09 December, 2004

The Obligatory Entry

Only an hour and a half of this joint to go! For today, anyway. Lunch was pretty nice. I got me some fresh joe, sat down in front of the fireplace, and did some reading. I’m at the point now in The Life of Pi where Piscine is in the lifeboat. Although the book is not really a classic to my mind, I must admit that I did get completely lost in it this afternoon. In the story, Piscine is adrift on the ocean in a lifeboat with four animals. As I read, my mind blocked out my surroundings and it felt almost as if I were on the ocean with them. I could picture the dying zebra clearly and hear the hyena as if it were next to me. I just got completely lost in the story. When I arose to gather myself together to head back to work, I looked around the cafĂ© and it felt like my brain had to familiarize itself with the place again. Still, it was an exceptionally satisfying bit of reading.

The book itself is pretty good. The theme is an interesting one but the actual story is only alright. I don’t find myself relating to the characters very much and Martel’s writing style is nicely descriptive but a bit hackneyed. I’m determined to get through it, though. The thrust of the story is that life is empty without religion or spirituality. I use “or” because I haven’t finished the book to find out if Martel sides with religion specifically or not. Presumably the animals on the lifeboat are supposed to represent our baser instincts. I’m hesitant to extrapolate too much here as I’m not even halfway through the book.

I had a very curious smoke break earlier. I was walking outside and my mind seized upon obligation as a good thing to ponder. What obligations do we have and to whom? How far do they extend? Why do we feel we have obligations? We humans are creatures of proximity so surely we feel stronger and more obligations to those closer to us in time & space. To our families, our friends – our bonds to these people are especially strong and numerous so it’s unsurprising to feel that our obligations to these people are greater in number and more pressing than those to, say, someone we meet in the street. But do we still owe fealty in some capacity to that stranger we just met? And what about people we will never meet?

I’ve heard a fair amount of criticism lately about Bono - that's he's sold out, that he doesn't write enough protest music like he used to. A caller on Air America recently chastised him for not being particularly political on U2’s latest album. In essence what the caller said was that Bono was obligated to write protest/political lyrics since he is passionate about various humane causes and songwriting is his job as well as his passion as an artist. His public appearances and meetings with politicos are not sufficient according to the guy.

I think that the caller was way out of bounds because he expected Bono to basically neglect any other obligations he may have in favor of being purely political. Any sense of duty Bono may have to his art, to his craft as, be extension, to himself would be lost amidst the shuffle to compose another "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".

Driving home, I saw a number of cars with those magnetic yellow ribbons on them that say something banal like, "Support the troops!" What obligations do we civilians have to soldiers, if any? Well, if there are any, I've got a gut instinct that a $3 magnet on the back of a car doesn't fulfill any of them. But, along this same line, I don't feel that my spending $150 on a care package for a group of soldiers really fulfills any obligation either. Maybe it does. I reached out to them instead of towards the sales clerk at a convenience store. Still, it doesn't feel like I've satisfied any kind of duty to those people. And I don't even know what kind of duty I have to them.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:49 PM

    Ahhhh Obligation. It reminds me of all the studies I had in psychology pertaining to moral development - particularily Lawrence Kohlberg (although his study was pretty male-centric), but also Carol Gilligan. I like to think it has more to do with social contract orientation than just simple guilt. I think about social contract in my work alot - especially the callers that report things to help others (people they've never met before). For instance, the other night it was like 1:30am - cold and rainy on a deserted highway in the east part of the county and a caller stopped to help when he saw a vehicle in the ditch. The two occupants were ejected and one was in critical condition and I'm sure it wasn't a pretty sight. I'm just amazed at the humanity sometimes. Seeing something like that is out of the normal range of experience for most people. And I think it takes a lot to get involved with other people's moments of crisis - especially if they are unknown people. Personally, I think how could you NOT stop? But I get plenty of people that call to report something as a passerby but refuse to stop and help. Take the case study from the 70's in NYC where a female was raped in the courtyard of a busy apartment complex. All along she screamed for help but nobody did anything because everyone figured somebody else would call and they didn't want to get involved.
    I feel obligated in my personal life towards the old, the young, and the weak/disabled. I believe strongly in the philosophy that it takes a village to raise a child. I believe in taking care of someone else's grandma if you're not geographically close to your own. I believe in taking care of one's own when possible. For example, we have a coworker that was sent back to active duty and my coworkers have established a fund to help his family get through any financial hardship. Social contract is much easier to fathom in a group dynamic.

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