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| Carl Jung (1875-1961), who made much of synchronicity (roughly, spiritually meaningful coincidence) |
And Ken fairly commented, "OK, I'll bite. Why can't I truly own something I've bought? I don't own the computer I'm using?"
And I replied, "The truth is that my statement expressed a vague intuition I was having at the time, and I can't replicate it at the moment. If it returns, along with some words to express it better, you'll be among the first I'll tell them to."
In other words, my intuition had told me that there was something illusory (or delusional) about the idea that we could "truly own something"—or "anything we can afford to buy."
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| "Father and Daughter" was written for the children's animated film The Wild Thornberrys Movie |
Trust your intuitionWell, in my case it seems to have proven to be like going fishing, but I'm not sure what, if anything, I was hoping to catch. I'm certain I wasn't hoping to catch a question I couldn't answer. (Ken has asked me a few of those.)
Its just like going fishing
You cast your line
And hope you get a bite [emphasis mine]
Maybe something of what I "intuited" is suggested by Simon's next four lines:
But you don't need to waste your timeThe words even refer to the terrain where advertising reigns, the market place. Simon (the father reassuring and counseling his daughter) suggests that worrying about it—focusing on what we can buy and sell—shouldn't be our highest value. It isn't going to help us survive our harshest night.
Worrying about the market place
Try to help the human race
Struggling to survive its harshest night
If we think it is, we're deluding ourselves?
Ken, I know that's more like a poem (or a sketch for one) than an answer to your question.
Now I need to go back and work on the last paragraph of Monday's Mad Men post.
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This sounds very much like one of those ultimate questions: What really matters? I think it's a trick question. It's framed with the expectation that the answer will be universal, but perhaps the answer is always personal.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I feel like paraphrasing Jesus at this point. [Sound of throat being cleared.] "Render unto the marketplace what is the marketplace's and unto humanity what is humanity's." So Simon is off base. It isn't a waste of time to worry about the marketplace. Surely not categorically. Sometimes the harshest night is being laid off with nothing in the bank and the mortgage payment due.
Ken, "trick question" sounds to me like a synonym for kōan—used in Zen practice, according to Wikipedia, "to provoke the 'great doubt" and test a student's progress." The expectation is that the answer will (and can only) be personal. Or, the answer will always be: It depends, as your second paragraph elegantly points out.
DeleteNot sure that Simon is off base, however. I think that the marketplace lines recommend a focus on the more inclusive activity (helping the human race). One of the things that activity sometimes involves is action in the marketplace. But much (most?) action in the marketplace hurts the human race more than helps it (think hedge funds, greed, leveraging, off-shore accounts, tax loop-holes, bought legislators...), so that "worrying about [focusing on] the marketplace" would be inimical to helping.
The older I get and the more I learn how little control I have over what happens, the more I realize that I, too, depend. My existence is contingent; I continually rely on and require the aid of others for support. I plan to say more about this shortly, in today's post.
You're right that the marketplace has its nasty side, but when I think of the things in your list, I also think of opportunity, investment, jobs, discovery, less hunger, less poverty. Of course, all of these can help and have helped the human race. Simon sets up a false dichotomy. It's a gray world, not a black and white one.
ReplyDeleteKen, And I think you are right to remind me of the other side of the marketplace. I failed to even think of entrepreneurs trying to develop "green" energy alternatives, which could be a huge boon to the human race (and other species). Simon does seem to have set up a false dichotomy, and thanks for helping me see it.
DeleteI suspect that my "intuition" might have been what I believe is sometimes referred to vulgarly as a "brain fart." I would never call it that myself, of course, even if, after further reflection, I became convinced that that was what it really was, after all.