I have a theory that a lot of what we do is to signal status and ultimately to feel good about ourselves. Why? Because we evolved over millions of years to seek social status. Those species that enjoyed signaling status where the ones that won mates and reproduced. The species that didn't enjoy brandishing themselves and attracting mates in the process, never got laid and had kids. They went extinct.
What we do, what we buy, how we dress--status, status, status. We pursue status because it feels good on a biological and psychological level. And often we don't even need other people to signal status to--often we are signaling to ourselves, telling ourselves a story we want to hear. "We're smart. We're successful. We're accomplished."
Right now in our modern capitalistic society, status is often correlated with cool and cool is ultimately about distinguishing yourself from other people. Look at how cool I am. How much better I am than you. Status. It's about creating a new hierarchy based on some obscure metric and placing yourself on the top of that hierarchy. That's why cool comes in so many different forms: the hipster, the religious zealot, the gangster, the supermom, the organic hippie, the rich banker, the startup entrepreneur, the yuppie, whatever. It's all about promoting your type of cool, your type of status and saying you're better than other people because of it. Take ghetto cool for example. You live in third-world conditions. You intentionally wear pants too big so they sag and people can see your underwear. You proclaim your lack of education as a bragging right. In a world where the world tells you that you're poor, uneducated, and not going places, you affirm yourself by brandishing those liabilities as your assets. Keeping it real they say. More like keeping real stupid.
So when it comes to making ourselves feel good, something like intelligence or reality shouldn't stand in the way. Which leads me to my next subject, religion. We humans, we're really good at coming up with inventions and innovations to meet our needs and desires. Food cold? We discovered fire. Want to get around faster? We invented cars. Want to tell time? We invented clocks. You get the point. But let's not stop there. We've have even invented things that are technically not possible--like immortality. We all know that immortality is not possible. It would be nice but hey, you don't always get what you want in life. Does that stop humans though? No. Many of us, in fact, most of us, are convinced that we have a life beyond death. That some part of us, usually a soul, will continue on, long after our physical bodies die. We have essentially created immortality through belief. Is there any proof for any of the many religions that we have on this planet? No, but that doesn't stop billions of people from believing. Faith apparently makes it true. Because it would suck if our pathetic lives just ended when we die and we can't have that, can we?
So status feels good because we like feeling like we're better than other people. Religion feels good because it tells us that we're better than those evil unbelievers and those greedy bankers who make 100 times more than we do. It also feels good because it tells us that even though our current life sucks, when we die and go to heaven, it'll be like Hometown Buffet for eternity, with all your favorite friends and family as your company. Add ninety virgins if that's your thing too.
That's why I'm in a real shitty position. Damn, I wish I could believe. Who doesn't want to live forever and have ninety virgins? "God, please give me the faith to believe in you," I always pray before I go to bed. God must not be listening because apparently he hasn't gotten my message yet. Maybe God isn't a He but a She? That would make more sense. She's ignoring me.
No comments:
Post a Comment