Meaning of Life  

Madonna to Madonna

 

The vocabulary we use reflects different levels of experience and is culture appropriate.

1. Madonna -- Mother of the Tribe (Venus of Willendorf) 

Entry level into consciousness: vocabulary exists but is not written. Traditions are oral. -- group consciousness -- close attachment to elemental physical needs. "Fitness" is for the family or extended family group. Meaning of life is understood within communal ceremonial ecstasy -- closely tied to community projects.

(Navajo ceremony for puberty: young girl lies in the light of the sun, surrounded by the community and is symbolically impregnated by the sun -- she is the mother of the tribe.

 

 

2. Madonna -- Mother of the God

Fundamental level: Ave Maria

 

Ave Maria

Gratia plena

Maria, Gratia plena

Maria, Gratia plena

Ave ave Dominus

Dominus tecum

 

Benedicta tu in Mulieribus

Et benedictus

Et benedictus fructus ventris

Ventris tui Jesus

Ave Maria

 

Individual consciousness and group consciousness in conflict. God resolves this conflict bringing justice to the community. Meaning of life viewed as individuality merging into the consciousness of the group or unison with God. Social Fitness represented by the Cardinal virtues. They fit different levels.

Levels: Temperance -- virtue of those that live for the lower appetites

          Courage -- virtue of those that live for the spirited "psyche" appetites

          Wisdom -- virtue of those that live for the higher "rational" appetites

(I would like to mention the word used by Aristotle to describe the state of feeling well as a result of contemplation. He called it eudaimonia. This is often translated as happiness, though what he meant by it would more completely be described as happily living a fulfilling and excellent life of contemplation. Literally, eu (good) and daemon (demon -- or knowing, experienced in a thing) so -- good knowing.)

 

Justice -- virtue of the society that successfully blends needs of individuals with the needs of the group.

Religious experience is communal and merges individuals in ecstasy of the group consciousness.

(Faith, hope and charity (love) -- added as virtues by Christianity because of the eschatological nature of the religion -- second coming).

 

3. Madonna -- Material Girl

 

Postmodern level:  Madonna   

(a different kind of Immaculate Conception --- Immaculate Collection)

 

 

Some boys kiss me

Some boys hug me

I think their okay.

If they don't give me proper credit

I just walk away.

 

 

They can beg and they can plead

But they can't see the light

Cause the boy with the cold hard cash is always Mister Right

 

Cause we are living in the material world and I am a material girl.

You know that

We are living in the material world and I am a material girl.

 

Individual consciousness viewed as independent of group consciousness. Conflict is among individuals. Meaning of life viewed as individuality triumphing over others. Societal fitness no longer of concern to individuals. Society becomes more and more disrupted as this attitude spreads. Virtues are competitive in nature: Cardinal virtues fit different levels:

 

Satisfaction of lower appetites -- greater desire than anyone else and satisfies this desire (achieved by whatever means)

Satisfaction of spirited appetites -- greater desire for fame and popularity (achieved by whatever means)

Satisfaction of higher appetites -- fame and popularity not as necessary and means restricted to areas of human endeavor given primarily higher respect (scientists, humanists, doctors, creative artists -- Madonna as personification of the dominant woman.)

 

Religious experience is viewed as private to each person and it reaffirms their private values.

Fitness is no longer viewed in long term (i.e. longer than a human life) since the goals are the goals of an individual.

 

Problem: Being inbetween Fundamental and Postmodern:

Raised with the vocabulary and need for a Fundamental view but surrounded by a dominating culture of the Postmodern -- the spectacle -- media -- the text -- individuals suffer "cognitive dissonance." ("If you aren't confused, you aren't thinking straight.")

 

Proposed Solution: Increase use of vocabulary of value in education of youth. Do not avoid cognitive dissonance by avoiding the encroaching conflict in vocabulary, but instead embrace it and triumph over it with an ordered presentation. Show the genealogical evolutionary PROGRESS of our understanding of our place in the universe. Stress the interpretation of the individual as part of a continuum of consciousness (not just a group but a whole universe). Do away with the facade of a separation of church and state. Teach comparative religion and history of philosophy and ethics in schools from elementary levels up. Parents teach confused values to their children (Columbine happened not because of the availability of guns or lack of parental involvement) but because the values communicated to children increase the cognitive dissonance children and young adults experience. Parents are just as confused about their values as their kids are.)

Virtues should be:

Temperance: self control rather than letting the media or dominating cultural elements direct your desires. Instead, be free to evaluate all competing icons in light of what is good for a whole life, family, community, world.

Courage: publicly confront those that encourage material world values at the expense of what is good for a whole world, community, family, self -- in that order.

Wisdom: live to improve our understanding of our place in the universe and promote it by studying what is good for a whole world.

 

Justice: Society enables as many individuals to reach their maximum potential as virtuous persons with the faith that the universe is more beneficent as ordered than as chaos, and that consciousness leads to increased order (the Logos), hope that our efforts will result in a better world for our children, and charity to help those that are not able to help themselves in reaching for these goals.

 

Meaning of life: learn as much as you can about everything, love other persons and the world without inadvertently rewarding those that are not virtuous.

 

 Quotations:

“The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

“What is education? Properly speaking, there is no such thing as education. Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. Whatever the soul is like, it will have to be passed on somehow, consciously or unconsciously, and that transition may be called education. ... What we need is to have a culture before we hand it down. In other words, it is a truth, however sad and strange, that we cannot give what we have not got, and cannot teach to other people what we do not know ourselves.” [7/5/24]

(Chesterton)