The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to Be Happy (2010)

by Michael Foley

  Anonymous authority’s most effective trick is making its recommendations self-evident. It is impossible to argue against the self-evident. Only a crank would attempt to do so. This too is self-evident. The way we live now is the natural law.

  So resistance will incur charges of crankiness. Worse, it may be that a resister must not just appear but also actually be a crank. This alarming insight came to me many years ago while watching a film based on the autobiography of Frank Serpico, an ambitious young New York cop who eventually made it to detective, only to discover that his new colleagues were all corrupt. They pooled and shared out bribes as calmly and coolly as if they were running a coffee cooperative. And these weren’t repulsive characters but ordinary, friendly guys prepared to accept and like Frank. So, when he refused to join the club, he was obviously a crank. But here is the twist that made the movie so fascinating. The scenes from Frank’s personal life revealed that he really was a crank ; attractive and engaging girlfriends left him; his friends found him impossible.

  This suggests that to behave with principle it is necessary to be a crank. Think of any principled objector. Even Christ was a crank.

  So who wants to be a crank in this cool, relaxed, open-necked age, when everyone, and especially the boss, is one of the guys?

  Then there are the pressures from within, from the under-self with its toxic pit of desire and aggression and its dangerous ability to persuade the upper self to do its bidding, to put a plausible and even sophisticated veneer on its demands. So, even as I deride television, I am fantasizing about propagating this view on talk shows. And even as I give the impression of being coolly indifferent to the opinion of others, I am coolly calculating the best way to impress. What I want is to be loved for never wanting to be loved.

  There are resourceful enemies without and within – the ad and the id – and each is cunning and relentless, constantly adopting new guises to appear acceptable. Neither may be defeated and merely to keep both at bay requires unremitting vigilance. But, since thinkers of various kinds have been exercising vigilance for thousands of years, there are rich sources to be tapped. In the last century philosophers mostly abandoned happiness as an unserious and, worse still, unfashionable subject (black became as sexy for intellectual thought as for cocktail dresses) but, more recently, other specialists, in particular psychologists and neuroscientists, have provided fascinating discoveries and insights.

  So the approach in this book is to trawl philosophy, religious teaching, literature, psychology and neuroscience for common ideas on fulfilment, then to investigate how easy or difficult it might be to apply such strategies in contemporary life and finally to apply them to areas of near-universal concern. Most of us have to work for a living, many of us would like to enjoy a lasting relationship with a partner and, in spite of tremendous advances in cosmetic surgery, all of us are still obliged to endure growing old. ‘One can live magnificently in this world,’ said Tolstoy, ‘if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one’s work.’12 And, he might have added, one can even grow old, if not quite magnificently, then at least without feeling entirely worthless.

  However, investigating the sources is unlikely to produce a set of instructions. An axiom for literature also applies more generally: the only prescription is that there can be no prescriptions. The complexities of individuals and their circumstances make universal prescriptions impossible. In fact, the demand for prescriptions is another sign of the times. It is only our own impatient, greedy age that demands to be told how to live in a set of short bullet points.

  But another useful axiom is that defining a problem is the beginning of a solution. Developing a richer awareness of problems may be one way of indirectly generating the miraculous by-product, happiness. Which may in turn generate its own miraculous by-products. Which may then enhance the original. For happiness, like depression, is a self-reinforcing cycle. Depression is a descending spiral where being depressed reduces volition, which in turn increases depression…and so on down. Happiness is an ascending spiral where being happy enhances volition, which in turn increases…and so on up. The greatest gift of happiness may not be the feeling itself as much as the accompanying thrill of possibility. Suddenly the world is re-enchanted and the self born anew. Everything is richer, stranger and more interesting. The eye sees more clearly, the mind thinks more keenly, the heart feels more strongly – and all three unite in enthusiasm, delight and zest.

  PART II

  The Sources

  2

  The Ad and the Id

  There is a faery land, never buffeted by wind or lashed by rain, without clocks, closed doors, beggars, litter, graffiti, garbage, vermin or dark alleys, where the temperature is always pleasantly constant and the light evenly bright and the Pipes of Pan vie in sweetness with the tinkling of euphonious fountains at the intersections of the broad esplanades. On all sides shining emporia display garments, shoes, lingerie, creams, lotions, fragrances, chocolates, toys, mobile phones, games, televisions, flowers, music players, jewellery, sports gear and digital picture frames restlessly changing content every few seconds. In WH Smith, on parallel racks that extend into the distance, hobby magazines gleam, sleek and fat, bulging with complimentary booklets, vouchers, sunglasses, CDs, DVDs, and samples of personal fragrances. In Cards Galore there are facetious congratulations for every occasion from birth to retirement (‘Our workmate who art retiring, pensioner be thy name…’). In the Disney Store a multitude of creatures, in a variety of sizes, colours and materials, offer identical wide eyes and innocent smiles. In Build-A-Bear Workshop there is an invitation to ‘Make Your Own Furry Friend (the pawfect furreal gift’). In the open area Le Munch Bunch Sandwicherie announces a special offer for any roll, cake and cold beverage. For dessert Joe Delucci’s proposes a Cow Fodder Sundae of chocolate and baked cream ice cream, soft marshmal-low and chunky caramel. Outside the SingStar™ booth a youth in a World War II flyer’s helmet, several layers of fleece and outsize jeans with the fork at his knees, holding three carrier bags in his left hand and a microphone in his right, nevertheless manages to boogie energetically while singing along to the video of ‘Get This Party Started’. Behind him a queue of restless hoodies is further unsettled by the gaze, from the doorway of Essensuals, of an eight-foot young woman in bra, pants, suspenders, black stockings and stiletto heels, pouting mischievously. A real pouting princess, a senior nail technician (from California Nails), golden haired from organic colouring (in Hairport) and golden skinned from vertical turbo tanning (in Stand By Your Tan), strides past Sunglass Hut and a great wooden horse that has overweight children swarming all over it but no foes concealed within. Approach, knock for resonance. Wooden all through.

  Everything about a shopping mall is designed to encourage the feeling that not to want anything would be atrociously churlish. Firstly, a mall eliminates distractions such as depressing weather and accusing clocks. Then, if it is a multi-storey building, a soaring atrium or central well makes an immediate, profound impression. Planners, from the architects of Gothic cathedrals to those of contemporary corporate headquarters, have understood that the key to inspiring awe is redundant space, especially overhead. Any structure with its own firmament must have been created by God. To enhance the religious atmosphere there may be background piped music as soothing as organ chords. And there will certainly be many fellow worshippers to provide reassurance. The most persuasive argument for any activity is that everyone is doing it – and here everyone is shopping. The company of the faithful is immensely comforting but, as in church, there is no need to engage. The real engagement is with the icons in the window displays, promising to confer distinction, enhanced status and sexual attractiveness. These material goods even enhance the religious feeling. Brain scans have shown that high-end brands evoke the same neural response as religious images; that, shocking and lamentable though it may be, an iPod has the same effect as Mother Teresa.13 Also, the windows displaying these mat
erial icons extend from floor to ceiling, completely exposing the bright interiors, and the entrances are wide and doorless, so the instinctive fear of entering an unfamiliar enclosed space is overcome. Inside, young, attractive sales staff approach, seeking eye contact with friendly encouraging smiles, creating the illusion of youth and attractiveness in the shopper. The loud soul music suggests a bar or club where mutual attraction can blossom but, unlike the brutally competitive bars and clubs, here there is no possibility of rejection. Spending money is the easiest orgasm. Open the wallet and flash the bright card.

  So the ad woos the id in the traditional way – by impressing, flattering and stimulating.

  THE AD: Regard the mighty vault soaring to Heaven.

  THE ID: SHEEZ!

  THE AD: Now regard the many shining prizes.

  THE ID: WANT!

  THE AD: All of this is for you.

  THE ID: ME!

  THE AD: You are indeed uniquely wonderful.

  THE ID: Lights! Cameras! Put me on prime-time!

  THE AD: Nor need you concern yourself with others, but be an infant till you die.

  THE ID (scowling): Don’t you mean, be an infant forever?

  THE AD: I said, be an infant for eternity.

  THE ID: WHOOP-DE-DOO!

  THE AD: Never shall your desires diminish or your appetites abate.

  THE ID: MORE!

  The ad smiles in satisfaction, as well it might. Never have ads been more numerous. The average American is now subjected to over 3,000 adverts per day.14 Never have ads been more inclusive. Having learned the lesson of the Jesuits – get them early and you have them for life – the ad has already colonized childhood and will soon be seeking techniques for establishing brand loyalty in the womb. And never have ads been more cunning. Is this a documentary? No, an ad. A news feature? No, an ad. A famous London stadium? No, an ad for an oil-rich Middle Eastern country keen to develop its brand.

  Is this a cinema urinal? Yes, but, as your head tilts back to enjoy relief, there comes into view on the ceiling a red plastic urinal bearing the legend, Spider-Man 3…Coming Soon. So, to gaze at the ceiling is no longer safe – but at least the sky is still free. Ah, a little aeroplane! Someone has escaped into the infinite. No, it is merely a tow truck for an advertising banner. At least there is nature. No, an enterprising Dutch hotel chain has begun placing ads on live sheep. So the ad, which has become increasingly good at pulling the wool over our eyes, now also pulls our eyes over the wool.

  Never has the ad been more sneakily aggressive. There is ‘targeted marketing’, ‘ambush marketing’, ‘guerrilla marketing’, ‘viral marketing’. The ad has no scruples about using biological warfare. Most sneaky of all is neuromarketing, which uses neuroscience to infiltrate the brain, study its defences and find ways around them.

  Never has the ad been more entertaining. One of the most rancorous disputes I have had with my daughter was over my habit of muting the television during ads. When she objected I gave her the standard lecture about ads making us want things we don’t need. She snapped back angrily that, of course, she understood this and was entirely impervious to such persuasion, but had to see the ads because they were discussed by her friends as entertainment just like the programmes. Only a crank would wish to deprive her of this.

  And, no longer content merely to match entertainment, the ad has begun to infiltrate films and television programmes through ‘product placement’; increasingly the product determines the story rather than the other way round. Surveys have shown that making the product seem an integral part of the story is more effective than any direct advertising because it cunningly evades the brain’s resistance.15 ‘Content marketing’ takes this approach to its logical conclusion by creating so-called entertainment solely for the purpose of advertising.

  And the ad is no longer content to be passively observed. You no longer decode the ad, it decodes you. The latest digital billboards have concealed cameras and software that establish who is looking and display the appropriate ad – so a young man will see a bimbo advertising beer and a middle-aged woman will get details of a pampering-day offer at a health spa. Eventually these billboards will be able to recognize individuals and personalize the offering – seducing me with great 2-for-l deals on Chinese poetry and hard-bop jazz. Then it may be necessary to go about in disguise, perhaps even to cross-dress, to bamboozle the ad.

  Such bamboozlement would be an example of ‘culture jamming’, the new resistance movement dedicated to sabotaging consumer culture. This resistance is coordinated by websites such as the BADvertising Institute and the Canadian magazine Adbusters, which publishes anti-consumerist articles and spoof ads (for example, for a vodka called Absolut Nonsense) and sponsors initiatives such as Buy Nothing Day and Watch No Television Week. In the UK an organization known as Modern Toss arranges subversive events and produces T-shirts, carrier bags, posters and coffee mugs with salutary injunctions such as BUY MORE SHIT OR WE’RE ALL FUCKED.

  These ventures are excellent fun but unlikely to start a revolution. Rather than attempting to defeat the ad, it would be wiser to work from the other end and attempt to control the id.

  This is not easy either. The contemporary id is rampant and in no mood to be tamed. Never have so many wanted so much so badly. Never has the id been so flattered and indulged. This is the golden age of the id.

  Once upon a time the id was despised and feared. For Plato it was the bad horse in the team, a ‘companion to wild boasts and indecency, he is shaggy round the ears – deaf as a post – and just barely yields to horsewhip and goad combined’.16 For Marcus Aurelius it was ‘the secret force hidden deep within us that manipulates our strings’.17 For Buddhists it was projected outwards as Mara, for Christians as Satan. For the Sufis it was the ‘al-nafs al-amara’, the bitter lower soul that ‘knows only how to sleep, eat and gratify itself’.18 In medieval Europe it was the violent, greedy ogre of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and other tales. For Arthur Schopenhauer it was the will-to-live and for Nietzsche the self. Kafka personified it as the dark figure that suddenly appears on deck and wrests the helm from its legitimate guardian. And for our own age there is a materialistic explanation – it is the old reptile brain lurking at the base of the new brain. The names of the id vary – but everyone agrees on its nature. It is greedy, impulsive, angry, cunning and insatiable. No amount of gratification is ever sufficient.

  Two and a half millennia before Freud, Buddha recognized that the core problem for the self is unconscious desiring. There is a striking myth of the confrontation between Buddha and Mara, the personification of the id, who appears mounted on an elephant brandishing a weapon in each of his thousand arms and, when this fails to intimidate, calls down nine frightful storms that make even the gods flee in terror. Buddha is left alone – but sitting in the ‘unconquerable position’ so Mara is obliged to enter into dialogue: ‘Arise from this seat which belongs not to you but to me.19 Buddha stays put, delivers an analysis of Mara’s ugly character and concludes that he is more entitled to the seat than Mara.

  This is like a dramatisation of Freud’s project: ‘Where there was Id there shall be Ego.’20 The ego ejects the id and takes its seat. Mastery of the unconscious is the crucial victory.

  According to Buddha, the root problem is ignorance, which encourages attachments that lead to desires and cravings, which bring dissatisfaction and discontent. And, if ignorance is the problem, the solution must be knowledge. So insight is redemption. Understanding is salvation.

  The first requirement is the difficult work of self-knowledge. Long before Christ, Buddha realized that we see the faults of others clearly, but are conveniently blind to our own. And Buddha’s version of the insight is better because it recognizes the endless ingenuity of self-justification: ‘One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one’s own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice.’21

  The problem of ignorance can be appreciated rationally, but Buddha’s so
lution requires a deeper, total understanding achievable only through meditation – which is not the heavy-lidded, somnolent trance suggested by Buddhist icons, but an intense mental activity described as ‘mindfulness’, ‘wakefulness’ and ‘watchfulness’. The Dbammapada, the collection of aphorisms attributed to Buddha, has several chapters devoted exclusively to these concepts: ‘Those who are watchful never die: those who do not watch are already as dead.’ So the goal of meditation is not quietude and indifference but awareness, alertness, keen purposeful clarity – Buddha’s metaphor for the liberated mind was a sword drawn from its scabbard.

  From the practice of meditation Buddha developed a theory of consciousness like that of contemporary neuroscience. Consciousness has no substance or direction but is an endlessly flickering, fluctuating shadow play of perceptions, fantasies, delusions, associations and memories. ‘The mind is wavering and restless, fickle and flighty’ – the mind has the caprice of a monkey that ‘grabs one branch, and then, letting that go, seizes another’. And so the idea of a unified self is an illusion: ‘There is no one invariable self. What is subject to change is not mine, it is not I, it is not my self.’ This recognition of ceaseless change was another central insight. All is flux. Everything is transient – ’ All things are on fire.’22

  As a consequence there is no permanent self to attack or repress. The greed, the cravings and lusts, are as fleeting as everything else and will simply wither away in the bright light of intense and prolonged scrutiny. To recognize them for what they are makes them impossible to indulge. So Buddha did not denounce vice but dismissed it as ‘unskilful’ behaviour. Buddhism has none of the self-loathing so common in Christianity, the hatred and fear of the body and frenzied mortification of the flesh.