the bare bodkin

I've been reading Ghandi's autobiography, and it's gotten me thinking. Yup, that's right - I'm a guy, I'm thinking, and it's not about sex.

The philosopher's creed states that the unexamined life is not worth living. Basically, that's a sit-around-and-think guy's way to justify himself and make everybody else look bad. There is some truth there, but only inasmuch as the examination leads to right action. The real philosopher's creed, I think, ought to state that the selfish life is not worth living. This is, as Shakespeare would put it, the bare bodkin of the matter.

I will start my argument (come on, let’s argue lets!) from this unassailable point: Love is the highest virtue. If you don't agree with that, hit yourself in the head with a frozen salmon and try again. OK, now that you agree, I will go on to assert that self-sacrifice is the highest form of love. To live the most virtuous life, then, one must be the most self-sacrificial. This demands self-sacrifice irregardless of circumstances, even to the death. Ouch.

Why do I think self-sacrifice is the highest form of love? Because it requires the lover to believe that the sacrifice is worth it. While there is a lot of evidence of this to the person who looks with the purpose of actually seeing, there are also a lot of elements in our make-up that try to give the lie to this. As long as this contention exists in a person's mind, there can be no ultimate proof.

The conflict comes from a very real problem that a proponent of self-sacrifice encounters - that this sort of love is really rather foolish. This is because foolishness and wisdom are functions tied inextricably with the brain. The brain is biological and therefore subject to the biological imperative, which requires those things that are alive to live at all costs. Therefore the call to self sacrifice (even and especially unto death)is at odds with our makeup in a very fundamental, real way.

Here’s where I make one of those seemingly (and possibly) totally obvious statements: selfishness and selfless-ness exist at odds with each other. This is not to say, however, that they cannot be reconciled. They can, but it is the fusion and cooperation of the two wherein lies our greatest difficulty. Self-love, you see, is still a form of love. That makes it a good thing. In a situation where you are forced to choose one or the other, however, it is always better to allow that non-corporeal, self-sacrificial area of yourself override your biological imperative. The difficulty is distinguishing when those situations occur and then acting correctly. I think that thought, that slippery brain-bashing concept is the soul of the issue.

So far I’ve been meandering around in ethereal head-space, yammering about abstract concepts. This may be some lofty ideal, but it has some seriously relevant, burn-your-face-off implications – which is why you and I mostly just say (out loud and by implication) – “screw that!” I can understand this, because the objections to self-sacrifice are dyed-in-the-wool constitutional. Generally, they take on a utilitarian (rational) or hyper-cognitive (emotive) manifestation.

Frick, there I go again – back into that head space. Let me restate. If somebody is in a situation where the imperative to sacrifice their self sneaks up and rings their soul’s doorbell and they do not want to give in, they will generally take one or both of two escape routes. First, they will respond with their emotions (what feels right just then) and say, “shut the fu… crying out lout… why the hell would I want to do that?” Having absolutely nuked this squirrel of a problem, they will proceed to do whatever they feel like. This is the resort of fools and therefore, I think, not really worth addressing.

The second tack is more compelling. They’ll reason: “Sure, it would be great if everybody was like that – but they won’t be. Therefore I, as the person being self-sacrificial, will merely be taken advantage of. That’s foolish and stupid and a waste of my life.” I will call this the utilitarian-universal-maxim combo approach. It’s pretty beguiling when you consider that all a person can really KNOW is wherever and whenever and however they happen to be at the moment – and that only rather imperfectly. Since we are creatures of the mind, how can we get past this? Selfishness is one of our most inherent human characteristics, exacerbated by the fact that we live in a cultural environment primarily controlled by the secular humanist religion, which teaches selfishness as a virtue.

And why wouldn’t it? Why, in a post-enlightenment, post-Deity, post-truth society that worships scientific inquiry above and before all else, would anybody want to forego personal gain for the good of others? That future generations might be able to breathe clean air? That our grandchildren might live in a world where there is more than one type of rice to eat? It sounds nice, but it doesn’t jive with what I know about myself and about my fellow peoples. We’re creatures of the NOW. We’re known as “the ME generation”. Or (to put it the way I feel it) we suck.

Fortunately, self-sacrifice is the TRUTH. It is embodied, to greater and lesser degrees, by the world’s true heroes: Ghandi, Jesus, Socrates, Mother Theresa, and you and me, inasmuch as we allow it. It IS the best way to live, as unreasonable as it may seem. That Reality seeps in under doorways and through walls. It infects good marriages and good parent-child relationships. It can be suppressed but not stamped out, crushed but not destroyed.

For myself, I will chose to fight the prevailing thought of my biological mind, that champions the self at all times at the cost of all others. I will attempt to subsume my love of self, when the call is given, to a higher love and purer truth. I will eat more organic. I will delineate more clearly between “I need” and “I want” and buy accordingly. I will keep my eyes open and my mouth shut. I will skate on the edge of insanity, twirling without thought of the consequence. I will die to myself a little more each day. And I will hug you more often, if you let me.