"answers are overrated"
In another forum, a friend said that seeking answers is overrated, and we should just "be." I have heard that from more than one place. It is wise advice in some cases. If you want a quiet life, if you want to fit in with your friends, if you want peace, then seeking answers is a bad idea. Looking for answers can drive you crazy, and you may never find them. Or you may think you find them, and devote your life to them, yet find our on your death bed that you were wrong. Or you may never find out. The quest for answers will lead to a lot of grief. And if you want to make a small difference, just a very small improvement, then you don't need to look - the way to make a small improvement is usually obvious.
But if you want to try to change things, if you think that the present world - full of injustice and starvation - is just not acceptable, then you don't have much choice. You might not find the answers. You might not make the difference you want to make. But you will need answers. Ignorance is not an option.
posted by Chris Tolworthy at 10:07 AM
6 Comments:
What can one say to parents who have lost their child? There are no answers. People die because they live. Death is an implication of life and life itself is beyond answers.
Within the domain of life, one can ask questions that will yield reasonable answers. One can wonder why children have to starve in a world of plenty. One can wonder why we do not manage to live with less violence. But even when we have all the answers children will continue to die and worthy people will suffer horrible fates.
I'm excited to see you have a blog. You are going on the blog roll later this afternoon, fer shure. You can find me at Solipsistic Scribbling, although I'm not very deep, erudite, or even sane half the time. I've missed reading your deep thoughts since I rarely go to the "F" place. ~Miranda aka Bard.
miranda - thanks! I've added you to my links (left hand side of page) - but I can't find where to reply to your posts?
hellmut - I agree that there are times when answers are extremely difficult to find. In the case of a child dying, the reason why is fairly easy to find (it is medical) but finding exactly the right thing to say to the parents may be infinitely difficult.
And it is true that children will continue to die, but medical answers will ensure that other children will survive. I am grateful that people like Lister, Koch and Pasteur looked at a dead child and asked "why? And then did not stop asking until they had answers.
..and regarding children who die of hunger in a world of plenty, I think we need to remember that only two hundred years ago this was commonplace in today's wealthy countries. We solved the problem at a country scale, and the wealthy became wealthier in the process. I think it is a reasonable goal to to do the same thing on a global scale.
I use Haloscan comments, which were acting weird yesterday. Just click on "Comments" when/if they show up. I may go back to Blogger comments if this continues.
Regarding your last comment, I'm glad you pointed out how much things have changed in just a reasonably short time and it stands to reason that problems with hunger and sanitation will be addressed for all. However, the current world leaders seem to be so focused on maintaining the Old Order, I worry that life will become much more Orwellian before freedom will be allowed to truly flourish.
Me too. Long term I am very optimistic, but short term I see too many ways that vested interests can just do their own thing. That is the real challenge, geting from A to B without all that slow and painful evolution in between.
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