John Donne, Existentialism, and Activism
Posted: Thursday, January 10, 2008
by David Tanguay
I am subscribed to "Peace Magazine" a Canadian magazine that is published quarterly. (Every three months) I just received my January issue. I'd like to share an article from the magazine with Search Warp readers.
John Donne, Existentialism, and Activism
By Christ Wright
"…No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod is washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for who the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." John Donne
John Donne (1572--1631)
Donne invoked God, but that isn't necessary. In any case, God is dead. (He was killed in the French Revolution.) The meaning of the passage is that what happens to other people affects the value of my own life. Indeed, other people are me, in some sense. They are self-conscience like me; they inhabit the same world I do. What happens to them could have happened to me, and sometimes inevitably will happen to me. Their morality is my morality, because our essence is the same. They are me transposed in space and time, me in a different consciousness and set of circumstances.
When something terrible happens to another person and his life is ruined, human life, itself loses value. For in a world of injustice, in which destinies are determined by chance, life cannot have value we privileged ones ascribe to it. The dictates of reason are irrelevant to it and truth is violated by it. When I read in the paper that the family of an innocent Lebanese man has been killed by an Israeli bomb I recognize in his despair the cosmic littleness of my own life--the irrelevance of such notions as reason, truth, freedom, morality, necessity, justice. If I happen to live well and be happy that's only by chance, for I could have been that man. But, knowing this, how can I be truly happy? How can I be convinced of the value of my life, knowing that life itself is the sort of thing that doesn't have value?
Is Life Absurd? Not To Activists
What I'm describing is absurdity, in the existentialist sense. Life is absurd in a world of violence and coercion. A radical disjunct is manifested between what we, as human beings, demand of life and what is delivered. Absurdity is that disjunct. It means we are alienated from life; we cannot identify with it or glory in it wholeheartedly, because it is a stranger to the human way of thinking, the beautiful way of thinking. An absurd life is scarcely worth living. Consider a man who is buffeted by forces beyond his control, who is compelled to adopt unfulfilling life-paths, who is beaten into conformity. It would seem that his life is not valuable. That man is everyman. We all remain subject to chance, to coercive social mechanisms, and the possibility is always real that our peace of mind will be shattered in an instant.
That Lebanese man's situation reminds us that we are not masters of our fate but instead are blown like willow down in the wind of societal forces. Our leaders are in much the same position as we. When we question that life is to remain a tragic force or draw closer to what is good, we can't rely on our leaders. We have to act ourselves to push the world towards sanity. Indeed this activism is a moral imperative. It is not an option but an absolute necessity. Without such activism, life will continue being the valueless, contingent, coerced thing it seems now to be.
Only if we create a stable an just world, a place not ruled by radical contingency, will life cease to be absurd. Perhaps you'll say that such a world cannot be achieved, that it's a ridiculous utopian fantasy. And you may be right. In the meantime, though, whenever you read the front page of the newspaper, you'll hear the bell tolling--for you.
If anyone is interested in subscribing to this magazine please click onto this link Peace Magazine
This Article has been viewed 755 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)hi david, the best. i like when you write. very intelligent and interesting. fascinating way of thinking. simplicity born of experience. thanks for sharing, best regards, suePlease log in to respond to this comment.Well, thank you for your comments SusanPlease log in to respond to this comment.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.