I am delighted that today will inflict ‘Conscience #3’ on you.
The Invention of Hell
I know some of you believe Hell is a real place that has existed since time immemorial. I don’t. I believe Hell is a place invented by humans trying to make sense of an unfair and capricious world where seemingly bad people triumphed and good people met disaster too often. How does it all even out? There has to be a place that those bad people go after death to make it fair. That place is hell.
Hell on Earth
Since those same moralists don’t actually know for certain that there is a hell as evil as they want, they make sure that those they hope are going there suffer along the way. There are of course the usual, time honored punishments of burning at the stake, drawn and quartered, etc. But that is for one individual. Far worse is when the moralists devise a hell on earth for an entire population. There is the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime, just to name a few from the past 100 years.
Why Do People Do This?
How does a person, government or a whole nation justify something like this? They justify it by saying these people deserve it because they are immoral and sinful, thus less human. In their moralistic hunger they have rationalized the most barbaric behavior imaginable.
It’s not just in history and it’s not just in some foreign land. Being a self-righteous moralist, especially an uneducated and zealous one, is a very dangerous thing everywhere. Look around you in your own life, watch for it. You will see it. And when you do I hope you stand up and fight it.
I am not stressed over doing a ‘stress week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily.
If this is you, think of this. Imagine you are getting ready for a big holiday. You are stressing out because YOU are in charge of it all. EVERYTHING depends on you for the dinner, the event, the guests, the EVERYTHING. No one else can do it, will do it, could do it, knows how to do it, wants to do it. You are the ONLY one!
Then imagine this scenario. Out of the blue, you HAVE to fly off to a very important event for your company in Fiji. You can’t miss it, you can’t get out of it, you can’t reschedule it. It falls right over the entire holiday week.
What do you think is happening back at home during that holiday? Is nothing getting done? Is there no meal, no presents, no events, no transportation, no planning? Did everyone just sit at home and cancel plans because you weren’t there?
No, the truth is that that holiday went on. It was different with you not there, it might have been a bit less organized. But maybe it was also less stressful. Your work, though appreciated, was not so absolutely essential to that celebration that the event ceased to exist just because you ceased to be there.
You are needed in this world, but you aren’t so needed and essential that the world ceases to exist if you are gone. Reduce your stress by realizing you are just one person and the rest of the world is functioning along side you, you are not alone.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British philosopher
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Bertrand Russell
America (where I live) was founded on Puritan and Protestant ideals of redemption. You became good by redeeming your time, work, money, basically everything. Everything had a purpose or it was sloth and wasteful.
That isn’t as predominant as it once was but it still does have a strong thread in many families and, to be honest, I have learned great lessons from one such family about that, and it has made me a much better person.
But, it defeats the purpose of having a ‘purpose driven’ life to only pay attention to what you are SURE is bound up in your purpose, in your effort to achieve something.
Steve Jobs of Apple tells the story of his deciding on a whim to take a Calligraphy course. He had no idea why, just sounded fun. He knew it didn’t have any connection to whatever goals he had in life (he didn’t have many at that time) but he just wanted to do so he did.
He credits that course with being one of the essential elements to him making the Mac the graphic designer’s favorite computer. It brought in fonts and design ability that had not been contemplated by prior computer makers. He was just enjoying wasting his time taking that course. But it was not wasted time.
