Section 1.8 – Making Sense of it All

 “Why are the middles of your eyes black?”
“They’re not actually black – they just look black because the light goes in there and doesn’t come out again.”
“Why doesn’t it come out?”
“Because it gets absorbed at the back of your eyes.”
“Why does it get absorbed?”
“So that the nerves in the back of your eyes can send messages to your brain.”
“Why do they send messages to your brain?”
“So you can see what’s going on.”
“What is going on?”

That was a conversation  that I had with my son Leo when he was about four years old. All of us start asking questions as soon as we get speech at the age of about two. If there’s anyone around who is prepared to have a dialogue, we carry on asking like this for a few years. But almost everybody gives up before very long. Some of the main questions we ask are:

• “How did I get here”
• “Why am I here?”
• “What should I do, now that I am here?”

And there’s another question lurking in the background, that often doesn’t get addressed: “What do I want – really?” Most people never get the chance to pause and think about that – they step onto a non-stop conveyor belt with their first day at work, and are more likely to be asking questions like: “Will I get to work on time?”, “Will my boss be mad at me?” “Will I get that promotion?”, “How can I afford to repair the water heater?”, How can I make this paycheque last till the end of the month?”  …and then you die!Later on maybe another question comes up:  “Why bother?” It doesn’t arise at this early stage, because at that time of life, our needs are being met without any effort on our part. But later on, when we have to take care of our own needs and desires, some people just ask themselves: “What’s the point of it all?“. Some sink into apathy, or retreat into escapism. Some even kill themselves.

99% of people give up asking the deep questions by the time they are about seven years old. One of the reasons is that school doesn’t encourage it. In fact most schools actively suppress the habit of asking questions. What do most people get out of the 13,000 hours they spend studying in school? A basic grasp of how to read, write and do basic arithmetic; plus a handful of facts that were crammed before the exams and promptly forgotten afterwards? Have you ever wondered whether the main objective might be to indoctrinate a docile workforce to arrive on time, work to a timetable, accept blindly everything they are told, and do what they ordered?

My point is that asking – or refusing to ask – these questions has dramatic practical consequences. Let’s look at a few examples:

Someone who answers the question “How did we get here?” with a myth of racial or national superiority will more readily resort to violence than one who answers by reference to descent from the a common ancestor, and who sees our species as one large extended family.

People who answer the question “What do I want?” with the proposition “Make as much money as I can”, will behave differently from those who answer it “Search always for peace and harmony”.

Those who adopt the Roman motto: “Dulci et decorum est pro patria mori” (sweet and glorious it is to die for one’s country) will be more likely to fall in line behind a demagogue, than those who choose to believe that it’s insane and pointless to suffer and die (and inflict suffering and death) for an agenda set by elites safely far away from the battlefield.

Someone who has taken the trouble to analyse the structure of an argument, to see whether the conclusions do really follow from the premises, is less likely to be taken in by propaganda in the newspapers and on television, or by glib sound-bites from politicians.

George Orwell – as hard-headed a realist as you will find anywhere – once wrote: “Unless we address the question of why we are here, we will never solve our housing problems, and are merely making it more likely that the atom bombs will do it for us.”

When we return to the Making Sense of It All thread, we will examine the project of trying to understand and explain natural phenomena – the activity known in Newton’s day as Natural Philosophy, and these days called “Science”.

 This is Section 1.8 of my forthcoming book The World in 2100: What might be Possible for Humanity? It is the introduction to the thread on Making Sense ot it All, which – in conjunction with the other six themes of the book – provides a comprehensive survey of the position we find ourselves in at this critical time in human history.

If you haven’t already done so, you can register to receive a free review copy just before it goes on general sale later this summer. Registering will also take you straight to Chapter 1 – The Foundations which will give you an overall idea of what the book will cover.