Sophistry without Meaning

I suppose what Kristol means is that humans cannot survive without “purpose” in life. I think that comment colludes well with Socrates’ conviction to follow his purpose as a gadfly willing to question and change “normalcy.” But do we all need an absolute purpose to live, and can the definition of “purpose” be welded? Few alive today could state, with absolute conviction, “this is what I am born to do and I will do this for the rest of my life.” Just as a ubiquitous example, the procurement of material comfort (i.e. money) occupies the life of most living creatures. To many, this kind of life has little to no “purpose.” But who is to say that materialism is “meaningless,” per se? Only the individual may make an accurate judgment on the meaning of his “purpose” in life, and really, I think few of us get a chance to even ask this question, in this fast-paced and self-centered world where intellectualism in the traditional sense has little relevance. Think of the 1984 scenario—the idea of rebellion did not even cross the mind of the impoverished and neglected “proles,” the huddled masses oppressed by the Party, when they were struggling to eke out a miserly existence. In reality, we live in a relatively similar scenario: often, the nitpicky details of our lives occupy almost all our attention (Why did so-and-so say this to me? Why do I have to do this work? Why does lunch suck so much today?), and self-reflection of the higher magnitude simply never occurs to us. In fact, this kind of reflection often requires the individual to inspect himself from a third-person view—in other words, to judge oneself with all the impartiality of a bystander (Socrates was brilliantly successful at this in Apology). But how often can we really get past that barrier of “self” that Russell considers such a barrier to enlightenment? The truth is, rarely, if one’s not a temple-dwelling, celibate, and teetotal Buddhist monk whose leisure time in a year exceeds the amount of leisure we have in perhaps a lifetime; we simply do not have enough time to closely scrutinize our so-called “purpose.” Thus, what is its importance to us? I do not need to find a “purpose,” or perhaps, my purpose is to do what I am doing right now in, to me, the best possible way. As long as I am satisfied with the plethora of mundane things that I do (e.g. making a ton of dough, if that is what I want, or maybe to enjoy the movie that I’m watching right now), I see no reason for having self-reflections. Be and let be.