Vision of the Good

Bertrand Russell had a way of 'translating' and 'transmitting' the esoteric into the accessible - a refreshing rarity. His voice carried enormous moral authority, even into his early 90s. In 1950, he was made a Nobel Laureate in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." While he could find no reason whatsoever to believe in a benevolent god figure, he did believe in the power of spirituality - the power of ideals.

"Let us admit that, in the world we know, there are many things that would be better otherwise, and that the ideals to which we do and must adhere are not realized in the realm of matter. Let us preserve our respect for truth, for beauty, for the ideal of perfection which life does not permit us to attain, though none of these things meet with the approval of the unconscious universe."

When faced with the complete indifference of the universe, with the frustration of our plans because our ideals exist purely in our minds and never in reality... we have a choice.

"In this [choice] lies man’s true freedom: in determination to worship only the god created by our own love of the good, to respect only the heaven which inspires the insight of our best moments. In action, in desire, we must submit perpetually to the tyranny of outside forces; but in thought, in aspiration, we are free, free from our fellow men, free from the petty planet on which our bodies impotently crawl, free even, while we live, from the tyranny of death... We are ourselves the ultimate and irrefutable arbiters of value... It is we who create value and our desires which confer value... It is for us to determine the good life."

We hold the ideals in our minds. We see things as they are; we approach human nature in the full recognition that it's both good and bad. We acknowledge that things would be better if they were otherwise. But we embrace our symbols and ideals because they allow us to frame life in beautiful ways - they bring out the best in us - regardless of their veracity. Knowing that a symbol exists only in the mind doesn't make it any less potent.

It is commonly said that nature cares not for our ideals, but this isn't entirely true. Are we not a part of this universe? If evolutionary theory means anything at all, it means that we have grown out of this world in exactly the same way an apple grows out of an apple tree. So it is through our thoughts that the universe cares about our dreams and ideals. But it is only through our thoughts, for our dreams and ideals exist nowhere else.

Everything that happens is a reaching towards - a grasping of those dreams that we know will never come to fruition. But consider, would you really want to acquire everything, to achieve every dream? Think, for a moment, upon the immense pleasure you've received from aspiring towards something. What happens when you achieve it? You immediately find something else to strive towards. Of course we desire the desired, it would scarcely qualify as an object of desire otherwise, but our sense of meaning and fulfillment comes from the desiring. Our deepest desire is for the desiring.

Imagine if everything was accomplished: there'd be absolutely nothing to do - unmitigated boredom. Humanity would slowly fade away. It for this reason that I think there will always be things to strive towards. Perhaps, in light of this, by blocking the complete realization of our dreams, nature has done a far kinder thing than we often think.

"Let us learn, then, that energy of faith which enables us to live constantly in the vision of the good; and let us descend, in action, into the world of fact, with that vision always before us."