From Wiktionary:
Noun
1. An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something. (material copied from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913))
This is the kind of ambition I'm talking about. Not something exclussive to the clowns on the Apprentice. "an eager desire for... something."
I think that if we're honest we all cary around an image of who we want to be. That includes a desire for... "something." Right? The problem is why do you want it? Sometimes the answer is easy. I want to eat because I'm hungry. But sometimes the answer is more difficult. That's becuase the value is symbolic to us not utilitarian. And that's what I mean by "meaning" in life. Not some grandious concept, but simple symbolic "meaning" we assign to the things we want. The mundane thing I think all of us deal with when we look for a new car or a job or a house.
And that's the relation between Ambition and Religion. Both are a matter of believing in something that can't be proven. A leap of faith. It's about believing in something because we WANT to, not becuase it's true. Both are symptoms of the same human need: for meaning.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Long overdue definition of "ambition."
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19 comments:
Technically everything is a matter of believing in something that can't be proven. I've made plans for this weekend becuase I have faith in the fact that nobody involved is going to meet an untimely demise between now and then. I can't prove it, but I feel relatively confident.Is this similar to religion?
But, I do agree that there are is definitely a type of decision making that looks a lot like an organized religion. The House, the Family, the Job, the Car, and the Vacation can all become sacrements of the Church of Holy American Dream. The individual grows up learning that there are certain Things needed to lead towards Happiness, and seeks those things blindly without really stopping to think where exactly that happiness is going to come from.
Any happiness-related decision can come down to choice, or to faith. I want the new Tom Waits CD. Is it because
(Faith) Having good taste in music is going to make me more fun to be around and it's going help me make friends, and that will make me happy.
(Choice) I like the rest of his music, so I'm realatively sure I'll like this too. Having good music makes me happy because it helps me relax when I'm feeling stressed.
Very well put.
So my problem is, in practice, I'm affraid it can be very difficult to tell the difference. And I find that I can lie to myself about which I'm doing in a particular senario.
Mmm hmm...that is what I was saying before I am starting the process and It's hard not to keep falling back into it. I have to analyze myself all the time and ask Why....Why am I doing what I am doing....am I doing this for the Tom Wait's CD reason or for the definition of ambition. It's hard to break away from the cycle that we are born into. But, it does get easier.
Lucky, does it matter which it is?
If you act on Faith and things work out for the best, is it not as good as if you had gotten there acting on Choice?
If you act on Choice and royally screw up your life, is it better than if you had gotten there acting on Faith?
We all want to be the masters of our own destinies, but there is a point where wondering why you are achieving happiness is only going to stop you from doing so.
And if I have faith that my God wants me to kill the Jews is that ok?
Too dramatic?
I think even these subtle matters of faith allow people to hurt themselves and other people. All over an empty and meaningless symbols.
I know a woman who is really killing herself trying to get her "dreamhouse" in Scotland. She's working herself to death. How much will she enjoy that house when she can no longer walk?
IF we don't examine why we want what we want, we'll more than likely be very disappointed when we get it.
True dat.
Lucky, now you're talking about WHAT you want, or HOW you get it, not WHY you want it. ; ) If you thought out why you were killing Jews, (choice) is THAT better, or is it killing Jews that sucks?
My point is, by all means, examine what you're doing that makes you happy and what you have to do to get it. But as for why... if nobody's getting hurt... meh.
Mmmm, I think they go hand and hand Mr. S.
"IF we don't examine why we want what we want, we'll more than likely be very disappointed when we get it."
This part stuck me right to the core...I said I am always asking myself WHY....HOW and WHAT seem to be part of that process as well. If the end result isn't all that you think it is from #1 then you shouldn't move past step WHY. But, if you don't consider WHAT and HOW than you could be wasting time and energy that isn't neccesary.
WHAT I want is obviously important. See above re: killing jews.
WHAT effect it's going to have on me and others is obviously equally important.
HOW I'm going to get is a biggie too. If I want something innocent like, say, a Boca Burger.. and I'm going to walk into a cafe and rob the guy behind the counter to get it, not so good.
But let's say I've identified what I want. It's something that isn't going to hurt me or anyone else, I'm not going to go to any extreme lengths to get it...
So what does it matter WHY it makes me happy, if in fact it does?
Perhaps my happiness is an illusion, but why would I want to break it? Isn't the alternative knowing exactly why I'm NOT happy?
"why" isn't only justification. It's the impetus to "what."
And the "why" DOES hurt a lot more than we give it credit for: If 60% plus of our generation rates "wealth and fame" as their top goal in life, don't you think just a few of em will be disappointed? If only they stopped to ask "why"?
And can this planet handle a future where people world wide continue their desires for exponentially increasing torrents of disposable symolic widgets they only think make them happy?
And besides, we know that all that stuff doesn't actually change people''s happiness.
Wow that was fast.
Would having a good reason for wanting the disposable symolic widgets make it a more noble desire, or is it the WHAT again? (or more specifically WHAT that desire is keeping me from focusing on, the more important things.)
Seems to me that having a good WHY for a WHAT can make not getting it even worse for me. If my WHY for a million dollars is because I want to live on a tropical beach, and I don't get it, I'll be let down. But if my WHY is so I can get a life-saving heart procedure done for a loved one with no health insurance... that's gonna sting a bit more.
I understand if there's a bad WHAT, there's probably a bad WHY behind it. But does a bad WHY turn a good WHAT into a bad WHAT? (now I feel silly)
I keep wondering if there is corn in Little Timmy's poo...even though it adds texture...there is no real nutritional value there...
So, if my feverish state Timmy's Poo came to mind.
So if Timmy eats his poo....what is the poo made from? Does he eat other food first to make the poo or is it just poo all the time...like recyled poo.
I think this would make Timmy very self-sufficient. Then, which lead me to think the Army should take up poo eating as well...I mean it would save on money..you know kinda like Waterworld where Kevin Costner drinks his own urine after filtering it out. The government could make PowerPoo Bars® and they could carry them around in the field. I don't know if it would be their own poo...or if they would take poo donations to make the bars. I haven't really got that part figured out just yet.
I'll get back to ya on this...
Timmy = perpetual motion machine.
Rad
Pssst
Blog is hungry.
Feed blog.
Also check this out:
http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/0610/bestbeer.html
I'm with Scott on this one.
Come on Zhang gu (that's your new name by the way...) No up coming performances? or interesting stories? Geez...why am I the one to always have to hold down the fort? You got duckies and bunnies so now it's my turn...I demand new topics!
well dear whts hppning here.........can anyone tell me....
Sure, this is a blog that I used to keep.
Used to.
Unfortunately, other creative commitments have overrun the time I used to spend keeping this up.
However, I'd be glad to have a conversation with you about anything covered on this blog.
The luckymortal
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