The Existential Vacuum

It’s hard to believe that there are only two more weeks left in this class.  I’ll admit that when I first saw the reading list, I wasn’t thrilled.  But, through the first six weeks of the class, I’ve come to appreciate the readings, even if they haven’t really resonated with me.  The readings for this module (shown below) could not have been more different – sexual abuse and forgiveness on one hand, and a psychological exploration of the human condition on the other.  Last week, I wrote about my thoughts on the Fraser book, so I won’t be going anywhere near that book this week.  I got into plenty of trouble with my classmates with my “extreme” views on how we should treat people who sexually abuse children …

… man is a being in search of meaning.  We have seen that today his search is unsatisfied and that this constitutes the pathology of our age.  The time has come to ask ourselves, What is the therapeutic approach?  In order to answer this questions we must focus first on another one; namely how does this meaning-seeking being search for meaning, and also, how does he manage to find it?  There is no doubt that meaning must be found and cannot be given.  (Frankl, p.112)

That sentiment absolutely captures the current state of modern society.  We’re so addicted to Facebook and Twitter, to email and blogs, to instant news and instant messaging that we have become a nation suffering from self-induced attention-deficit disorder.  Let’s be honest – if we’re not being constantly bombarded with information, then we feel lost and disconnected.  And I’ll be the first to raise my hand and admit that I’m as bad, if not worse, than most.  As I’m typing this up at work (where I am truly a testament to the notion that you can never have too much information – see below for what my desk used to look like.  I’m down to three monitors at the moment) I’ve got my blog editor up on one screen, email up on a second, and as always my web browser up on a third monitor – just so I have instant access to both my Facebook account and my Amazon.com account.  As I’m writing, I sneak a peek at my email inbox to see if any new messages have arrived in the last thirty seconds, and then take a quick look to see if anyone that I need to talk to has logged on to Facebook – all without breaking the rhythm of my typing.  I’m pretty certain that in another era I’d have been burned at the stake …

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Getting back to the topic at hand (see, there’s that ADD kicking in again), I think the most telling statement in the Frankl quote above is that “meaning must be found and cannot be given”. 

Can we really search for meaning in the regurgitated swill of mass media and information overload?  Frankl calls this “the existential vacuum” – a sense of meaninglessness, emptiness and futility.  Are we all eternally chained to the treadmill of our everyday existence and go through the motions because that’s what is expected and that’s what we know?  Or are we capable of finding deeper meaning in our lives without it being fed to us by religion or through someone else’s actions?


February 17, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Gonzaga

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