Choosing Hope

Source: Mass Effect 3.
This image is the property of EA/Bioware.

       'Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.' – Shel Silverstein

       The last sounds of a dying dream, I think, are to be found in our conviction that there will come a day when we will make that dream our reality. And perhaps we will. Perhaps we won't. But today is not that day...

       I would not judge a person by their convictions, beliefs, dreams, ideas. I would not judge who they are and who they crave to be. Unless... Unless, by their chosen way of life, they are inherently harmful to themselves, to those around them – or even to every other person on this small world. Hence, the fundamental contradiction in my worldview: if I am not to judge, save by those criteria, I would still be required to find billions of people guilty (in my specific definition of the term), including myself.

       It would seem a rather bright notion to not pass judgement, then, wouldn't it? After all, that is a choice, rather than a necessity. And it tends to lead us away, to shift our focus from what is truly important – perpetuating a stagnant perspective does not really present us with a grand myriad of possibilities and directions, and paths, and ideas. On the contrary, we become the victims of a cyclical paradigm that we choose to reinforce.
       Let us move past the inherent inadequacies of a self-centred point of view...
       We now perceive the world in all its intrinsic depth and beauty – we see the full breadth of the crowning achievement, of the probabilistic miracle that is Life. And we see, finally, how we, one species on a small planet orbiting a mundane star in the context of a vastness beyond comprehension, have managed to make such a bloody mess of the rare chance we have been given. We are now on the verge: and we plan to take with us as much as we can. Over the edge and into a Chaos of our own making.

       Of course, I cannot know if and when we shall take the figurative leap. And I doubt there is anyone who can predict this with any degree of certainty. There is too much darkness in this world for any of us to hope to see clearly. There are too many unknowns, too many complex contructs preventing us from understanding. There is too much to do – and too little time. 

       But there is also hope. The potential for rapid, fundamental and positive change is a human trait we should learn to exploit. It should not be reserved only for radical situations – rather, we must learn to want to become better, each and every one of us, each and every day. We must embrace this part of ourselves, I believe, if we are to have any hope of flying when we step forwards from this new edge. Instead of plummeting to a new and singularly unpleasant depth for our species.

       Without hope, we do have nothing left. We would be no more than the parts that form us – and no greater than the parts of the artificial, mechanical construct that we form. But there is more to us than we choose to see. There is hope in the darkest of places: our souls are not an exception. As long as there are people who want to know that there is more to us than meets the eye, our spark need not die out.

       In the end, the choice is ours... We must choose hope.

Where art thou, Clarity?

       'All the world's a stage...' – William Shakespeare

       In the style of all great stories, perhaps we should start with a naïve young person, who believes with great passion – fervour even – that they would be the one to change the world. It should be noted, as this is only the very beginning, that they have not necessarily defined as of yet to what they would strive to alter aforementioned world. Their definition of what the nature of the difference they shall make is still somewhat inconsequential – rather, it is important that greatness, fame, fortune, or other some quantifiable measure of success are attained.

       You have already guessed the next part, I imagine. All good stories have a villain. But what does our young, headstrong and hopeful person face? What challenges shall I, as a fickle and cruel deity of their world, inflict upon said protagonist of this particular story?

       If the objective of verisimilitude were to be accomplished, we might employ no single evil entity. Rather, it would be the inescapable and numerous small challenges of day-to-day life as we know it. Is this not the greatest enemy all of us know – plain old ordinary life? On the face of it, that would seem to be the case, when we consider the permeating, mediocrity-encouraging, oppressive nature of the global madhouse we so proudly call ‘society’.
       Let us choose, then, the greatest of villains, the arch-enemy of all that we know as good in life. That villain would be change, I contend. For change is to be feared and fear cripples us, paralyses us. Change is in every single thing, change is in our nature. And our hero will falter and fail...

       But let us transcend that, shall we? We are, after all, telling a story... And all stories worth telling need a good, old-fashioned villain. Except there are no more of those, it would seem. The lines between good and evil, right and wrong, black and white have sort of become muddled up, confused, fuzzy... indistinguishable. There is no clarity left in this world. 

       And our hero falters and fails. He never suspected! She never knew how complex, frightening, perplexing this world actually is. He never knew how small and insignificant he was. Who was she to think she could make a difference, to change things, to make it all better?
       Yet, this is not the way our story ends, I should hope. There are greater challenges than our own uncertainties, greater obstacles than our vanity. And greater threats than our broken dreams. Our strength is greater than we know... And this young person will one day rise again to be a hero. Because we need heroes – we need to be the hero, at least in our own eyes or the eyes of our loved ones.
       And as long as we do, there is hope.

This Little Dream

       ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ – Juvenal

       We are at a threshold of unprecedented magnitude. We are facing challenges greater than any that have come before. We are neither prepared, nor willing to act.

       I am adamant in my belief that the irony is readily obvious to each and every one of us. Time and again, I have wondered why we cling to this hollow projection of what we perceive as a readiness to make momentous decisions. We consider, evaluate, plan, postpone…and fail to act. Often, even on our own behalf. We are the only real guardians of who we are and we have left the guarding to others.

       We delegate our duties, we avoid our responsibilities.  Thus we void our right to dispute injustice. Perhaps we all deserve better than our lot – but we must earn it. We are none of us entitled to anything in our world. And there is far more to be achieved than one might think…

       But this is a dream, my dear, vociferous readers. Granted, it is a dream we could perhaps one day see unfold before our eyes. Yet, a dream none the less. And though it holds a great promise, it also gives us a warning – we must wake up, if we are ever to dream this little dream.

       There are no winners and losers in the greatest of games. Only those who see and those who don’t.      

The Tales Untold

       “Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.” – Sir Terry Pratchett

       We live in interesting times, if I may say so. Times when our words are not reflected in our actions and our actions are not a reflection of our beliefs… If that’s not fascinating, I am at a loss as to what is. But I do believe ‘interesting’ should suffice for this particular discourse (lest I actually say what I mean and we all end up terribly depressed and altogether the worse for it). 

       I ought to mention, perhaps, that times are always ha– … pardon, interesting to some extent. And I do believe it is well within our resilient and blindingly stubborn nature to endure such challenges as those periods provide. Our capacity to bear the unbearable and tolerate the intolerable is one of the few reasons I still maintain my rather misplaced faith in our mess of a species. 

       Although such might not seem to be the case, all of the above is closely related to my recent nostalgic thoughts about stories and how they have helped shape us and guide us through such times. And how we, in turn, have given shape and substance to them – how new stories have emerged from old ones viewed with a fresh set of eyes, and how new legends, new myths, new… companions have been born for us. By our own triumphs and failures. 

       I will admit that I will never see stories from an objective, purely rational perspective. I am a story-teller at heart, even if real life would beg to differ. This is because I hold the belief that there is a higher calling to this art, if you will excuse the clichéd turn of phrase. The pursuit of a simple truth is admirable, to say the very least. For that is what a writer does – should he succeed, then he has captured an aspect of the human condition in all its multi-faceted and immeasurable complexity. Although I have no doubt that very few writers actually set out to build their careers with that abstract objective in mind. 

       But that is what they do, in the end. The best of those stories will reach even the hardest of hearts. As ever it has been throughout the ages, that sliver of truth will find its way to an open mind, to a wild imagination, to a lonely soul… to both sage and fool. Stories have been with us for far too long – they are an intrinsic part of us. And while it is true that times have changed since those first fairy tales were born, and while the boundaries between fantasy and reality have become far more clearly defined, the worlds that exist just beyond what we see will always call strongly to those of us who seek a truth. Any truth. 

       For the fantasy of one is a reality to another, and the stories we make are the truths we have known.

Flawed Objectives

       'Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.' - Albert Einstein

       I feel I must admit that I am troubled. But perhaps that is putting it too gently. I am baffled, exasperated and at the threshold of being gloomy. This is not, surprisingly, the consequence of any personal failing of mine. Save for my repeated inability to comprehend the vicissitudes of fate, I am rather content with my grasp of this world. Theoretically and empirically, I understand that I shall never fully understand it. And that for me is reasonably sufficient – for the extent of what may be known is beyond the capacity of any single human being.

       The source of my particular frustration is to be discovered within my failure to see any meaning or purpose to the self-perpetuating and, if I may say so, rather pointless endeavour of becoming a ‘success’. I have already established in my previous writing that, to me personally, that notion is defined by the attainment of interpersonal experience – our bonds with others are ultimately the most meaningful aspect of life (or at least, the most meaningful aspect that I can observe). Considering that I have reached this conclusion, I have taken it upon myself to examine objectively the current societal structure – our predisposition to climb a ladder of another’s choosing. (Worry not, I won’t really do that. Not only does it entail loads of rather tedious analysis, but it is also far beyond the scope of a blog post.)
       Now that your worries have been laid to rest, I will admit I still fail to see any meaning or purpose to the above-mentioned phenomenon. Nevertheless, I do want to share one particular insight of mine. It is related to what we see every day. And I hope it is close to the truth – at least in some small way. I have realised that, if you think you’re ‘getting ahead’ in life, you shouldn’t look back over your shoulder to see those you’ve passed by on the way.

       You should look ahead, far in the distance, to those you underestimated when the race was just beginning.