Of Vice and Meaning
On a clear
night when you get away from the city lights you can see thousands of stars
filling the night sky. But the effort required to get far enough from the city
lights can take most of your energy and leave you too tired to enjoy the beauty
of it all. Eventually the city lights over take the night sky and soon the
beauty is hardly a fraction of what it is in the night and we call it good
enough. This laziness in pursuing beauty then translates into other aspects of
our lives and before long we as people are left with a craving for something
more that we cannot seem to satisfy. This craving is met temporarily with
things that distract us from the emptiness. Those things are typically called
vices which are entirely selfish actions used to appease our inner craving for
something more. We as human beings seek to find a greater meaning in our lives,
but that quest for meaning is often lost in the torrent of distractions and
cheap substitutions that are supposed to bring happiness into our lives. Like
the lights of the city at night drowning out the countless stars these vices
stop us from seeing the greater purpose in our lives.
But why are
vices bad? They are just a form of need satisfaction that fulfill the cravings
for what they provide. When the longing for companionship arises then
prostitution should be an acceptable way to meet that need or when our minds
need relaxation then alcohol and drugs can satisfy that requirement like
sandwich when you’re hungry. When you’re lonely you can go online and talk to
any of the hundreds of people on your digital friends list with the click of a
mouse. Happiness is at our finger tips and we as a society have no need for a
greater meaning. The phrase “panem et circenses” means bread and circuses in
Latin and it is used to describe the basic needs of humanity. All we need it
food and entertainment to keep us content with life. The quest for meaning is a
fool’s errand that always results in unneeded suffering with no tangible
reward. Why would someone go out and away from society to gaze at stars when
the lights of the city are just as numerous and bright enough to drown out the night
sky? Because those lights are made by man and we as people need to be a part of
something more.
All the
vice in the world cannot equate to the sustaining joy found in meaning because
as time passes the transparency and falseness of vice becomes more and more
apparent. For example, online someone might have two thousand friends on their
friend list and even more followers of their digital identity. This individual
would be considered far from being alone because of the digital community that
they hold; with a single update they can reach every single one of their online
friends. Yet this person is incredibly lonely and feels that no one truly cares
about them. Why might this occur? It is because the vice is nothing but a
hallow copy of what it is we as people truly crave. Saint Augustine states
“Beautiful was the fruit, but it was not what my unhappy soul desired” The idea
of thousands of followers and friends is beautiful for so many because it means
we would never be alone. And yet it is only a poor substitution for the real
thing we crave. The thing wanted most by the individual in the example was not
thousands of friend but a longing or a deeper connection and closer
relationships with others.
Yet we
continue to fool ourselves with these ideas of the easiest ways to meet our
needs. We do not earn our meaning but instead take hold of vices like a thief taking
what his greed commands. But this theft of vice fools into believing it is
beautiful. “I seek out what was in that theft to give me delight, and lo, there
was no loveliness in it. I do not say such loveliness as there is in justice
and prudence, or in man’s mind, and memory…nor even that flawed and shadowy
beauty found in the vices the deceive us” Augustine’s words resound the
sentiment that these vices are not inherently bad but that they are not the
satisfaction we need as human beings. But if we not satisfied with vice then
why do pursue it in place of greater meaning?
It is
because vice is the easy path to take. Vice is a brilliant flashing light that
shines so brilliantly that it all but entirely douses the stars of purpose that
fill the night sky. But these vices are do not make the night sky entirely
dark. Some stars can still pierce through the brilliant light and yet instead
of following these guides to meaning we claim they those few stars prove that
we have meaning in our vice filled lives. Samuel Johnson describes this act of
self-deception “One sophism by which men persuade themselves that they have
those virtues which they really want, is formed by the substitution of single
acts for habits.” What he is describing is that these vices which blind us to
the true meanings we seek give us just enough of a glimpse to the stars that we
believe we see enough of them. We become self-deceivers with these vices until
eventually they consume us entirely and we live for the vice instead of
searching out our own greater purpose. We are enslaved to the pursuit of
happiness and not the quest for purpose. The ultimate deception comes from the
belief that these hollow vices can provide a sustaining and meaningful
existence. As the Greek philosopher Plutarch describes it “Now the same
condition existing in human affairs deceives most people, who think that, if
they surround themselves with vast houses, and get together a mass of slaves
and money, they shall live pleasantly.” This deception is goes even further as
we continue to consume the vices that command our lives and we become enslaved
to them. So then how does one escape the cycle of all consuming vices?
By finding
what is meaningful in our lives, those stars not drown out by the lights of
vice and following them into the night. To escape our own deception we are must
reject that which we have defined our lives with, the vices that control us. We
as humans have a choice, to embrace the vices that will leave us starving and
alone or to suffer through without until meaning is found. Victor Frankl
describes this choice “Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a
decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to
the powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom.”
The power of vice over our lives is immense and always present. We can find a
digital companionship to fight off the hunger of love for a few minutes with
just a few clicks of the mouse. We can drown our sorrows with the numbing tonic
of alcohol and we can even let go of reality itself with mind altering drugs
and allow these things to control us. We can surround ourselves with fancy cars
and giant homes to make us believe we are happy but the need to consume is ever
present. And that need comes from our choice of happiness over meaning. We as
humans do not wish to face the dark roads that will lead us to meaning. We do
not want to face suffering but in order to find that meaning suffering must be
experienced, because without it we can never appreciate it beauty of a
meaningful life.
The
suffering in our own lives is what we suppress with our vices. We cannot enjoy
life with the suffering and instead of bearing through it to find our true
purpose we flee to the bright vices that leave our eyes hurting and our souls
empty. But beyond the suffering that comes with the rejection of vice we can
find true satisfaction in our lives and our souls. “Therefore, it was necessary
to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness
and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears,
for years bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to
suffer.” These are the words of Frankl, that we must suffer in life to find
greater purpose in our lives. Without
this suffering there is no recognition of the true joy that can be found in
meaning.
The vices
that we as humanity collectively embrace come from the need of having a meaning
in our lives. Without this meaning we are nothing but animals who consume
everything they need to be satisfied and wait until the hunger returns so that
we may consume more. It is an empty existence that will leave us starving when
the vice is no longer enough. Vice is much like a drug in this way, after
consuming it long enough we require more of it to be satisfied until we consume
enough to kill ourselves. If happiness is satisfying needs then how do we
satisfy the need of happiness? We believe it is something that can be acquired
through other means, a new pair pants or an extra dessert bring us a quick fix
of happiness. But soon those quick fixes become excessive in their number and a
single pair of jeans becomes an entire wardrobe of clothing only worn once and
of cakes thrown out because they no longer satisfy us. As things no longer
bring us happiness we seek shallow companionship to trick ourselves into
believing we are loved and still that will not be enough.
When living
in the cycle of vices we discover there is no meaning to life. The things that
bring us joy are all made by humans and that human beings are nothing more than
self-perpetuating consumers. If we draw our meaning from the fleeting things we
create to be consumed then is life worth living? Albert Camus contemplates this
very concept “It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all
the better if it has no meaning… Now, no one will live this fate, knowing it to
be absurd, unless he does everything to keep before him that absurd brought to
light by consciousness” If we embrace the contentedness of living for
consumption then we live a life that is without purpose and become empty. Human beings need to something that is beyond
themselves; a grand scheme in which they have a unique purpose. And that
purpose cannot be found in the city lights of vice and self-deception.
Instead we
must abandon the shallow existence of our comforts and travel the dark roads of
suffering to find a place where the stars of meaning can shine fully. Only once
we are no longer blinded by vice and empty happiness can we see discover a
greater meaning in our life. And when we see this meaning in its fullness we
will discover a deeper and satisfying happiness that fills us from within. As
Plutarch describes “…A pleasant and happy life comes not from external things,
but, on the contrary, man draws on his own character as a source from which to
add the element of pleasure and joy to the things which surround him” only from
discovering our own meaning in life can we satisfy that deep longing that we
had buried in vices. Human beings are not created to consume mindlessly, no, we
are created to seek our meaning and embrace it fully so that we can live with
joy, even as suffer away from the city of vices and empty vessels.
