Fundamentally Without Meaning

This is from Wikipedia's entry on Karen Armstrong.



Theory of religious fundamentalism:


Karen Armstrong has advanced a counter-intuitive theory of religious fundamentalism, key to understanding the movements as they emerged in the late fifteenth and twentieth centuries:


Central to her reading of history is the notion that premodern cultures possessed two complementary and indispensable ways of thinking, speaking and knowing: mythos and logos. Mythos was concerned with meaning; it "provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal" [1]. Logos, on the other hand, dealt with practical matters. It forged ahead, elaborating on old insights, mastering the environment, and creating fresh and new things. Armstrong argues that modern Western society has lost the sense of mythos and enshrined logos as its foundation. Mythical narratives and the rituals and meanings attached to them have ceded authority to that which is rational, pragmatic and scientific - but which does not assuage human pain or sorrow, and cannot answer questions about the ultimate value of human life. However, far from embarking on a wholesale rejection of the modern emphasis in favour of the old balance, the author contends, religious fundamentalists unwittingly turn the mythos of their faith into logos. Fundamentalism is a child of modernity, and fundamentalists are fundamentally modern.



My thoughts:

While I have never used the words mythos and logos, this excerpt strikes at the heart of evident social ailments particularly present in the US, and seemingly going hand in hand with the tidal wave of changes that bring about what we call modernity. For what is modernity, but the unbridled evolution of scientific/technological, economic, legal, and political systems that massively change our environment and culture. Mostly logical, rational developments, but ones that humans need to adapt to on a level of personal meaning to avoid such chaotic reactions that have shaped recent history in the world with devastating effect.

Terrorists are not a recent phenomena. In fact the name Terrorist shows just how hard it is to find a name for what they are. Islamic Extremist is perhaps more accurate, but it is not for Islam that the majority of fighters perpetrate their crimes despite the superficial claim. Just as it was not for Communism that so many humans perished in the last century from the errs of the most deeply indifferent power addicts. Terrorism is in fact a more accurate name, as it would have been for Communists, Anarchists, Fascists, who employ modern technology in mass murder as a technique for achieving power, and in the end it is only the non righteous, areligous rule by the gun that they truly seek.

However, Terrorism is a dangerous word in that those who use it so frequently do so to promote their own indifferent, power hungry objectives. Musharraf, Putin, Bush, and leaders across the world use this term in every speech that justifies their own evils and immoralities in seeking broader power. They use the word Terrorism in an attempt to absolve themselves of guilt, when anyone with open eyes can see the daily atrocities and immoralities they perpetrate. These global power players and their predecessors helped give rise to Islamic Extremism, and any legitimacy it has in misguided minds, springs from their failings.

Never before have our technological advances been in such ascendancy and capable of changing the lives of so many for the better. If we could only balance what Karen Armstrong calls our logos, with a deeper sense of meaning and stop the senseless, selfish power struggles, oh the things that we may do.

Because it is not in poverty that these power mongering ideologies are born. Bin Laden, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Hussein, these men were not born in constant want. Some call them demons, and surely their actions would lead one to believe this to be true, but we shouldn't try to see these individuals as something other than human, because in the end it is the same failure of humanity that create the wickedness that poisons us all. For it is a logic and rationality not balanced by a sense of meaning and morality, that will be then end of us.

Our public school system is an excellent example of this rush to rationalize, and systemize without a corresponding regard for the emotional, social effects. Founded using the widely shared rational belief that all children deserve a chance, the well intentioned rush to create and standardize institutions to educate. Some say that secularism is to blame for the fact that in most schools children are taught information, before they learn relations, and instead of learning the emotional/moral lessons that balance a life and provide deeper meaning, it seems that more and more in our ever increasing rush for independent "successes" these lessons go untaught and unlearnt. So people look to materialism, physical power and the illusion of control among other paths to fill the void of meaning.

I don't blame secularism or modernity for these short comings, it is not a result of either. After all on the wide and evolutionary scale, humans have most always suffered these imbalances. The pyramids found the world over are monuments to how long and deep humans have prioritized success in material, and physical power above the deeper values of happiness, love, peace and harmony that create and fulfill. I understand that these values of which I speak may also be considered modern, for before the development of language, community and all those other innovations we take for granted today that have helped bring us greater awareness, our stomach was not filled by philosophy alone. Apathy is an unavoidable part of life, modernity did not create it. However, in the modern rush to insulate ourselves from hardship, many have lost the lessons that make real hardship bearable. The love between parent and child, the love of life and living that have provided meaning throughout all struggle and sacrifice, the principles that must be taught and learnt, to live a full life.

Communism, Authoritarianism, Terrorism, Racism, Materialism all spring from our fundamental search for meaning. It is a search that has never been easy, and for which we need to sacrifice more than ever if we are to survive and sustain life.

Be the example.

Thank you for reading and may peace be with you.

The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist. -Erich Fromm

1. Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine, 2000. p. xv

Karen Armstrong advocates a reading of historical texts from the perspective of it's writers. Her works do an excellent job of precisely capturing ideas that proliferate in great works particularly those of the three faiths of Abraham and Buddhism. I recommend all her works including her most recent, The Bible: A Biography.