A harmony of minds

Sad song still make me smile...

We live in an odd time

I was just watching the news and some blurb about Richard Branson (the iconic Billionaire from Virgin Mobile) and his latest adventure to explore the seas, Virgin Oceanic (which follows up his equally ambitious project, Virgin Galactic). Moments later, on the same station, an infomercial appeared for some silly kitchen device that makes chopping vegetables easier. I guess it just highlighted for me, what a strange world we live in. Where technologies which should have been invented hundreds of years ago are still able to make people millions, while at the same time others are using very expensive technologies only invented within the last few years to explore the known frontiers of the universe. It demonstrated that there are always "inefficiences" or at least opportunities to improve upon the everyday experience, regardless of how trivial. The second is that the far frontiers of science seem very out of reach. This dichotomy has always bothered me. I feel as though I have a great deal of creativity, but it the areas where it can be put to use often seem rather limited - as if all of the great ideas have already been invented. I guess what this should teach me is that though the little vegetable chopper might seem totally useless and banal, it probably does provide a great deal of social utility (by virtue of its profits), even in its super-simple form. I should always remind myself not to get demoralized and that there are always a thousand improvements on the everyday experience I could easily bring to market.

The Compassion of Adam Smith

Below are some excerpts that I re-worded from Adam Smith's lesser-known first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. I have been taking the compassionate course at the UU and was quite surpised to find these penned by word's most well known economist. I was also surprised to see that his interest was not initially in understanding markets, but in understanding people. He began his studies as a social philosopher.

 _____

No matter how selfish a man may be, most will always have some interest in the feelings of others. This pity or compassion is the emotion we feel when we see the misery of other creatures. The fact that we can derive sorrows from the sorrows of others is a matter too obvious to require any instances to prove it. This sentiment like all the other passions of human nature is by no means confined to the virtuous or the humane, though they may in fact feel it with the most exquisite sensibility. The most hardened heart is not altogether without it.  

As we have no natural ability to experience what other men feel, we can never understand the depth and nature of their feelings beyond conceiving what we ourselves would feel in a similar situation – we rely on the impression of our own senses and our own personal histories. Though our brother may be on the rack, as long as we ourselves are at ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers. Our own cognition never has and never can, carry us beyond our own person, and it is only through sheer imagination that we can form any conception of another's sensation.
The administration of the great system of the universe and the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the narrowness of his powers and his comprehension: the care of his own happiness; to the extent possible, that of his family, his friends, his country. But though we are endowed with a very strong desire of those ends, it has been entrusted to the slow and uncertain determinations of our reason to find out the proper means of bringing them about. Nature has directed us to these ends through innate instinct: hunger, thirst, the passion which unites the two sexes, and the dread of pain, prompt us to apply those means for their own sakes. We do these things without any consideration of their tendency produce beneficial ends which the "great Director of nature" intended them to produce.
Thus being led they mean only their own convenience and the gratification of their insatiable desires and often vain desire, they divide with the others the products of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society.

..the more they stay the same

Sadly....

 

"With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches."

-Adam Smith

 

If only we saw it this way:

 

"The chief end of labor is leisure."

-Aristotle

What I enjoy and why....

I made a list of all the activities I enjoyed and then made a list of reasons I enjoy them and consended it to the following qualities:

·         Ability to find beauty and bring things to life

·         Meaningful work (think about what this really means?)

·         Being mentally challenged and stretched

·         Ability to be creative

·         Autonomy

·         New experiences on a daily basis (places, people, food, ect - doesn't have to be  anything exotic either, could be just walking down a new street)

·         Working with people in order to change my own limited perspective

Spiritual Malaise

I have noticed a distinct lack of "passion" in my life lately. I have felt a general disinterest in most things. Right now I feel a general spiritual malaise. Sarte called it "the nausea" - a palpable weight on my soul, that I carry around. I am not sure if this is because I have an aversion to routine and I am in a very normal 9-5 job, because I have all of my biological needs (food, sleep, sex, shelter) met with little stress and applied effort  (I think hunger in the specific and in the broad sense is a good thing), or if I am coming to the same conclusion as Ecclesiasties that I will find less and less happiness as I age (I have certainly embraced the concept that life is inherently meaningless [and that purpose is what we create in the lack of this meaning]), if it's just a normal cycle of my hypomania, or a normal withdrawal from caffeine and to some degree alcohol, or this is in fact a normal response to the life I am currently living (one that while covering all of my basic life needs is, to use an economic term, far from my potential output).

 

I supposed I should attack them systematically:

• Aversion to routine: I do in fact despise the routinized life so common in corporate America. I have only been here and I have altered my daily habits at least a dozen times. I tried new restaurants every day during lunch, I biked to work, I started eating a big breakfast and working out during lunch. I met friends for happy hour after work. I started to read after work. I started to meditate during lunch. I started to read during lunch. I worked late. I started waking up earlier. I enjoy novelty. It is the one thing that makes me excited. Just running through a new neighborhood in the morning and seeing how other live their lives is often enough to cheer me up for bit. I guess this what it means is that I need to make an effort in both life and my job to meet new people and see new things to whatever extent I am able. I am not doing this now.
• Biologically satiated- I think experiencing the elements, going hungry and having an unmet sex drive is good. It seems to motivate me to improve my condition instead of "going soft" in the padded seats, AC, and munching on good food all day. I think Epicurus was right.
• Life gets boring with age - well, being 27, I can say that the trajectory of my life confirms the general trend, but I am too young to speak with any experience. I am also not sure if the dry, boring life I am living now is more a result of conformity and having let social norms beat out most aspects of individuality (through embarrassment, by dangling capital in my face, by succumbing to the expectations of women I encountered) I might have clung to as a child. It does seem rather obvious that the more you try things the less interesting they will be, but I am also convinced that with the almost infinite array of diversity in the world (among people, geography, art, and plants... all ranging from the microscopic to the scale of galaxies... each with an infinite number of theories and models for processing, understanding and predicting how things will flow through time) that I should be able to find a ceaseless stream of gratitude and a deep deep well of amazement to draw from and drink it's cool waters. Verdict: to be determined. Would probably be good to take an informal survey of my older friends to get their opinion on this (note to self: make sure to get a real view and not an idealized version). 
• Seasonal mood fluctuation - possible, need better documentation, consult with friends, read scientific literature. No real insight here other than these things seem to be moderated by exercise, sleep and a good diet, all of which I have.
• Caffeine - plays a stronger role than I would like on my mood. I do feel quite happy when I drink it. There is a noticeable absence when I don't. Life is probably better without it. If i do use it, it should only be recreational and not a part of my daily routine (other than maybe decaf as a digestive aide).
• Normal Response to current situation - I think there is merit here. I recently had a phone interview with a firm from London and was quite excited by the prospect of a new job in a new place that would challenge me and give me time to travel and work with people. I need to reflect more on what I really want and where I am systematically missing out on these things in my current phase of life.
• I haven't been to any new clubs/groups, pursued any new hobbies, locations, or even dates in a while. This has partly been because I have not wanted my happiness to be contingent upon my circumstances (I have this strange desire to create a worldview that I could apply even if I were in a wheelchair in a nursing home - it just seems more honest since that is a very real possibility one day) so I have been trying to find contentment in my ordinary day-to-day life. Though this seems to be selling myself short if I am capable of doing things I would enjoy and am forcing myself to forego them. At a minimum I should be reading the free times more and going to events that look interesting. I should actively be expanding my circle of friends. I should be taking time at least one afternoon a week to enjoy my hobbies and carry out projects I have been wanting to for a while (particularly a few photo-essays on things around Columbia). I need to get involved with the service groups I looked into last week.     

This plan makes me a feel a tad better. I think I just gave myself something to look forward to in the coming weeks. I have a little smile on my face...