Purpose
There really isn't one. Just enjoy the ride.
Townes Van Zandt
What is your purpose?
It’s a pretty big philosophical question that I’m not going to begin to tell you the answer to, because I don’t really know. I struggle with that one myself.
Think about it on your own, and feel free to pop in the comments section if you have the meaning of life figured out, or your favorite philosopher does, or if there is a quote or a saying or a line from a movie that sums it up best for you.
I worried a lot more about what my purpose was when I was younger.
I don’t tend to worry about it anymore. There are still times that I do. I have anxieties and doubts, just like everyone else, but they are much quieter than they were when I was a young man.
Now, on most days, I realize my purpose is really no different than this guy’s:
Photo by Karly Jones on Unsplash
Or hers:
Photo by Gurth Bramall on Unsplash
Or theirs:
The purpose I accept on most days is simply to exist. I’ve realized that there is no pyramid I need to climb to get to self-actualization. I am already there. On most days that is. There are still days when I don’t know how I’m going to save the world. But on most days, I accept that that’s not my job.
I think it is healthy to not get too worked up with what we are supposed to be doing here. A priest I knew when I was younger had a great line about finding meaning in life that always stayed with me and maybe helped me to stop worrying so much how much I mattered. It was
Life isn’t a problem to be solved; it is a mystery to be lived.
It can be said differently. One of my favorites is from Townes Van Zandt’s To Live Is to Fly. But to be honest, the Cowboy Junkie’s version is better. Sorry, Townes.
Where you’ve been is good and gone, all you keep’s the getting there.
Why treat the purpose of our society any differently?
If we can accept that our individual purpose is a journey - then shouldn’t we conclude the same for the purpose of our society - that there really isn’t one beyond just to keep it going so we can enjoy it?
So don’t ever get too worried about purpose or meaning in life if you can help it. The journey is the thing. Not the destination.
That is true for each of us individually, but also for us as a society.
But that has been largely lost.
There is no single purpose for you on this Earth that you need to fulfill - go live your life and enjoy it.
But there is also no single purpose for our society on this Earth - but we are told it is GDP growth.
Wait, what?!
Next time you get a chance, look yourself in the mirror and say:
“My purpose in life is to work to produce goods and services and consume goods and services so that the economy grows 2-3% per year.”
You don’t have to actually do that to know how ridiculous that is. But that IS the purpose of all of us in the aggregate, which when you stop and think about it, is no less ridiculous. Our purpose as a society is to produce and consume at a rate that will soon destroy us, so just don’t think about the “soon destroy us” part.
No thank you.
But society doesn’t have to work that way.
Our capitalist system works that way, but it doesn’t have to.
We don’t have to destroy our life support system so that our economy grows and services the lifestyles of the top 10% of humanity.
We can live a life within planetary boundaries, that does not pursue infinite growth and put the well-being of society above the comfort and power of the top 10%.
Look at those last two sentences. One of them is crazy but is accepted as normal.
One should be normal and is accepted as crazy.
We can accept that our lives don’t need a destination. Why can’t we accept the same for our society?
I’ll give the final words back to Townes:
The choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone
Well, to live's to fly awe low and high
So, shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eye
"Next time you get a chance, look yourself in the mirror and say:
'My purpose in life is to work to produce goods and services and consume goods and services so that the economy grows 2-3% per year.’”
Then, ask yourself, where do I derive this purpose? Who tells me that my job is to work hard to produce and consume more so that the markets can give everybody more?
Then, ponder this possible answer: it is the markets that give you that purpose. Specifically, the securities trading markets for financing enterprise through profit extraction from volatility and growth in market-clearing prices for securities in the markets for maintaining volatility and growth in the market-clearing prices for those securities.
Economist D’Maris Coffman tells us that 17th Century Mercantilism was the special pleading for the special interests of the British East India Company in co-opting the common sense, and military might, of the English Crown to protect and perpetuate its monopoly control over trade in the East.
In the same way modern Growthism can be seen as the special pleading for the special interests of securities trading markets professionals (a decidedly more ephemeral entity than the British East India Company) in co-opting our common sense of fiduciary prudence and loyalty, to protect and perpetuate their monopoly control over tens of trillions in society’s shared savings aggregated into social trusts for socially provisioning the social safety nets of Workforce Pensions and Civil Society Endowments.
Humanity does not need Growth, but the securities trading markets do.
I don’t call on you to accept this proposition, but I do invite you to consider it, by joining a new conversation at the vanguard of public discourse, to explore the possibility that it is, in fact, more true than not.
Great post, brilliant song. And Townes' version ain't half bad - I believe you can hear that he is the one who wrote those lyrics and first felt them.