The Madness of Too Much Reality: Technology and Social Media in the 21st Century
Mansfield College Oxford University
September 19, 2013
Janette E. McDonald
Abstract
T.S. Eliot once wrote, ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ perhaps suggesting a reason for the existence of madness. Although human madness has contributed to vast creation of pieces of art, literature and music, it clearly has a dark side - especially when one is overwhelmed by it. Language and reason are often mentioned when assessing what constitutes madness. Our current exposure to and use of social media and technology have provided wide spread contact with much reality, and even perhaps to a different kind of madness never before known to humankind. These newer forms of communication may have also created a contemporary meaning borrowed from the older term, Ship of Fools. Rather than a ship filled with mentally ill or poor people, the modern vessel could instead be fueled by metaphoric sails of intellectual lethargy and emotional apathy. Drawing from Foucault’s masterpiece, Madness and Civilization, this paper explores the following questions: Are we living in a time and place where personal and social madness, incivility and violence have become daily renditions of normalcy? Who or what determines whether human expression is mad or reasonable action? What causes a culture to move its social acceptance and moral compass toward something which was once reasoned as foul or bestial to a category of banality? One example will be discussed as an illustration of personal and social madness in the United States: the March convictions of two Steubenville, Ohio juveniles for the rape of a heavily intoxicated 16 year-old girl. The event received national and international attention and while it occurred in the United States other similar events have recently occurred on a global scale. Using social media and electronic communication as a contextual backdrop the paper suggests that incident only begins to demonstrate our madness from too much reality.
*****
Key Words: Foucault, communication, madness, reason, social media, technology
1. Introduction
Since the initial acceptance of this conference abstract countless other noteworthy global events have occurred which could arguably demonstrate further examples of social madness. Unfortunately what I will call social madness appears to be a re-occurring phenomenon and certainly not one that is characteristic only of our current times. Incivility, criminality and unreasoned behaviors have plagued humankind since the beginning of our history yet their recent ubiquitous regularity seems remarkably unprecedented, in part due to our mass communication practices.
At the onset my reader should note this paper does not intend to portray all electronic communication or social media as the bane of our existence. To do so would only validate another form of madness, for clearly computational advances have made immense contributions to the human condition not the least of which are instantaneous exchanges of critical information, scientific discoveries and extraordinary creative expression[i]. No doubt we will continue to witness their momentous impact. But too much of anything, including the reality of incessant mass communication can cloud our perceptions to a point of sensory over-load and steer us in a direction toward a dangerous social precipice - a precipice where perhaps a contemporary ship of fools may instead be misguided into turbulent unchartered waters by iPhones, YouTube clips, Instagrams, Twitter, text messages or Wiki leaks.
Using Foucault’s[ii] work as a foundational source on madness I draw contextual relationships to our contemporary communication practices. The aforementioned questions guide the paper and one recent tragic event which occurred in the United States is used to illustrate what happens to a social structure when a particular kind of madness becomes the accepted form of reality.
2. Madness and Foucault’s Account
In Madness and Civilization, Foucault describes historical accounts that eventually led to modern definitions and treatment of mental illness. Beginning with the Middle Ages he meticulously guides his reader through events of the Renaissance to the 20th century. Although he never provides a specific definition for madness one clearly assumes that it is very similar to what we have labeled today as mental illness.[iii] (e.g. an emotional illness or disruption that impedes one’s ability to function effectively in the accepted social milieu of everyday life and is often characterized by a distorted, exaggerated or a complete loss of reality.)
Foucault brilliantly cites specific historic events and illustrations from art and literature to trace a social understanding of madness. As a major premise he connects attitudes toward madness with the vanished disease of leprosy. He explains when medieval society no longer had lepers to fill the role of the social outcast another kind of untouchable was found; the mad person. Foucault juxtaposes reason with non-madness and madness with non-reason[iv] in order to chart their opposing paths and the human dilemmas they appear to cause.
3. Who Determines What Is Mad or Reasonable?
Throughout his analysis Foucault posits that those in positions of power both politically and economically decided what was to count as reason or the reasonable and hence shaped the accepted form of social authority. Marked by the creation of general hospitals and the confinement of the poor in 1657 and the liberation of chained inmates from Bicetre, France in 1794, Foucault credits these two events as monumental shifts in which madness and mental illness were identified and understood. As stated in his preface:
Between these two…something happens whose ambiguity has left the historians of medicine at a loss; blind repression in an absolutist regime, according to some; but according to others, the gradual discovery by science and philanthropy of madness in its positive truth…beneath these reversible meanings, a structure is forming which does not resolve the ambiguity but determines it. It is this structure which accounts for the transition from the medieval and humanist experience of madness to our own experience, which confines insanity within mental illness.[v]
According to Foucault, in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance it was possible to find an appreciation for a certain kind of wisdom embedded within madness[vi]. A person’s madness might potentially contribute something of value to society. Here, it is important to note that Foucault does not select the word insanity as the legal term but rather he imagines it as a general category for what some may call contemporary madness. He suggests that in those early times, people debated the powers, secrets and knowledge that madness revealed[vii] as contrasted with our contemporary view where madness is placed alone solely in the shadows of scientific inquiry. Moreover, Foucault argues that something was lost in that separation and the following passage illustrates the quandary it created:
In the serene world of mental illness, modern man no longer communicates with the madman: on one hand, the man of reason delegates the physician to madness, thereby authorizing a relation only through the abstract universality of disease; on the other, the man of madness communicates with society only by the intermediary of an equally abstract reason which is order, physical and moral constraint, the anonymous pressure of the group, the requirements of conformity. As for a common language, there is no such thing; or rather, there is no such thing any longer; the constitution of madness as a mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, affords the evidence of a broken dialogue, posits the separation as already effected, and thrusts into oblivion all those stammered, imperfect words without fixed syntax in which the exchange between madness and reason was made. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue of reason about madness, has been established only on the basis of such a silence.[viii]
Here Foucault suggests modernity no longer offers any kind of real or meaningful relationship with the mad person. Human communication has been diminished to powerful medical abstractions relegated by medical professionals and their labeling and understanding of the disease. The mad then find themselves at the mercy of someone else’s experience and interpretation of their disease and reasoning. I align their entanglement in these abstractions with Eliot’s quote; for reeling in abstractions may be one justification when we are thrust into that oblivion of too much reality.[ix]
But as mentioned earlier this was not always the case. By the end of the Middle Ages Foucault reminds us that “the Madman, the Fool, or the Simpleton assumes more … importance. He is no longer simply a ridiculous … silhouette in the wings: he stands center stage as the guardian of truth.”[x] In theatre, for instance the idiot not only gave light-hearted comic relief, he often poignantly expressed what was most revered or problematic for humanity. This voice was a powerful reminder of what we could become in our darkest hours or bravest moments. We witness this in Cervantes character of Don Quixote where he innocently speaks about truth, devotion and love albeit with a kind of mad valor. During this point in history human folly occupied a rightful place in the social structure.
But by the mid-Renaissance a paradox was developing as the age of reason and enlightenment ushered in some of the most sinister of human behaviors. Here the attitudes had changed and folly and madness reigned over all that was negative in humankind. It epitomized weakness and illusion according to Foucault and perhaps because of this the mentally ill and poor were exposed to some of the cruelest treatments. Although there is dispute as to how many ships truly existed, it is from that time period that the phrase ship of fools originates.[xi] Supposedly the mad and indigent were rounded up, placed on a sailing vessel, and then cast out to sea in search of a cure or reason for their ailments and predicaments.[xii]
4. A Definition of Social Madness
While conducting research for this paper I found it quite puzzling to learn that no scholarly definition for social madness exists. Although 198,000 citations are easily found on the Internet and the term appears to be used for many different purposes, it seems the phenomenon has neither been defined nor studied with any serious academic or scholarly rigor. I take the liberty to define it here. Social madness occurs when the accepted form of human behavior contradicts and diminishes the values and norms of the particular social structure in which its citizens reside. Moreover, it takes ownership of a language and human agency that places reason on what was previously condemned as non-reason. To some degree I suggest there will always be an aspect of social madness in even the most civilized societies, but here I further argue that a healthy society is not subjugated or dominated by it.
To confine the sick, destitute and criminals to a ship and then set them to sea with no particular destination or distinctions between their offenses, afflictions or needs was at one time considered perfectly reasoned and acceptable. Similar reasoning may occupy our contemporary attitudes about communications in cyberspace. Today because of our capabilities it is possible to denigrate and threaten another person through Facebook, Instagrams, Tweets, texts or emails often for sheer sport and pleasure. These are examples of what I call social madness.
Moreover I propose that non-reasoned mad behaviors often masquerade in cunning language under the guise of reason. Such reason (or social madness) then potentially leads to a false sense of what is true and knowledgeable thereby further maligning the social authority in which it is immersed. How socially prevalent or dominant such actions are remain part of an on-going, yet precarious debate.
5. Social Madness in Steubenville Ohio
A year ago August, in my home state of Ohio and in the industrial town of Steubenville, all social aspects seemed reasonable. The economy, although not what it once was because of a vanishing steel industry, was not getting any worse. Residents went about their ordinary lives as they had for decades. But something was about to happen that would place national and global attention on this blue-collar town in a way no city wants highlighted.
The local football team had a long standing tradition of winning teams and stellar athletes and according to all predictions the 2012 season would be no different. Evidently one evening after the team’s practice several players, coaches, parents and friends had planned impromptu parties as a way to celebrate their new athletic season. With the use of iPhones and other forms of social media, word spread quickly regarding party arrangements and locations.
All of the intentions and details will probably never be fully known or understood, but for the purposes of this paper the simple explanation is thus: at these parties vast amounts of alcohol were provided to and consumed by under-aged students. One young 16 year old girl became so intoxicated that she was unconscious to the point of not remembering anything she had done or was done to her. Two teenage players with extraordinary popularity and talent (the quarterback and a star receiver) were with her during much of the evening and some of their actions were captured by the use of cell phones which were later circulated through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As she lay unconscious several acts were done to her. Most publicized was that she was stripped of her clothing, photographed, urinated on and raped by the penetration of the players’ fingers.[xiii] Some argued, including one of the young boys, whether the act was actual rape since there was no involvement of a penis. It was by electronic communications received within the following days that the young girl was able to discern what had truly happened.[xiv] As a result, she and her parents copied some of the electronic evidence to a jump drive and then shared this with legal authorities.
6. The Madness of Electronic Communication
A few weeks later a woman from Steubenville blogged about the incident and thereafter on December 16, 2012 The New York Times ran a lengthy story giving it national and international notoriety.[xv] This past March the incident was litigated with the impending verdict receiving near constant media coverage. Twitter, Facebook and other forms of electronic communication saturated cyberspace with dizzying speed. Largely due to the records of thousands of text messages, cell phone calls and photographs, Instagrams, Tweets, YouTube clips and emails the two young players were found guilty of rape and received convictions for one and two years in a juvenile detention center. Some of town’s people sided with the young players suggesting they were good boys, and after all, it was just with their fingers. Several journalists were criticized for biased coverage in favor of the young men.[xvi] The young girl on the other hand was blamed for ruining their lives. Although the state attorney’s office is still investigating the incident, to date no adults have been indicted.[xvii]
After the convictions the young girl who was an honor student at a nearby high school received through the use of social media humiliating postings on her Facebook account, condemnations from nearby communities and numerous death threats. Perhaps like the social outcasts placed on that infamous ship, she was now a social and metaphoric leper confined no less to a contemporary ship of fools fueled by misguided intentions and moral lethargy. The football coach, who had known of the incident the very next day, did not report it. Newspaper articles revealed he had advised the young men to destroy any social media pertaining to it.[xviii] Perhaps with socially sanctioned reasoning he may have believed he was defending a glamorous team and his own professional reputation. In fact, only a few months ago this same coach received a two year extension on his contract[xix].
It is worth mentioning in the state of Ohio it is considered an offense when an adult knows of a child abuse case yet does not report the incident to proper authorities.[xx] This particular incident would qualify as child abuse. More surprisingly, (at the writing of this paper at least) no formal education or training is planned for the school faculty, students or administration on what constitutes abuse in relationships, ethical behavior for alcohol and substance intake, sexual misconduct or what might be considered appropriate behavior when engaging in electronic communication. Here again I make reference to Eliot’s quote. When in the above example humankind (i.e. the coach, school officials, etc.,) found itself marred in ‘too much reality’ it proceeded to wrap its own madness in an ignorant albeit reasoned apathy thereby wasting fleeting opportunities to prevent future transgressions.
7. Are We Living in a Time of Social Madness?
The above story offers some indication that yes we are indeed living in a time where at least occasional forms of social madness occur, for this was not an isolated incident[xxi]. Clearly it is a tragic one where all parties are soiled in some way; the young girl’s reputation is forever tarnished. The young men will have criminal records attached to their names for many years. The town, its schools and community will live with a disgraced blemish that only time will heal – an ironic twist for a community that found reason and importance in winning and achievement.
8. What Causes a Culture to Move Its Moral and Social Compass Toward Madness and Non-Reason?
This example represents a social structure that had lost its capability to distinguish between madness and non-madness, reason and non-reason. Even the Steubenville police chief lamented the town’s inability to make such a distinction, “The thing I found most disturbing … there were other people around when this was going on…nobody had the morals to say, ‘Hey, stop it, that isn’t right.’”[xxii] The lines then between decent moral conduct were blurred with feckless reasoning that led to a demeaning crime in part because of illegal consumption of alcohol, the use of social media and the desire to win at nearly all costs. Unlike earlier times I previously described, no one was willing to wear the shoes of a contemporary idiot and stand center stage as the guardian over an appalling truth.
Steubenville was a close-knit community where many businesses and townspeople had deep connections with the school’s football team. As noted earlier, it was a manufacturing town and had experienced severe economic hardship from many years of factory closings. Foucault suggests that during difficult economic times madness seems to be more prevalent.[xxiii] Because of prolonged high unemployment rates many families in Steubenville had worried about bank foreclosures on their homes and whether instead they paid a bill or bought food for their family.
Sociologists and economists often use the expression, depressed economy when referring to these kinds of social conditions. It is fair to assume that some members of the community felt socially dispirited and personally dejected by too much reality. A championship football team however could uplift their spirits in the midst of depressive attitudes, and perhaps because of its potential may have driven them to a form of what I have called social madness.
Clearly the causes behind this incident are many. The psychological phenomena of group think and by-stander effect may have been additional culprits[xxiv] with the use of social media only punctuating an already spiraling social demise. More importantly one should note the purpose of this paper is not to deride the city of Steubenville or its residents with sanctimonious flair. On the contrary, the paper rather intends to illustrate that social madness is not bound by any geographic, historic, economic, political, religious or social perimeters - and therein rests its insidious danger. History is replete with indelible images of peaceful communities that for one reason or other succumbed to various forms of social madness. Auschwitz, Baghdad, Darfur, Dubrovnik, New York City, Ho Chi Minh City and Zaire are only a few recent painful examples.
9. Concluding Remarks
A penetrating argument could also be made; had social media not existed the above crime would have gone unreported and ultimately, unpunished. The genie however, is out of the bottle and social media and electronic technology are with us for the long hull. For this paper I have elected to not address the litany of other problems they evoke (i.e. over exaggerated use, increased accidents from driving while texting, cyber bullying, sexting, decreased intellectual curiosity from instantaneous access to inaccurate information, security breaks and breaches and invasions of privacy. to mention only a few). Instead I make the simple argument that our electronic communication capabilities and practices have made us a different kind of human species.
This paper has been an attempt to connect Foucault’s work with our endemic use of social media and social madness. The teenagers involved in this example were not mentally ill rather I contend what acerbated their social madness was the lethal combination of their social fabric with their youthful arrogance, ignorance and innocence. Foucault maintains that the use of abstractions and intermediaries contribute to a broken dialogue between the mentally ill and meaningful connections to their outside world. This broken dialogue furthermore leads to a profound silence – perhaps a silence similar to that mentioned by the Steubenville police chief when he questioned why no one was willing to intervene. Finally, in the midst of incessant communication practices the Steubenville example accentuates a similar broken dialogue – a dialogue in which humankind may engage when it bears too much reality.
[i] Daniel Clark’s article reveals pros and cons of social media and electronic communication practices.
[ii] Michel Foucault’s masterpiece traces madness as a human experience from the early Middle Ages through the early 20th century.
[iii] Foucault’s preface describes the organization and intellectual direction for the book.
[iv] M. Foucault, p. 6.
[v] M. Foucault, Preface, xii.
[vi] M. Foucault. p. 13-15.
[vii] Ibid., 21-25.
[viii] Foucault’s Preface, x.
[ix] T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norten from his Four Quartets. p. 14.
[x] M. Foucault, p.14.
[xi] Ibid., 7.
[xii] Ibid., 10-13.
[xiii] These details came from interviews and information obtained from the December 16, 2012 New York Times article titled, Rape Care Unfolds on Web and Splits City by Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber.
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] Ibid.
[xvii] An article by Rachel Dissel from the Cleveland Plain Dealer titled, Steubenville: A year after rape case student athletes, coaches learning lessons notes that schools around the state are addressing education and training for sexual abuse. August 15, 2013.
[xviii] In an on-line article from the Atlantic Wire titled, Steubenville’s football coach just got a two year contract extension by more details of the coaches actions are revealed. April 22, 2013.
[xix] Ibid.
[xx] The Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 15, 2013.
[xxi] In this article a similar tragic case in California is reported by Nina Burleigh, a columnist for Rolling Stone magazine. The article appears in the Culture section and is titled, Sexting, Shame, and Suicide. September 17, 2013.
[xxii] Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. New York Times article, December 16, 2012.
[xxiii] M. Foucault. p. 233.
[xxiv] Definitions of these terms are found in numerous psychological textbooks. These come from Eliot Aronson’s work, Social Psychology, 2013.
Bibliography
Eliot Aronson Social Psychology.
Nina Burleigh, Culture, Sexting, Shame, and Suicide. Rolling Stone magazine. September 17, 2013.
Daniel Clark, Social Media: Why this matters to everyone in Education. Higher Education Teaching & Learning Portal. August 12, 2012
Rachel Dissel. Steubenville: A year after rape case student athletes, coaches learning lessons. Cleveland Plain Dealer August 15, 2013.
Michel Foucault, Madness & Civilization: A history of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Random House. 1988.
T.S. Eliot. The Four Quartets. Harcourt Inc. Orlando, Florida1971
Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City. December 16, 2012. New York Times
Alexander Abad. Santos Steubenville’s football coach just got a two year contract extension. April 22, 2013. the Atlantic Wire
Mansfield College Oxford University
September 19, 2013
Janette E. McDonald
Abstract
T.S. Eliot once wrote, ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ perhaps suggesting a reason for the existence of madness. Although human madness has contributed to vast creation of pieces of art, literature and music, it clearly has a dark side - especially when one is overwhelmed by it. Language and reason are often mentioned when assessing what constitutes madness. Our current exposure to and use of social media and technology have provided wide spread contact with much reality, and even perhaps to a different kind of madness never before known to humankind. These newer forms of communication may have also created a contemporary meaning borrowed from the older term, Ship of Fools. Rather than a ship filled with mentally ill or poor people, the modern vessel could instead be fueled by metaphoric sails of intellectual lethargy and emotional apathy. Drawing from Foucault’s masterpiece, Madness and Civilization, this paper explores the following questions: Are we living in a time and place where personal and social madness, incivility and violence have become daily renditions of normalcy? Who or what determines whether human expression is mad or reasonable action? What causes a culture to move its social acceptance and moral compass toward something which was once reasoned as foul or bestial to a category of banality? One example will be discussed as an illustration of personal and social madness in the United States: the March convictions of two Steubenville, Ohio juveniles for the rape of a heavily intoxicated 16 year-old girl. The event received national and international attention and while it occurred in the United States other similar events have recently occurred on a global scale. Using social media and electronic communication as a contextual backdrop the paper suggests that incident only begins to demonstrate our madness from too much reality.
*****
Key Words: Foucault, communication, madness, reason, social media, technology
1. Introduction
Since the initial acceptance of this conference abstract countless other noteworthy global events have occurred which could arguably demonstrate further examples of social madness. Unfortunately what I will call social madness appears to be a re-occurring phenomenon and certainly not one that is characteristic only of our current times. Incivility, criminality and unreasoned behaviors have plagued humankind since the beginning of our history yet their recent ubiquitous regularity seems remarkably unprecedented, in part due to our mass communication practices.
At the onset my reader should note this paper does not intend to portray all electronic communication or social media as the bane of our existence. To do so would only validate another form of madness, for clearly computational advances have made immense contributions to the human condition not the least of which are instantaneous exchanges of critical information, scientific discoveries and extraordinary creative expression[i]. No doubt we will continue to witness their momentous impact. But too much of anything, including the reality of incessant mass communication can cloud our perceptions to a point of sensory over-load and steer us in a direction toward a dangerous social precipice - a precipice where perhaps a contemporary ship of fools may instead be misguided into turbulent unchartered waters by iPhones, YouTube clips, Instagrams, Twitter, text messages or Wiki leaks.
Using Foucault’s[ii] work as a foundational source on madness I draw contextual relationships to our contemporary communication practices. The aforementioned questions guide the paper and one recent tragic event which occurred in the United States is used to illustrate what happens to a social structure when a particular kind of madness becomes the accepted form of reality.
2. Madness and Foucault’s Account
In Madness and Civilization, Foucault describes historical accounts that eventually led to modern definitions and treatment of mental illness. Beginning with the Middle Ages he meticulously guides his reader through events of the Renaissance to the 20th century. Although he never provides a specific definition for madness one clearly assumes that it is very similar to what we have labeled today as mental illness.[iii] (e.g. an emotional illness or disruption that impedes one’s ability to function effectively in the accepted social milieu of everyday life and is often characterized by a distorted, exaggerated or a complete loss of reality.)
Foucault brilliantly cites specific historic events and illustrations from art and literature to trace a social understanding of madness. As a major premise he connects attitudes toward madness with the vanished disease of leprosy. He explains when medieval society no longer had lepers to fill the role of the social outcast another kind of untouchable was found; the mad person. Foucault juxtaposes reason with non-madness and madness with non-reason[iv] in order to chart their opposing paths and the human dilemmas they appear to cause.
3. Who Determines What Is Mad or Reasonable?
Throughout his analysis Foucault posits that those in positions of power both politically and economically decided what was to count as reason or the reasonable and hence shaped the accepted form of social authority. Marked by the creation of general hospitals and the confinement of the poor in 1657 and the liberation of chained inmates from Bicetre, France in 1794, Foucault credits these two events as monumental shifts in which madness and mental illness were identified and understood. As stated in his preface:
Between these two…something happens whose ambiguity has left the historians of medicine at a loss; blind repression in an absolutist regime, according to some; but according to others, the gradual discovery by science and philanthropy of madness in its positive truth…beneath these reversible meanings, a structure is forming which does not resolve the ambiguity but determines it. It is this structure which accounts for the transition from the medieval and humanist experience of madness to our own experience, which confines insanity within mental illness.[v]
According to Foucault, in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance it was possible to find an appreciation for a certain kind of wisdom embedded within madness[vi]. A person’s madness might potentially contribute something of value to society. Here, it is important to note that Foucault does not select the word insanity as the legal term but rather he imagines it as a general category for what some may call contemporary madness. He suggests that in those early times, people debated the powers, secrets and knowledge that madness revealed[vii] as contrasted with our contemporary view where madness is placed alone solely in the shadows of scientific inquiry. Moreover, Foucault argues that something was lost in that separation and the following passage illustrates the quandary it created:
In the serene world of mental illness, modern man no longer communicates with the madman: on one hand, the man of reason delegates the physician to madness, thereby authorizing a relation only through the abstract universality of disease; on the other, the man of madness communicates with society only by the intermediary of an equally abstract reason which is order, physical and moral constraint, the anonymous pressure of the group, the requirements of conformity. As for a common language, there is no such thing; or rather, there is no such thing any longer; the constitution of madness as a mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, affords the evidence of a broken dialogue, posits the separation as already effected, and thrusts into oblivion all those stammered, imperfect words without fixed syntax in which the exchange between madness and reason was made. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue of reason about madness, has been established only on the basis of such a silence.[viii]
Here Foucault suggests modernity no longer offers any kind of real or meaningful relationship with the mad person. Human communication has been diminished to powerful medical abstractions relegated by medical professionals and their labeling and understanding of the disease. The mad then find themselves at the mercy of someone else’s experience and interpretation of their disease and reasoning. I align their entanglement in these abstractions with Eliot’s quote; for reeling in abstractions may be one justification when we are thrust into that oblivion of too much reality.[ix]
But as mentioned earlier this was not always the case. By the end of the Middle Ages Foucault reminds us that “the Madman, the Fool, or the Simpleton assumes more … importance. He is no longer simply a ridiculous … silhouette in the wings: he stands center stage as the guardian of truth.”[x] In theatre, for instance the idiot not only gave light-hearted comic relief, he often poignantly expressed what was most revered or problematic for humanity. This voice was a powerful reminder of what we could become in our darkest hours or bravest moments. We witness this in Cervantes character of Don Quixote where he innocently speaks about truth, devotion and love albeit with a kind of mad valor. During this point in history human folly occupied a rightful place in the social structure.
But by the mid-Renaissance a paradox was developing as the age of reason and enlightenment ushered in some of the most sinister of human behaviors. Here the attitudes had changed and folly and madness reigned over all that was negative in humankind. It epitomized weakness and illusion according to Foucault and perhaps because of this the mentally ill and poor were exposed to some of the cruelest treatments. Although there is dispute as to how many ships truly existed, it is from that time period that the phrase ship of fools originates.[xi] Supposedly the mad and indigent were rounded up, placed on a sailing vessel, and then cast out to sea in search of a cure or reason for their ailments and predicaments.[xii]
4. A Definition of Social Madness
While conducting research for this paper I found it quite puzzling to learn that no scholarly definition for social madness exists. Although 198,000 citations are easily found on the Internet and the term appears to be used for many different purposes, it seems the phenomenon has neither been defined nor studied with any serious academic or scholarly rigor. I take the liberty to define it here. Social madness occurs when the accepted form of human behavior contradicts and diminishes the values and norms of the particular social structure in which its citizens reside. Moreover, it takes ownership of a language and human agency that places reason on what was previously condemned as non-reason. To some degree I suggest there will always be an aspect of social madness in even the most civilized societies, but here I further argue that a healthy society is not subjugated or dominated by it.
To confine the sick, destitute and criminals to a ship and then set them to sea with no particular destination or distinctions between their offenses, afflictions or needs was at one time considered perfectly reasoned and acceptable. Similar reasoning may occupy our contemporary attitudes about communications in cyberspace. Today because of our capabilities it is possible to denigrate and threaten another person through Facebook, Instagrams, Tweets, texts or emails often for sheer sport and pleasure. These are examples of what I call social madness.
Moreover I propose that non-reasoned mad behaviors often masquerade in cunning language under the guise of reason. Such reason (or social madness) then potentially leads to a false sense of what is true and knowledgeable thereby further maligning the social authority in which it is immersed. How socially prevalent or dominant such actions are remain part of an on-going, yet precarious debate.
5. Social Madness in Steubenville Ohio
A year ago August, in my home state of Ohio and in the industrial town of Steubenville, all social aspects seemed reasonable. The economy, although not what it once was because of a vanishing steel industry, was not getting any worse. Residents went about their ordinary lives as they had for decades. But something was about to happen that would place national and global attention on this blue-collar town in a way no city wants highlighted.
The local football team had a long standing tradition of winning teams and stellar athletes and according to all predictions the 2012 season would be no different. Evidently one evening after the team’s practice several players, coaches, parents and friends had planned impromptu parties as a way to celebrate their new athletic season. With the use of iPhones and other forms of social media, word spread quickly regarding party arrangements and locations.
All of the intentions and details will probably never be fully known or understood, but for the purposes of this paper the simple explanation is thus: at these parties vast amounts of alcohol were provided to and consumed by under-aged students. One young 16 year old girl became so intoxicated that she was unconscious to the point of not remembering anything she had done or was done to her. Two teenage players with extraordinary popularity and talent (the quarterback and a star receiver) were with her during much of the evening and some of their actions were captured by the use of cell phones which were later circulated through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. As she lay unconscious several acts were done to her. Most publicized was that she was stripped of her clothing, photographed, urinated on and raped by the penetration of the players’ fingers.[xiii] Some argued, including one of the young boys, whether the act was actual rape since there was no involvement of a penis. It was by electronic communications received within the following days that the young girl was able to discern what had truly happened.[xiv] As a result, she and her parents copied some of the electronic evidence to a jump drive and then shared this with legal authorities.
6. The Madness of Electronic Communication
A few weeks later a woman from Steubenville blogged about the incident and thereafter on December 16, 2012 The New York Times ran a lengthy story giving it national and international notoriety.[xv] This past March the incident was litigated with the impending verdict receiving near constant media coverage. Twitter, Facebook and other forms of electronic communication saturated cyberspace with dizzying speed. Largely due to the records of thousands of text messages, cell phone calls and photographs, Instagrams, Tweets, YouTube clips and emails the two young players were found guilty of rape and received convictions for one and two years in a juvenile detention center. Some of town’s people sided with the young players suggesting they were good boys, and after all, it was just with their fingers. Several journalists were criticized for biased coverage in favor of the young men.[xvi] The young girl on the other hand was blamed for ruining their lives. Although the state attorney’s office is still investigating the incident, to date no adults have been indicted.[xvii]
After the convictions the young girl who was an honor student at a nearby high school received through the use of social media humiliating postings on her Facebook account, condemnations from nearby communities and numerous death threats. Perhaps like the social outcasts placed on that infamous ship, she was now a social and metaphoric leper confined no less to a contemporary ship of fools fueled by misguided intentions and moral lethargy. The football coach, who had known of the incident the very next day, did not report it. Newspaper articles revealed he had advised the young men to destroy any social media pertaining to it.[xviii] Perhaps with socially sanctioned reasoning he may have believed he was defending a glamorous team and his own professional reputation. In fact, only a few months ago this same coach received a two year extension on his contract[xix].
It is worth mentioning in the state of Ohio it is considered an offense when an adult knows of a child abuse case yet does not report the incident to proper authorities.[xx] This particular incident would qualify as child abuse. More surprisingly, (at the writing of this paper at least) no formal education or training is planned for the school faculty, students or administration on what constitutes abuse in relationships, ethical behavior for alcohol and substance intake, sexual misconduct or what might be considered appropriate behavior when engaging in electronic communication. Here again I make reference to Eliot’s quote. When in the above example humankind (i.e. the coach, school officials, etc.,) found itself marred in ‘too much reality’ it proceeded to wrap its own madness in an ignorant albeit reasoned apathy thereby wasting fleeting opportunities to prevent future transgressions.
7. Are We Living in a Time of Social Madness?
The above story offers some indication that yes we are indeed living in a time where at least occasional forms of social madness occur, for this was not an isolated incident[xxi]. Clearly it is a tragic one where all parties are soiled in some way; the young girl’s reputation is forever tarnished. The young men will have criminal records attached to their names for many years. The town, its schools and community will live with a disgraced blemish that only time will heal – an ironic twist for a community that found reason and importance in winning and achievement.
8. What Causes a Culture to Move Its Moral and Social Compass Toward Madness and Non-Reason?
This example represents a social structure that had lost its capability to distinguish between madness and non-madness, reason and non-reason. Even the Steubenville police chief lamented the town’s inability to make such a distinction, “The thing I found most disturbing … there were other people around when this was going on…nobody had the morals to say, ‘Hey, stop it, that isn’t right.’”[xxii] The lines then between decent moral conduct were blurred with feckless reasoning that led to a demeaning crime in part because of illegal consumption of alcohol, the use of social media and the desire to win at nearly all costs. Unlike earlier times I previously described, no one was willing to wear the shoes of a contemporary idiot and stand center stage as the guardian over an appalling truth.
Steubenville was a close-knit community where many businesses and townspeople had deep connections with the school’s football team. As noted earlier, it was a manufacturing town and had experienced severe economic hardship from many years of factory closings. Foucault suggests that during difficult economic times madness seems to be more prevalent.[xxiii] Because of prolonged high unemployment rates many families in Steubenville had worried about bank foreclosures on their homes and whether instead they paid a bill or bought food for their family.
Sociologists and economists often use the expression, depressed economy when referring to these kinds of social conditions. It is fair to assume that some members of the community felt socially dispirited and personally dejected by too much reality. A championship football team however could uplift their spirits in the midst of depressive attitudes, and perhaps because of its potential may have driven them to a form of what I have called social madness.
Clearly the causes behind this incident are many. The psychological phenomena of group think and by-stander effect may have been additional culprits[xxiv] with the use of social media only punctuating an already spiraling social demise. More importantly one should note the purpose of this paper is not to deride the city of Steubenville or its residents with sanctimonious flair. On the contrary, the paper rather intends to illustrate that social madness is not bound by any geographic, historic, economic, political, religious or social perimeters - and therein rests its insidious danger. History is replete with indelible images of peaceful communities that for one reason or other succumbed to various forms of social madness. Auschwitz, Baghdad, Darfur, Dubrovnik, New York City, Ho Chi Minh City and Zaire are only a few recent painful examples.
9. Concluding Remarks
A penetrating argument could also be made; had social media not existed the above crime would have gone unreported and ultimately, unpunished. The genie however, is out of the bottle and social media and electronic technology are with us for the long hull. For this paper I have elected to not address the litany of other problems they evoke (i.e. over exaggerated use, increased accidents from driving while texting, cyber bullying, sexting, decreased intellectual curiosity from instantaneous access to inaccurate information, security breaks and breaches and invasions of privacy. to mention only a few). Instead I make the simple argument that our electronic communication capabilities and practices have made us a different kind of human species.
This paper has been an attempt to connect Foucault’s work with our endemic use of social media and social madness. The teenagers involved in this example were not mentally ill rather I contend what acerbated their social madness was the lethal combination of their social fabric with their youthful arrogance, ignorance and innocence. Foucault maintains that the use of abstractions and intermediaries contribute to a broken dialogue between the mentally ill and meaningful connections to their outside world. This broken dialogue furthermore leads to a profound silence – perhaps a silence similar to that mentioned by the Steubenville police chief when he questioned why no one was willing to intervene. Finally, in the midst of incessant communication practices the Steubenville example accentuates a similar broken dialogue – a dialogue in which humankind may engage when it bears too much reality.
[i] Daniel Clark’s article reveals pros and cons of social media and electronic communication practices.
[ii] Michel Foucault’s masterpiece traces madness as a human experience from the early Middle Ages through the early 20th century.
[iii] Foucault’s preface describes the organization and intellectual direction for the book.
[iv] M. Foucault, p. 6.
[v] M. Foucault, Preface, xii.
[vi] M. Foucault. p. 13-15.
[vii] Ibid., 21-25.
[viii] Foucault’s Preface, x.
[ix] T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norten from his Four Quartets. p. 14.
[x] M. Foucault, p.14.
[xi] Ibid., 7.
[xii] Ibid., 10-13.
[xiii] These details came from interviews and information obtained from the December 16, 2012 New York Times article titled, Rape Care Unfolds on Web and Splits City by Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber.
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] Ibid.
[xvii] An article by Rachel Dissel from the Cleveland Plain Dealer titled, Steubenville: A year after rape case student athletes, coaches learning lessons notes that schools around the state are addressing education and training for sexual abuse. August 15, 2013.
[xviii] In an on-line article from the Atlantic Wire titled, Steubenville’s football coach just got a two year contract extension by more details of the coaches actions are revealed. April 22, 2013.
[xix] Ibid.
[xx] The Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 15, 2013.
[xxi] In this article a similar tragic case in California is reported by Nina Burleigh, a columnist for Rolling Stone magazine. The article appears in the Culture section and is titled, Sexting, Shame, and Suicide. September 17, 2013.
[xxii] Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. New York Times article, December 16, 2012.
[xxiii] M. Foucault. p. 233.
[xxiv] Definitions of these terms are found in numerous psychological textbooks. These come from Eliot Aronson’s work, Social Psychology, 2013.
Bibliography
Eliot Aronson Social Psychology.
Nina Burleigh, Culture, Sexting, Shame, and Suicide. Rolling Stone magazine. September 17, 2013.
Daniel Clark, Social Media: Why this matters to everyone in Education. Higher Education Teaching & Learning Portal. August 12, 2012
Rachel Dissel. Steubenville: A year after rape case student athletes, coaches learning lessons. Cleveland Plain Dealer August 15, 2013.
Michel Foucault, Madness & Civilization: A history of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Random House. 1988.
T.S. Eliot. The Four Quartets. Harcourt Inc. Orlando, Florida1971
Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. Rape Case Unfolds on Web and Splits City. December 16, 2012. New York Times
Alexander Abad. Santos Steubenville’s football coach just got a two year contract extension. April 22, 2013. the Atlantic Wire
The Spirit of Hope and Its Near Enemy Indifference: A Phenomenological Continuum
Janette E. McDonald, Ph.D.
Capital University
Bexley, Ohio
USA
A juxtaposition of hope and hopelessness is evident in our contemporary lived experience. Regardless of what part of the world we live, what social class we belong, whatever our gender, age, religious or spiritual convictions, there are places where we experience hope, hopelessness, and indifference. Hope and hopelessness are close and intimate companions. To borrow from Buddhist thought the near enemy of hope is indifference.[1] Utilizing phenomenology as a method for understanding one’s life-world this paper explores the phenomena of hope, hopelessness, and indifference. Questions addressed: What are hope, hopelessness, and indifference? What motivates people to be hopeful? What are some consequences of indifference? Is it possible to sustain hope? As a way to grasp these phenomena I suggest they are part of a continuum. This paper explores their placement on that continuum and attempts to provide a contextual reason for that placement. Through an etymology of the words spiritus and pneuma, I suggest that all people are spiritual because of their necessity to breathe. The breath or spirit that resides within each of us is suggested as the rudimentary seed for hope. Attention is given to Frankl’s work on meaning and connections are given to Buddhist thought.
Key words: hope, indifference, meaning, phenomenology, Four Noble Truths, spiritual
Introduction
Few might question that our world is in a sorry state of affairs and that the prospects of a better and brighter future seem dim in light of our world’s challenges not the least of which include famine, armed conflict, environmental devastation, and a general erosion of our moral compasses. Indeed there is suffering and despair in our contemporary world. To suggest an alternative, yet cautious view, Viktor Frankl poses the Latin term, argumenta ad hominem or an argument for tragic optimism, and he attributes such optimism to the “...defiant power of the human spirit”.[2]For many, the defiant power of our human spirit is where we find our quintessential seeds of hope for a better and more humane future.
Through a phenomenological lens this paper investigates three experiences endemic to the human condition; the state and human experience of being hopeful, hopeless, and indifferent. Furthermore, these phenomena will be explored as a continuum of human experience. Frankl’s classic works on meaning and the Buddhist teachings of The Four Noble Truths serve as the theoretical foundations of my three major premises: 1) to be hopeful is a natural human phenomenon with spiritual implications; 2) a hopeless situation often although not always serves as an impetus for human hope, and 3) indifference, hope’s near enemy, may be the greatest way to diminish humanity and human dignity. To provide a contextual understanding of this continuum the following questions are addressed: What are hope, indifference, and hopelessness? What part does spirituality play in one’s hopefulness, hopelessness, and indifference? Is it possible to sustain or learn these? How does one change her place on the continuum? And why is hope worthy of further dialogue?
Being: a Phenomenological Perspective
Phenomenologists are interested in the essence of one’s subjective lived experience, directly within the context of one’s conscious being in the world. Being then is a part of each phenomenon I mention on my continuum. If one describes herself as hopeful, indifferent, or hopeless, she is describing her way of being in her lived world. Heidegger,[3] in his classic philosophical work, offers a more detailed discussion on being-in the world which far exceeds the limited intentions of this paper. Heidegger, however, renowned for his rigorous and arduous philosophy on being, also included among his personal readings the works of Zen masters.[4]
This is worthy of one’s attention because all practicing Buddhists place an emphasis on meditation, and the practice of meditation in the Zen tradition is intended to bring one closer to full awareness of being, whatever that moment of being is–sitting crossed-legged in the lotus position in a temple, driving a car, cutting vegetables for a meal, or whatever. Beingness here is about full attention and for the enlightened person this being becomes a way of life. I specifically connect Heidegger’s writings with classic Zen teachings because Heidegger spent the better part of his philosophical pursuits attempting to address the question, what does it mean to be in the world? In referring to the monumental Japanese scholar and Zen master D.T. Suzuki, Heidegger stated, “If I understand Dr. Suzuki correctly, this is what I have been trying to say in all my writings”.[5] In Suzuki’s collected writings, Zen Buddhism, the opening chapter begins with the following:
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life, it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world...This is what I mean by freedom, giving free play to all the creative and benevolent impulses inherently lying in our hearts. Generally we are blind to this fact, that we are in possession of all the necessary faculties that will make us happy and loving towards one another. All the struggles that we see around us come from this ignorance...when the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being...[6]
The Continuum
I place the state of indifference in the absolute center with a quantitative and sole value of zero. Hopeless would begin to the left of zero withnegative one and would continue for infinity. Hope begins to the right of zero with positive one and also continues for infinity. While such an image is much to concrete and simple for the true meaning I wish to convey I find it appropriate that both hopelessness and hope have infinite qualities and indifference remains at the stagnant mid-point with no apparent potential for movement. Obviously, the place that seems most attractive is anywhere to the right of zero in a state of hope. But even a hopeless state has some kind of energy or vitallity. I see the place of indifference as having none of these.
Furthermore, I have referred to indifference as hope’s near enemy because on my continuum it falls closer to hope than does hopelessness. Generally enemies that are near us can cause more destruction and harm as opposed to our enemies that are far in distance although any enemy may potentially execute harmful actions, and thus are worthy of our scrutiny. Because the beginning of hopelessness appears at a greater distance from the beginning of hope and continues in an opposite direction it could be called, hope’s far enemy.
I have shared this image of a line with several colleagues and some have suggested a different shape to represent the content of each phenomenon. For instance an inverted triangle and a spiral have been mentioned. While I am not particularly wedded to the image of a line as my continuum, my initial thought was that it was the simple and easiest way to explain my ideas, hence thus far in the development of my thinking I have remained with this image.
What is hope?
I define hope as an inner desire, wish or knowing that is often unexplainable and has the potential to improve the situation or future ones for the benefice of others. To have hope is to have a human quality that illuminates a belief in goodness and decency for a more noble and just world. Where this desire, wish, or inner-knowing of hope comes from is not always clear or of import to the knower, yet the knower knows that somewhere within the deepest fiber of her being hope exists and can even flourish.
Vaclav Havel, the former leader of the Czech Republic states that hope is
…a dimension of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizon. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out[7]
Inherent in both our definitions is belief in potentiality and meaning. I use the word belief to mean a thought that holds value, meaning, or significance. Belief is often associated with theological or religious meanings and here my intention is to broaden the definition of hope in a way that transcends specific religiosity. Nonetheless, like Havel, I imply a general spiritual overtone in my definition.
The Etymology of Spiritus and Pneuma
The word spirit and its derivative, spiritual, come from the Latin spiritus, which holds as one definition, the breath of life. Breath is often associated with breathing in. Moreover, the Latin spiritus, can trace it origins to the Greek, pneuma. I once was taking a graduate course from a catholic priest who noted pneuma emphasized both the inhalation and exhalation of breath. In artful and poetic language the priest described the beginning of human life as God’s exhalation of breath or spirit in rhythmic motion with human inhalation of that same breath or spirit. The priest noted that the significance of this circuitous rhythm offered a more complete understanding of life’s breath because it placed an active role on both God and human kind. A breath is not complete if it is only exhaled. It must also be inhaled. Also according to the priest the image lacks richness if it only accentuates God’s exhalation thereby placing the human being in a passive role. In other words, the human inhalation has equal import and completes the circularity of the breathing process. One could argue then, that all human beings are spiritual in the sense that we all breathe in and out the breath or spirit of life. This spirit within each of us is what I suggest is the rudimentary seed for hope and vivifies that quality of potentiality I mentioned a moment ago. Through connecting Frankl’s work to this concept I will further emphasize an interrelationship between one’s hopefulness and spirituality.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that all Buddhist meditators are first encouraged to place their conscious attention on their breath, and to simply follow their natural breathing pattern by counting their breaths. It is believed that one’s concerted attention on the breath can eventually bring one to full awareness of the present and ultimately to the state of enlightenment.
What is hopelessness?
I define hopelessness in comparison with hope. Quite simply, hopelessness is an utter lack of hope. In this human experience one is full of emotions and feelings of anguish and despair. Where having a sense of hope may be unexplainable, one can usually articulate precisely why one is in a hopeless state. Something very bad has happened to them or to someone or something they care about. Often there is an overwhelming sense that nothing humanly possible can be done to ever assuage this feeling or circumstance. When one is hopeless, one is also suffering. One could conclude that there is a deep intensity to hopelessness. It is not lacking in emotions or feelings, as I suggest of indifference, but rather it is thoroughly fraught or laden with them.
A common question asked in the state of hopelessness is why? Why did this happen? Specifically, why did this happen to me? These questions are almost always not helpful in the final resolution of the situation and are often directed toward one’s personal God, who or whatever that may be. This question why, can also be paralyzing because there are few if any solid answers. Furthermore, this why question places a focus on events of the past and nothing can be done to recreate one’s history. According to Frankl however, one does have some choice about how one responds to the current situation, thereby impacting one’s future. By comparison, those who feel hope seem less apt to ask the why question. For them, why does not matter so much, rather they seem to move beyond why to how they might make meaning in life. Moreover, one who is indifferent does not have an awareness or care to even ask the question. Interestingly enough, it is often a hopeless situation which precipitates one’s movement to a state of being hopeful. Frankl’s research and writing seems to affirm this.
Frankl’s Message of Hope
While Frankl does not offer a detailed explanation or definition of what he means by spiritual, he does imply that one’s inner life is a basis for one’s hope. He writes:
As the inner life of the prisoner tended to become more intense, he also experienced the beauty of art and nature as never before. Under their influence he sometimes even forgot his own frightful circumstances. If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor–or maybe because of it–we were carried away by nature’s beauty...[8]
Frankl suggests that through a deepened inner life the prisoners were able to transcend their physical predicament of despair and instead bring their attention to the current moment where they could see and appreciate the stunning beauty of snow capped mountains. Through this description of personal experience Frankl implies that human beings often appear to have a natural or inherent predilection to be hopeful creatures even during times of despair because we seem to have the capability to rise above our own potential for no immediate or explainable reason.
Additionally he notes that survivors of these concentration camps who were able to find meaning in their suffering and forgive their offenders were also able to live more fully once they were liberated. Frankl intimates that prisoners who sustained their hope and maintained their sense of spirituality were better equipped to withstand the atrocities of the camps. Those who lost hope were among the first to perish either by the hands of the SS Soldiers or because of their own physical and emotional demise.
Here I do not mean to suggest that all individuals who had some sense of a spiritual life survived the camps because history tells us this was not the case and Frankl himself admits that “...the best of us did not return”.[9] But according to Frankl, if one did not have this, if one was unable to find some kind of meaning in their experience no matter how horrible, the person was almost certain to die.
In the preface of the 1984 edition of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl explains his purpose for writing his classic work:
“I simply wanted to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any condition, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing.”[10]
I might add that in 1984 his book was in its 73rd printing and had been published in 19 different languages. Those statistics suggest that millions of people around the globe have read Dr. Frankl’s words and for me those numbers render a sense of hope simply because they imply that some people appear to have an interest in learning from past tragedies.
What is indifference?
Where hope and hopelessness are full of emotion, indifference lacks it. Where hope and hopelessness often demand some kind of human action, indifference stifles it. Where hope and hopelessness are heartfelt, indifference has no heart. Where hope and hopelessness epitomize our deepest humanity, indifference diminishes it. Its qualities are carelessness, thoughtlessness, mindlessness, feelinglessness, and perhaps even, humanlessness. It is this diminished human state that creates the potential for personal and global catastrophe because indifferent people standby idle and do nothing often with a callous and cowardice. Therefore, I suggest that one’s state of indifference is an ignorant intersection of vacuity and numbness which reveals itself most conspicuously as apathy.
A Connection to Buddhist Thought
All Buddhists acknowledge the Buddha’s teachings of the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering in life, suffering comes from our resistance to the natural flow of life, or our cravings; our sufferings can cease; and the Eightfold Path may lead to our individual awakening. The Buddhist path of enlightenment is an active one through meditation and embracing the everyday ordinary moment. Buddhism teaches the only true reality is the present and that building our conscious awareness of this reveals the Buddha that exists in each one of us. Seeing the Buddha in ourselves allows us to behold the Buddha in others. From the works of Frankl and others, it is indeed difficult to imagine a Buddha in figures like Hitler, some of the SS Soldiers, Idi Amen, and Judas to mention only a few. While I am not certain if most Buddhists would describe themselves as hopeful, I think most would agree that their way of life offers the potential for hopefulness. They recognize that life is suffering and while they have no control over this they do have a choice as to how they respond to that suffering through a full presence of the current moment.
Several years ago I heard my father make a similar analogy that there is the potential for good or evil in most lived experiences. In his effort to impart some of his wisdom my dad asked me to remember that there is a little bit of Judas and Jesus in all of us. To demonstrate his point he then shared a poignant story regarding a legend about Leonardo De Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper. Then as now, famous artists employed living persons to model as figures in their paintings. The legend says the first person De Vinci painted in The Last Supper was the figure of Jesus. Evidently he found a handsome young man to model because of his pulchritude, innocence, and exquisite face. Several years later as De Vinci was completing his masterpiece, he was challenged to paint his last figure Judas, because he could not find a person whose face depicted the harsh and vitriolic character he believed Judas to be. Finally someone mentioned there was a criminal in a nearby prison that was of despicable character with an equally hateful face. De Vinci received permission to visit the prisoner’s cell for several months as he completed his painting. The legend says that the two never spoke until De Vinci completed his work and was preparing to leave the cell for the last time. As De Vinci was clearing his artistic materials the prisoner is said to have spoken a question, “Leonardo do you know who I am?” De Vinci is reported to have said, “Of course I don’t know you. I just met you a few months ago when I began painting you in this cell.” The prisoner replied, “Leonardo, I am the man you painted several years ago as Jesus.”
I do not know if the legend holds any truth, but my father’s story has left a lasting impression on me: one’s potential for anything is very real. If there is any truth to the legend we can only imagine that something happened to the once graceful young man that allowed him to choose a dark and acrimonious path. I might suggest that something caused him to loose hope in himself, in others, and the result was his own personal tragedy. His placement on my continuum had changed over time and experience.
Placement on the Continuum
Placement on the continuum is not a progressive pattern like many developmental stage theories where final stages represent more sophisticated levels of growth. One’s personality and disposition coupled with life experiences, societal, environmental, and familial influences all affect one’s placement. As noted then by the example of De Vinci’s young model, one’s placement on the continuum can clearly change and fluctuate in intensities throughout one’s life, and I believe that it is possible and even probable to occupy each state at some point during our lives. For example, Frankl described himself as an optimist early in his classic work, yet through his own descriptions of concentration camp experiences he reveals his profound and fluctuating feelings of hopelessness.
What is significant about Frankl and so many others who have experienced tragedy and despair is that they do not remain in a state of hopelessness. According to Frankl, such people have an inner life and are able to see the meaning in all of life’s verities and therefore, the meaning in their suffering. In addition, I suggest that one who is indifferent lacks this inner life and personal awareness and therefore cannot appreciate all of life’s meaning. For the indifferent person the way to move from the state of indifference is to develop a sense of personal awareness and self-knowing.
So a reasonable question to ask is how does an unaware person become aware of his being, his life, and his world? From my own experiences of working with dying persons and bereaved family and friends I can attest that some kind of tragedy or loss is often what shakes the very fiber of a person’s beingness and evokes one toward a personal questioning of what is most significant and important in life. Such questioning can precipitate a profound awareness.
How is hope sustained?
Hope, like enlightenment is not something one can direct oneself to have rather hope is recreated and re-lived time and again, moment by moment, breath by breath. Hope is not sustained, because hope does not have that kind of directionality. In offering advice to both his American and European students about success and happiness Frankl shares a similar sentiment that could also be said of hope. He states:
Don’t aim at success–the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself [11]
Why Is Hope Worthy of Further Dialogue?
I return to Heidegger’s provocative question of what does it mean to be? As a phenomenologist I see the answer as a subjective and intimately personal one. For many of us attending this conference perhaps we could say that our beingness is wrapped in some kind of unique hope and meaning. For me at least part of what it means to be is to hold hope for our world, for each other, and for our future. I see Frankl as suggesting that hope is worthy of further dialogue because it allows us to transcend our individual being to a cause greater than ourselves thereby illustrating the intrinsic dignity of human kind. My intention is not to be overly optimistic or sentimental for even Frankl uses the term, “tragic optimism” yet he clearly states that all of life has meaning and every person holds “unconditional value”.[12]
Frankl’s message like the Four Noble Truths, is not erudite or illusionary. Rather it is an ordinary and simple one with indelible and penetrating insight that pave the juxtaposition of both good and evil and mercy and malevolence as potentialities of each moment. As noted earlier in the paper the potential to be hopeful is natural for all human beings, just as the Buddhists believe the potential to be enlightened exists for everyone. I have attempted to connect these two ideas because both intersect with the phenomenon of a human breath and serve as what I have referred to as the quintessential seeds of hope. The individual spirit or breath within each of us determines the choices we make and when we behave in hopeful ways or when we meet our far and near enemies of hopelessness and indifference.
[1] A. Khema, The Four Highest Emotions. Shambala Sun. May, 2001, p. 53.
[2] V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, Washington Square Press, New York, 1984, p. 171.
[3] M. Heidegger, Being and Time, HarperSan Francisco, New York, 1962, p. 17.
[4] P. Kaplau, Three Pillars of Zen, Anchor Books, New York, 2000, p.14.
[5] D. T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism, Three Leaves Press, New York, p. xii.
[6] ibid., p. 3-4.
[7] M. Wheatley, Finding Hope in Hopelessness, Shambala Sun, March, 2004, p. 23.
[8] Frankl, op.cit., p. 59.
[9] ibid., p. 24.
[10] ibid., p. 16.
[11] ibid., p. 17.
[12] ibid., p.176.
Bibliography
Frankl, V., Man’s Search for Meaning. (7th ed.), Washington Square Press, New York, 1984.
Heidegger, M., Being and Ttime. HarperSan Francisco, New York, 1962.
Kaplau, R., Three Pillars of Zen. Anchor Books, New York, 2000.
Khema, A., ‘The Four Highest Emotions’. Shambhala Sun, May, p. 52-57,2001.
Suzuki, D.T., Zen Buddhism, Three Leaves Press, New York, 2006.
Wheatley, M. ‘Finding hope in hopelessness’, Shambhala Sun, March, pg. 23-2, 2003.
Janette McDonald is Professor of Psychology at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She writes and researches in the areas of end-of-life issues, meaning-making porcesses, systems theory, and Buddhist thought.
Janette E. McDonald, Ph.D.
Capital University
Bexley, Ohio
USA
A juxtaposition of hope and hopelessness is evident in our contemporary lived experience. Regardless of what part of the world we live, what social class we belong, whatever our gender, age, religious or spiritual convictions, there are places where we experience hope, hopelessness, and indifference. Hope and hopelessness are close and intimate companions. To borrow from Buddhist thought the near enemy of hope is indifference.[1] Utilizing phenomenology as a method for understanding one’s life-world this paper explores the phenomena of hope, hopelessness, and indifference. Questions addressed: What are hope, hopelessness, and indifference? What motivates people to be hopeful? What are some consequences of indifference? Is it possible to sustain hope? As a way to grasp these phenomena I suggest they are part of a continuum. This paper explores their placement on that continuum and attempts to provide a contextual reason for that placement. Through an etymology of the words spiritus and pneuma, I suggest that all people are spiritual because of their necessity to breathe. The breath or spirit that resides within each of us is suggested as the rudimentary seed for hope. Attention is given to Frankl’s work on meaning and connections are given to Buddhist thought.
Key words: hope, indifference, meaning, phenomenology, Four Noble Truths, spiritual
Introduction
Few might question that our world is in a sorry state of affairs and that the prospects of a better and brighter future seem dim in light of our world’s challenges not the least of which include famine, armed conflict, environmental devastation, and a general erosion of our moral compasses. Indeed there is suffering and despair in our contemporary world. To suggest an alternative, yet cautious view, Viktor Frankl poses the Latin term, argumenta ad hominem or an argument for tragic optimism, and he attributes such optimism to the “...defiant power of the human spirit”.[2]For many, the defiant power of our human spirit is where we find our quintessential seeds of hope for a better and more humane future.
Through a phenomenological lens this paper investigates three experiences endemic to the human condition; the state and human experience of being hopeful, hopeless, and indifferent. Furthermore, these phenomena will be explored as a continuum of human experience. Frankl’s classic works on meaning and the Buddhist teachings of The Four Noble Truths serve as the theoretical foundations of my three major premises: 1) to be hopeful is a natural human phenomenon with spiritual implications; 2) a hopeless situation often although not always serves as an impetus for human hope, and 3) indifference, hope’s near enemy, may be the greatest way to diminish humanity and human dignity. To provide a contextual understanding of this continuum the following questions are addressed: What are hope, indifference, and hopelessness? What part does spirituality play in one’s hopefulness, hopelessness, and indifference? Is it possible to sustain or learn these? How does one change her place on the continuum? And why is hope worthy of further dialogue?
Being: a Phenomenological Perspective
Phenomenologists are interested in the essence of one’s subjective lived experience, directly within the context of one’s conscious being in the world. Being then is a part of each phenomenon I mention on my continuum. If one describes herself as hopeful, indifferent, or hopeless, she is describing her way of being in her lived world. Heidegger,[3] in his classic philosophical work, offers a more detailed discussion on being-in the world which far exceeds the limited intentions of this paper. Heidegger, however, renowned for his rigorous and arduous philosophy on being, also included among his personal readings the works of Zen masters.[4]
This is worthy of one’s attention because all practicing Buddhists place an emphasis on meditation, and the practice of meditation in the Zen tradition is intended to bring one closer to full awareness of being, whatever that moment of being is–sitting crossed-legged in the lotus position in a temple, driving a car, cutting vegetables for a meal, or whatever. Beingness here is about full attention and for the enlightened person this being becomes a way of life. I specifically connect Heidegger’s writings with classic Zen teachings because Heidegger spent the better part of his philosophical pursuits attempting to address the question, what does it mean to be in the world? In referring to the monumental Japanese scholar and Zen master D.T. Suzuki, Heidegger stated, “If I understand Dr. Suzuki correctly, this is what I have been trying to say in all my writings”.[5] In Suzuki’s collected writings, Zen Buddhism, the opening chapter begins with the following:
Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one’s own being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life, it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world...This is what I mean by freedom, giving free play to all the creative and benevolent impulses inherently lying in our hearts. Generally we are blind to this fact, that we are in possession of all the necessary faculties that will make us happy and loving towards one another. All the struggles that we see around us come from this ignorance...when the cloud of ignorance disappears, the infinity of the heavens is manifested where we see for the first time into the nature of our own being...[6]
The Continuum
I place the state of indifference in the absolute center with a quantitative and sole value of zero. Hopeless would begin to the left of zero withnegative one and would continue for infinity. Hope begins to the right of zero with positive one and also continues for infinity. While such an image is much to concrete and simple for the true meaning I wish to convey I find it appropriate that both hopelessness and hope have infinite qualities and indifference remains at the stagnant mid-point with no apparent potential for movement. Obviously, the place that seems most attractive is anywhere to the right of zero in a state of hope. But even a hopeless state has some kind of energy or vitallity. I see the place of indifference as having none of these.
Furthermore, I have referred to indifference as hope’s near enemy because on my continuum it falls closer to hope than does hopelessness. Generally enemies that are near us can cause more destruction and harm as opposed to our enemies that are far in distance although any enemy may potentially execute harmful actions, and thus are worthy of our scrutiny. Because the beginning of hopelessness appears at a greater distance from the beginning of hope and continues in an opposite direction it could be called, hope’s far enemy.
I have shared this image of a line with several colleagues and some have suggested a different shape to represent the content of each phenomenon. For instance an inverted triangle and a spiral have been mentioned. While I am not particularly wedded to the image of a line as my continuum, my initial thought was that it was the simple and easiest way to explain my ideas, hence thus far in the development of my thinking I have remained with this image.
What is hope?
I define hope as an inner desire, wish or knowing that is often unexplainable and has the potential to improve the situation or future ones for the benefice of others. To have hope is to have a human quality that illuminates a belief in goodness and decency for a more noble and just world. Where this desire, wish, or inner-knowing of hope comes from is not always clear or of import to the knower, yet the knower knows that somewhere within the deepest fiber of her being hope exists and can even flourish.
Vaclav Havel, the former leader of the Czech Republic states that hope is
…a dimension of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizon. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out[7]
Inherent in both our definitions is belief in potentiality and meaning. I use the word belief to mean a thought that holds value, meaning, or significance. Belief is often associated with theological or religious meanings and here my intention is to broaden the definition of hope in a way that transcends specific religiosity. Nonetheless, like Havel, I imply a general spiritual overtone in my definition.
The Etymology of Spiritus and Pneuma
The word spirit and its derivative, spiritual, come from the Latin spiritus, which holds as one definition, the breath of life. Breath is often associated with breathing in. Moreover, the Latin spiritus, can trace it origins to the Greek, pneuma. I once was taking a graduate course from a catholic priest who noted pneuma emphasized both the inhalation and exhalation of breath. In artful and poetic language the priest described the beginning of human life as God’s exhalation of breath or spirit in rhythmic motion with human inhalation of that same breath or spirit. The priest noted that the significance of this circuitous rhythm offered a more complete understanding of life’s breath because it placed an active role on both God and human kind. A breath is not complete if it is only exhaled. It must also be inhaled. Also according to the priest the image lacks richness if it only accentuates God’s exhalation thereby placing the human being in a passive role. In other words, the human inhalation has equal import and completes the circularity of the breathing process. One could argue then, that all human beings are spiritual in the sense that we all breathe in and out the breath or spirit of life. This spirit within each of us is what I suggest is the rudimentary seed for hope and vivifies that quality of potentiality I mentioned a moment ago. Through connecting Frankl’s work to this concept I will further emphasize an interrelationship between one’s hopefulness and spirituality.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that all Buddhist meditators are first encouraged to place their conscious attention on their breath, and to simply follow their natural breathing pattern by counting their breaths. It is believed that one’s concerted attention on the breath can eventually bring one to full awareness of the present and ultimately to the state of enlightenment.
What is hopelessness?
I define hopelessness in comparison with hope. Quite simply, hopelessness is an utter lack of hope. In this human experience one is full of emotions and feelings of anguish and despair. Where having a sense of hope may be unexplainable, one can usually articulate precisely why one is in a hopeless state. Something very bad has happened to them or to someone or something they care about. Often there is an overwhelming sense that nothing humanly possible can be done to ever assuage this feeling or circumstance. When one is hopeless, one is also suffering. One could conclude that there is a deep intensity to hopelessness. It is not lacking in emotions or feelings, as I suggest of indifference, but rather it is thoroughly fraught or laden with them.
A common question asked in the state of hopelessness is why? Why did this happen? Specifically, why did this happen to me? These questions are almost always not helpful in the final resolution of the situation and are often directed toward one’s personal God, who or whatever that may be. This question why, can also be paralyzing because there are few if any solid answers. Furthermore, this why question places a focus on events of the past and nothing can be done to recreate one’s history. According to Frankl however, one does have some choice about how one responds to the current situation, thereby impacting one’s future. By comparison, those who feel hope seem less apt to ask the why question. For them, why does not matter so much, rather they seem to move beyond why to how they might make meaning in life. Moreover, one who is indifferent does not have an awareness or care to even ask the question. Interestingly enough, it is often a hopeless situation which precipitates one’s movement to a state of being hopeful. Frankl’s research and writing seems to affirm this.
Frankl’s Message of Hope
While Frankl does not offer a detailed explanation or definition of what he means by spiritual, he does imply that one’s inner life is a basis for one’s hope. He writes:
As the inner life of the prisoner tended to become more intense, he also experienced the beauty of art and nature as never before. Under their influence he sometimes even forgot his own frightful circumstances. If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison carriage, he would never have believed that those were faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty. Despite that factor–or maybe because of it–we were carried away by nature’s beauty...[8]
Frankl suggests that through a deepened inner life the prisoners were able to transcend their physical predicament of despair and instead bring their attention to the current moment where they could see and appreciate the stunning beauty of snow capped mountains. Through this description of personal experience Frankl implies that human beings often appear to have a natural or inherent predilection to be hopeful creatures even during times of despair because we seem to have the capability to rise above our own potential for no immediate or explainable reason.
Additionally he notes that survivors of these concentration camps who were able to find meaning in their suffering and forgive their offenders were also able to live more fully once they were liberated. Frankl intimates that prisoners who sustained their hope and maintained their sense of spirituality were better equipped to withstand the atrocities of the camps. Those who lost hope were among the first to perish either by the hands of the SS Soldiers or because of their own physical and emotional demise.
Here I do not mean to suggest that all individuals who had some sense of a spiritual life survived the camps because history tells us this was not the case and Frankl himself admits that “...the best of us did not return”.[9] But according to Frankl, if one did not have this, if one was unable to find some kind of meaning in their experience no matter how horrible, the person was almost certain to die.
In the preface of the 1984 edition of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl explains his purpose for writing his classic work:
“I simply wanted to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any condition, even the most miserable ones. And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing.”[10]
I might add that in 1984 his book was in its 73rd printing and had been published in 19 different languages. Those statistics suggest that millions of people around the globe have read Dr. Frankl’s words and for me those numbers render a sense of hope simply because they imply that some people appear to have an interest in learning from past tragedies.
What is indifference?
Where hope and hopelessness are full of emotion, indifference lacks it. Where hope and hopelessness often demand some kind of human action, indifference stifles it. Where hope and hopelessness are heartfelt, indifference has no heart. Where hope and hopelessness epitomize our deepest humanity, indifference diminishes it. Its qualities are carelessness, thoughtlessness, mindlessness, feelinglessness, and perhaps even, humanlessness. It is this diminished human state that creates the potential for personal and global catastrophe because indifferent people standby idle and do nothing often with a callous and cowardice. Therefore, I suggest that one’s state of indifference is an ignorant intersection of vacuity and numbness which reveals itself most conspicuously as apathy.
A Connection to Buddhist Thought
All Buddhists acknowledge the Buddha’s teachings of the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering in life, suffering comes from our resistance to the natural flow of life, or our cravings; our sufferings can cease; and the Eightfold Path may lead to our individual awakening. The Buddhist path of enlightenment is an active one through meditation and embracing the everyday ordinary moment. Buddhism teaches the only true reality is the present and that building our conscious awareness of this reveals the Buddha that exists in each one of us. Seeing the Buddha in ourselves allows us to behold the Buddha in others. From the works of Frankl and others, it is indeed difficult to imagine a Buddha in figures like Hitler, some of the SS Soldiers, Idi Amen, and Judas to mention only a few. While I am not certain if most Buddhists would describe themselves as hopeful, I think most would agree that their way of life offers the potential for hopefulness. They recognize that life is suffering and while they have no control over this they do have a choice as to how they respond to that suffering through a full presence of the current moment.
Several years ago I heard my father make a similar analogy that there is the potential for good or evil in most lived experiences. In his effort to impart some of his wisdom my dad asked me to remember that there is a little bit of Judas and Jesus in all of us. To demonstrate his point he then shared a poignant story regarding a legend about Leonardo De Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper. Then as now, famous artists employed living persons to model as figures in their paintings. The legend says the first person De Vinci painted in The Last Supper was the figure of Jesus. Evidently he found a handsome young man to model because of his pulchritude, innocence, and exquisite face. Several years later as De Vinci was completing his masterpiece, he was challenged to paint his last figure Judas, because he could not find a person whose face depicted the harsh and vitriolic character he believed Judas to be. Finally someone mentioned there was a criminal in a nearby prison that was of despicable character with an equally hateful face. De Vinci received permission to visit the prisoner’s cell for several months as he completed his painting. The legend says that the two never spoke until De Vinci completed his work and was preparing to leave the cell for the last time. As De Vinci was clearing his artistic materials the prisoner is said to have spoken a question, “Leonardo do you know who I am?” De Vinci is reported to have said, “Of course I don’t know you. I just met you a few months ago when I began painting you in this cell.” The prisoner replied, “Leonardo, I am the man you painted several years ago as Jesus.”
I do not know if the legend holds any truth, but my father’s story has left a lasting impression on me: one’s potential for anything is very real. If there is any truth to the legend we can only imagine that something happened to the once graceful young man that allowed him to choose a dark and acrimonious path. I might suggest that something caused him to loose hope in himself, in others, and the result was his own personal tragedy. His placement on my continuum had changed over time and experience.
Placement on the Continuum
Placement on the continuum is not a progressive pattern like many developmental stage theories where final stages represent more sophisticated levels of growth. One’s personality and disposition coupled with life experiences, societal, environmental, and familial influences all affect one’s placement. As noted then by the example of De Vinci’s young model, one’s placement on the continuum can clearly change and fluctuate in intensities throughout one’s life, and I believe that it is possible and even probable to occupy each state at some point during our lives. For example, Frankl described himself as an optimist early in his classic work, yet through his own descriptions of concentration camp experiences he reveals his profound and fluctuating feelings of hopelessness.
What is significant about Frankl and so many others who have experienced tragedy and despair is that they do not remain in a state of hopelessness. According to Frankl, such people have an inner life and are able to see the meaning in all of life’s verities and therefore, the meaning in their suffering. In addition, I suggest that one who is indifferent lacks this inner life and personal awareness and therefore cannot appreciate all of life’s meaning. For the indifferent person the way to move from the state of indifference is to develop a sense of personal awareness and self-knowing.
So a reasonable question to ask is how does an unaware person become aware of his being, his life, and his world? From my own experiences of working with dying persons and bereaved family and friends I can attest that some kind of tragedy or loss is often what shakes the very fiber of a person’s beingness and evokes one toward a personal questioning of what is most significant and important in life. Such questioning can precipitate a profound awareness.
How is hope sustained?
Hope, like enlightenment is not something one can direct oneself to have rather hope is recreated and re-lived time and again, moment by moment, breath by breath. Hope is not sustained, because hope does not have that kind of directionality. In offering advice to both his American and European students about success and happiness Frankl shares a similar sentiment that could also be said of hope. He states:
Don’t aim at success–the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself [11]
Why Is Hope Worthy of Further Dialogue?
I return to Heidegger’s provocative question of what does it mean to be? As a phenomenologist I see the answer as a subjective and intimately personal one. For many of us attending this conference perhaps we could say that our beingness is wrapped in some kind of unique hope and meaning. For me at least part of what it means to be is to hold hope for our world, for each other, and for our future. I see Frankl as suggesting that hope is worthy of further dialogue because it allows us to transcend our individual being to a cause greater than ourselves thereby illustrating the intrinsic dignity of human kind. My intention is not to be overly optimistic or sentimental for even Frankl uses the term, “tragic optimism” yet he clearly states that all of life has meaning and every person holds “unconditional value”.[12]
Frankl’s message like the Four Noble Truths, is not erudite or illusionary. Rather it is an ordinary and simple one with indelible and penetrating insight that pave the juxtaposition of both good and evil and mercy and malevolence as potentialities of each moment. As noted earlier in the paper the potential to be hopeful is natural for all human beings, just as the Buddhists believe the potential to be enlightened exists for everyone. I have attempted to connect these two ideas because both intersect with the phenomenon of a human breath and serve as what I have referred to as the quintessential seeds of hope. The individual spirit or breath within each of us determines the choices we make and when we behave in hopeful ways or when we meet our far and near enemies of hopelessness and indifference.
[1] A. Khema, The Four Highest Emotions. Shambala Sun. May, 2001, p. 53.
[2] V. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, Washington Square Press, New York, 1984, p. 171.
[3] M. Heidegger, Being and Time, HarperSan Francisco, New York, 1962, p. 17.
[4] P. Kaplau, Three Pillars of Zen, Anchor Books, New York, 2000, p.14.
[5] D. T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism, Three Leaves Press, New York, p. xii.
[6] ibid., p. 3-4.
[7] M. Wheatley, Finding Hope in Hopelessness, Shambala Sun, March, 2004, p. 23.
[8] Frankl, op.cit., p. 59.
[9] ibid., p. 24.
[10] ibid., p. 16.
[11] ibid., p. 17.
[12] ibid., p.176.
Bibliography
Frankl, V., Man’s Search for Meaning. (7th ed.), Washington Square Press, New York, 1984.
Heidegger, M., Being and Ttime. HarperSan Francisco, New York, 1962.
Kaplau, R., Three Pillars of Zen. Anchor Books, New York, 2000.
Khema, A., ‘The Four Highest Emotions’. Shambhala Sun, May, p. 52-57,2001.
Suzuki, D.T., Zen Buddhism, Three Leaves Press, New York, 2006.
Wheatley, M. ‘Finding hope in hopelessness’, Shambhala Sun, March, pg. 23-2, 2003.
Janette McDonald is Professor of Psychology at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She writes and researches in the areas of end-of-life issues, meaning-making porcesses, systems theory, and Buddhist thought.