Pirates of the Caribbean had it right in regards to the corners of the map being filled in.
I want adventure, as deviant as I sound for saying so, and I don't want a desk job that pays 25$ an hour. I have looked at the offerings that society in general gives, and I'm not impressed. I've looked at the various artistic industries, like music, and there's no creativity left in it. None at the surface, at any rate.
So, I ask the humble users of Facebook, hell, even approach me in real life to talk about this.
What is there left to live for?
What is there to do?
Why have we accepted this monotony, this boring and dull life? Our ancestors would be laughing at our pampered lifestyles. Why has humanity faltered on it's foot path to glory and enlightenment? This stretches beyond politics, beyond religion. This is pure human nature. The nature that fought, tooth and nail to achieve dominance over it's domain. Why has it stopped? Have we actually conquered all there is to conquer? Is there no true challenges left, beyond helping out the poorer nations to achieve power, and the causes to fight diseases that haven't been cured? This isn't what freedom is. This is monotony, this is... Incredibly boring.
What we have entered is a Fools Gold age. We are at our technological peak, it would seem, and our production of ideas and innovations has stopped, beyond what can get me easier to the grocery store, etc.
The renaissance had it right. The mindset was impeccable. The pure creative thought of that time period is admirable, and I yearn for such an age where we stand now. With the advances the original renaissance made, we could probably take on anything, should humanity actually stop this monotonous cycle, which discourages creativity in favor of cold knowledge.
Children in classes, who prefer to dream and learn about what interests them, rather than focusing on, say how to find the curve of best fit are frowned upon, deemed slow, or stupid. They aren't. They're the truly smart ones in this time, and with a little encouragement, maybe we could reach the legendary second renaissance. If we encouraged dreaming, and encouraged culture, more than encouraging people to fill desk seats and not to dream.
Sometime over the last hundred years, we've been taught to not look at the stars, instead to keep our eyes on our feet, and on the path laid out for us. Adventure is left broken behind, ideas are few and far between. Is there no way to end this age of monotony, of robots, mindlessly doing their jobs?
I appreciate the fact that we live in a relatively safe society, and that we're in the age of knowledge. But the more I look around, the more I realize that we aren't in the age of knowledge. We're in the age of "because we've reach a comfortable level of not needing to think for ourselves."
I'm sure this will be met with either protest or agreement, for those of you who read the whole thing, and please do let me know. Knowledge and experience are everything, I'm interested.
Originally posted on Facebook, reposted here with permission. Comments are open on this post (until the spammers find it).
Posted by Nicholas at April 6, 2009 11:24 AMA couple of points.
You go to university to gain increased knowledge in a particularly specialisation. That's it. If you want to channel those efforts toward a high-paying job, well, fine. A better bet would be to channel it toward something that interests and inspires you. Not all of those things will be high-paying. Sometimes "interesting" and "financially rewarding" will be at opposite ends of the spectrum. That's a tough choice you may have to make, but then people did back in the Renaissance, too.
I have to disagree with your conception of society and the job market. Society doesn't "give" employment options. It's not a store. If you want to do something off the beaten path, great! But you are, by definition, going to have to blaze a trail there yourself. Looking around and saying "I want somebody to drop a pioneering opportunity into my lap" is kind of the antithesis of adventure. Adventure is theorising, planning and doing the unknown. Meaning there is no template for you to follow. And probably not too many people willing to throw money at an untested scheme. Adventure doesn't come without hazard, after all.
There are plenty of people doing creative, groundbreaking things all over the planet. Men and women designing the next generation of interplanetary spacecraft. People using radio and other telescopes telescopes to unlock the fabric and nature of the universe. People exploring our own huge planet-wrapping underwater volcanic ranges with ROVs. But those opportunities are emphatically not going to appear on, for example, a high school guidance counsellor's radar. They are career paths you have to target and go after yourself.
We all come out of the womb a blank slate, nobody has any special knowledge or "in" on the day that they're born. Most of the world's great explorers and pioneers stumbled into greatness by discovering something they were passionate about *and* had above-average talent at.
Captain James Cook, for example, was an ordinary sailing master in the Royal Navy. He had seen a few combat actions during the Seven Years War, and so on. When he got to the Louisbourg blockade in 1758, he met an Army surveyor, and became interested in what the surveyor was doing. With his commander's permission, Cook began learning how to map and survey. Then he asked to get assigned to surveying and mapping the shores of Newfoundland, where he honed his skills. Voila, the the 18th century's most famous explorer now had the tools to embark upon and record his historic voyages. When the Royal Society went looking for somebody to survey the Pacific Ocean, one guy's name was already at the top of the list, because he was well-known as an excellent navigator and surveyor.
In contrast, consider all those girls who audition for "American Idol". They might have the determination to succeed, and they may have *a* level of talent, but that level is far below what is necessary to successful on a grand scale. Sure, the music industry tends to look for certain archetypes and styles, and if you don't fit any of them you're already behind the eight ball. None of that changes the fact that the overwhelming majority of contestants are untalented prats who don't have a realistic view of their own skill level.
The lesson is, then, that to do groundbreaking things, you have to be 1) extremely dedicated and 2) really, really skilled. Figure out what you are passionate about, and then dedicate yourself to acquiring the level of skill required to be at the top of that game. That way when those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities arise, you'll be the natural first choice. Or even better, you can make your own opportunity.
Posted by: Chris Taylor at April 6, 2009 11:24 PM
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