Book Review: Aviva Chomsky’s “‘They Take Our Jobs!’ And 20 Other Myths About Immigration”

Aviva Chomsky is a professor of history and coordinator of the Latin American studies program at Salem State University. Before that she was a research associate at Harvard University, where she focused on Caribbean and Latin American history. She has a B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, an M.A. in history, and a Ph.D. in history.

For over twenty-five years, she has been active with Latin American solidarity and immigrants’ rights issues. Some of her works are Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration; Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal; and Linked Labor Histories: New England, Colombia, and the Making of a Global Working Class.

Myth: Immigrants Take American Jobs

• The modern economy is so “globally integrated” that the idea of “American jobs” is largely impractical (Chomsky 3).
• Many industries try to reduce their costs by hiring the “poorest, most vulnerable” workers (Chomsky 3).
• Due to cutbacks in social spending (since the Reagan administration) and a deregulation of “major sectors of the economy,” there has been an increase in plant/factory closures and outsourcing (Chomsky 3)
• Businesses want to keep their expenses as low as possible while making ever higher profits. To do this, they often move their production to other countries (Chomsky 4).
• There has been a global restructuring since World War II. In the Global South, poorly paid workers produced and exported raw materials, “fueling the Industrial Revolution in the north” (Chomsky 4). The United States and Europe became prosperous partly from investing in the “artificially low prices” of these materials. After World War II, industries moved south to take advantage of the low wages there (Chomsky 4). Nowadays, not only are raw materials being exported. Manufactured goods are too.
• In the U.S., companies have been challenged by “popular mobilizations, unions, and laws protecting workers and their right to organize” (Chomsky 5). As a result, they have found it more advantageous to move to countries where U.S. laws don’t apply to them. They want to find locations that offer the lowest wages, the least amount of regulations, and the most passive (or non-existent) unions (Chomsky 6). When workers organize for higher wages and protections, companies often close down and move to cheaper places (Chomsky 6).
• According to a study done by the Pew Hispanic Foundation, over the last decade, there has been no “consistent pattern” of native-born workers in the U.S. being negatively or positively affected by increased numbers of foreign-born workers (Chomsky 7).
• Population growth creates jobs. Larger communities consume and produce more (Chomsky 8). Yet the population is not the only factor that affects the number of jobs available. While some jobs “service the local community,” others produce goods and services that are consumed in other countries (Chomsky 8). Even if the local economy is more visible, people produce/consume in both the local/global economies. They “eat grapes grown in Chile, drive cars assembled in Mexico, and pump them with gas from Kuwait or Colombia” (Chomsky 8).

Myth: Immigrants Compete with Low-Skilled Workers and Drive Down Wages

• Wages have been declining (with respect to prices) since 1962 (Chomsky 11). In today’s economy, it is becoming more expensive for people to afford their basic human needs with housing, healthcare, and education (Chomsky 11). Yet some products, such as shoes and cell phones, are becoming more available.
• Since the 1970s, income inequality has drastically risen. The global economic restructuring, which exacerbated this inequality, has “created demand for more immigrant workers” (Chomsky 12).
• Products are made much more cheaply when business expenses are lower. Businesses try to keep their costs down by setting up in places with fewer taxes; health, safety, and environmental regulations; and infrastructure costs (Chomsky 12). When workers are poor and don’t have the same protections as those in the developed world, they are forced to “work longer hours for lower wages” (Chomsky 13).
• Businesses would not be able to function without the “unpaid, invisible network of care provided mostly by women” (Chomsky 24). Since the economic shifts of the 1970s, there has been a reduction in “public services and benefits” and an increase in working hours “outside the home” (Chomsky 24). After 1965, new waves of immigrants came to “fill in this care deficit” in the U.S. (Chomsky 24).

While this was happening, businesses threatened to close down whenever workers organized for better conditions, forcing them to compete against poor workers in other countries. U.S. cities tried to appeal to businesses by offering them “exemptions from the regulations and taxes that have been part of the redistributive model of the mid-twentieth century” (Chomsky 24).

• Many immigrants are deprived of their rights and discriminated against. The policies and decisions of governments and corporations are the main factors that determine wages (Chomsky 28). The greatest challenges to the “low-wage, high-profit model” are social movements (which includes labor organizing) and federal legislation (which imposes regulations on businesses) (Chomsky 28).

Myth: Immigrants Don’t Pay Taxes

• Immigrants pay the same kinds of taxes as other citizens: sales taxes, real estate taxes (for renters and homeowners), gasoline taxes, and so on (Chomsky 36).
• Immigrants who are paid under the table don’t have federal/state income taxes or social security taxes deducted from their paychecks (Chomsky 36). Employers, in turn, often pay them lower than the minimum wage while not providing benefits, unemployment insurance, sick leave, vacation time, and health/safety regulations (Chomsky 36). Yet consumers still benefit by getting cheaper goods/services that are provided by “these low-wage, untaxed workers” (Chomsky 36).
• According to the Social Security Administration, three fourths of undocumented immigrants use false social security numbers to work in the formal economy (Chomsky 37). Taxes are taken out of their paychecks, even though, due to their legal status, they have no access to these benefits. As of 2005, Social Security gained $7 billion a year through false social security numbers (Chomsky 37).

Myth: Immigrants are a Drain on the Economy

• Immigrants in general are “more likely to pay taxes than they are to use public services” (Chomsky 39). Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to use most public services and are afraid of being revealed to government authorities (Chomsky 39).
• All people (including immigrants) benefit from “mandated services” such as public schools, the public safety system, and emergency medical care (Chomsky 39).
• Even though immigrants pay their taxes and don’t use social services as much, their taxes still don’t cover all the social services they use (Chomsky 41). This is because they typically earn lower wages, which leads to them spending less money on goods and services (Chomsky 41). Those who earn more are likely to spend more in sales and property taxes (Chomsky 41).
• If immigrants have to go through endless obstacles to be considered legal, so that they can improve their education and income, then there will always be an underclass in U.S. society (Chomsky 45).

Myth: The Rules Apply to Everyone, so New Immigrants Need to Follow Them Just as Immigrants in the Past Did

• Between 1880 and World War I, 25 million European immigrants came to the U.S without visas or passports (Chomsky 53). Only a small percentage were turned away (about 1 percent) because they were classified as criminals, paupers, prostitutes, radicals, and diseased (Chomsky 53). At that time, there were no laws that made immigration illegal for white Europeans (Chomsky 53).

In 1924, there were some numeral restrictions placed on white European immigration (Chomsky 54). These restrictions were fewer in comparison to those placed on non-Europeans. People of color were excluded altogether (Chomsky 54). It wasn’t until 1965 that the “racially defined quota system” was replaced with a “uniform quota system for all countries” (Chomsky 54).

• Globalization is built on centuries of colonialism. European colonialism was a “massive transfer of natural resources out of the colonies and into the colonial powers” (Chomsky 55). Native inhabitants had their lands stolen, forcing them into labor. Their resources were exported while their identities were destroyed. Modern colonialism began with the Spanish and Portuguese in the 1400s. It expanded with the Northern Europeans in the 1600s and 1700s. By the late 1800s, Europe had “carved up much of Africa and Asia’’ while the United States controlled many countries in Latin America (Chomsky 55). The dispossessed were met with violence whenever they rebelled. In modern times, poor people are still being exploited in other countries by multinational corporations. U.S. citizens, as a result, are given a higher standard of living (Chomsky 55).

Myth: The Country Is Being Overrun by Illegal Immigrants

• “Illegal migrant” is a new term that goes against the very essence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states in Article 6 that “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law” (Chomsky 58). Immigration scholars often prefer to use “unauthorized migrant” over “undocumented migrant” because many people do not fit into the category of undocumented. They may have documents, which are false, expired, or fail to “authorize their presence” (Chomsky 58).
• Some people enter the country legally but overstay their visa. Others enter illegally before legalizing their status (Chomsky 58). Many families have differing immigration statuses: “citizens by birth, naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, people on immigration visas, and undocumented migrants” (Chomsky 58).
• Compared to authorized migrants, unauthorized migrants generally have lower-paying jobs and lower levels of education (Chomsky 60). They are overrepresented in areas such as agriculture and construction, which are some of the “most unregulated sectors of the labor market” (Chomsky 60).

Myth: The United States Is a Melting Pot That Has Always Welcomed Immigrants From All Over the World

• Congress first determined who could become a U.S. citizen in 1790. The law made naturalization possible only to “free white persons” (Chomsky 77). Native Americans were seen as “permanent foreigners belonging to different nations,” even though they were always present in the U.S. (Chomsky 78).

According to the federal government, “People of African origin,” despite whether they were enslaved or free, were defined as “nonpersons” (Chomsky 78). The Fugitive Slave Act (passed by congress in 1850) compelled non-slave states to assist in the arrest and return of all slaves to slave-holding states. Some states banned the immigration of free African peoples to other states and refused to let them work (Chomsky 79). In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that those who came from Africa could not become citizens of the United States. As a consequence, they had no rights under U.S. law (Chomsky 80).

After the Civil War, some naturalization privileges were extended to “people of African origin” (Chomsky 82). The Civil Rights Act of 1866 redefined “citizenship,” stating that “all persons” who were born in the United States (and not subject to foreign powers) were seen as citizens (Chomsky 82). This was clarified in the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Yet Native Americans were excluded from citizenship until 1940 (Chomsky 82).

Even though it was technically legal for “people of African nativity or African descent” to immigrate to the United States in 1870, there was hardly any immigration from Africa until late in the twentieth century. Naturalization was still limited to white Europeans (Chomsky 83).

• Mexican Americans were first brought into the United States with the annexation of Texas in 1845 (Chomsky 94). In 1848, this expanded under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which not only ended the Mexican-American War, but granted the United States “55 percent of Mexico’s territory” (Chomsky 94). Before the 1860s, citizenship was only reserved for white people. Yet the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave Mexicans living in that territory a chance of citizenship (except without the right to jobs, schools, public facilities, residential areas, land ownership, and so on) (Chomsky 95).

Mexican Americans were in a subordinate legal position in comparison with white European immigrants. Yet from the 1880s to the 1920s, they passed through open borders without any documents. At that time, there was a great interest in mining, agriculture, and railroads, which intersected between the two countries (Chomsky 96). Employers needed thousands of Mexicans for contract labor. Only in 1919 did Mexicans have to pass through formal immigration stations and “request permission to enter” the United States (Chomsky 96). The 1917 Immigration Act made exemptions for Mexicans in order to hire them as temporary workers. At first they were “guest workers” (that came in seasonally) and were “nominally white” (Chomsky 98). But with the 1924 national quota law, which closed the border and created the Border Patrol, Mexicans were subject for deportation (Chomsky 98).

The 1924 law made “unlawful entry” a crime, thereby designating many Mexicans as “illegal” human beings who didn’t have any rights (Chomsky 98). Employers benefited from this by having more control over the labor force. They could import and deport workers based on their business interests (Chomsky 98).

• In 1882, congress passed The Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese people were seen as “aliens ineligible to citizenship” (Chomsky 84). Many other Asians, such as the Japanese, had their rights taken away as well (Chomsky 84). Even though the Fourteenth Amendment “prohibited discrimination based on race,” there was still discrimination based on “citizenship status,” which in turn, was based on race.

The 1917 Immigration Act excluded people of Asian descent from immigrating to the United States (Chomsky 85). The 1921/1924 Acts “created numerical limits” for “national origins,” which was only made available to certain types of white people (Chomsky 85). The quota system that privileged immigration from Northern Europe over Southeastern Europe (while prohibiting non-white people in other countries) “remained in effect until 1965” (Chomsky 85)

• According to a federal law in 1907, female citizens who married aliens would lose their citizenship (Chomsky 84). The law was revised in 1922, stipulating that female citizens who married “aliens racially ineligible for citizenship” would lose their citizenship (Chomsky 84). It wasn’t until 1940 that a woman’s citizenship status was made independent from her husband’s (Chomsky 84).
• People of color were gradually allowed to naturalize (but not necessarily to immigrate) from the 1940s onward (Chomsky 86). In 1952, racial/national restrictions were removed (Chomsky 86). Civil Rights legislation in the 1950s/1960s helped to create a legal basis for racial equality by “granting equal quotas to all countries” (Chomsky 89).

Myth: Immigrants Only Come Here Because They Want to Enjoy Our Higher Standard of Living

• Many of the poorest countries (like those in Africa) only send a small part of their population to the U.S. Puerto Rico, one of the wealthiest areas in Latin America, sends almost half of its population to the U.S. (Chomsky 122). This is because some countries have stronger historical connections than others. As Chomsky wrote, “People from India and Pakistan go to England; people from Senegal and Algeria go to France; people from Morocco go to Spain; people from Mexico and Puerto Rico come to the United States” (122).

Colonization reinforces these cultural ties. After their local institutions are destroyed, the colonized are compelled to come to the colony (Chomsky 122). While the U.S. does not directly control certain countries, it exerts a tremendous amount of “economic, political, military control through indirect means” (Chomsky 126).

• Although the United States only comprises 4 percent of the world’s population, citizens there consume at a higher rate than many other countries (Chomsky 126). Historically, colonial powers extracted natural resources from their colonies to sustain themselves. They forced colonized peoples to work at plantations and mines (Chomsky 128). Local populations, who started out as self-sufficient, had to be coerced by governments and corporations into producing for those outside their own countries. As a result, their once fertile lands became barren and contaminated; their traditions slowly erased. They migrated from villages to urban centers. What they knew of as home was no more.
• Migration is a result of global restructuring, which has its roots in centuries of colonialism.

Myth: The American Public Opposes Immigration and the Debate in Congress Reflects That

• Since the 1970s, there has been a decline in government services along with a “free trade agenda” (Chomsky 149). Democrats have “retreated from the social welfare” of their New Deal predecessors. Neoliberals often call for cutting government spending on social welfare programs, which includes health and education (Chomsky 149). They want an “export economy” by “devaluing currency and ending currency control and tariffs” (Chomsky 149). They are pushing for more privatization and deregulation (Chomsky 150).
• Neoliberal policies have dismantled the social safety net for the poor in Latin American countries (Chomsky 151). Free trade has worsened conditions for many peasant farmers because they don’t have the resources to compete with the “heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural sector” (whose products flood their country’s markets”) (Chomsky 151). Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican administrations are implementing their own neoliberalism at home: reducing social services, privatizing industries, taking power away from labor unions (Chomsky 152). These policies have contributed to larger inequality in the United States.
• Anti-immigrant rhetoric riles up only a small number of vocal people. But most U.S. citizens, especially those “in high-immigration areas” hold more balanced views of immigration (Chomsky 161).

Myth: Immigration Is a Problem

• Immigration is a humanitarian problem that needs a range of humanitarian solutions.
• Stricter border control does not have a “statistically significant effect on unauthorized crossings” (Chomsky 166). It actually makes immigrants want to stay in the U.S. for longer because of the dangers involved (Chomsky 166). Those who benefit the most are the smugglers. Their small-scale operations have grown to encompass “sophisticated rings with links to organized crime and drug trafficking” (Chomsky 167).
• White colonizers have always feared that they would be overwhelmed by the colonized population (Chomsky 171). They have often used population control as a means to maintain their racial dominance. Economically, those in power don’t want to give up their privileges by redistributing resources to the poor. As a response to inequality, they want to reduce the population as well (Chomsky 171). These racial/economic arguments are two sides of the same coin. Historically, white English migrants wanted to replace the Native American tribes that existed before they arrived. They wanted to use people of African descent for labor and then expel them (after Reconstruction) with lynchings and Jim Crow Laws (Chomsky 172). Chinese workers were used as cheap labor, denied citizenship, and excluded. Mexicans were included in temporary worker programs and deported (Chomsky 172).
• The pseudoscience of eugenics was behind a lot of early immigration restrictions, which continues to affect people of color today (Chomsky 172). Sterilization laws have been enforced to stop “population growth among those considered racially inferior,” among Native Americans, African Americans, and Latin Americans (Chomsky 172, 173, 175, 176).

Myth: We Need to Protect Our Borders to Prevent Criminals and Terrorists from Entering the Country

• Citizens can commit crimes and terrorist acts. Immigrants can commit crimes and terrorist acts. “No country has a monopoly on violent lawbreakers, and in no country are they nonexistent” (Chomsky 180). Crimes have been done for many reasons, some of which relate to domestic and international issues (Chomsky 180). At the same time, a lot of foreign criminals/terrorists use legal channels to enter the country because they don’t want to be arrested or killed (Chomsky 181).
• Immigrants generally have lower crime rates than U.S. citizens (Chomsky xxiii).
• One way to stop criminality is to enforce the rule of law (prosecuting those who commit crimes and focusing on effective policing) (Chomsky 180). Another way is to reduce the amount of military aggression abroad (Chomsky 182).

Myth: If People Break Our Laws by Immigrating Illegally, They Are Criminals and Should Be Deported

• Immigration laws define a human being’s legal status based on arbitrary attributes such as which country they were born in. Those who break these laws, by crossing the border or letting their visas expire, are considered illegal (Chomsky 184).

Furthermore, there are laws that privilege some immigrants over others based on the countries they come from (e.g. Haiti, Cuba, Philippines, Mexico). As Chomsky put it, “The law was designed not to allow certain groups of people to have the rights that others enjoy” (184).

Myth: The Problems This Book Raises Are So Huge That There’s Nothing We Can Do about Them

• Migration is a symptom of a much larger problem. The current global economic system benefits the few at the expense of the many. People will continue to escape from violent, impoverished environments for better ones. They will seek out places where they have more freedom (Chomsky 188).
• A few solutions to this issue would be: (1.) roll back discriminatory/punitive laws that have taken place in the last few decades; (2.) reverse the militarization of the border (which began with Operation Oathkeeper); (3.) decriminalize border crossing; (4.) extend legal rights to immigrants; (5.) domestically strengthen the social safety net; (6.) make corporations accountable toward their workers and communities; (7.) lower levels of consumption; (8.) and reduce military aggression in other countries.

Notes on Epicurus

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Epicurus was an Ancient Greek philosopher who founded the school of Epicureanism. Even though he wrote hundreds of books during his lifetime, only a few of his letters, sayings, and fragments remain (Hiram, Crespo).

Most of his works were destroyed by those who opposed his teachings (likely religious authorities) (Hiram, Crespo). Despite this, Epicureanism continued to be influential for centuries after his death.

Modern scholars rely on secondary sources about Epicurus. Some of the historical figures who wrote about him were Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, and Lucretius.

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Pleasure

1. Pleasure is a means and an end. It is the opposite of pain.
2. Pleasure is subjective. It can be influenced by cognition.
3. Pleasure is in a dynamic relationship with pain. The two are not separate, but rather, exist on a spectrum.
4. Not all pleasure is equal. Pursuing the wrong pleasures can lead to painful consequences.
5. It is important to examine the quality of pleasure, considering whether it is natural, necessary, and leads to favorable results (Dimitriadis, Haris).
6. Pleasure can be measured by its intensity and duration. At first, it is a fulfillment of needs. After that, it can be diversified further (Dimitriadis, Haris).
7. Pleasure can be about helping others. It does not necessarily have to be egocentric.
8. Many people are shamed for wanting pleasure. Because they listen to the opinions of others over their own inner voices, they sacrifice their happiness.
9. People are afraid of death. They hoard their wealth because they feel it will protect them. They cling to an illusion of security. Yet all their striving for status, money, and power will not last. They are as mortal as everyone else. Vain desires are difficult to satisfy and sustain. Those who pursue them often do so at the expense of their long term well-being. They always want what is beyond their reach (Dimitriadis, Haris).
10. People can try to fulfill their desires or limit the amount of desires that fulfill them.
11. Enjoyment comes not only from the activity, but from the anticipation of the activity and the memory of it afterward (Dimitriadis, Haris).
12. In the flow state, people become so engrossed in what they are doing that they forget themselves (Dimitriadis, Haris). They are fully absorbed in the moment.
13. Happiness depends on several factors that are interrelated: heredity, environmental conditions, and attitude. Yet those who are satisfied with a little can endure what others cannot (Dimitriadis, Haris).

Friendship

1. Friends should value each other equally. If a friendship is unequal, it can lead to abuse and resentment.
2. Friendship is mutually beneficial. Over time, friends desire to see each other happy because they share the same meanings, values, and aspirations (Dimitriadis, Haris).
3. When friends reveal the truth of who they are, they develop trust for each other.
4. Unhealthy friendships involve competition, broken promises, lies, insults, abuse, complaints, and gossip. It is wise to withdraw from these relationships.
5. Friendships begin from self-interest. But they can become intrinsically worthwhile.
6. In deep friendships, friends see themselves in each other. They may even sacrifice their own needs to make their friends happy.
7. People are naturally altruistic. It is a way to ensure the survival of the species. When people cooperate, they function at a higher level. They can nurture the young, provide resources to members of their community, and pass on knowledge. Altruism can be corrupted, however, when people give too much of themselves. They sacrifice their well-being for those who don’t reciprocate (Dimitriadis, Haris).

Reason

Reason: (1.) sets a standard for truth, (2.) roots out false beliefs, (3.) determines the limits of desire, (4.) calculates what thoughts and actions are in a person’s self-interest (Dimitriadis, Haris).

Sex

1. Sex is a natural act. Yet it is not a necessary one (Dimitriadis, Haris).
2. Possessiveness leads to suffering. Those who attach themselves to others are full of worry. They become jealous and resentful. Rather than developing on their own, they depend on what is outside themselves for fulfillment. They do not view their lovers as people, but rather, as objects to have. Yet their lovers need the freedom to find their own happiness.
3. Sex is not only a way to satisfy physical desires. It is a way for individuals to feel wanted (Dimitriadis, Haris). When people are intimate, their pretensions fall away. They bond in their nakedness.
4. Performance anxiety often stems from feelings of inadequacy, shame, and guilt. Chronic stress can interfere with sexual pleasure as well. There is a great deal of social pressure on both partners to please each other. If not addressed, performance anxiety can often become a self-destructive cycle. Couples have to discuss their vulnerabilities in an open, honest, and loving manner. When there is a lack of communication, there is no growth (Dimitriadis, Haris).

Exercise

Since antiquity, exercise has been considered a benefit. When people care for their bodies, they care for their minds. Modern research has shown that those who exercise can boost their moods, reduce their risk for certain diseases, learn more efficiently, increase their sleep quality, promote socialization, and develop strength, flexibility, and conditioning (Dimitriadis, Haris).

The Senses

1. Friends who eat a delicious meal together can have a pleasant time. Impulsive eating, however, leads to painful consequences in the long term (e.g. anxiety, severe obesity, heart disease). Eating should be done in a mindful way.
2. Touch is vital for connection such as when cradling a newborn, massaging an injured patient, or brushing the cheek of a lover.
3. Pleasant smells can remind people of pleasant experiences from their past (Dimitriadis, Haris).
4. Even though the senses are prone to error, they are a way of distinguishing what is true from what is false (Hiram, Crespo). Those who dismiss their senses entirely have no basis for knowledge.

Humor

1. A belly laugh always follows from a good philosophy.
2. Humor is used to enrich social relationships, manage hardships, delight friends, gain new perspectives, and increase positive feelings (Dimitriadis, Haris).
3. A playful attitude is associated with enhanced self-esteem and less stress.
4. Humor can be a strategic means of achieving psychological well-being.

Death

1. People fear the uncertainty of what comes after their death.
2. They try to escape their fear of annihilation through heroism, art, children, religion, politics, and so on (Dimitriadis, Haris) (Hiram, Crespo).
3. Awareness of mortality is important. People cannot live fully until they accept death.
4. When a person is alive, they are aware of being alive. When they are dead, they are not aware of being dead. Death is similar to what happens before birth (Hiram, Crespo).

The Gods

1. People have an instinct to believe. Later on, they are socialized into believing in X or Y. Many of their beliefs are there to soothe their existential anxieties (Dimitriadis, Haris) (Hiram, Crespo).
2. People often attribute supernatural design to natural phenomena (Hiram, Crespo).
3. Rather than admitting their ignorance about the world around them, individuals look for information that conforms to their beliefs. They reject information that goes against their beliefs.
4. If there are Epicurean gods, they don’t interfere with the known universe. Practically, they are non-existent (Dimitriadis, Haris).
5. Some individuals use the gods as models for how to behave. Others do not have any need for them (Hiram, Crespo).
6. Why should a person pray for something when they are capable of achieving it for themselves?

Money

1. Money can be used to satisfy basic human needs. At a certain point, too much money has diminishing returns (Dimitriadis, Haris).
2. Materialism leads to stress, greed, and a lack of empathy for those who have less (Dimitriadis, Haris).
3. Money should not be an end in itself. All too often, people sacrifice their happiness for materialistic goals. They work for longer hours, spend less time with their families, compare themselves to their neighbors, neglect their hobbies, and ignore their health.
4. Quality experiences have more value than goods (Dimitriadis, Haris). Buying gifts for friends, however, can increase happiness. Community engagement is worthier than passive consumption.

Politics

1. Those who strive for political power are corrupted by it.
2. The political game is stressful and dangerous (Dimitriadis, Haris). Victories never last for long. Even the greatest civilizations have fallen.
3. It is important to be egalitarian in daily life. Solidarity matters in close relationships, which extends out to the community.
4. There is no happiness without freedom.
5. All people should be treated with dignity.
6. Laws should promote the greatest happiness for the most people.
7. Those who are just are tranquil. Those who are unjust are disturbed.

Philosophy

1. What value does philosophy have if it does not lessen the suffering of humanity?
2. Philosophy is about pursuing what is true and disregarding what is false.
3. An Epicurean follows their own judgments rather than the fickleness of the crowd.
4. It is important to focus on what is natural, necessary, and true. People should not waste their time on pleasures outside their control.
5. Learning should be tied to enjoyment.
6. Philosophy can help people to remove their delusions and baseless fears; develop gratitude, compassion, and generosity; endure hardships; and accept their mortality.
7. Those who live well can die well.

Vice

1. The arrogant are inconsiderate and laugh at the misfortunes of others. They believe they are blessed while not realizing their privileges. Rather than looking down on others, the arrogant should recall the gifts they are given every day, while acknowledging their own delicate position (Hiram, Crespo).
2. Sometimes anger is productive when it is brief and directed toward a virtuous end. Over time, anger can become habitually destructive. It can end in regret, especially when it is uncontrollable and unpredictable. Generations blindly pass their anger on to each other. They teach their children the violence of their actions and words. To reduce anger, people should detach themselves from their expectations, focusing on what they can control (Hiram, Crespo).

Moral Development

1. Some people are more open than others. This is partly due to their temperament and environment. When they are open, they can learn from their experience and progress.
2. With a proper education, people can leave behind their false beliefs (Hiram, Crespo).
3. Wisdom comes from studying nature. It comes from finding the right pleasures in life. Suffering results from an ignorance of these things (Hiram, Crespo).

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Sources:

Epicurus. Crespo, Hiram. Epicurus of Samos: His Philosophy and Life: All the Principal Source Texts. Audiobook ed. Ukemi Audiobooks from W.F. Howes Ltd. May 14, 2020.

Dimitriadis, Haris. Epicurus and the Pleasant Life: A Philosophy of Nature. Audiobook ed. May 31, 2017.

Book Review: Trainspotting

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“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”

― Irvine Welsh

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I

A’m readin aboot a bunch o working-class skag boys i Edinburgh. They’re deadbeats rejectin the oppressive boredom o livin for pure heroin. Wastin away i pleasure, likesay. Stealin, smokin, drinkin, fuckin, passin oot i squalor. They crave the neist hit, the blissful orgasmic hit thon takes away aw their historical sufferin. Thare’s nothin else like it. Lyin i a dark womb o annihilation. Refusin aw o society, wi its own hichs o materialism an violence an sex, for ane more shot i the vein.

II

It’s hell tae suffer the sickness o gettin clean. It’s hell tae watch aw yer mates dee before they’re grown. But skag will dae it thon tae ye. It will grind ye doun until ye’re nothin but a weary urge. Nothin but a hole where promise shoud’ve been.

III

It’s easy tae lie convincingly whan ye’re a junkie. It becomes insinct, a habit o survival. A way tae protect yourself from the truth o yer own slow decayin.

IIII

Sometimes yer loyalty tae yer kintra, tae yer mates, tae e’en yer own faimily, can hold ye back. It can stop ye from seein where ye’re fuckin up i life. It can prevent ye from changin, from findin oot wha ye are, because ye’re sae usit tae the same people i the same places. Sometimes ye have tae leave yer surroundings because it’s killin yer soul. Sometimes ye have tae be a wee bit uncertain tae grow. But na ane can choose yer life for ye. Ye have tae choose for yourself.

Poem: “Remember Me”

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Remember
me
in the
whispering
dust
of
last
pyramids

Remember
me
in the constellations
rising over the
toppled
statues

I am your
ancestors
intertwined in the
root systems of
trees

I am
the ash
of old
homes
and
bone,
drifting
from
wind
to
sea

Reflections on “The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace”

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If we really saw war, what war does to young minds and bodies, it would be impossible to embrace the myth of war. If we had to stand over the mangled corpses of schoolchildren killed in Afghanistan and listen to the wails of their parents, we would not be able to repeat clichés we use to justify war. This is why war is carefully sanitized. This is why we are given war’s perverse and dark thrill but are spared from seeing war’s consequences. The mythic visions of war keep it heroic and entertaining…

The wounded, the crippled, and the dead are, in this great charade, swiftly carted offstage. They are war’s refuse. We do not see them. We do not hear them. They are doomed, like wandering spirits, to float around the edges of our consciousness, ignored, even reviled. The message they tell is too painful for us to hear. We prefer to celebrate ourselves and our nation by imbibing the myths of glory, honor, patriotism, and heroism, words that in combat become empty and meaningless.

Chris Hedges

War is the greatest evil (Hedges). Neighborhoods crumble under black clouds of smoke. Families are separated in chaos, forced to flee from their homes. Generations of innocent human beings — mothers, fathers, sons, daughters — are forever traumatized.

Peace does not come from guns and bombs. It does not come from an expansion of the military, bases in foreign countries, and lip service to ideals.

It comes from taking care of each other. It comes from a clean environment. It comes from free healthcare and education, livable wages and affordable housing (Zinn ix). It comes from the preservation of freedom.

There is no justice in deception and inequality, only in truth and fairness. There is no end to the cycle of revenge. The consequences of bloodshed are ugly and unpredictable. Hatred does not stop with more hatred. Terror does not stop with more terror. Only love overcomes the violence of the world (Buddha 3).

Aggressors are motivated by greed and fear and hatred and ignorance. They believe in conquest and power and control. Orphans are made from their policies. They profit from the horror of war.

If peace is to be achieved in any respect, it has to come from moral consistency. Leaders talk about the ideals of freedom and democracy and peace, but do they make any significant changes to the system? Do they follow the same standards that they judge others by?

All too often, governments sell arms to brutal regimes and strangle countries with economic sanctions. They cut spending to social programs that help the most vulnerable while devoting ever larger portions of their budgets to the military. Past atrocities are hidden and rationalized and forgotten. Then the same destructive patterns happen again.

Without a conscious struggle for justice, promises of peace are empty and meaningless (Gandhi 46). One way to oppose evil is to stop participating in it. Actions matter more than professed intentions.

Citizens are propagandized to support the wars of their countries. They are told that their violence is justified because they are fighting for noble and patriotic causes. It is only the other countries that are immoral and inhumane. They are taught that they are defending themselves against monsters, not other human beings who are afraid to die.

Rather than dehumanizing others, rather than turning them into abstractions, it is important to empathize with them. Rather than seeing them as evil, it is even more courageous to confront those same evils within (Merton 98). Many countries minimize their own crimes while exaggerating the crimes of others (Merton 98). They do not want to hold themselves accountable for what they have done.

Dissenters are attacked for challenging the dominant narrative. Asking critical questions is forbidden. Peacemakers are met with scorn and ridicule. They are isolated and silenced. It is only acceptable to disagree within a narrow ideological framework (Chomsky 10). Moving outside that framework is like being from another planet.

Several nations have powerful weapons that can end all of modern civilization (Wallace 75). These weapons only make people more fearful of what may come. There are no victories if such a global war should occur. If a decision is made to strike, and then to retaliate, all of humanity will perish.

The requirements for defense have been exceeded by many countries but that still does not stop their greed for more power and resources (Wallace 77). Even though the race for deadlier weapons has increased the likelihood of mutual destruction, governments do not want to disarm themselves because they fear losing their strategic positions (Prasad 108, 109). Yet the end result of all their expansion will be extinction.

It is hypocritical to claim moral superiority while bringing suffering to the poor and helpless. It is madness to promote policies that will make the planet unlivable in the future just for the sake of short term profit. Peace cannot be talked about when dropping thousands of bombs on weaker nations (King 119). It cannot be achieved when children are murdered (Hedges).

Young people are seduced into signing up for wars they don’t always understand. They may enlist in the military for status, brotherhood, patriotism, economic opportunity, college education, and so on, but they are often used as muscle for the political interests of the ruling class (Hedges).

After returning home, especially if they have been in combat before, many veterans feel alienated from the rest of society. They don’t get the help they need for the traumas they have experienced.

While soldiers are sent off to fight in foreign wars, in their own countries, there is a history of structural violence (King 114, 115). Violence in classism and racism and sexism. Violence in homophobia and transphobia. Violence is deeply embedded in the institutions of their societies. How can peace be realized elsewhere when it cannot be realized at home?

There has to be a counterforce of nonviolence to meet the injustices of the present. Communities of resistance can spring up in many forms, devoting themselves to lessen the suffering of all people, offering places of refuge (Berrigan, Nhat Hanh 147, 148).

Churches, mosques, pagodas, and temples can work in solidarity as centers of active resistance. People from different backgrounds, both religious and secular, can unite for peaceful alternatives to war. It is not enough to pray and meditate. There has to be real engagement with those who are suffering.

It is important that these communities see each other as human beings first and not get caught up in dogmatic ideologies. Respect should be given to everyone who wants to learn and grow. A diversity of perspectives is crucial for deep understanding. Critical thinking should be open and encouraged.

Individuals can contribute their unique skills and knowledge. Priests, writers, artists, musicians, teachers, doctors, monks, journalists, activists, veterans, psychologists, scientists, farmers, and other members of society are all valuable, even from their presence alone (Berrigan, Nhat Hanh 154).

People can practice the principles of nonviolence in their daily lives. They can come together to help each other, not in the distant future, but right now.

Peace does not only come from boycotts and sit-ins and strikes. It does not only come from the mass demonstrations against unjust wars. Nor does it only come from the great figures of history, whether they be preachers or poets or presidents. It comes from the many small actions of nameless people, people who are courageous enough to live by their values.

Everyone has the power to water the seeds of love and compassion and truth rather than the seeds of hatred and fear and ignorance. While it is difficult to strive for peace alone, peace begins from within.

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References:

Chomsky, Noam. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. United States, Seven Stories Press, 2011.

Hedges, Chris. The Greatest Evil is War. United States, Seven Stories Press, 2023.

Berrigan, Daniel. Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha). Gandhi, Mahatma. Prasad, Rajendra. King, Martin Luther. Merton, Thomas. Nhat Hanh, Thich. Wallace, Henry. Zinn, Howard. The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. United States, Beacon Press, 2002.

Ten Lessons From Adyashanti’s “Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering”

1. You are not your ideas about yourself. You are not the ideas that other people have about you.
2. The more that you try to control everything, the more out of control you feel. The more out of control you feel, the more you try to control everything.
3. By letting go of who you think you are, you return to who you are. But you have to be open to the unknown.
4. When someone talks about you, they are talking about their state of consciousness.
5. As you seek out the truth, you have to be willing to give up your ideas about the truth. All too often, your thoughts have made you complacent. You have grown used to them, even when they make you suffer. You feel threatened when they are challenged by others. Your ego desperately clings to your ideas and does not want to let them go. You are resistant to the uncertainty of existence.
6. When you try to force yourself to feel a certain way, such as peaceful and happy, you are creating a conflict within yourself. Because you are seeking what you are not, your intention turns into an egoic struggle for a reward. You are trying to capture an abstract idea of peace and happiness, but peace and happiness are not mere ideas. Look at the intimacy of your experience.
7. Your thoughts are not ultimate reality. They are symbols. They are references to other thoughts. You come to identify with certain stories and become attached to them. You decide what is meaningful or meaningless, relevant or irrelevant. Who are you beyond your ideas?
8. You suffer when you are not fully present. Rather than being with what is, you are resisting what was and is and could be.
9. You may have been taught to block out or fight against your emotions. But you can’t ignore them forever. Wherever you go, there they are. Without judgment, be aware of what is happening within you.
10. When you open your heart, you will be heartbroken. But rather than retreating or acting out, love even more. Life is full of so much suffering that you cannot control. Life is indescribably beautiful as well. Just by being compassionate and present, you can lessen the suffering of those around you. You can tend to this world.

Becoming Myself (Existential Reflections)

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I live on Earth. Earth is located in the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. There are hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the known universe. I’m an expression of the cosmos, part of a process that began with the Big Bang (around 13.8 billion years ago) (Britannica).

As Alan Watts, philosophical entertainer and rascal, wrote in The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are:

We do not ‘come into’ this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean ‘waves,’ the universe ‘peoples.’ Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. (9)

From an anthropological perspective, my species (Homo sapiens) is “classified in the sub-group of primates known as the Great Apes” due to our genetic/structural similarities with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans (Blaxland). Some of the traits that I share with other humans are self-recognition, imagination, bipedalism, tool making, language (the ability to share complex ideas), cooperation, and adaptation (Herrero) (Ruth).

For 97% of our history (roughly 300,000 years), we survived as hunter-gatherers in the Pleistocene (Gowdy). Climate change has been one of the major drivers for our socio-biological evolution (Gowdy).

Biologists estimate that 99 percent of all the species that have ever existed are now extinct (Hamer). My species has only been around for a few hundred thousand years, which is a minuscule amount of time when compared with the age of the universe (National Museum of Natural History).

Even though the Earth has gone through five mass extinction events, life has not been extinguished yet (Hamer). While we Homo sapiens share this planet with millions of other species, we make up such a tiny fraction of life (.01% when using the metric of biomass) (Ritchie).

Because I am a human, and not a sunflower or a boulder or a clod of dirt, I have a certain kind of consciousness.

While I may feel like a “skin-encapsulated ego,” my consciousness is not separate from the rest of the universe (Watts). It is deeply interconnected with it.

Carl Sagan, astronomer and public educator, once wrote in Cosmos:

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff… (190) …Starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. (286)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, said in The Universe series:

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the Earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically… It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us. (Flight 33 Productions)

If I radically doubt all my beliefs about reality, such as the existence of the universe outside of myself, I am still aware of myself doubting (Descartes’s first principle of “I think, therefore I am”). Although there are different interpretations about who is doubting, and how it is taking place, there is consciousness.

If I conclude from “cogito, ergo sum” that nothing exists beyond my own consciousness, my claim is not a scientific one because it cannot be falsified (Popper 105, 106). Solipsism may be possible but that doesn’t mean that it should be accepted as true. If there’s no way to find out whether it is true or false, then it is indeterminate or meaningless.

Furthermore, everything that I rely upon to argue against the existence of the external world, such as language, logic, empirical evidence, and so on, all comes (at least in part) from the external world that I am trying to disprove (Thornton). Language, for instance, is a symbol-system that is expressed in different social contexts.

As Stephen P. Thornton wrote in Solipsism and The Problem of Other Minds:

To question, argue, or doubt is to utilize language in a particular way. It is to play a particular kind of public language-game. The proposition ‘I am the only mind that exists’ makes sense only to the extent that it is expressed in a public language, and the existence of such language itself implies the existence of a social context. Such a context exists for the hypothetical last survivor of a nuclear holocaust, but not for the solipsist. A non-linguistic solipsism is unthinkable and a thinkable solipsism is necessarily linguistic. Solipsism therefore presupposes the very thing that it seeks to deny. That solipsistic thoughts are thinkable in the first instance implies the existence of the public, shared, intersubjective world that they purport to call into question.

Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician and activist, wrote that extreme forms of solipsism are “psychologically impossible to believe” in Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits:

As against solipsism it is to be said, in the first place, that it is psychologically impossible to believe, and is rejected in fact even by those who mean to accept it. I once received a letter from an eminent logician, Mrs. Christine Ladd-Franklin, saying that she was a solipsist, and was surprised that there were no others. Coming from a logician and a solipsist, her surprise surprised me. (195)

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology that my consciousness is not isolated from the outer world. It is always being directed toward something else. If the outer world isn’t there, then there is nothing for me to be conscious of. I exist not only as I am, but as I am in relation to the things around me (V, Cox).

As philosopher Gary Cox explained in the introduction to The Labyrinth: An Existential Odyssey With Jean-Paul Sartre:

Expectation is expectation of something. Desire is desire for something, and so on. Consciousness is like a reflection in a mirror. It is what it reflects and nothing beyond what it reflects. (V)

In the philosophy paper, Jean-Paul Sartre: The Consciousness and the Self, Braulio Giordano said that for Sartre, consciousness can “appear in a reflexive mode” when it is oriented not just toward the external world but toward the self as well (3). When I am acting in the world, I forget myself. But when I am aware of myself acting in the world, my mind becomes reflexive (3 Giordano).

Often in phenomenology, there’s an experience and an experiencer, a subject and an object, an inside and outside, and an internal and external. Sartre departed from this traditional view by writing that my ego (or self) can be focused on as an object just as much as other things in the external world (Waller). This includes my sensations, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and memories. In turn, other people can see me as an object as well (Waller).

My “consciousness in the first degree” is empty of content, coming before any ideas I have of myself. Yet it is always being aimed toward something else. By focusing on X or Y, it negates other aspects of reality (Waller). But unlike objects in the external world, my consciousness has no fixed definition. It is “aware of itself, thinks about itself, and lives for nothing but itself” (Waller).

Immanuel Kant, unlike Sartre, was an idealist who distinguished between my perception of things and the things in themselves. He believed the things in themselves couldn’t be known through my senses (Moose, Roth, Wildin).

Sartre rejected Kant’s idea of the noumena (things in themselves that are apart from appearances). For him, there is nothing behind the appearances of phenomena (Sartre 4, 5). Those appearances are my reality. They are not referring to anything other than themselves (Moose, Roth, Wildin).

According to Sartre, I am either conscious or not conscious of myself. But even when I am conscious of myself, my consciousness is still incomplete. It is undefined. I can choose to act differently than my conditioning (Daigle). I am free to become who I am.

If I assume that I am a human being, (rather than a brain in a vat, a program in the matrix, or a passing dream), I am aware of myself and other people. I can think and feel and make choices that have consequences.

Because I can reflect on my existence, I am confronted with such questions as:

• Who am I?
• Who will I become?
• Does my life have any meaning?

While Albert Camus wondered whether life was worth living in an indifferent universe, Alan Watts expanded from there. In his first lecture in Out of Your Mind, Watts said that there are “several serious philosophical questions” that I can ask myself:

The first one is: Who started it?

The second is: Are we going to make it?

The third is: Where are we going to put it?

The fourth is: Who’s going to clean up?

And the fifth: Is it serious?

I can look at my existence from many perspectives. In chemistry, I am made up of chemical elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus (Davey). 96.2% of my body’s mass is composed of only four elements (oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen), which formed inside of stars billions of years ago (Lotzof). In sociology, my identity is connected with my social class, religion, race, sexual orientation, and gender. I’m a member of a particular society, influenced by different attitudes, beliefs, and values. In biology, I am part of the diversity of life on Earth. My species is “intricately linked” with millions of other species in a variety of ecosystems (National Museum of Natural History). I would not be alive without the process of evolution, which began around four billion years ago (Ashraf, Sarfraz).

Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk and founder of the Plum Village tradition, wrote in The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation that I am like a wave in the ocean. Only sometimes I forget that I am water (Hanh 116, 127).

On a relative level, I experience joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. I was born and will die (Hanh 4). On an ultimate level, however, I am not apart from the rest of the cosmos. I am made up of non-me elements like the sun and moon, oceans and air. There would be no me without the flora and fauna (Hanh 135). While I may be able to distinguish my inner subjective experiences from the outer world, on an ultimate level, I am separated only by my own mind:

A wave is a wave. It has a beginning and an end. It might be high or low, more or less beautiful than other waves. But a wave is, at the same time, water. Water is the ground of being of the wave. It is important that a wave knows that she is water, and not just a wave. We, too, live our life as an individual. We believe that we have a beginning and an end, that we are separate from other living beings. That is why the Buddha advised us to look more deeply in order to touch the ground of our being, which is nirvana. (211)

… We don’t have to attain nirvana, because we ourselves are always dwelling in nirvana. The wave does not have to look for water. It already is water. (211)

… Nirvana is not something to look for in the future… Nirvana is not the absence of life… We already are what we need to become. We don’t have to run after anything anymore. We only need to return to ourselves and touch our true nature. (140)

Despite my awareness of my eventual end (on perhaps a relative, but not ultimate, level), I am still following the same routines every day: waking up, eating, going to the bathroom, sleeping, and so on. But what do these actions mean? I could give up trying and fall into despair. I could let myself waste away (Argon 19). What is the point of existing if all my choices just lead me to the same place (Argon 23)? If I am able to live forever, on the other hand, would it matter what I do? Would I have the same urgency to find meaning as someone with only a limited time on this planet (Argon 25, 26, 27)?

With every choice that I make, there are choices that I am not making. Out of all my possibilities, I can find meaning in what I think and feel and do.

The person I choose to become is not necessarily determined beforehand. I may be afraid of death, depending on what I believe in, but I am not dead yet. And when I do die, I may not even realize it (Argon 29). My consciousness shapes reality just as reality shapes my consciousness (Argon 49).

Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, wrote in Man’s Search For Meaning that I cannot expect to find a general meaning from life. The way in which I respond to my own unique circumstances is meaningful. It is up to me to determine my meanings through my actions and attitudes. Meaning is not just an abstraction that can be applied in the same exact way to every human. It is revealed through my very existence:

It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. (98)

These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. ‘Life’ does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. (98)

How I deal with my circumstances is significant. My actions determine who I am becoming. I can act in bad faith or live authentically. But I cannot escape from my awareness of my own mortality, even if I distract myself.

The Buddha spoke about these truths of human existence. He taught the Five Remembrances in the Upajjhatthana Sutta for his followers to reflect upon and accept. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that the Five Remembrances can help people to “make friends” with their fears on a relative level (124). Buddhists often recite a variation of the following lines (Lions Roar):

1. I am of the nature to grow old; there is no way to escape growing old.

2. I am of the nature to have ill health; there is no way to escape having ill health.

3. I am of the nature to die; there is no way to escape death.

4. All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

5. My deeds are my closest companions. I am the beneficiary of my deeds. My deeds are the ground on which I stand.

After repeating the Five Remembrances to myself, I may ask again: why should I struggle for a purpose, when in the end, everything that I cherish will be no more? The universe, including all the people I care about, are subject to change. I’m going to get sick and age and die.

For Buddhists, all phenomena are impermanent (Garfield 58). The mountains and rivers, stars and stones, are changing over time. My body is made up of a colony of 30 trillion or more cells (human and non-human), which are interacting with each other (Nurse 8). Even my mind is not fixed. My thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, and perceptions are coming and going. I am not the same person (I was or will be) at five or fifty-five.

Everything in the universe (including all of life) is interdependent with everything else (Garfield 59). My existence depends on “a vast network of causes and conditions” to be (Garfield 60).

Because I am a human, I feel an attraction and aversion to certain kinds of phenomena. But when I refuse to see existence for what it is (impermanent, interdependent, and selfless), I only suffer more (Garfield 60).

Reality transcends all the symbol-systems that I depend upon for my knowledge of reality. Yet I often confuse the “map with the territory” by mistaking my models with reality itself (Korzybski).

Rather than getting caught up in a web of ideas about who I am, I can let go of who I am. With a beginner’s mind, I can return to my true nature, seeing life as if for the first time (Suzuki 148).

Shunryu Suzuki, Sōtō Zen monk and teacher, once said in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:

The true purpose of Zen is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. (22)

On a relative level, I divide the world from myself. I categorize the information that I take in through my nervous system as good and bad, right and wrong, pleasurable and painful, and so on. I am a subject in relation to other objects. But when I experience myself as an “interdependent, changing process” rather than a separate creature, the duality of me and other, subject and object, disappears (Garfield 74).

By compassionately looking at my nature, I can release what I have been clinging to for so long. I can cultivate the qualities of loving-kindness and peace and mindfulness. It is up to me to water the wholesome seeds within myself.

According to Śāntideva, Indian philosopher and Buddhist monk, I can walk the Bodhisattva path when I aspire to awaken for the benefit of all sentient beings (Garfield 64). Through cultivating the six perfections (“generosity, propriety, patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom”), it is possible for me to transform my consciousness (Garfield 64).

I can overcome my “greed, fear, and selfishness” through the practice of these virtues (Garfield 66). When I habitually engage in vice, I suffer from a life of fear and meaninglessness. Deciding to make unwise choices only reinforces my own ignorance, confusion, attachment, and aversion (Garfield 66). When I act virtuously, however, my life becomes meaningful and peaceful. By practicing patience instead of anger, generosity instead of greed, and mindfulness instead of mindlessness, I can benefit myself and the beings around me (Garfield 66).

Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher who was once a slave, said that I can distinguish what is in my power from what is outside of my power. Once I learn to see the difference, then I can act wisely.

In Chapter 1 of The Enchiridion, he stated:

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, belonging to others. (Carter, Epictetus, Chapter 1)

In Stoic philosophy, the universe is a causally determined place (Garfield 34). I am only one part of a rational whole (Garfield 34). Epictetus argued that much of what happens to me is outside of my control (Garfield 35). Rather than demanding that life fit my expectations, I can accept that events happen as they do (Carter, Epictetus, Chapter 8)

Because I am a human being, I am a social animal. I find meaning from my relationships with others. I am dependent on my community and have certain social roles to fulfill. By understanding the nature of life and living in harmony with it, I can find my true purpose (Garfield 36).

Sartre wrote in Existentialism is a Humanism that I am “condemned to be free” because even though I did not give birth to myself, I am able to create myself. Because I am free, I am responsible for everything that I do (Sartre 29).

I cannot escape from my actions and their consequences. Even not deciding is a decision. Nobody can live my life except for me. I have a tremendous responsibility to uphold (Waller).

What I perceive is my subjective reality, but not all of objective reality. While I can focus on what I find meaningful, on what fulfills my needs and desires, there will always be information that I will not know.

When I am around other people, for example, I see them from my perspective while they see me from their perspectives. We only know a fraction of each other when we are together. But who are we when we are apart (Argon 85)? What aspects of our identities will we never reveal to each other?

I am an individual and yet I rely on my relationships with other people. But if I only know myself through my interactions with them, will my life matter when they are not with me anymore?

At the same time, if I am constantly chasing after money, sex, success, romance, family, and so on, while neglecting to acknowledge the existential questions that plague me, am I only distracting myself from the truth of who I am?

Rather than attaching myself to only one meaning, I can discover many meanings. They will change as I change. Because I am a human being, I am looking for significance in everything around me. Even my search for meaning is meaningful.

But when I follow the same paths that others have followed, and tell myself that I cannot do anything else, I am neglecting my responsibility to choose. Other people may want their meanings to be my meanings, but they are not me. Their judgments only show me their perspectives. We may even share certain beliefs and values, but I have to be true to my choices. If that means splitting off from the conventional path, then at least, I will be living authentically.

There are a multitude of paths that I can take and not take. I may be limited in my choices, but it is up to me to choose. Through my responses to life, I can learn more about myself. My consciousness is not only what it once was, but what it is becoming.

---

Sources:

Argon, Ben. The Labyrinth: An Existential Odyssey with Jean-Paul Sartre. United States, Abrams Comicarts, 2020.

Ashraf, Aqeel Muhammad. Sarfraz, Maliha. “Biology and evolution of life science.” PubMedCentral. December 12, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4705322/

Blaxland, Beth. “Humans and other Great Apes.” Australian Museum. August 22, 2022. https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/humans-are-apes-great-apes/

Braulino, Giordano. Jean-Paul Sartre: The Consciousness and the Self. April 23. 2021. https://medwinpublishers.com/PhIJ/jean-paul-sartre-the-consciousness-and-the-self.pdf

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “big-bang model”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Aug. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/science/big-bang-model. Accessed 13 October 2023.

Carter, Elizabeth. Epictetus. The Enchiridion. 135 A.C.E. Accessed on October 18, 2023. http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

Daigle, Christine. “Sartre’s Being & Nothingness: The Bible of Existentialism?” Philosophy Now. 2005. https://philosophynow.org/issues/53/Sartres_Being_and_Nothingness_The_Bible_of_Existentialism

Davey, Reginald. Coveney, Sophia. “What Chemical Elements are Found in the Human Body?” June 19, 2023.

Flight 33 Productions. “The Universe (TV series).” History. May 29, 2007–May 23, 2015.

Frankl, Viktor E.. Man’s Search For Meaning. United Kingdom, Pocket Books, 1985.

Gowdy, John. “Our hunter-gatherer future: Climate change, agriculture and uncivilization.” Futures, Volume 115. January 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328719303507#sec0030

Garfield, Jay. The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions (Course Guidebook). The Great Courses. 2011.

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The heart of the Buddha’s teaching: transforming suffering into peace, joy & liberation: the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path, and other basic Buddhist teachings. New York, Harmony/Rodale, 1999.

Hamer, Ashley. “99 Percent Of The Earth’s Species Are Extinct — But That’s Not The Worst Of It.” Discovery. August 1, 2019. https://www.discovery.com/nature/99-Percent-Of-The-Earths-Species-Are-Extinct

Herrero, Hannah. “What Makes Us Human?” National Geographic. August 14, 2023. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/what-makes-us-human/

Lions Roar. “What Are the Five Recollections?” Lions Roar. October 27, 2016. https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism-by-the-numbers-the-five-recollections/

Lotzof, Kerry. “Are we made of stardust?” National History Museum. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-we-really-made-of-stardust.html

Moose, Christina. Roth, John. Wildin, Rowena. Being and Nothingness — Context.” Student Guide to World Philosophy. eNotes.com, Inc. 2000 eNotes.com 23 Oct. 2023 https://www.enotes.com/topics/being-nothingness/in-depth#in-depth-context

National Museum of Natural History. “What Is Biodiversity?” Accessed on October 18, 2023. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/life-science/what-biodiversity

Nurse, Paul. What Is Life? Five Great Ideas of Biology. 2020.

Popper, Karl, and M. A. Notturno. Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem in Defence of Interaction. Taylor and Francis, 2013.

Ritchie, Hannah. “Humans make up just .01% of Earth’s life — what’s the rest?” Our World In Data. April 24, 2019. https://ourworldindata.org/life-on-earth

Russell, Bertrand. Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2009.

Ruth, Susan. “1.2: Are Humans Unique?” Central New Mexico Community College.

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. United States, Ballantine Books, 1985.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism. United Kingdom, Yale University Press, 2007.

Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: 50th Anniversary Edition. United States, Shambhala, 2020.

Thompson, Stephen P. “Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/solipsis/#H7

Tuttle, Russell Howard. “Human Evolution.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution. Accessed 30 September 2023.

Upajjhatthana Sutta: Subjects for Contemplation” (AN 5.57), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.057.than.html

Waller, Lewis. “Sartre: Leading an Authentic Life.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Apr. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK91ocBisdE.

Watts, Alan. Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives. October 02, 2015.

Watts, Alan. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1989.

A Few Practices for Philosophical Growth

---

“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion… Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them… He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.”

John Stewart Mill

---

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”

Bruce Lee

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“Whatever The Thinker Thinks, The Prover Proves.”

Party Experiment:

Before you attend a social event, tell yourself that you are ugly, selfish, and dumb.

Notice how people treat you.

On another occasion, tell yourself that you are good-looking, generous, and smart.

Notice how people treat you.

---

You Are What You Eat Experiment:

For one month, watch only horror movies, true crime documentaries, and news reports.

Write a reflection about the future of civilization.

For one month, watch only funny movies and stand up comedy routines. Read joke books and satirical plays and humor magazines.

Write a reflection about the intrinsic qualities of humanity.

Questions:

• How do your beliefs influence your perception of reality?
• How much of your identity is dependent on the information you consume?
• If people view you in a certain way, do you change based on their expectations?

Guerilla Ontology

“The Western World has been brainwashed by Aristotle for the last 2,500 years. The unconscious, not quite articulate, belief of most Occidentals [Westerners] is that there is one map which adequately represents reality. By sheer good luck, every Occidental thinks he or she has the map that fits. Guerrilla ontology, to me, involves shaking up that certainty. I use what in modern physics is called the ‘multi-model’ approach, which is the idea that there is more than one model to cover a given set of facts… It’s important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything… That’s what guerrilla ontology is — breaking down this one-model view and giving people a multi-model perspective.”

Robert Anton Wilson

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1. Learn from a wide range of belief systems. Read books that you disagree with. Watch debates about philosophy, science, politics, economics, religion, history, and literature. Attend lectures that are open to the public. Take courses in logic and critical thinking.
2. Imagine that you are part of a philosophical conversation that has gone on for centuries. Listen to a diversity of voices, not just the ones that you are most comfortable with. Pair a physics textbook with a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali; play an audiobook about the occult after reading a collection of essays on logical positivism; travel to museums that exhibit works from the classical realists and surrealists, cubists and abstract expressionists, modernists and postmodernists; recite poems by feminists and wandering Zen monks and beatniks and Sufi mystics; relax in a dimly lit jazz club, sit in for an orchestral performance; read journals about the future of technology and dystopian science fiction novels. Etc.

Questions:

• Which cultures have influenced your development?
• How do people treat those who disagree with them?
• What connections have you found between different belief systems?

3. Read textbooks on comparative religion. Listen to the stories of indigenous peoples. Look at anthropological research on the development of religion in different cultures. Become familiar with the sacred texts of major religions, including the contemporary scholarship for these works. Delve into ancient mythology and folklore. Learn the arguments of the famous skeptics.

• Carry a journal with you. Take notes. Highlight key passages. Write short philosophical dialogues from the perspective of a monotheist, pantheist, polytheist, atheist, and so on.

4. Every month, examine two texts that are ideologically opposed to each other. Write an analysis of each work in your journal. Revisit your journal every few months for more insight into your thinking process.

5. Meditate in a temple. Sing in a church. Light candles. Practice yoga in the mountains. Fast for a day. Pray at an altar. Scan the night sky, looking for constellations. Travel.

Questions:

• Which of these experiences were meaningful for you? 
• Which were you reluctant to try?

6. Expose yourself to the unfamiliar. Embrace uncertainty and ambiguity. Question your assumptions. Critically examine what you think you know. Let your curiosity guide you.

The Quarter Hypothesis

Repeat this statement: “I will find a quarter on the ground.”

Visualize yourself picking one up.

Over the next few weeks, look for that special quarter.

If you spot one, propose different explanations for why you found it such as “It was only by chance,” “God sent this quarter down to me as a sign,” “It was a hallucination,” “I just got lucky,” “Aliens designed a fake coin to secretly monitor my brainwaves,” and so on.

Questions:

• Which hypothesis is the simplest to make? Which holds the fewest assumptions?
• Is your hypothesis consistent with other models of reality?
• Can your hypothesis be tested? If it can, how do you plan to test it out?
• Can you make predictions based on your hypothesis?

The Why Game

Play the “Why Game” with yourself. See how far you can go before you fail to come up with any sensible answers.

Begin with a simple question like, “Why am I here?” Every time you give yourself a reason, ask, “Why?”

As you attempt to find meaning to each of your “Why” questions, over time, your responses will become more abstract.

You will soon discover the shaky foundations of your knowledge.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

Mettā is loving-kindness.

When we are full of mettā, we’re kind, respectful, compassionate, gentle, loving, and caring. We want to express our unconditional goodwill toward everyone. Our minds — bodies come together as friends. We’re accepting rather than judgmental, tender rather than harsh, forgiving rather than punishing.

Thich Nhat Hanh, founder of the Plum Village Tradition in Zen Buddhism, wrote in “Cultivating Compassion” that “Mettā meditation is a practice of cultivating understanding, love, and compassion by looking deeply, first for ourselves and then for others.”

When we can heal ourselves, we can heal the world.

Ajahn Brahm, a Theravada monk and Abbot of the Bodhinyana Monastery in Australia, wrote in “Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind”:

If you have loving-kindness toward other people, they’re no longer a problem. With loving-kindness toward yourself, you’re no longer a problem to yourself. And when you have loving-kindness toward every moment, beautiful mettā to this moment, you’re on the highway to enlightenment. The path becomes so easy. (1)

We can open our hearts to every moment. Even when we make mistakes, we can be compassionate. Every experience can teach us to look deeply within ourselves.

When we repeat our phrases of loving-kindness, we are cultivating our mettā. We’re watering the seeds of peace, love, and non-duality, rather than the seeds of violence, hatred, and discrimination.

“May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at peace” are a few common sentences that we can speak for our loving-kindness meditation. We can even say “Love… [pause] Peace… [pause] Joy… [pause]” or whatever touches our hearts. In the spaces between every word, we can connect.

At the beginning of our practice, words can point our minds toward mettā. After enough practice, we won’t need to use our words anymore.

This is how we practice loving-kindness. We use the words to generate an emotion, and when that emotion is strong, we turn toward the emotion and let go of the words. The words have done their job. If you wish, you can visualize it like a golden light in your heart. (Brahm 3)

No matter how we meditate, whether we’re walking on a path in the forest, sitting on a soft cushion, or driving on the freeway after work, we can be kind, we can be present, we can be compassionate. As we watch our feelings, thoughts, and sensations, they come and go.

Letting them go is an act of mettā:

Make peace, be kind, be gentle — that’s all you need to do. When the mind is restless, make peace, be kind, be gentle. That’s a goal you can always achieve. If you can’t make the mind still or let go of the thoughts or get rid of the tiredness, you can always make peace with it. You can always be kind, you can always be gentle — that’s within your power no matter what’s happening. And that’s all you need to do. Peace will follow along, and the joy of kindness and the beautiful equanimity of gentleness will be with you. (Brahm 20)

We often get so caught up in our views, in our expectations, that we suffer. But it’s not necessary for us to prove that we’re tough, sitting in a cramped position for hours. We don’t need to force our minds to concentrate. We don’t need to achieve any special state either. It’s far better for us to be kind and gentle.

We often imagine that we’ll finally be content after we meet our soul mate, write a best-selling book, land a lucrative job, raise a family, get rich on the stock market, and so on, but after all our goals are completed, we will only return to ourselves, again and again, until we seek the next big thing.

There will always be more that we want, more that we can’t have, more that we don’t want to lose, more that we have already lost. We often believe that we will be happy and peaceful and loving, but not yet, not until we have achieved X or become Y. Our happiness will always be an idea in the future. It will forever be out of our reach.

What we don’t realize is already within us.

If we want to find peace, we have to be peaceful. If we want to find love, we have to be loving.

It begins with us now.

Gratitude

Be mindful of this moment, of all that has transpired to bring you here.

Your total path is not known. And what has been given to you will go away in time: youth, beauty, family, friends, money. Enjoy what is here, for all things change.

What you desire, you may not truly need. What you don’t want, you may come to accept later. Rejoice in the simplest things. Avoid what is unnecessary.

It is easy to wander through life, attaching yourself to comfort while avoiding discomfort. But if you live in this way, you may eventually realize all the time you have wasted. Do not take your existence for granted.

Many people live in hard stone towers they have built out of their own greed. They hoard the fire inside until it dwindles and smothers into smoke. Then they die, clutching the shadows of flames.

We must consider our relationships with others, even if they are not ideal. The world does not exist based on our expectations, but we can have dignity in who we are. People will act as they do, despite our wishes. Rather than blaming them for all our troubles, we need to seek a higher purpose.

Charlotte Joko Beck, Zen teacher and author of “Nothing Special: Living Zen,” once wrote:

Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.

We can be grateful for our misfortunes when they teach us patience, kindness, and generosity. By compassionately looking at our suffering, we can learn a lot about ourselves.

Memento Mori

Our past is gone and will never return. At the same time, we don’t know how many days we have left.

While we wait to truly live, while we postpone and procrastinate, more moments will slip away from our lives. If we regard time as precious, we should make the most of it, because we will never have it again.

Our temporary existence is a gift. We can pretend that we are going to remain young forever, wasting all our days on frivolous pursuits, or we can live a meaningful life. It is up to us.

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Sources:

Brahm, Ajahn. Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind. Simon and Schuster, 2017.

Elliot, Jeffrey. Wilson, Robert Anton. Searching for Cosmic Intelligence Interview, 1980.” RAWilsonFans.org. April 17, 1980. https://rawilsonfans.org/searching-for-cosmic-intelligence-interview-1980/

Hanh, Thich Nhat. Cultivating Compassion: How To Love Yourself and Others. Tricycle Magazine. 2015. https://tricycle.org/magazine/cultivating-compassion/

Wilson, Robert Anton. Prometheus Rising. Hilaritas Press, LLC.; Second Edition. May 23, 2016.

Poem: Bookshop

1.

a black
cat
stretches
out,
yawning
in front
of a
bookshelf

hardbacks
edge
over a
counter
top,
fur
stuck in
between
the pages

2.

sunlight
lingers
through
a glass
window,
suspending
dust
over
hardwood

on the
sidewalk
outside,
people
pass by

a girl,
holding her
mommy’s hand,
tilts her head
to one side
before being
pulled away

3.

in an
aisle,
cramped
in back,
covers
lean
against
each
other,
red
and
brown
and
black

a hand
feels
in shadow
for a
novel,
until
pulling
one
off
the
top
shelf

when
the book
opens, it
unfolds
into a
butterfly,
pages
fluttering
in the
warm
yellow
glow

before
being
shut again,
sliding
back in
with the
others

The Philosophy of Haters and Creators

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“Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn — and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”

Dale Carnegie, How To Win Friends and Influence People (33)

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“I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all.”

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (50)

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People can be haters or creators.

Haters are faultfinders who “boast of their own high ideals” (Beecher 127). They feel superior when they make other people feel inferior. Rather than channeling their energy into creation, they want to destroy.

They belittle the work of creators, stifling their spirits and tearing down their accomplishments. Instead of challenging themselves to grow as human beings, they criticize and complain. They attack out of envy, hatred, fear, and immaturity.

As Willard and Marguerite Beecher wrote in Beyond Success and Failure: Ways to Self-reliance and Maturity, haters cannot enjoy the game of life for its own sake. They want to control people and gain a higher status (Beecher 127). At the root of their personalities, they feel hollow and unfulfilled.

Robert Anton Wilson, a futurist and philosopher and writer, asked himself why so many individuals have to devote their time to putting others down, “finding nasty things to say about them, ways to criticize them, ways to humiliate them, and ways to make them feel like they are one step down.”

He found (based on the findings of contemporary psychology) that people usually make each other feel rotten because they are insecure. Criticizing others relieves them of their insecurity for a brief period of time. Since so many people “spend so much time making life hard for other people,” it seems that a large part of the population are insecure.

To describe this phenomenon, Robert Anton Wilson borrowed the expression “no good shit” from the psychologist Albert Ellis. Because people have an inner monologue that tells them they are “no good shits,” they waste a lot of energy correcting other people. If they make them feel like “no good shits,” they feel less like “no good shits” themselves. By directing their negativity toward others, they drag them down in the filth with them.

These individuals become even more convinced of their superiority when they adopt ideologies that allow them to abuse others. Their dogmas give them the license to treat anyone who is different from them like “no good shits.”

From an evolutionary perspective, people are hardwired to focus more on negative information than positive information. For hundreds of thousands of years, Homo sapiens had to survive by being aware of threats in their environments. According to the psychology paper, Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development, the negativity bias has served “critical natural adaptive evolutionary functions [Now,] adults are far more attentive to and much more influenced in most psychological domains by negative than by positive information.”

It is common for people to dwell on one harsh insult over dozens of supportive comments. It is harder for them to forget about an unpleasant experience than a positive experience. Negative events are felt more intensely and elicit stronger reactions as well.

In What Is the Negativity Bias?, Kendra Cherry wrote:

Because negative information causes a surge in activity in a critical information processing area of the brain, our behaviors and attitudes tend to be shaped more powerfully by bad news, experiences, and information… [This] bias can take a toll on your mental health, causing you to: dwell on dark thoughts, hurt your relationship with loved ones, [and] make it difficult to maintain an optimistic look on life.

The negativity bias affects everyone to a certain degree. But it is possible to break out of unhealthy mental patterns. People can begin with a daily mindfulness practice. They don’t have to block out their feelings or judge their thoughts. Rather than feeding their inner narratives, they can be mindful of themselves.

Pema Chödrön, a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, wrote that individuals can drop the stories that they tell themselves and feel their underlying energy instead. That energy may come about as a rapid heartbeat, tightness, a back ache, and so on. Instead of thinking about the same storylines over and over, people can open up to their perceptions, feelings, and sensations. Then they can let them go.

As Chödrön wrote in Free Yourself From the Story of You:

As you’re meditating, memories of something distressing that happened in the past may bubble up. It can be quite freeing to see all of that. But if you revisit the memory of something distressing over and over, rehashing what happened and obsessing on the story line, it becomes part of your static identity. You’re just strengthening your propensity to experience yourself as the one who was wronged, as the victim. You’re strengthening a preexisting propensity to blame others — your parents and anyone else — as the ones who wronged you. Continuing to recycle the old story line is a way of avoiding fundamental ambiguity. Emotions stay on and on when we fuel them with words. It’s like pouring kerosene on an ember to make it blaze. Without the words, without the repetitive thoughts, the emotions don’t last longer than one and a half minutes.

People can redirect their attention toward what they are grateful for as well. Stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus made a practice out of this virtue. Seneca cultivated his gratitude by celebrating the success of his friends (Moral Letters, 109.15). Epictetus treated life as a banquet where he enjoyed what he was given while not craving after what he did not have (Enchiridion, 15). He focused on what was in his control (“opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion”) while not dwelling on what was not in his control (“body, property, reputation, command”) (Enchiridion, 1). There was no point for him to waste his mental energy on what he could not influence.

Marcus Aurelius began his Meditations by thanking all the people who had a positive influence on his development. Aurelius never knew that anyone would be reading his writings thousands of years later. His reflections were deeply personal. They were primarily for him to become a better man.

Even though he was a Roman emperor, Aurelius humbled himself in gratitude for those who were instrumental in his life. He acknowledged the virtuous qualities of his friends and family and teachers, while being compassionate toward the people he met every day, who were “busy-bodies, ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, [and] unsocial.” He understood that they only acted unwisely out of “ignorance of good and evil” (Meditations, books 1, 2).

People often criticize others when they are ignorant of their virtuous qualities. Thich Nhat Hanh, Thiền Buddhist monk and poet and teacher, said that praise and blame are only aspects of the truth. Those who insult others may not know of their positive qualities. And those who only see their positive qualities may not be aware of their flaws.

In his talk, Accepting yourself as you are: Practicing the Sixth Mantra, he said that when people can learn to accept themselves, they can accept others for their strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, many individuals have a “complex of inferiority” that prevents them from living in harmony with others.

In How To Fight, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that people cannot be compassionate toward the suffering in others until they care for the same suffering in themselves (56). So many hurt people hurt people. They feel alienated and rejected and don’t have the resources to deal with their issues.

When they fail to see the humanity in others, they are blinded by ignorance. Rather than letting go of their old prejudices and learning with a “beginner’s mind,” they water the seeds of hatred, greed, and ignorance.

Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped to rebuild bombed villages during the Vietnam War, wrote in How To Fight that his real enemies are not other people, but rather, “ignorance, attachment to views, and wrong perceptions” (35).

Just as a gardener can turn compost into flowers, people can look within themselves and transform their hatred and fear into love and understanding. When their minds are “free from preconceived ideas,” they can get in touch with reality (67).

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who was a prisoner of war during the bombing of Dresden and author of novels such as Slaughter-House Five, found the existence of professional haters (critics) to be absurd. He believed that art was just a way to make life more bearable.

As he wrote in Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage:

I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split. (124)

Some critics have devoted their entire careers to attacking others while never putting their souls on display. They have never dared greatly, struggling with their own art. Many of them can only shout their opinions from the sidelines. Rather than enjoying the wonders of creation, they take themselves far too seriously.

In 2006, Vonnegut responded to a class letter from Xavier High School. He wrote that he respected anyone who made art, even if that art was done poorly. Vonnegut believed that everyone should attempt to make art at some point in their lives:

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Rainer Maria Rilke, in Letters to A Young Poet, expressed a similar sentiment. For him, it was profoundly human to create. But the motivation must come from deep within. He wrote:

Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. (24)

In Rollo May’s The Courage to Create, he wrote that artists grapple with chaos. Through that chaos emerges forms that were not there previously. They “bring into being” an idea, an inner vision, a state, which expands their consciousness. They actualize themselves through the creative process. Making art is a reward in itself. It is an expression of their authenticity, of their becoming. Artists are not only manipulating the symbols of their mediums. They are discovering the complexities within themselves.

Creating is transformative. It is a spontaneous burst of energy, an expression, a representation. While in the flow state, creators are fully immersed in what they are doing. They are absorbed in a challenge that they enjoy.

In How to Achieve a State of Flow, Kendra Cherry wrote that those who experience the flow state, such as artists and athletes, are performing at a heightened level. Their awareness is enhanced through their engagement. This “mental state” is associated with “increased happiness, higher intrinsic motivation, greater creativity, and better emotional regulation, among other positive effects.”

Creators are intrinsically rewarded by the act of creation. They may struggle at first, but if they persist, they will discover joy in the moment. Without any effort, nothing cannot be done. Creators have to be attentive to life itself.

As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience:

The best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times — although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves. (3)

Creators look to “transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge” (Csikszentmihalyi, 200). They pay attention to what they are curious about and forget about themselves in the creative process.

Ernest Becker, a cultural anthropologist and author, wrote about the artist’s role in The Denial of Death. He argued that artists often feel life intensely. They want to solve the problem of their existence with the creation of concrete art. Furthermore, they desire to “earn immortality” as a result of their “unique gifts” (Becker 171–172).

By making a work that will outlast them, they try to free themselves. Yet at the same time, they feel guilty because they are only mortal creatures with limited powers. They may even wonder why they deserve to impose their meanings on the world at all (Becker 172). No matter how much they may strive for perfection and permanence, their works will always be flawed and subject to decay. And when compared with the majesty of the cosmos, they are only human.

Whereas the average person gives themselves to society, the artist gives their uniquely personal gifts to creation, God, or ultimate meaning (Becker 172). Their identity as artists depends on the consuming process of making art. Through their talent, skills and vision, they seek to overcome their inferiority and strengthen their egos (Becker 186).

In many cases, the work of an artist can seem neurotic, brought on by a compulsion almost indistinguishable from obsession (Becker 186).

As George Orwell wrote in his essay, Why I Write:

All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

Artists feel the urge to create. They surrender themselves over to the experience of making something new. As Otto Rank wrote in Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development, they seek to turn their “ephemeral life into personal immortality” (39), where their works represent not only them as artists, but humanity in general (101).

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell told Bill Moyers that the role of the artist is to mythologize the world (83). Artists interpret the time and place they are in. They keep the symbols of their myths alive (Campbell 60). In those myths are metaphors for the sacred and the potentiality of humanity. As Campbell said, “The metaphor is the mask of God through which eternity is to be experienced” (60).

Artists attempt to represent the ineffable. They use symbols to describe God, eternity, ultimate reality, the ungraspable nature of the universe, and so on. According to Campbell, ultimate reality transcends any language that describes it (9).

In chapter one of the Tao Te Ching (translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English) Lao Tzu said:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.

The named is the mother of ten thousand things.

Throughout history, different cultures have told each other stories about “what lies behind the visible world” and what exists beyond “all categories of thought” (Campbell 9, 49).

People are enraptured with the transcendent. They are in awe of the unknown. Through the stories that they express, they seek out an elusive quality, a timelessness, which goes beyond the ordinary.

Eternity can be found in the stillness of the moment. It can be felt in the joy of existence. As William Blake wrote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, man would see everything as infinite” (Campbell, 149).

Those who can recognize “the radiance of eternity through all things,” and experience the rapture of life, even if only briefly, are illuminated (Campbell, 148–149).

Art can help people to feel alive in the mystery of the cosmos. It can connect them with the web of life and death.

They can appreciate the act of creation by creating themselves. Through making art of their own, they will enjoy the process without any expectations of perfection.

For haters to become creators, they need to work on themselves first. Instead of blindly reacting to everything they consume, they can cultivate an attitude of curiosity, compassion, and gratitude. Rather than passively taking in information, they can engage themselves with meaningful pursuits.

Those who are ignorant of themselves often cause the people around them to suffer. They look for someone to blame while reinforcing their biases and prejudices. It takes a lot of awareness to plant wholesome seeds and water them with care.

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