This CNN article doesn’t so much confirm a suspicion as much as it confirms something we all pretty much know as fact – things just don’t work like they’re supposed to. And I think our inability to really acknowledge this is working to our disadvantage.
Think about it. What do you own with which you are thoroughly pleased from start to finish? It’s always something. Some kind of software problem, some kind of glitch, some kind of something that just doesn’t quite work as advertised.
Perhaps it’s because our technology has outpaced us at such a rate that we’ve learned to accept the inevitable glitches as it’s being perfected. Or we’re just not smart enough to keep up (that’s us old geezers especially). In the meantime, the new tech leaps forward even further.
But more so I think it’s this constant gentrification of our lives – being told through the fantasy of television and media what the “perfect” is and thinking that it’s real life. We see home improvement and renovation shows on HGTV and think it should all go that easy (despite the obligatory “you’ve got asbestos and it’ll cost you an extra $1,300″ that happens on every episode) and it all should look just that good when it’s done. Or maybe we’re “young and free” and think that life is as easy as having sex with whomever we’ve meet at a coffee shop. If you believe sitcom-world, you’d think that doing it with anyone in the place was as easy as saying “hello.”
Face it – we’re laboring under a world-full of illusion that tells you everything works and everything’s perfect and all you have to do is “x” to be a success.
And we honestly should know better.
I mean, 74 million people voted for Donald Trump for crying out loud. That should be our first clue. And I’m not saying that to say “the world is imperfect because 74 million didn’t vote the way I wanted them to.” I’m saying the world is imperfect because 74 million people voted for a man of so obvious and verifiable low moral character, all the while thinking it was a good choice! This was a man who lost by 6 million in the popular vote and 74 in the Electoral College, and still convinced far too many people that the election was stolen (and we won’t even mention what happened beyond that).
But this isn’t about politics. It’s about everything. We all live placebo lives where we think the world is some kind of holodeck from Star Trek where our dreams are available on demand.
But I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of cynic who can never enjoy the world. By no means, and if you’ve read my previous stuff, you’ve seen that I’ve got a hope that goes beyond all that. And perhaps it’s this hope that helps me see the futility in the way we act. I mean, sure, we can all have these wonderful lives where we shoot for the ideal and get the most out of it all. But even here our carefully curated lives (on-line and what we let people see of ourselves in person) lend to the placebo effect. We think that because any one of the people we “friend” is eating good food and drinking fine wine, or taking beautiful cruises in the Mediterranean, this is the life we need.
But there should always be something underneath that forces an unease at what we see. Solomon wrote that God “has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what [he] has done from beginning to end.”
We have eternity in our hearts, and so we know that something is missing. We can’t fathom what he has done, but we have that sense of oughtness – of right and wrong, of truth and beauty – the way things should be. And so we spend a lifetime in pursuit of that and can’t really nail it down for more than a few moments at a time. It’s a beautiful vacation on a tropical island, and then it’s gone.
Of course, we can (and should) still enjoy our lives. I certainly do, even when things get a bit exhausting (as they have for so many of us lately). But I think if you want to get the most out of it, you’ve got to know your purpose. In a world full of placebos, you’re never gonna find the real thing without looking beyond all of the things that so easily fool us — like “Walk” and elevator buttons — to find it.
I’ll leave you with a song I hadn’t heard in years, and even if it’s really got that 90’s flavor, it still hits home. Here’s hoping you find the real thing…