There is a certain mentality that is as old as history but often forgotten in modern times. It the mindset of the farmer, of the hunter, of the warrior. It has an appreciation and respect for nature and the purposes of plants and animals. It understands the life force and it pays it mind. There is ancient wisdom in that mindset. It values thrift. It values natural order. It values the oneness of structure and purpose.
In modern times, we have changed our minds more than anything else. Like in ancient times, we make tools for accomplishing work. But what we are able to call work today has very little to do with the work of history. So understand that my observation is not a critique of science, technology, tool making or building. It is a critique of mind, of priority, of direction. And so here is the greatest, and most obvious contradiction I know.
Modern women use modern medicine to stop themselves from getting pregnant in order to have carefree sex. Forget about the ethics of the matter and consider the biology of the matter. At their prime, when they would be the most fertile and the most capable of bearing a healthy child, they use tools to make themselves incapable, for the sake of pleasure and for the sake of economics. And a philosophy has emerged because of this change. There is a disconnect between structure and purpose. There is a re-purposing of the human body.
Modern men similarly re-purpose themselves, their minds, their bodies, their philosophies for the sake of pleasure and the sake of economics. And while I can accept the philosophical argument that there is no ‘natural order of things’, it is perfectly obvious that we have engineered ourselves away from that which nature provides. We are able to disrespect ancient wisdom because we have modern tools.
It is the fact that these tools obscure the thinking behind them that gives us problems. The farmer who finds that an ox pulls his plow better than a mule understands the purpose of that improved tool and makes him a better farmer. But the man who finds a better videogame, a bigger screen and a softer sofa, does that make him a better man? Even if it gives him more pleasure and more money and fame?
What do we know of gluttony? We know that if you eat nothing but pies, cakes, and massive amounts of carbs and sugars, your body will fail to produce enough insulin to regulate them. And so you can take pills - enough pills so that you can still eat pies and cakes whenever you please. So who is ever called a glutton? Nobody. We haven’t solved the problem, we have created a workaround.
With our modern tools and modern re-purposing, we understand very well that we sustain economies that fail to encourage our to discipline ourselves to the very simplest demands of ancient wisdom. Eat well. Our work takes us indoors, so I have to do this thing called ‘exercise’ in which I pretend to be be a farmer, a hunter or a warrior. Because I have an economy of likes and followers to fulfill. Is this work? Not really. For me this is pleasure.
Narcotics, recreational drugs, antibiotics, contraceptives, hormone therapies, dietary supplements, anti-inflammatories… there are every manner of cleverly invented molecules that repurpose our bodies temporarily. Why? What is the definition of good health? What does a healthy human body do? What is it supposed to do? Farm? Hunt? War?
These are deep questions we no longer ask. We simply use the tools without thinking. Our purposes are re-engineered by producers of consumer goods we don’t understand or question. We no longer look for purpose, and so we no longer know how to achieve our purpose. We are only encouraged to find our passions. This is the essence of the dysfunction of modern life. Passion without purpose.
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