The audacity of it all
There are times when you wonder. How can you ever truly understand? How is one to grasp the truth behind all the appearances? As Nassim Taleb puts it, “the world is opaque and appearances fool us”.
People lie all the time. Even scientists do it. The Economist recently concluded an article about the (dis-) honesty of scientists with the fitting observation that “scientists are as human as everyone else”. This doesn’t help much with trusting humanity to deal with an ever-growing list of obstacles in our future’s way.
I fell into the trap of the confirmation bias: focus on seeing problems and soon you will feel overwhelmed by it all. But it’s absolutely ridiculous to worry about the future of humanity – it sure as hell doesn’t rest on my shoulders alone.
When you read about the ancient life, you recognize that there may exist a tendency in yourself to take yourself much too seriously.
This is why reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations helps so much – and why I consider it the greatest book I have ever read. It’s puts your life in perspective. You are awed by the recognition that everything is transitory.
Humanity hasn’t changed that much at all. In the words of Aurelius:
The age of Vespasian, for example. People doing the exact same things: marrying, raising children, getting sick, dying, waging war, throwing parties, doing business, farming, flattering, boasting, distrusting, plotting, hoping others will die, complaining about their own lives, falling in love, putting away money, seeking high office and power. And that life they led is nowhere to be found.
There is vanity to be found in constantly worrying. You have to be able to let it go to achieve a peaceful state of mind. It doesn’t ultimately matter whether or not we solve the problems of our times – they will soon be forgotten anyway.
What matters though, is how we go about it. How we live whilst hammering away at the opportunities (disguised as problems). As Aurelius says,
It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character.
