Final Destination

“Never, never pin your whole faith on any human being; not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it.”

C. S. Lewis

I believe that nearly every human being is in pursuit of salvation – a cathartic, culminating experience or realization – whether they’re conscious of it or otherwise.

Some seek salvation in the world, through attempting to fulfill the incessant desires that guide their actions – perhaps through financial or social gain, sexual pursuits, substance use, and countless other avenues. The paths are kaleidoscopic, but the terminal destination is invariable.

“All these things at once fell into dust, and I was left alone, and thirsting, in a land of sand and thorns.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King

The futile, transitory nature of sensory experience is generally well-known within countless schools of philosophy, religious doctrines, and eventually – through common sense and experience.

What I’m interested in considering is the premise of salvation, of supreme realization or completion, through intellectualism – something seen as a subtler, refined alternative to the traditional worldly pursuits.

Since the era of the Enlightenment, the Western psyche has been largely consumed by an ever-increasing array of “-ists” and “-isms.” Many of these doctrines have provided necessary social frameworks, guidelines for right-thinking and right-action, and a moral backbone that the West was built upon.

Currently, the default “-ism” adopted by the academic-political elite, trickling down through news media and various forms of programming, would likely resemble a kind of secular humanism.

Now, there are countless alternatives to this particular framework – but all, in some regard, result in the confinement of oneself inside a fortress of ideations, doctrine, and dogma. Reality is perceived, or distorted, through the lens of your choosing – or lack thereof.

What software are you running on? Have you ever checked?

Doctrine and dogma are useful frameworks to guide thought and action – but, perhaps, doctrine and dogma are not the final destination; the words are not the thing. At a certain point, you must lead yourself – the gloves must come off and reality must be faced squarely.

The train is still moving – do you really want to stop here?

The fundamental problem with any “-ist” or -ism” is that it connotes a final arrival. A definitive framework in which the manifold mysteries of human experience, or cosmic existence, can be neatly confined. The intellect has a tendency to reduce the dynamism – the spontaneous, miraculous nature of reality – down to a sterile assessment of measure, number, and weight.

Reality – pure, impartial, unadulterated awareness – becomes obscured by a deluge of words, models, statistics, sympathies, antipathies, and preconceptions.

“I don’t believe in God – I believe in science.”

Man has a tendency to cling; change is painful. The intellectual, the academic, seeks to substitute one set of rules for another. He scoffs at the meek, faithful man who, perhaps, dwells in material poverty but is rich in spirit. The simple man who, in many ways, has stepped above and beyond the limiting confines of reason.

The developed mind is a scalpel, capable of solving complex problems and dissecting the most minute intricacies of matter; the same mind can double as a trowel, building an ideological prison, brick-by-brick. The mind finds identity in the structures it creates; the captain will go down with his ship.

I do not advocate for the abandonment of moral frameworks, doctrines, or dogmas that the West has been built upon. The Enlightenment, for example, represented the triumph of man over the basest, most animalistic tendencies of his nature; the partial victory of the mind over instinct.

But, the fight is far from over. It’s possible that the same intellectualism that freed man from ignorance and tribalism is leading him towards mechanism and sterility. The cold calculation of the intellect must be mediated and invigorated by the warmth of the heart.

The words, and doctrines, and dogmas of men are signposts – some better than others. Even the noblest, the truest of these signposts can only point the way – you must tread the path.

The signpost is not the destination.

And perhaps, at a certain point, the signposts cease entirely; men and their words can only lead us so far. The intellect may carry you no further; you must venture from the walls of the fortress. You must tend to your own lamp and walk.

What a mighty, terrifying undertaking this is.