Pluto
Cat Extremist
- Dec 27, 2020
- 6,214
Problem: the world is an infinitely complex mush of ever-changing elements that come and go before they can ever be comprehended.
Solution: create our own simplified framework and create order out of the chaos.
The price to pay? Never quite gelling with reality and its infinite messiness. An ongoing battle with cognitive dissonance. But hey.
I'm going to argue that this is the foundation of much of human behaviour as we know it. This, too, is likely an over-simplification, but might lead to an interesting discussion.
Sport
What is sport? A simplification of life. Instead of wondering how to live, you have a single, specific goal (e.g., to get a ball through a goalpost). Instead of pondering about morality, there are set rules with precisely defined boundaries. And in contrast to the mess of life where sometimes strangers treat us better than our own families, there is a clearly defined Your Team and an equally colourfully-clad opposition. It's exciting, engaging and fun since everyone knows what they are doing. Until the game is over and stupid reality resumes tormenting us.
Music
No commentary from me since I can simply quote the sublime violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999):
"Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous."
Religion
(Note, I am using the word religion as it is generally defined in the Western world, thus chiefly addressing Abrahamic faiths.) God good, devil bad. Us right, others wrong. Could it be any simpler?
Politics
Same us-and-them antics as religion but may or may not include the God bit or some atheistic counterpoint.
Science
This or that theory that attempts to explain the mechanics of the entire cosmos, only to fall short of the ultimate goal of a Theory of Everything.
The ironic conclusion
And in an ironic twist, the moment this nice, simple "ordered chaos" theory of human behaviour is presented, I must return to the infinitely complex, forever incomplete mush of reality.
Solution: create our own simplified framework and create order out of the chaos.
The price to pay? Never quite gelling with reality and its infinite messiness. An ongoing battle with cognitive dissonance. But hey.
I'm going to argue that this is the foundation of much of human behaviour as we know it. This, too, is likely an over-simplification, but might lead to an interesting discussion.
What is sport? A simplification of life. Instead of wondering how to live, you have a single, specific goal (e.g., to get a ball through a goalpost). Instead of pondering about morality, there are set rules with precisely defined boundaries. And in contrast to the mess of life where sometimes strangers treat us better than our own families, there is a clearly defined Your Team and an equally colourfully-clad opposition. It's exciting, engaging and fun since everyone knows what they are doing. Until the game is over and stupid reality resumes tormenting us.
No commentary from me since I can simply quote the sublime violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999):
"Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous."
(Note, I am using the word religion as it is generally defined in the Western world, thus chiefly addressing Abrahamic faiths.) God good, devil bad. Us right, others wrong. Could it be any simpler?
Same us-and-them antics as religion but may or may not include the God bit or some atheistic counterpoint.
This or that theory that attempts to explain the mechanics of the entire cosmos, only to fall short of the ultimate goal of a Theory of Everything.
And in an ironic twist, the moment this nice, simple "ordered chaos" theory of human behaviour is presented, I must return to the infinitely complex, forever incomplete mush of reality.
