This is a very large question, and depending on how many people you ask, you will get as many answers that might or might not be in agreement with each other. In addition, not everyone has a clear answer, and opinions will vary around such things as ambition, success and the pursuit of happiness to name but a few and likely a myriad of other objectives depending on an individual’s personal circumstances related to their station in life, age, health and what they have experienced in life to date.
But that is not the question I’m asking. Instead, I would like to know about wat lies at the bottom of all of these various motivations, for even if we consider something as basic as the need to survive as a primary motivator to affect our actions, it is not clear what that encompasses beyond saying that the need or will to survive and thrive is a basic feature of all living organisms.
When the organic rose from the inorganic, it was more than an advanced arrangement of organic molecules that came about when life made its presence, as eventually, when we came about via the subsequent phylogenetic tree, that jump from the inanimate to the animate introduced and enabled the prime motivator for all our actions.
Now we cannot infer a cause from an effect, but it would be logical to assume that the seed of this process – and the entire evolutionary history of living matter – must have been present prior to the emergence of life. As well – and unless you believe that there are such things as magical metaphysical beings waving a magic wand on occasion – whatever gets and keeps us going is an expression of what must have been determined when the world came into being and forms an intrinsic aspect of the very reason it and all of us are here.
Another way of putting this would be to say that we are an instantiation of the very reason the world is here: we cannot be separated from that reason, no more than we can be separated from the world that brought us about.
And so the following question should loom large for all of us: where are we going with this process – if that is the right word for it? What – in fact – are we surviving for after all that effort to bring us about? When I ask a question like this, I am once again reminded of Shakespeare’s “ Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The thing is, this “nothing” might not seem that much of an issue if everyone was having a good time with it – something along the lines of Goethe’s “For what end is served by all the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and Milky Ways … if at last a happy man does not involuntarily rejoice in his existence?”
However, it is abundantly clear that – since the beginning of time – not much rejoicing has been going on for too many people unable to escape varying degrees of pain and suffering, and frequently during an entire lifetime and through no fault of their own, to the point that a philosopher such as David Benatar believes that the world would be a better place if sentient life disappeared altogether, i.e., no remaining life-form capable of undergoing pain or suffering. (But then there is a Nietzsche who believes there is value in suffering: “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering”, but I guess opinions will vary greatly on that matter.)
So where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular other than to say that we have to keep believing that – while it does appear that humanity appears to be an exercise in futility and despite our apparent efforts to bring about our own extinction – we have it within us to make it a meaningful enterprise if only we started acting on that assumption by valuing the sanctity of life – the cosmos’ greatest accomplishment – and do everything in our power to nourish and protect it.
In return, the world, this planet, will allow us and our future generations to flourish into a future we cannot even begin to imagine what that might look like. I’m thinking about the absolute and worldwide absence of poverty, starvation, exploitation, slavery, discrimination and war and, instead, communities centred on such higher human values as compassion, empathy and mutual respect. All reasons – I might add – to celebrate life as opposed to having to endure it, as is the case for so many of us across this earth today.
And so it is my belief – as naive as that might be – that the answer to the question as what to what drives us ultimately from within is to get to that state, when the very fact of finding oneself alive on this planet is a reason to celebrate. It would mean that individually as well as collectively, as a species, we have overcome all the negative and self-induced aspects of our existence that stood in the way of getting to that point, i.e, all the deception, delusion, dishonesty, ego, envy, greed, hatred, immorality, lying, selfishness, unreliability, violence and whatever other self-destructive tendencies that prevented us from living in harmony with ourselves, our fellow human beings and the earth. It means that we will have found the true value of life, at the summit of creation and at the core of the cosmos, and – I suggest – the very reason the world is here today.
Never in a million years you might say? And didn’t I write a post not all that long ago that suggested that we were a defective species and that the planet would likely get rid of us if we didn’t already manage that ourselves? True enough, the situation seems absolutely hopeless as we continue to witness the tragedy and ongoing plight of millions of refugees fleeing their homelands across the various continents because of poverty and starvation, ethnic , religious or political conflict, including such recent and outright criminal acts as the bombing of civilian targets in Ukraine by a member of the United Nations Security council.
But then you witness something positive, such as a simple act of compassion, kindness and generosity, or when others rush in to help save lives in the case of natural disasters, even when they might be putting their own lives at risk. Then, the mere fact of a child’s smile , or people genuinely enjoying themselves being out in nature experiencing its spectacular beauty, all suggesting that, yes, many of us are getting the message, and that in spite of all the largely self-induced misery, murder and mayhem around us the human race deserves saving, But then there is the realization that we can only save ourselves.
For this to happen we must first overcome our current confused and scattered selves by redefining ourselves as the creature that we are from ourselves: Others cannot tell you who or what you are, or what your existence should mean to you. Only you can determine what you can be for yourself, as opposed to what others want you to be. And to repeat something from the very first post I made on this blog:
For this you must look at yourself not through the eyes of others, but from yourself, from the inside out – from within the acute reality of your own cognitive and spiritual existence. But this is no easy task – it means assuming responsibility for all your actions as you attempt to recreate yourself from the subjective contents of your stream of consciousness. It will require courage – the courage to re-invent oneself without being plugged into a god, a scientific assumption or the beliefs of society at large for confirmation that you are doing the right thing.