Micah Tillman

I should have mentioned that last night’s post was also in response to reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, the primary thesis of which is that there is something drastically and uniquely wrong about modern (and therefore current) moral discourse — something that wasn’t wrong with ancient and medieval moral discourse.

I am so far unconvinced, but the book is still very enlightening, nevertheless.

What I was trying to get at last night, I now see, was the distinction between occasions and causes.

What is uniquely wrong with the situations/environment/culture/world in which you and I now live is the occasion for our malaise, but not the cause of it.

It’s an opportunity to let out or express the fundamental, internal, universally-human problem, not the cause of that problem.

Therefore, people think that if only they could fix politics, they would feel better.  Or if only they could fix capitalism, they would feel better.  Or if only they could fix their culture’s morality, they would feel better.  Or if only they could eliminate whatever threats make them feel uncomfortable, they would feel better.

And that is simply false.  If they fixed whatever problem they’re obsessed with now, they would then latch onto something else.  Their internal malaise would find a new occasion in or about which to express itself.

You’re not unhappy or scared because of your situation.  You’re unhappy or scared, and your situation is a good excuse to focus your unhappiness or fear on.

But it’s an illusion.  You can’t fix yourself by fixing your world.