A Routine Malaise

When reading David Roocknik’s assessment of Heraclitus in Retrieving the Ancients, I felt compelled to do further reading on the various views of Heraclitus’ philosophy. Whilst reading a summary of Heraclitus by Professor Daniel Graham of Brigham University (http://www.iep.utm.edu/heraclit/) and reading fragments of Heraclitus’, I became particularly interested in Heraclitus’ inclination concerning the ignorance of human beings. He infers that a bulk of the human race is rather deficient intellectually; lacking any real knowledge. Most people are in a sleep-like state, completely oblivious to the matters in life that will attain them true happiness. Heraclitus can come off rather arrogant in his view that he was one of the few people of his time with any insightful knowledge. Philosophers have been infamously conceited by wholeheartedly believing in their ideas and theories alone, while unapologetically condemning the philosophy of others. It is easy to see how philosophers such as Heraclitus discredit the intellect of the majority because most people refuse to think for themselves. I find the thoughts of Heraclitus to be rather similar to some of the concepts I have been toying around with recently.

Fame, power, money, and physical pleasure are revered among most of society regardless of time period, when realistically most of these things yield mere temporal satisfaction and misguide people down a dreadfully shallow path. I concur with Heraclitus in that a majority of people are vacuous, with their focus on things that are irrelevant and things that will not lead them to any sort of substantial happiness. The world is drowned in mediocrity, with the common person not having the intellectual drive to see beyond the perceptions that they are taught to have by society. Heraclitus quips “Uncomprehending when they have heard, they are like the deaf. The saying describes them: though present they are absent.” The thoughtless aspirations of the masses can be further seen when looking at the college population. The college populace can be a microcosm of the real world. Partying, having sex, and money are often the top priorities of many college students, yet while partaking in these things, they neglect their education that can help them develop new facets of thinking.

The lack of focus by the majority is very reminiscent of Boethius’ conversation with Philosophy herself, when Philosophy was revealing to Boethius that he had lost track of the things that will result in a much more fulfilling life, rather than the things he had been chasing such as money, power and fame. As previously mentioned, many people don’t have the will to break through the barriers that have been placed to keep us in a perfectly constructed box. It is now common for people to lack any ambition to obtain information. Humans no longer feel the need to analyze and comb over the vast amount of brilliant ideas and are content with being indoctrinated by others and not think for themselves. It is important that we do not give in to our laziness and educate ourselves so that we develop the proper tools to think analytically. I yearn to break through this routine malaise and develop my own thoughts, but I realize it is not as easy as it seems.