What are you thinking anyway

During the most influential period of my life, and that being the sixties, the words 'rules for life' seemed to be a bad idea. Freedom from rules was kind of the ideal for life. I have to say 'kind of' because at some level, most of us knew rules were essential. Most of us would not have wanted a surgeon who didn't play by the rules for surgeons, or a banker who didn't play by the rules of law. But our talk reflected the idea that rules were bad. And our 'talk' has a lot of power. At some level, our 'talk', whether we fully mean it or not, impacts the meaning we give to an idea, and ideas have consequences. The sixties definitely left its mark on our culture for the long run. And the consequences of these ideas have become very complicated.

A powerful idea rooted in the sixties is the meaning of reality. There is so much to say about this that it is quite overwhelming thinking about trying to put everything together so that it flows and is indisputably true. Some of the influences include intellectuals from earlier centuries. Their influences have taken some time to get filtered down to the masses. Some of the great names include Nietzsche, . As part of this, even the meanings of words change, consider C. S. Lewis' book, A Study In Words, looking at how the meaning of a word evolves. It gets complicated.

Most of us are oblivious to what is happening. We are impacted by these ideas mostly without awareness. Today we are so busy with activities and spend little or no time reflecting on the things that influence our choices. It feels like our preferences are rooted in 'personalities'. We are unaware of how our cultures change. We are mostly not aware of the effects of advertising, no serious awareness of fake news, counter knowledge (think about this idea), the trend of opinions being rooted in feelings as opposed to logic, and the list goes on and on. To attempt to break this down and trace these influences is not the purpose here, but rather to point out the need to know that we are not free at all. We have been more like puppets than free thinkers. We have been at the mercy of the influencers of the times. Do not most of us have a sense of, even if it is vague, the dissatisfaction with where we are as a society. When countries create government departments of loneliness, surely there is a need to look at the meaning of our lives. Yes, 'meaning of life' is a loaded idea. To give serious consideration to the meaning of your life may feel almost impossible. There is so much confusion in sorting through everything and it could take a lot of precious time, but it doesn't take long when you get into it before you get excited about finding true, lasting and deep satisfaction.

We have articles and books with titles like 'The Tyranny of The Urgent', 'Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less', 'Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives', 'Enough: Breaking Free From The World of More', 'Counterknowledge ' , Why We Think The Things We Think', 'False Love and Other Romantic Illusions', the list is getting very long. A book that is still popular is Dale Carnegie's 'How To Win Friends and Influence People. This book is from the thirties. Who would guess or maybe admit that we need help getting friends?

There are many books dealing with things like time, stress, finances, love, anxiety, loneliness, the best life, work, work-life balance, conflict management (it is no longer called conflict resolution), how to get friends, religious ideas, and so much more. So many books presenting different views of the world. Yep, it is confusing and complicated. Many of us end up with conflicting views that create underlying conflicting beliefs that cause problems for us. Consider for example the idea that ??? that something is relatively true, ie. it is true for me but may not be true for you. Something is either true or not true by definition, I don't think we can logically have something true but not true. True is not a word that can evolve like this without creating a lot of confusion.

I cannot resist adding the words of a couple of song from the sixties by the Monkies:

Shades of Gray:

When the world and I were young

Just yesterday

Life was such a simple game

A child could play

It was easy then to tell right from wrong

Easy then to tell weak from strong

When a man should stand and fight

Or just go along

But today there is no day or night

Today there is no dark or light

Today there is no black or white

Only shades of gray

I remember when the answers seemed so clear

We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear

It was easy then to tell truth from lies

Selling out from compromise

Who to love and who to hate

The foolish from the wise

But today there is no day or night

Today there is no dark or light

Today there is no black or white

Only shades of gray

It was easy then to know what was fair

When to keep and when to share

How much to protect your heart

And how much to care

But today there is no day or night

Today there is no dark or light

Today there is no black or white

Only shades of gray

Both Sides Now:

Rows and flows of angel hair

And ice cream castles in the air

And feather canyons everywhere

I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun

They rain and snow on everyone

So many things I would have done

But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down, and still somehow

It's cloud illusions I recall

I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels

The dizzy dancing way you feel

As every fairy tale comes real

I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show

You leave 'em laughing when you go

And if you care, don't let them know

Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now

From give and take, and still somehow

It's love's illusions I recall

I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud

To say "I love you" right out loud

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds

I've looked at life that way

But now old friends are acting strange

They shake their heads, they say I've changed

Well something's lost, but something's gained

In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all.

Ravi Zacharias, a christian philosopher and apologist, writes that if you look at the pop songs of a culture, you get a good sense of the attitudes and beliefs of that culture. Things start to get darker in the seventies, especially for the youth who carry this into adulthood.