you know there's this there's this play
written by a German named Goethe like I
can never say that properly it's johann
van goe t-h-e and I can't say it but he
wrote this play called Faust and he
wrote one part of it when he was quite
young and then Faust
- when he was quite old and he has a
character in there methodists awful ease
of Memphis dollies is the devil and he
actually has the devil explaining
himself twice he basically using the
same words which which I really like it
was very profound and basically Goethe's
Memphis dolly says you know he's the
adversary of the word that's a good way
of putting it because that's how it
works out mythologically he's the figure
behind the snake in the Garden of Eden
which is something we'll talk about more
but he has a he has a sophisticated
philosophy he's not just some random
troublemaker he's got a he's got a deep
philosophy and his philosophy is quite
straightforward and it's compelling it's
compelling and and people are gripped by
it quite often far more often than they
think his philosophy is well look around
at the world it's like I then karamasoff
in The Brothers Karamazov when he's
trying to disabuse his younger brother
of being a Christian monk Memphis dolly
says well look at the world I mean all
you look around the world it's nothing
but a bloodbath it's just suffering
everywhere everything eats everything
and people die terribly and and they're
cruel to one another and the whole mess
is nothing but a constant haul of
terrible carnage and and ruin and and
and and and and wreck he says it should
be better if it was never existed at all
and that's a very interesting that's a
very very interesting idea and I do
believe and I've seen this in people
many times that in the depths of despair
especially when you've been betrayed for
example and you wander into the wrong
subdivision of the underworld that's
something that comes to mind if you know
you have a very sick child for example
or maybe your whole family is suffering
as whole families do sometimes an idea
is going to come to you it's like good
God who put this mess together and is it
really worth it is it really worth the
suffering suicidal people you know they
say no they say no enough of this you
know
and you have to be pushed a long way
generally speaking before you'll
actually commit suicide you have to be
in very very desperate straits but your
answer under those conditions is that
being is such that it would be better if
it had never been and that's a very I
think I think it's a very it's a
terrible philosophy I believe because I
think what happens if you act it out is
that you make that very things that led
you to despair far worse and I can't see
that if it's reasonable to draw a
logical conclusion that suffering should
in justifies your desire to make being
end that the answer to that can't be to
produce more suffering
that just doesn't make sense and my
observation has been that people who act
out the Memphis to fillion philosophy
inevitably makes suffering far worse and
so and then that raises the other
specter of well do they want being just
to cease or are they just out for bloody
revenge at every at any cost and my
conclusion has always been that is that
the mask is well being shouldn't exist
because it's too terrible but the true
motivation is I'm gonna make everyone
suffer as much as I possibly can before
I say goodbye to this place if you read
the writings of people like the kids who
showed up to Columbine High School
they'll tell you exactly that that's
precisely and exactly what they conclude
it and then act it out
so anyways but in this God says that it
was good and I thought about that a lot
is like because the question is
something like well is is something
better than nothing because that's a
really good question you know and I
thought about two things in relationship
to that and one is one is well maybe it
depends on how it is that you are right
because it could be that there are ways
of being in the world that justify the
world and their ways of being in the
world that make the world unbearable and
I believe that the narrative that runs
through the biblical stories is
precisely a dialogue between those two
types of being and the optimistic part
of the story is that being requires
limitation and suffering there's no
escape from that but there are modes of
being that allow that to be perhaps even
more than tolerable perhaps there are
modes of being that allow that to be
good and it's a straight and narrow road
it's a very
difficult road to tread so so I think
well that that's possible you know I'm
not an optimist by nature and but that's
that's one of the things that I've
conceptualized and read about that I
actually find plausible because it's
certainly the case everyone knows this
that there are ways that you can act
that make things worse
everyone knows that and so if that's the
case there has to be the opposite right
there has to be ways that you could act
that make things better and obviously
you can act in ways that make things
really way worse and so the question is
well are there ways that you can act
that make things really much better and
I think that's the question is can we
have our cake and eat it too can we have
the being that requires limitation and
suffering and also simultaneously
transcend that by our mode of being and
I believe that the biblical stories and
perhaps not only the biblical stories
but the biblical stories are the human
imagined one of the human imaginations
best attempts to address and answer that
question that's what the entire story is
about so the first of it is the
catastrophe of the collapse of
self-consciousness and the entrance of
humanity into history and the rest of it
is okay now we're in history now we know
that we're going to die we know about
our mortality we're conscious of our own
being is there a motive acting in the
world that allows that to be justifiable
or maybe even more that allows that to
be triumphant and then I would also say
maybe it's worth finding out you know
that's the other thing that's so
interesting because you've got this
short time on earth and there's lots of
things that are very very difficult to
contend with and and you have the
problem of tolerating yourself even in
all your insufficiency and one of the
things that seems to me to be the case
is that if you adopt a sufficiently
profound mode of being if you attempt to
do that then the mere act of lifting up
that weight is enough to justify the
fact that you're insufficient and mortal
and and and bound by tragedy and I
believe that and I believe people
believe that because if you watch how
people act they look for people they
admire and they do admire people right
it's it's a natural it's a natural
phenomena you see it starting with
children
admire and then they imitate and we look
to people who seem to be able to bear
the burden of being in a heroic manner
and there's something inside of us that
calls to that and that makes us want to
to mimic that and to follow it and I
think that that's a I think that that's
the deepest and most profound of
instincts and I think it's right and
even if you're not so convinced on the
positive end you know because it's more
difficult to be convinced of the
positive you can certainly be convinced
on the negative end because there are
ways of being that are so brutal and so
reprehensible that merely to read about
them is enough to traumatize you and I
think that if you're a person who hasn't
lost their soul completely you can't
help but encounter stories like that and
shudder away from them and you know
Alexander Solzhenitsyn who who was the
person who did most unmask the absolute
horrors of communist totalitarianism
said that he believed that the Nuremberg
judgments were the most important event
of the 20th century and that was the
judgment at the end of World War two
that there were certain actions that no
one was to undertake no matter what
their cultural background was because
they were let's say crimes against
humanity that there was such a thing as
universal evil and you can debate that
you know I mean and people certainly
have but the problem is is if you debate
that then you have to say that there are
conditions under which the sorts of
things that happen say in the
concentration camps which would be the
gassing of children after their torture
and and their their forcible removal
from their parents and all the terrible
things that went along with that
that that's just ok it's just an opinion
it's just something that happened and
there are circumstances under which
that's justifiable if there's no
transcendent good and evil underneath
that argument it's only a matter of
practicality and and and it seems to me
that that's that's not the right
conclusion to draw that's how it seems
to me and that's what Solzhenitsyn
concluded when he looked at the
Nuremberg trials so the notion that the
notion that it was good well even if you
don't believe that and you know because
maybe it's not as good as it could be I
would say it's incumbent on you as some
who participates in the process of
furthering creation to act as if it
could be good at least and to further
that with with all of your efforts
partly because what the hell else do you
have to do that could possibly be better
than that
that could possibly justify your
existence more than that and you know
perfectly well if you if you have any
sense at all if you think clearly about
it at all is that that's what you want
to see and everyone else you know it's
you're desperate and maybe you're
cynical and now and then someone appears
that acts at least momentarily like a
light in the darkness and that lifts
your spirit up and gives you a little
bit of hope and maybe helps you continue
on it's well that's obviously a call to
being it's it's a it's a statement from
your old soul that says well there's
something about that that's how you
should be and maybe then well we get a
chance to to participate in what is good