We exist in an increasingly complicated world. Problems multiply and
become more complex with each passing generation. Technological breakthroughs
occur at an exponential rate to such a degree that they shrink our world while
human population numbers explode. Most of us subsist in faceless, modern
societies where our circumstances seem entirely beyond our control. Economies
falter. Disasters happen. What can we do? How can our efforts make any
difference in the face of such conditions? The more poignant question is how do
we matter in such a context. It is in this setting that cultivating a value for
mattering can be of great worth. Mattering is one of those values that
encompasses and promotes other values: honesty and truth.
The notion that we
stand powerless before a multitude of conditions beyond our control is not a
new one. The idea that fate or
deterministic elements control our existence runs very deep. Philosophers and
various thinkers over the past centuries have probed the nature of these
conditions. Some, like the ancient Stoic philosopher Epictatus, suggest that we are
like a dog tied to a cart. We don’t have control over where the cart goes but
we do have the choice as to whether we run along with the cart or are dragged
behind it. While useful to a degree, this metaphor is overly simplistic. An
immensely varied set of deterministic elements presses upon us. A
milieu of natural and human caused conditions limits our sphere of control, and
thus restricts our options severely. Do we submit to a notion of determinism or
put our faith in some sort of radical liberalism? While a multitude of authors
have written volumes on the question of free will, I submit that pursuing an
idea of influence is a valuable course of action.
The more modest goal
of influence relieves us of the unattainable urge to control. To pursue an
influence on conditions around us also alleviates anxieties about our future
and viability. By its very definition, the concept of influence limits the
expectations we may have as we act upon our circumstances. The mere effort to
ameliorate our conditions becomes a victory because in seeking to influence we
recognize the impossibility of outright control. When I wake in the morning, I
know that items will arise beyond my power, but I am also confident that I can
influence certain aspects of whatever situation may arise. Philosophically, I
have abandoned control for a more measured, realistic aim to simply influence
my environment in its many aspects. Psychologically, I find satisfaction in
mattering and seeing that I can make a difference. The more realistic ambition
to assert influence maximizes my capacity to do so by avoiding the despondency
inherent to striving for control. Efforts to control can lead to frustration
and our very undoing.
I have had the
opportunity recently to read the play Oedipus
Rex by Sophocles with my high school English class. This play really
challenged my students’ sense that if one works hard enough, any circumstance
can be overcome. Yet, it offers a model
for how seeking to make a difference through exerting influence may be the only
viable option in certain situations. The play opens with Oedipus setting out to
get rid of the plague that afflicts his city. He learns that the city-wide
illness is a punishment for the crime a member of the city committed. Of
course, Oedipus is the criminal in question but he does not know it. His
parents had sent him away when an infant in an effort to contravene a prophecy
that revealed that Oedipus would one day murder his father and marry his
mother. Ironically, his parent’s efforts to control the outcome of this
prophecy set up the conditions for its fulfillment. Years later Oedipus does in
fact murder his father and marry his mother. The seer, whom Oedipus has
consulted, warns him that he should stop seeking the murderer. Oedipus persists
undeterred. He declares that he will find the murderer out and banish him.
Through a series of inquiries and careful interviews Oedipus discovers the
truth. He is the criminal that is the root cause of the plague. Though he unknowingly
committed the crime and the act had been decreed by the Fates, Oedipus is
nonetheless guilty of these heinous acts. Being the man that Oedipus is he
gouges out his eyes in anguish at seeing such a horrible truth and banishes
himself from the city he rules in order to spare it from the gods’ punishment.
Of course my students thought that this was a horrible story. Oedipus is in an
unwinnable situation but he does matter. He makes a difference for good in
his given circumstances and therein lays his heroism. He faces the discomfiting
truth and then takes on the hard task necessary to relieve the suffering of the
people he rules. Much is beyond his control, but this one act is within his
range of influence.
To my thinking this
is sometimes the best that we can hope for: just to matter. Mattering is not
about control. Oedipus was anything but in control. One of my students
described him as a ship thrown about by Fate. Nothing he could do would change
the horror of what he had done and Fate had decreed. Yet he did act. He acted boldly and with a
measure of abandon. When it was time to take on the difficult task he did it.
The real solution to the problem of the plague had a high price. Only after an
exhausting search for truth with honesty could he understand the situation
enough to make the difference.
The value of
mattering needs other values such as honesty and truth in order to operate
within our lives. Oedipus boldly seeks and accepts the truth in order to then
act upon it and solve the problem of the plague. Everyone Oedipus encounters in
Sophocles’ play discourages him from pursuing his line of inquiry because the
truth threatened to destroy his comfortable status. If he had not pressed on he
would have continued to be the king in a state of self-delusion. However, the
city would have continued to languish under the divinely appointed plague.
Oedipus would have failed to solve the problem and his efforts would not have
mattered. He would not have mattered. Mattering, making a difference for good,
and exerting influence require honesty with one’s self. Self-delusion and
ignorance do not augment the authentic self. Without authenticity we cannot
even matter to ourselves.
By embracing the
value of mattering, we can also pursue a life of substance where our choices,
words, and actions do influence the world in which we live. Being able to say,
“I matter!” in the face of our intractable world is truly a value worth
pursuing, embracing, and incorporating into our very being.
