Earlier today, as I sat outside smoking a cigar and enjoying the humid heat of a Maine summer, it occurred to me how vague the entire world is. This wasn't the first time such a thought had struck me but, especially in regards to all my thinking about the art of writing, it seemed particularly poignant.
In a world where there seem to be more and more divisions and distinctions as time goes on, perhaps the concept that everything is ultimately very vague is rather counter-intuitive. But from where I sat this afternoon, trying to cool off, sitting in a stiff metal patio chair, and gazing aimlessly about a downtown area, the world did, in fact, seem quite vague.
Running the concept through my head yet again, the idea seems very Zen. All distinctions are a concept created by our minds. Hang with me, I'm not getting get hippy or stoner on you. When you get right down to it, society is comprised entirely of written and unwritten rules that aren't, at all, immutable.
Let's take a work environment for example. We'll start with a single department at just about any facility. You have employees and you have at least one supervisor in most cases comprising a single department. Although there is nothing that actually distinguishes, in physical reality, the supervisor and the employees they still work together because of the rules of the facility and the nature of jobs/work in our society. If the employees don't do their jobs, or if the supervisor doesn't do their job, they face consequences. Why? Because of the established rules of the facility/workplace and the expectations of society. However, those rules were created from, essentially nothing. One day someone decided that things would work better if they were done in a certain way. That someone creates a rule and finds people who will follow it. Further systems spring from that construct.
That was roughly how my train of thought progressed, and I began to expand upon the idea. If the rules that make up all of our society were created, upon either a logical idea or arbitrarily, then, other than consequences imposed by other people or physical realities, anything goes. Our economy in America relies upon a system in which people are evaluated by the tasks they are able to perform. People are evaluated by their work history and their proofs of education and experience. People earn money from working jobs that are classified and categorized into various tasks and roles. What is all this for? So people can earn money and make a living. Ultimately though you don't have to do this. Working is not required to live in the literal sense. Even in the context of the modern working world you do not have to get a job. If your goal is to earn money then all you have to do is determine a task in which you can convince other people to give you money. (Although you should perhaps consider taking into account the laws and customs of your region before you attempt this.)
In practice the fact that so many people abide by the rules of society, the economy, the justice system, etc. limits your ability to ignore the existence of established rules and systems or even to introduce new ones. None of this is really surprising given a moment's thought, but the thing that really made me pause was the realization that we are all just making this shit up as we go along. If you consider the the highest tiers of skill and knowledge in all areas, leadership included, there is nothing that determines your progress forward. There is no set roadmap for what is discovered next, or how to manage a country, or earn money. Our systems as a human race rely solely on a 'whatever works' policy.
All things considered this is kind of scary. The various forms of government, countries, justice systems, scientific advancement, education, economic systems, parenting, language, hierarchies, and just about anything you can think of distills down to "Hey, that worked! What now?" To which I suppose the proper response, the driving force behind all of our achievements as a species, would be "Huh, I don't know. Fuck it, let's wing it."
In a world where there seem to be more and more divisions and distinctions as time goes on, perhaps the concept that everything is ultimately very vague is rather counter-intuitive. But from where I sat this afternoon, trying to cool off, sitting in a stiff metal patio chair, and gazing aimlessly about a downtown area, the world did, in fact, seem quite vague.
Running the concept through my head yet again, the idea seems very Zen. All distinctions are a concept created by our minds. Hang with me, I'm not getting get hippy or stoner on you. When you get right down to it, society is comprised entirely of written and unwritten rules that aren't, at all, immutable.
Let's take a work environment for example. We'll start with a single department at just about any facility. You have employees and you have at least one supervisor in most cases comprising a single department. Although there is nothing that actually distinguishes, in physical reality, the supervisor and the employees they still work together because of the rules of the facility and the nature of jobs/work in our society. If the employees don't do their jobs, or if the supervisor doesn't do their job, they face consequences. Why? Because of the established rules of the facility/workplace and the expectations of society. However, those rules were created from, essentially nothing. One day someone decided that things would work better if they were done in a certain way. That someone creates a rule and finds people who will follow it. Further systems spring from that construct.
That was roughly how my train of thought progressed, and I began to expand upon the idea. If the rules that make up all of our society were created, upon either a logical idea or arbitrarily, then, other than consequences imposed by other people or physical realities, anything goes. Our economy in America relies upon a system in which people are evaluated by the tasks they are able to perform. People are evaluated by their work history and their proofs of education and experience. People earn money from working jobs that are classified and categorized into various tasks and roles. What is all this for? So people can earn money and make a living. Ultimately though you don't have to do this. Working is not required to live in the literal sense. Even in the context of the modern working world you do not have to get a job. If your goal is to earn money then all you have to do is determine a task in which you can convince other people to give you money. (Although you should perhaps consider taking into account the laws and customs of your region before you attempt this.)
In practice the fact that so many people abide by the rules of society, the economy, the justice system, etc. limits your ability to ignore the existence of established rules and systems or even to introduce new ones. None of this is really surprising given a moment's thought, but the thing that really made me pause was the realization that we are all just making this shit up as we go along. If you consider the the highest tiers of skill and knowledge in all areas, leadership included, there is nothing that determines your progress forward. There is no set roadmap for what is discovered next, or how to manage a country, or earn money. Our systems as a human race rely solely on a 'whatever works' policy.
All things considered this is kind of scary. The various forms of government, countries, justice systems, scientific advancement, education, economic systems, parenting, language, hierarchies, and just about anything you can think of distills down to "Hey, that worked! What now?" To which I suppose the proper response, the driving force behind all of our achievements as a species, would be "Huh, I don't know. Fuck it, let's wing it."
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