Confusion and Meaninglessness
May 22nd, 2009 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
As I wrote in a brilliant little post called, “How to Understand Those Crazy People,” many of the world’s problems stem from people having tied their personal success (i.e., fulfillment and happiness) to the success of some group or other.
I was talking to a friend the other day, and the topic came up again. And it reminded me that I wanted to write something else on the subject.
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The mistake of confusing one’s personal fulfillment with the fulfillment of some group is compounded by three other confusions:
- Confusing nationality with ethnicity.
- Confusing ethnicity with location.
- Confusing location with nationality.
Or, to put it another way:
Some people confuse the concepts people, country, and land.
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A perfect example of such a person was Hitler.
Hitler thought that to be politically German was to be ethnically German was to live in German lands.
Thus, if you weren’t ethnically German, Hitler believed you couldn’t be politically German, and couldn’t live in German lands.
And if you lived in German lands, you had to be ethnically German, since to live in German lands was to be part of the same political “country,” and you couldn’t be part of the country if you weren’t part of the people.
And if you were ethnically German, then where you lived was German land, and had to be ruled by Germany (be part of the German country).
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And, speaking of the Hitler example, I should mention two other things that get confused with people, country, and land:
Language and Culture.
So, in fact, many people confuse the concepts: people, country, land, language, and culture.
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The way this compounds the self/group identity problem is that it seriously “raises the bar” for what counts as the success of the group with which one has identified oneself.
It forces one to think of one’s group’s success in terms of:
- ethnic dominance (majority, if not “purity”),
- political ascendancy,
- occupation of a particular area,
- dominance of a particular language,
- dominance of a particular culture (general lifestyle).
Until all of those conditions are met, one can’t be personally fulfilled, because one’s group isn’t. One’s life only has meaning so far as one’s group achieves those five goals.
And some people are willing to do crazy things in the attempt to give their lives meaning.
