"God is dead". Maybe Nietzsche wasn't
wrong when he said that.."we have killed him". This typical phrases
made me think about introspection. Nowadays, we are so busy having to deal with
all of our chores that we do not have the time for ourselves to sit down,
relax, and think a little bit about life and the meaning we find. While I read
this extract, I thought about how humanity has change their way of chasing success
and the way we see life. I feel that we have become way too much materialistic,
working hard to buy the last iphone or living thinking about how we are going
to pay our retirement. I do not say this is wrong, I just sustain and want to
point out that we have forgotten that life is more than that. As I read the
text, I thought about God as our aspirations, not as a religious God, but as
what we wish to do or live for. I feel that humanity has become excessively
hedonistic with the typical "Carpe Diem" phrase and finding the
sensations in everything one does, and that it has killed God because we have
killed our higher aspirations.
Hi Lucia ! :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your vision on frustration created by the assumption « man must be ».
But, it's your first part which has draw my attention. People become too much materialistic. We don't spend enough time thinking about the meaning of existence, about the real goal of life. It's obvious.
However, I am not convinced that we are too much hedonistic. Carpe Diem is a phrase which is a part of our lifes. And, according to me, it's a really good thing. Life is short. I believe that we shall never know the purpose of life. We spend it seeking hapiness unless know what it is … We always want achieve great things. Our greatest fear is to couldn't say nothing at the end of ours lifes. Indeed, according to me, man is scared of being forgotten. That's why people have children. We hoping continue to exist through our children. Maybe because, we killing more and more God. Many people think there is nothing after death. There is just an end, an eternal silence, the nothingness ! And, nothingness is frightenning. Man can't stand this idea. The idea of being mortal. The idea of being nothing more than an insect.
So, apply Carpe Diem in our life, is a way of seeing hapiness as an instant, an ephemeral feeling.
Furthemore, Carpe Diem is a way of living free, thinking freely. The moovie « Dead Poets Society » is the best way to understand that.
Hi there Fiona, thanks for your comment!
DeleteRegarding the Carpe Diem phrase, my intention is to show how society today live for the moment without thinking about tomorrow..they usually do this to avoid any kind of responsability. What I feel is that society has come to a point were there is nothing else, just the feeling that something or someone generates in oneselve, we can see this in publicity, mass media.
We have become slaves of our passions, we no lover live for any kind of God, we now live to obtain material things and the pleasure that having the generates in one.
My intention is to show that traditions are dead, we have killed them, he have changed a religous God for a materialistic God.
On the other hand, I totally agree on what you say about trying to keep existing throwout kids and acts that we do during ourLives
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ReplyDeleteI think it is correct that we have become increasingly aware of Carpe Diem, and it got me thinking about another pop-cultural acronym: YOLO “You Only Live Once” (even though this acronym might already outdated), and the german sociologist Hartmut Rosa.
ReplyDeleteRosa has given a very interesting analysis of the phenomena of acceleration in his socio-philosophical essay:”Alienation and Acceleration: Towards a Critical Theory of Late-Modern Temporatlity.” (2010). In this essay, Rosa examines the acceleration of just about every aspect of life, which especially has been ongoing since the beginning of modernity. Technological acceleration has made it possible to travel much faster and further, to communicate via telephone or the internet with somebody on the opposite site of the world etc. We have also seen an acceleration of our social life: just think of the increase in how many jobs one holds during a lifetime, the increase in geographical mobility, and even our love life has been affected as the divorce-rate can testify to. Rosa suggests that in the secular modern age, we have become increasingly aware of maximizing or finite life. “In secular modern society, acceleration serves as a functional equivalent for the (religious) promise of eternal life” (Rosa 2010:29). In other words, since god is dead we have replaced god with acceleration. We must now squeeze as many experiences as possible into this linear and finite mortal life. But acceleration has the side effect of alienation. If we are only concerned with experiencing as much as possible in our lifetime, we are no longer concerned with an activity for its own sake. We only have a quick and superficial relation to our experiences and the world; we do not ‘resonate’ with the world and therefore become alienated from the world and our experiences, since we have no (or only few) sincere genuine relations to it.
Now, this analysis of secularism and acceleration becomes interesting in relation to the popular acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once), and for that matter also the increasingly use of Carpe Diem. First, the acronym refers to our mortality and that this life is the only one we have. Secondly, if we think of the usage of the word, it is often (although admittedly not always) used to justify silly, extreme, nonsensical and stupid actions. The acronym implies that “well I actually don’t have any explanation as to why I did this, so I did because YOLO”. In other words, I did it to have the experience accumulated; I did it because I only live once and should therefore accumulate as many different experiences as possible during this single life, despite of whether I have a genuine or sincere wish to do this activity.
Do you agree with this socio-philosophical explanation of the answer to god is dead? And do you find it adequate to your understanding of the modern human beings relationship with its actions and the world?
Hi there Mikkel. I found what Rosa says right with my analysis, as I said before, we have killed God and we have replaced him with mundane goals, acceleration. For this purpose, I find myself disgusted with this typical phrases YOLO and Carpe Diem, I feel this way because I find them as a way of not taking responsibility for our own actions, just letting our passions act separated from ration. I do know that it is very common and people use this acronyms as a way not to explain.
DeleteI liked what You told me about Rosa, I didnt know her. On the other hand, I have read something really familiar, I recommend you to rad the following book, one of my favourites! His name is Gilles Lipovetsky, the name of the boom is called “La Era del Vacio” that means the era of emptiness.