Should we seek or lose our selves?

Headline: Losing yourself in the pursuit of life
Author: David Brooks
Source: The Straits Times,1 June 2011

Quote1:
If you sample some of the commencement addresses … these days, you see that many graduates are told to: Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself. This is the litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture. But, of course, this mantra misleads on nearly every front.

Comment1:
This is Brooks’ thesis: that the mantra misleads. His argument is inductive – it takes the form of several examples. We consider each in turn.

Quote2:
College graduates are often sent out into the world amid rapturous talk of limitless possibilities. But this talk is of no help to the central business of adulthood, finding serious things to tie yourself down to.

Comment2:
The mantra says “limitless possibilities” whilst the reality is “seriously tie oneself down”. What is a possibility? The word “possible” means “it can happen”, not “it is very likely to happen”. Thus, while the statistical probability is that new graduates will quickly begin to “seriously tie oneself down”, it can still happen that others will pursue their “limitless possibilities” – and some will succeed in their pursuit.

Quote3:
Today's graduates are also told to … find themselves first and then … live their quest. But … most people … are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.

Comment3:
The mantra says “find self, then live” whilst the reality is “live, then find self”. Brooks says most people are called by a problem. Problems are neutral. Any given problem will call some people, and not others. Who feels called by a problem is a function of the person’s self, not a function of the problem.

Quote4:
The graduates are also told to pursue happiness and joy. But … when you read a biography of someone you admire, it's rarely the things that made them happy that compel your admiration. It’s the things they did to court unhappiness.… It's excellence, not happiness, that we admire most.

Comment4:
The mantra says “seek happiness” whilst the reality is “we admire excellence, not happiness.” This reminds me of the hedonic paradox: that happiness cannot be pursued directly, only indirectly. Perhaps excellence is an indirect way of achieving happiness. Surely we cannot take the quote to mean that these people that we admire went actively in search of unhappiness – and that excellence was a by-product of that search.

Quote5:
Finally, graduates are told to be independent-minded and to express their inner spirit. But … doing your job well often means suppressing yourself. … Being a good doctor often means being part of a team.

Comment5:
The mantra says “be independent minded” while the reality is “don’t”. Progress is possible only if initiated by people sufficiently independently minded to go against the wisdom of the day. Witness Galileo, Edison, the Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs etc.

Quote6:
Today’s graduates enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the centre of a life. But … they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the centre. Fulfilment is a by-product of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. … Life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself. -- New York Times.

Comment6:
The mantra says “self at centre of life” whilst the reality is “dissolve self into task”. Workaholism is a huge contributor to mid-life crises – when people suddenly realize they do not really know what they have been doing with their lives.

Comment7:
Taking an overall view, we must note that this is an inductive argument. It says that because the mantra misleads in so many cases, the mantra therefore misleads in general. I have considered the examples, and I am not convinced the mantra seriously misleads in these cases. But even if it did seriously mislead in these cases, there can still be uncited examples where the mantra does not mislead. What is needed in this argument is the additional premise that the cited examples cover the entire span of the mantra. However, such an additional premise is not provided.

END