Why?

What we talk about when we talk about life...

A young, well-built prison guard kicks an old prisoner to the ground. He slips on the ice. As he lays on the frozen ground holding his stomach, exhausted by the blows, the guard kicks him again, harder. He doesn’t have the strength to complain. With his life at risk, he’s in no position to complain. He’s a Jew in a death camp. Still, a vagrant word escapes his lips, through the chattering of his teeth:

“Warum?” he says. “Why?”

The Nazi guard returns. He shakes his head at the pile of bones that was once humanity.

“Hier ist kein warum,” he spits.

“Here, there is no Why,” he says, kicking the prisoner again.

The story is told by Primo Levi from his collection of memories Surviving Auschwitz. Levi dared to question the regime of stupidity and death, only to find that the death camp was not structured for answering questions.

Questions are forbidden when extreme authority rules; Levi survives by learning not to ask “Why?”

Hier ist kein warum...

The guard’s response echoes the treatment given by all those who would control debate or silence criticism everywhere throughout history. The first measure of authoritarian power is to make life impossible for those who ask, “Why?” Authority hates Why?s.

Arbitrary power rejects such questions, whether they are asked in the imperial palace, the halls of commerce, schools, or church.

Deprived of the right to question, we become slaves of those who have the answers.

“Tis folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss,” said the poet Thomas Gray. Perhaps there is wisdom in remaining silent against absurdity. Perhaps it is best not to swim against the overwhelming currents of ignorance that surround us, but to go with the flow, and never ask, “Why,” knowing that the answer will be Hier ist kein warum. Asking questions may have uncomfortable consequences. And the absurd has powerful advocates. The general public has a “right” to ignorance. Why rock the boat?

Noted biologist Rupert Sheldrake is a prominent public intellectual critical of the authoritarianism and closed-mindedness that he finds increasintly typical of mainstream science. He asserts that the mechanistic theory of life is a kind of “paradigm,” a collectively held model of reality, or belief system. Since most science academics are atheists, they reject any explanation of biology that isn’t grounded in this mechanistic theory. Impersonal laws of nature and blind chance must account for everything or one’s view is “unscientific.” But when Sheldrake had deep questions about mechanistic attitudes to nature, he found that, within the world of academe, he was not allowed to question the system. 

In an interview with TheBestSchools.org, Sheldrake says, “The materialist ideology promotes a high degree of conformity in scientific thinking because it is indeed ideological, and materialists are unforgiving towards “heretical” deviations from this belief system...minds are nothing but the activity of brains and the activity of brains can ultimately be completely explained in terms of physical and chemical causation, together with blind chance. In other words, free will is an illusion.”

The question Why? is banned not only in the halls of academe, but also through government institutions and media outlets. The idea of thought control has been explored by Jacques Ellul in his seminal work Propaganda, by Orwell’s 1984 and more recently by Noam Chomsky in Necessary Illusions, Thought Control in Democratic Societies. In 1989, Chomsky pointed out, “The media have become a notable new source of national power that contributes to the reduction of democracy at home and the consequent decline in democracy abroad. This general crisis of democracy results from the efforts of a powerful wealthy minority to organize and press their demands, and preventing the democratic process from functioning properly. In simple terms it is the business of the corporate elite to use the media for thought control; the general public must be reduced to its traditional apathy and obedience, and driven from the arena of political debate and action, in order that the elite may rule.” Hire its kein warm...

It is increasingly difficult to question the norms and values set by the corporate media to advance the goals of the corporate elite.

Thought Control is applied to ensure that we the people are docile. Schemes are used to convince us to go on buying the products that are marketed by the media, and that we support the corporate governments with our economic power and social acceptance.

To question the power elite is dangerous. Confronting power is costly and difficult. The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner suppportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.

When lies are exposed, whistleblowers and journalists are imprisoned as traitors, exiled, or simply murdered. Here in Mexico, for example, one of three unsolved murders have to do with writers and journalists. 

Searching for students in a clandestine mass grave in Mexico

 When 43 student teachers were disappeared, murdered, and incinerated in a garbage dump, the government response was two-fold.  The president went to China to extol the virtues of the Mexican economy as the motor of Latin America. 

 Meanwhile, in Mexico media outlets saturated TV time with reruns of a popular children’s program, El Chavo de Ocho. 

 The idea was simple: Make people forget. Erase history. Anyone who still has questions will be repressed. Obfuscate. Poison the debate. Associate the students disappearance with drug trafficking, and blame local criminals. Any opposition still standing can be imprisoned.

Aqui no hay porque...

Cheerleader for Animal Cruelty: Burger King

And it is not enough to be apathetic or complacent. For those who advance the cause of ignorance it is not sufficient to be tolerant. One must be a cheerleader for ignorance or face the reprobation of one’s social peers. To question meat-eating is somehow non-patriotic. Clearly animal-killing is cruel. Eating animal flesh is an act of ignorance. 

But whoever questions this act of ignorance is somehow suspect. 

In fact, the culture of ignorance implies a rejection of the culture of knowledge. As in the regime of Cambodia’s Pol Pot, who called himself Big Brother Number One, anyone with glasses and a wristwatch is suspect. 

The Culture of Ignorance

Beware of people who think.

Mass surveillance is another aspect of thought control. It is not that Facebook is a criminal conspiracy to control your mind. And yet, after the fact, law enforcement officials easily gain access to your every thought, your baby pictures, your crazy drunken sprees. Edward Snowden stripped the fig leaf from our notion that our internet transactions have any kind of privacy. 

Republicans demand a careful reading of every one of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mails. Why shouldn’t they be able to read yours? You have nothing to hide, of course. But thought control is exerted when you think twice about posting something on the internet or writing an email to a friend. Don’t ask too many questions. Someone might be watching. Hier ist kein warum...

The taboo against asking “Why?” has contaminated not only science and politics, but also literature and philosophy. Authors are told by publishers that people are not interested in the big questions, they want sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And philosophers are marginalized when the only useful questions are “what does it cost?” and “where’s the profit?” The educational system is geared for more production and more consumption. Students are considered “educated” when they understand how to make more money. It’s possible that today’s students can graduate without ever being exposed to the terrible Odyssey of Ulysses, the tragic world of Shakespeare, the truth-seeking of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Today’s students can move through the education system without ever having discussed the meaning of life with Voltaire, Rousseau, or Hegel. These questions have been given up as meaningless.

Hier ist kein Warum.

Given this, it’s not at all wonderful that the best and brightest economists of Harvard and Yale have been responsible for the worst kinds of economic misery around the globe. 

The best and brightest are not taught to ask “Why?” but “How much?”

Hier ist kein Warum.

But the worst violence is against the soul itself. When soul-denying philosophers and scientists team up with Wall St. banks, Washington lobbyists, and Hollywood media, the result is an amazing product: unbridled exploitation. As long as self-examination is prohibited and exploitation is promoted as panacea, we will go on consuming our planet with cannibalistic glee.

As long as we succeed in eliminating the question “Why?” we shall never realize the purport of the human form of life. And yet our capacity for curiosity, for questioning is the very core of our human existence. The greatest philosophical literature of ancient India, the Vedānta begins with the words, “Athāto Brahma Jijñāsa.” “Now is the time for inquiry into the Absolute.” Real human life begins with inquiry. Against all odds, we must confront the forces of darkness and ask the question “Why?”

“Why do I exist?” “What is my purpose?” “Why am I alive?” Those who have the courage to ask these questions go on to spiritual greatness and immortality. This was the question of the Buddha when he sat beneath the Bodhi tree to medidate. “Why have you forsaken me?” Was the question of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane? “Why should I struggle?” was the question of Arjuna before Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa at the Battle of Kurukṣetra? “Where is Kṛṣṇa?” was the question of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu when he was immersed in the Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Truth-seeker

Are we above asking such questions? Have we become so jaded, so apathetic about our own spiritual life that we as humans no longer need self-examination and reflection? Are we so impoverished that we really believe that we can find the answers to all our doubts by searching Google?

If we are so crippled spiritually that we cannot dive deeper into reality and discover divine truth, then this world is nothing more than a barren death camp. And yet, for all the toys and mirrors, for all the sham promises of physical beauty, riches, and fame we must all leave this mortal plane. 

Why not search out immortality? Why not say with the great spiritual guides of India that immortality is not barren or sterile, but dynamic and progressive? Why not have to the courage to ask “Why?”

Truth-seekers asking "Why?"