LISTEN. Enlightening class last night. I think maybe the most instructive conversation centered on that cliche that "everything happens for a reason" etc. My perspective, close to Pinker's, is that of course everything happens from causes, known, elusive, or merely speculated; but that just as obviously, not everything real is rational, not everything happens for the best or by design or with our collective good in view.
The immediate and irresistible example that came to mind was that horrific condo collapse in Miami. The causes are physical and structural and human, insofar as engineers' warnings of impending instability were unheeded.
Will good come of that collapse? Will lives be saved because engineers will now be heeded? Sure. Will that eventuality redeem, justify, rationalize, or vindicate the horror of the seminal event? Of course not.
But I have to concede, many people of faith don't concede my "of course," many struggle with it. They want to be Enlightenend, and they want to retain a rational faith and belief in a Universal Master Plan beyond our most enlightened ken. I want to understand their struggle.
And yet I still share William James's impatience with the "superficiality incarnate" on naked display from the likes of Leibniz, when they blithely reassure us that catastrophic pain, suffering, and unearned death in our little corner of creation is perhaps compensated by happier days in other corners of the cosmic vastness. I don't expect much light to fall on that form of thinking, if you want to call it that, no matter how long I listen.
Pinker's right, I think. "Not only does the universe not care about our desires, but in the natural course of events it will appear to thwart them, because there are so many more ways for things to go wrong than for them to go right. Houses burn down, ships sink," condos collapse. Our constant challenge is to stave off shipwreck and carve out commodious spaces in which our lives may be lived more fruitfully and flourishingly despite the inexorable cosmic care-less-ness all around us, so very evident all the time.
And here's my happy entropy-resistant news: my two-week post-op visit yesterday afternoon revealed the new spinal hardware I've been under orders not to damage through premature over-exertion, juxtaposed against the old broken system the indifferent universe had saddled me with. It's working like a charm, and I now have the green light to go out walking for as long as I please. I feel like I've been gifted a new superpower, the power of unrestricted ambulation. Just call me Titanium Man. So we're off to Warner Park right now, to test reasonable limits. Entropy be damned.
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