Human nature and annoyance

As far as I can see, human beings spend their lives rolling their eyes about how stupid they think other people are. Perhaps it would be more sensible to agree that, yes, people are goofy, flawed, and annoying, and stop being surprised or annoyed by what is the case? There is no reason for surprise at what has always been, or to give in to feelings of annoyance when the source of those feelings cannot be avoided, unless you are willing to become a hermit (which you probably aren’t). Yet, it seems to be human nature to be annoyed at other people’s human nature! Particularly when one is in a bad mood, of course.

Scandals, human nature, and ‘Climategate’

What is a 'scandal'? I would argue that is an entertainingly sensationalized piece of gossip, glorified as news, about some instance of particular people, usually influential or important, acting in typically human ways with absurd or criminal results. A scandal is typical human behavior taken out of context. Basically, it is human nature in action, and then people act like they’re ‘shocked’- even though there’s nothing surprising about humans being human. What I mean is that people acting in ways that are sex-hungry, power-hungry, mean, prying, vindictive, conspiratorial, corrupt, and paranoid are just as much parts of us and our nature as all of our more likeable qualities. So, with Climategate-redux: Are scientists human and susceptible to bad qualities? Yep. Does that mean the science is bad? No, it means the merits of the scientific studies in questioned need to be determined by review of the methods of data collection and analysis used, to examine whether data was inappropriately excluded, ignored, or purposely misinterpreted, all of which are possible but, I think doubtful. Repeating what scientists say to each other in their capacity as colleagues with, inevitably, shared interests and a group mentality ('us' v. 'them' springs eternal in the human breast, no matter how intelligent the person) does not constitute systematic review of a body of data: it constitutes gossip that has been interpreted, incorrectly, as calling the data into question.

The two great crises, and the well-springs of yearning and wonder

In human life, there are two great crises that we all experience, and we take their formative roles upon us- and the psyche of loss that they bring about- for granted precisely because they are universal. These two crises are birth- the loss of the physical parallel to Eden that is the womb (as indicated by Carl Sagan in Broca’s Brain, if I remember correctly)- and the loss of innocence, the loss of the state of mind that is Eden's other parallel. Between the two, we have a sense of yearning, of loss, of not being at peace or whole, that is the unconscious undercurrent of much of our lives. We are rarely aware of it, but this sense of missing something, of being incomplete, is the motivation behind many of our reflections, expressions, beliefs, and yearnings. It is also the source of wonder, which is the fundamental impulse behind philosophical thought and religious feeling alike. It is hard to look at the world through new eyes if they have not lost an older view, an older way of seeing.

Motivations of creativity and self-expression

In the Renaissance, melancholy was associated with creativity, with genius. And rightly so. Democritus may have been a laughing philosopher, but he was one of the exceptions. Intellectual endeavor is a form of creativity too, after all. And among the artists, the writers, so many were sad people, and led sad lives. Heraclitus is a famous example of melancholy among philosophers. It is not an observation unique to me, but melancholy among writers and artists is often a layer beneath hedonism, and a layer above dissatisfaction, and the self-questioning of self-doubt.

People inclined to sustained expression in a disciplined form, whether intellectual or aesthetic, tend to be unfulfilled, meaning-hungry. They make things that mean something because they are working through their sense of futility, meaninglessness- trying to make an elusive meaning manifest- or convince themselves that meaning is not elusive, by trumpeting the illusion that there is one that exists apart from our fallacies and inconsistences, objective and lasting.

But the question of meaning- of seeking it, or dissatisfaction with its fleeting moments, and its fleeting from moments formerly whole and satisfying in themselves- this is fundamental to the drive for expression, whether personal or epic, academic or transcendental. There is this sense of trying to hold onto time: what we love within it, what we want to remember (the two are not always the same), what we want others to remember through the lens of what we have made.

The test of whether you care about something

The test of whether you care about something does not come when you have it, but when it is gone. It is an old observation. It is easy to say you don’t care about money, status, etc., when you have it. When you lack it, and neither miss it nor seek it, that is the sign of not caring about it. If you care enough to keep it, then you care about it- regardless of what you say to the contrary. What we do not care about, we give away, we leave behind.