[This is the second of a series of philosophy writings from Andrew B. Bartels.  The first article is located here]

July 9, 2010

The Meaning of Life and the End of the World

(a.k.a. One Man’s Struggle to find the Meaning of Life)

As a child I was taught by my religious teachers that “the End of the World is upon us,” and that humankind is going through a fantastic cataclysmic change unlike any other in history.  Yes, we’re talking about what Christians call ARMAGEDDON.  It affects everyone.  God is fed up with inherently sinful humans.  Those who do not repent are going to die.  But if you’re good there is hope.  You might… just might… SURVIVE!

Religious Pick-up Sticks

The basic Christian path to survival is effective because death and survival are opposite ends of the same stick.  At the center of the stick are the choices you make.  When you pick up the stick, you pick up all three.

It’s easy for a person to conclude that picking up the stick is mandatory, because after all, survival is at stake.  Few people actually make a conscious choice to pick it up.  Usually they are handed the stick by their parents, or by their pastor.  The thing they don’t tell you though is that the longer you hold the stick, the heavier it gets!

Sin, Guilt, and Fear

(a.k.a. A Shampoo for Cleaner Living)

Sin, guilt, and fear: these are a truly Evil Trinity, yet they are the very core of the Judeo-Christian religious teaching.  My own spiritual upbringing virtually guaranteed that would I keep up a healthy regime of blaming myself (sin), feeling anger about past situations I could not change (guilt), followed by an ever increasing distrust of the world around me (fear).  It played out in my life over and over again!

Thus life became an iterative and meaningless process not too unlike the usage instructions on a shampoo bottle:  “Sin. Guilt. Fear. Repeat as often as needed.”  The process continued for many years, until one day when something clicked in my head.  In an instant I woke up and the true Meaning of Life was exposed as the simple, beautiful, and perceptible truth that had been waiting to be discovered by an innocent unfettered observer.  It was there all along in the teachings about Armageddon.  It is so basic, so simple.  Just what is the ultimate Meaning of Life?  TO SURVIVE.

The Meaning of Life: Duh, I knew that!

(a.k.a. Don’t Mess with My Religion)

It’s so very obvious. In fact the human survival instinct is so ingrained that people do not really think about it.  It’s an instinctive part of the human mammal, such that people automatically act in ways that will benefit their survival.  It’s not a belief.  It’s an instinct.  In my case this instinct was rationalized and reinforced by a strong belief in The Evil Trinity (sin, guilt, fear), and supported by a serious fear of retribution at Armageddon!

Despite the heavy burden involved, it’s somewhat profound to observe that the Evil Trinity promoted by Judeo-Christians, is in effect, a prescriptive process for actualizing the Meaning of Life – survival!

And this also applies to other spiritual practice.  If you step back from the specific details you will see that a deeper level behavioral pattern is being taught which is intended to ensure survival.

There truly is some wisdom in the process.  Where ever you receive it from (religion, parents, surrounding local culture), there exist prescriptive processes for ensuring one’s survival.  Let us then define a Moral Code of Conduct as a prescriptive processes or set of behaviors, conscious or unconscious, that are intended to help one survive and prosper.

Nietzsche and Maslow

Survival, or Will to Power plays itself out in Abraham Maslow’s concept of a Hierarchy of Needs.  At the base is the need to ensure bodily survival: food, clothing, shelter.  Once basic survival needs are met, the Will to Power goes on to empower Self by pushing to meet its other needs until finally a pinnacle state of self-actualization is reached.  The state of self-actualization is achieved when the Self has fully succeeded in exercising Will to Power at all levels of the hierarchy.

The Smell of Fear in an Otherwise Healthy Mammal

(a.k.a. Survival through Moral Codes of Conduct)

Nietzsche’s observations take things even further by pointing out that moral codes of conduct are all driven by Will to Power, or the need for survival.  Life is complex, and humans and animals alike have devised various moral codes to promote survival in various circumstances.

For instance, if as an employee of a company, a common moral code of conduct says that one must obey the boss’s orders.  Where does this rule come from?  The rationale is easily worked out by cause and effect logic:

1. Survival is dependent eating and having a place to live.
2. One needs money to buy these things.
3. One needs a job to receive the money.
4. Keeping ones job is dependent on obeying your boss’s orders.
5. Therefore ones survival is dependent on obeying your boss’s orders.

In another example, women are sometimes taught from a very young age that their primary mission in life is to be attractive, and to use this attraction to find a steady man, get married, and produce children.  In the classic family model, the child rearing process places the woman in a potentially vulnerable state, so survival instinct places emphasis on finding a man who is responsible, conscientious, and most importantly, one that the woman can control.  If she fails in her choice of the man, the financial realities often mean a serious risk to her survival and that of the children.

The Religious, but Otherwise Healthy Mammal

(a.k.a. Survival with the Evil Trinity)

A more basic level of survival is being achieved by the religion based moral code of conduct embodied in the Evil Trinity (sin, guilt, fear).  This cause and effect logic illustrates:

1. Survival is dependent on making good choices in life.  But the facts are that one doesn’t always make good choices (one sins).
2. If one doesn’t learn from mistakes (keeps on sinning) ones survival is in question.  So ones survival depends on feeling badly enough about past mistakes (guilt) that one changes course and makes a better choice next time.
3. When presented with the choice again, guilt from the past and fear automatically drive ones decision making process.  The guilt hurts because one is torturing oneself over a choice in the past that cannot be changed.  Fear of making a bad choice and adding yet more guilt drives one to not repeat past mistakes.  So this time one chooses differently.
4. To achieve enlightenment (survival), just repeat.

Driving to how instinctual survival, or Will to Power, is, Nietzsche suggests that moral codes of conduct are encoded in the biology of the animal (*).  The Meaning of Life is to survive, and through Will to Power the mammal has developed good instincts (behavioral patterns) for ensuring that survival.

(*) Nietzsche applies his observations to all animals, not just mammals.

By combining multiple instinctual behavior patterns into a more complex behavior philosophy the mammal develops a moral code of conduct as a sophisticated way of ensuring its survival.

Whether we receive wisdom from parents or from religion, or perhaps a wise old saying from Benjamin Franklin or Aesop, we must concede that our world is full of free advertising for moral codes of conduct.

It’s an interesting realization that moral codes of conduct actually do work, even if some are more effective than others.  The fact is that people have been surviving for centuries on the Evil Trinity.  I am not one to argue with the wisdom that comes from millenniums of historical experience.  But perhaps one is wise to evaluate moral codes of conduct carefully, since so many of them are widely advertised, and sometimes are at odds with each other.  Religions, cultures, and teachers often assert that their moral code of conduct offers the best way for survival.

Before choosing, one ideally should become aware of which ones work most effectively, and when.  It’s easier said than done, but the critical importance of consciously choosing is to be highlighted here, since most people absorb and accept religious and cultural moral codes of conduct without thinking objectively about it.

The Extremely Sophisticated Otherwise Healthy Mammal

(a.k.a. Survival through Politics and Government)

It’s also worth pointing out that government is yet another institution for promoting moral codes of conduct.  Government represents a higher level of sophistication above religion.  At this level one is not just dealing with moral codes that promote survival of the individual, one is promoting the survival of large groups of people!  In government these moral codes can take several forms, such as:

1. Laws (local, regional, and national) – if everyone play nicely as individuals, everyone has a better chance to survive.
2. Patriotism – supporting the survival of the nation by supporting the military.
3. Regulation – supporting the survival of various groups through taxation, business licenses, and industry regulation.
4. Public policy – supporting the survival of everyone.
5. Foreign policy – supporting the survival of the nation as it interacts with other nations.

A supporting premise of government moral codes is that there is safety in numbers.  While the individual survives by exercising Will to Power, the government model suggests that survival is best achieved by limiting the ways that Will to Power manifests, for the good of the group.  By giving up some freedom of choice and agreeing to common moral codes of conduct, all individuals under the government have an easier time surviving by exercising Will to Power collectively.

Wars are historical evidence that the degree of control given to individuals is a long and bloody debate about the best forms of government.  A socialistic approach favors taking freedoms away from individuals for the betterment of all.  A democratic approach favors giving more freedoms to the individuals.  Like all moral codes of conduct, these and other forms of government have different advantages in different scenarios.

It is not just an intellectual debate over what degree of collectivism vs. individualism creates the highest likelihood of survival.  People are willing to live and die for their strong believe in moral codes of conduct.

One can think of a style of government as being a “superset moral code of conduct”, or a very large group of moral codes organized under a common symbolic name.  The game at this level is a large one: it’s no longer a group of instincts, but a group of a group of a group of instincts.

Survival and Relationships

Survival is risky business.  Let’s face it: if you get your choices wrong, you’re dead.  Nothing else matters if you don’t survive.  Survival is the Meaning of Life.  Survival IS the point of existence.  Everyone knows this instinctively.

All behaviors you see in people are ultimately tied to their survival, whether they consciously are aware of it or not.  This reality affects all relationships between people.

Think about this the next time you are conducting business with someone.  Realize that they’re in it for their survival.  If the business proposition promotes their survival (ideally their prosperity), then they’ll accept it. If not, then they will refuse.  It’s that simple.  Perhaps the Golden Rule (taken as a moral code of conduct) has a specific application with regard to relationships.

What about your romantic life?  Is your relationship actively promoting the survival and well-being of both persons?  If not, one of them will eventually leave.

No Uncertainty, No Fear: Problem Solved?

Since survival is the point of our existence, it makes one ponder why it is that, just by existing, we are placed in a position of fear.  What part of being born requires it to be so?  Fear seems to be an innate part of human existence as we know it.

Because of this fear, attention is increasingly drawn to questions about how humans predict the future.  Survival depends on outcomes from choices you make when consciously following a moral code of conduct and when reacting with an instinctual behavior pattern.  If you can reliably predict the outcome, you lower the risk to your survival.  And if the risk of failing to survive is zero (in an ideal world), fear can disappear entirely.

The real game then becomes, not how to craft a better moral code of conduct for survival, but rather, how to better predict future outcomes.  Yet experience is essential.  The best predictive models seem to come from months, years, even centuries of trial and error on the part of many humans.

Stay tuned for new installments in which I will explore some ways in which we attempt to predict the future, and how these affect our moral codes of conduct and survival.