So it has been a while since I last blogged. I guess I have not really had a lot to say. I have been filled with regret about how I have handled things in my past but, those thoughts are a normal day for me in my head. I have been thinking a lot about life and what makes a life good and what makes life bad. Its a strange thing to start breaking down how you have lived and trying to quantify it like that is almost impossible. I guess its the classic question about the chicken or the egg. Do you make life good or does life make it good.
Something that did get my attention the other day was the question of what is a good solution to a problem? Should we always react to a problem with what we see as the most obvious solution? I tend to think the most obvious solution has gotten us into trouble. I think we see things to black and white and the older I get the more gray I began to see.
I there an absolute truth?
I think that depends on what you mean by truth.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an absolute truth that I am alive (and by "alive" I mean existing physically in a physical world). For all I know, I'm a file on a program running on a computer somewhere.
It's not an absolute truth that you're alive. And if I'm a file on a computer somewhere, then it's more likely that you don't even exist as a file. You're just part of the program. Maybe a non-artificial-intelligence entity.
But I err on the side of caution and assume that I exist and that you exist and that you are like me in that you have subjective awareness.
It's not an absolute truth that "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is a good idea. For all we know, centuries from now we'll find out that our reducing, reusing and recycling had horrible effects on the environment, worse than it would have been if we just used as much as we wanted and threw everything away without even thinking about it.
Extremely unlikely, but anything is possible, right?
But where does that thinking leave us? Is there any right way to approach a problem then? Is there a best way? Or at least a better way? I'd have to say that there obviously is, and we know which way that is by looking at evidence.
Should we always react to a problem with what we see as the most obvious solution? No. Not always. But if we gather evidence, think rationally about our decisions, and still come to the conclusion that what we see as the obvious solution is actually the best known solution, then yes.
Here's a question back to you, or maybe one you could pose in a future post: Should we always react to problems? If there is a problem and a possible solution, should we always make efforts to implement that solution? And if we don't, isn't that a reaction, too? You can't be neutral on a moving train, and all that jazz?
Oh that's funny, I thought that first comment didn't go through and so I wrote another one trying to say what I said in the first one. It's funny how some parts are similar and how others are really different. If it's all the same to you, I'll just keep both of them up.
ReplyDeleteI think what you need, Tony, is a little book called "The Purpose Driven Life."
ReplyDeleteKidding, kidding.
One thing for sure, though, is that you're being unfair to yourself by feeling regret. That's a tough emotion to shake off, granted, but it does little to help shape the person you are becoming, and life is nothing but a constant state of becoming. Plus, on a personal level, I refuse to think you've done anything with your life that you should feel regret for. You haven't fired 150 people to maintain your six-figure salary. You haven't done any contract killing. You live a good life, if only for the reason that you lead an examined life and are concerned about leading a good life.