A total perspective on sex, war and money

Whenever I find myself sadomasochistically desiring to feel spectacularly insignificant recourse to classical and continental philosophy usually does the trick. When I was younger staring blankly at the night sky and attempting to take in the immensity of it all usually did the trick, however it does not quite have the same effect when 90% of the stars are drowned out by the city lights.

Recently a similar desire overwhelmed me and I decided that perhaps a dollop of Dawkins or Machiavelli’s The Prince should instil in me a satisfactory sensation of inferiority. I was, fortunately, rescued from wallowing in self-pity when my attention was distracted by a neat, complete one-volume edition of Douglas Adams’ The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. While not quite as effective as a Total Perspective Vortex, the first three novels of the five part trilogy – which I greedily gobbled up since Thursday – managed to instil the required respect for the ridiculously big thing we call the universe and my incomparably and immeasurable small role in it.

Luckily Adams, a philosopher of sorts himself, also provides an utterly convincing world view to counter any potential suicidal tendencies:

“The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened, it’s just wonderful. And . . . the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned.”

Sadly the average South African’s official life expectancy will only allow for approximately half that time allocated to embracing and exploring this fabulously extraordinary place, but I believe the point remains.

Driving the point home, Adams adds that “the fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Even when one happens to possess an enlightened skewed perspective, the question remains about how to spend one’s time 90 million miles away from that nuclear fireball. Those unburdened among us ponder the meaning of “life, the universe and everything” (thankfully, something Adams also provided for us) and some of them even write pop psychology, self-help and “how to be a billionaire” books now sadly eclipsing even decent sized philosophy, science and classical literature sections in most book stores.

Unfortunately, in this grand scheme of things we still don’t get it, even when Carl Sagan argues that “in a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty”.

On this utterly insignificant, incomparably inferior, immeasurable minute and ridiculously finite planet – with its not dissimilar humanoids – nothing lacks more than the burden of perspective.

We, the supposedly most advanced species on the planet, still wage useless, unnecessary wars; pursue profit over principle; and, on average, prefer death and destruction to education, appreciation, progress and environmentally friendly sustainable development. I’m not referring to those toiling in a daily war of survival in a society and system in which the mantra is “one for one and none for all”, I’m lamenting the collective failure of the so-called enlightened ones leading society, failing remarkably to instil vision and at even pretending to want to “make the world a better place”.

I guess knowing that it is all potentially futile unleashes a hedonistic and sadistic streak, 70 to 80 years isn’t that much after all, why waste time on philanthropy when there is obviously sex to be had, money to make and wars to be waged.