Meaning of Life: Let Me Count the Ways

There are, writes Johan Huizinga in The Autumn of the Middle Ages, three different meanings of life that humans attach to. Let's just list them:

• The Path of Denial. "The more beautiful life sees to be attainable only in the world beyond". Therefore it is a waste of time to put effort into the present world; only the next world "will prove to be a deliverance from all earthly concerns." Big thing in the Middle Ages. And Buddhism.
• The Path of Improvement. It is the idea of "the improvement and perfection of the world itself." Not something the Middle Ages believed in. "The world was as good and as bad as it could be". God had made the good things; "it was man's sinfulness that made the world miserable."
• The Path of Dreams. "If earthly reality is so hopelessly miserable and the denial of the world so difficult, this leaves us... to live in a dreamland of shining fantasies, and to soften reality in the ecstasy of the ideal." E.g., the medieval romance full of knights-errant and damsels in distress. Not to mention fabulous feasts and rich tapestries.

But, I just happen to have read the Zman this morning, and he has some different ideas. Each of us has a set of beliefs based on assumptions:

• Communists "assumed that human beings are naturally cooperative, but that private property creates conflict. The greed of a few, exploiting the many, results in conflict between the classes. Eliminate private property and you eliminate that social conflict."
• Libertarians believe in natural cooperation. "Because humans are motivated by self-interest, they naturally cooperate with one another to increase their material prosperity."
• Our Rulers believe in the "blank slate." They see "people come into the world as amorphous blobs that can be shaped into whatever society makes of them." Of course, "The differences we see in people are the result of racism, poverty, inequality and the legacy of white supremacy."

These are all, I would say, versions of The Path of Improvement. Rubbish, writes the Zman. "The engine that drives humanity is the need for safety."

• The Need for Safety "[D]own deep, in the store of man’s oldest desires, is the urge to huddle in the cave with the rest of the tribe, as the storm rages outside. That is man’s oldest desire as a social animal."

Now, I look at all this from my lordly perch and say: Rubbish. What is perfectly clear to me is that my reductive Three Peoples theory explains everything.

I would say that it is the Subordinates, the "thralls" of the Vikings, that believe in The Need for Safety. Of course they do, otherwise they wouldn't be sheltering in place on the demesne of some great lord or the benefits of the welfare state.

I would say that Responsibles or Commoners are the Libertarians that believe in natural cooperation. They are the Adam Bedes of the world that believe they can make a life with their talents and hard work. This is close to the Path of Improvement.

The other meanings of life are ruling class conceits in the Gentry and the Creatives. But, to give them credit, they are all over the map, between the Path of Denial, the Path of Improvement, and the Path of Dreams.

First, Our Rulers believe we are all helpless blobs that cannot thrive without their supervision and direction. Darling. So our rulers must be charged with directing the Path of Improvement.

Pompous rich kids, Communists from Marx to Marcuse, believe that the rich (forgetting that they are the sons of the rich) are screwing the plebs. Probably what they mean is that it is an outrage that their glorious talents have not yet been recognized by their fathers. Hey, Fredo, how yer doin' pal? Is this a Path of Improvement of a Path of Dreams?

Now we come to the two remaining Paths developed by Johan Huizinga. Obviously the Path of Denial is another rich-kid thing. Siddhartha, the Buddha, was a prince who walked away from his wife and kids and princely responsibilities and decided to meditate under a Bodhi tree. Thank goodness rich-kid Trump didn't decide to do this.

Whatabout the Path of Dreams? Isn't it obvious? That's the path of our beloved Wokerati who, realizing that they probably don't have the moxie or the grit to make something of themselves in the real world, decide instead to dream of being progressive knights-errant like the Sir Whatsits in the medieval romances and Arthurian legends. Only they aspire to be Quixotic activistes nobly going forth on their NGO palfreys to bend the arc of history towards justice. And to fight the dragons of racism, sexism, and homophobia.

And thus do we humans wrestle with the problem of "the meaning of life, the universe, and everything."

And what am I doing this lovely shelter-in-place morning? I am listening to dear old Hans Knappertsbuch's recording of Parsifal, nestled deep in the 70 gig-o-bytes of my smartphone musicology. That's the German version of the Sir Perceval medieval romance, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. The main thing about Parzival is that it takes the young lad three nights in bed with his lady love, the virgin Queen, to get to the point. And then the next morning he heads out on his knightly quest.

Wagner in Parsifal takes a gentler tone, with Kundry begging, unsuccessfully, for "nur eine Stunde" with the pure fool Parsifal. That's "only an hour" for you German students.