Why do you watch TV?
Whenever man achieves something, new, difficult and challenging, quite often the response of society is Why?
Why climb Mount Everest? Why Run a marathon? Why run a 3100 mile race?
Within humans there are often 2 conflicting forces. The first instinct is our desire for conformity and to live an easy life. After all, life has enough difficulties without adding to them. Therefore, we seek to live according to the customs and norms of society. Without realising it, much of our action and thought is based on the conventional wisdom of the society we happen to be born into. To step outside this conventional wisdom, is like challenging preconceived ideas of what is acceptable and not. Pathfinders often meet with skepticism, criticism and even hostility; people are often skeptical of things that are new and different. Part of the reason is that people can feel threatened when others offer a new perspective on life. Therefore, to avoid the criticism and the skepticism of others, we seek to avoid conflict and live a "normal" life. Sometimes this decision is conscious, but quite often we may just live a certain way without fully considering why or whether this is the best path.
However, although this instinct for conformity is strong, there is another motivating force in man. This is the desire for improving ourself - our conscious evolution and self-transcendence. In many ways, man is evolving and seeking for a better way to do things. In athletics we aspire to go faster; in science we aspire for greater technological advances. There is also an inner quest to aspire for something new and more fulfilling. It may be hard to say why, but there is something inside us that is not satisfied with what we have. It is this driving force, which motivates us to take a new challenge. It is this inspiration which encourages to try something new and unique. We want to climb everest, simply because we have not done it before. There may be no material reward for climbing a mountain; but in achieving such a feat we get a tremendous sense of satisfaction that cannot be gained in ordinary activities.
The problem with an easy life of material comforts is that it does not give us lasting satisfaction. We can get a limited happiness and a limited pleasure, but the happiness is often fleeting and dependent on external factors. When we go beyond our self imposed limitations we learn that there is a deeper meaning to both life and our self. Through setting challenges and transcending ourselves we get tremendous joy. This can be difficult to explain to others; people may see only the outer discomforts of running a marathon. Someone who has never run a marathon cannot fully appreciate the experience. Yet, it quite often doesn't stop them passing judgement on the action. From a certain perspective it may be daft to spend 2 months running a 3100 mile race. But, at the same time, they cannot have a true appreciation of the experience of others.
"Because it's there."
Is it necessary to justify feats of self transcendence to others? Edmund Hilary, climbed Mount Everest because it was there. Do we need a better reason? We could ask ourselves why do spend many hours doing nothing much in particular. Why do we watch TV? Because it's there? No matter how much TV we watch there is only so much satisfaction and joy we can derive. There comes a time when we may ask ourselves Why spend all day watching TV? Why not so something else.
In truth we rarely ask why we do anything. Much of our action is automatic; we do it just because it is easy to do. We may not be able to justify our attempt to climb mount Everest, but at the same time we may not be able to justify our decision to spend many hours watching TV.
Why climb Mount Everest? Why Run a marathon? Why run a 3100 mile race?
Within humans there are often 2 conflicting forces. The first instinct is our desire for conformity and to live an easy life. After all, life has enough difficulties without adding to them. Therefore, we seek to live according to the customs and norms of society. Without realising it, much of our action and thought is based on the conventional wisdom of the society we happen to be born into. To step outside this conventional wisdom, is like challenging preconceived ideas of what is acceptable and not. Pathfinders often meet with skepticism, criticism and even hostility; people are often skeptical of things that are new and different. Part of the reason is that people can feel threatened when others offer a new perspective on life. Therefore, to avoid the criticism and the skepticism of others, we seek to avoid conflict and live a "normal" life. Sometimes this decision is conscious, but quite often we may just live a certain way without fully considering why or whether this is the best path.
However, although this instinct for conformity is strong, there is another motivating force in man. This is the desire for improving ourself - our conscious evolution and self-transcendence. In many ways, man is evolving and seeking for a better way to do things. In athletics we aspire to go faster; in science we aspire for greater technological advances. There is also an inner quest to aspire for something new and more fulfilling. It may be hard to say why, but there is something inside us that is not satisfied with what we have. It is this driving force, which motivates us to take a new challenge. It is this inspiration which encourages to try something new and unique. We want to climb everest, simply because we have not done it before. There may be no material reward for climbing a mountain; but in achieving such a feat we get a tremendous sense of satisfaction that cannot be gained in ordinary activities.
The problem with an easy life of material comforts is that it does not give us lasting satisfaction. We can get a limited happiness and a limited pleasure, but the happiness is often fleeting and dependent on external factors. When we go beyond our self imposed limitations we learn that there is a deeper meaning to both life and our self. Through setting challenges and transcending ourselves we get tremendous joy. This can be difficult to explain to others; people may see only the outer discomforts of running a marathon. Someone who has never run a marathon cannot fully appreciate the experience. Yet, it quite often doesn't stop them passing judgement on the action. From a certain perspective it may be daft to spend 2 months running a 3100 mile race. But, at the same time, they cannot have a true appreciation of the experience of others.
"Because it's there."
Is it necessary to justify feats of self transcendence to others? Edmund Hilary, climbed Mount Everest because it was there. Do we need a better reason? We could ask ourselves why do spend many hours doing nothing much in particular. Why do we watch TV? Because it's there? No matter how much TV we watch there is only so much satisfaction and joy we can derive. There comes a time when we may ask ourselves Why spend all day watching TV? Why not so something else.
In truth we rarely ask why we do anything. Much of our action is automatic; we do it just because it is easy to do. We may not be able to justify our attempt to climb mount Everest, but at the same time we may not be able to justify our decision to spend many hours watching TV.
Labels: self transcendence
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