Finding The Purpose of Work in an Absurd World
“Medicine, Law, Business, Engineering: these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love — these are what we stay alive for.” John Keating, Dead Poets Society
This quote is one of the most memorable words from Dead Poets Society that I always remember, other than “Carpe Diem” and “O Captain! My Captain!”. It signifies the meaning of works and beauty as something that is equally important in our lives. But in today’s world, what is the purpose of our jobs and intense work exactly?
There are several philosophies to answer that question, but one of the most prominent debates that is still currently happening is between the Essentialist and Existentialist. Essentialists, led by ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle, argued that men were born with a certain essence that was given by God, a purpose and a meaning of life. At the end the goal of human being is to pursue happiness and fulfilment (Eudaimonia) that is signified by a prosperous life, and to attain it, one must accumulate knowledge and cultivate skills in the most effective and efficient way based on their own essence, which might not be good or noticeable at all but it is what makes a person himself.
For centuries, this idea had stood still without any particular setbacks or rejection from anyone. Only by the 19th century, a Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard started to deliver an idea of a life that is so abstract that we have to live our life with choices that would eventually only bring regrets. This idea became the foundation of a philosophy that is called Existentialism which focuses on exploring the problems of humans as an individual, and later would give birth to Nihilism which concluded that life has no meaning at all. But don’t make conclusions just yet, because we have to explore the meaning as an existentialist or a nihilist.
Existentialism believes that life has no preordained faith or destiny, that everything happens because of our choices; would it be eating cereal or bread in the morning, or to stare into the absurdity of the world that we currently live in. Because for them, it is our existence that comes first not essence, existence precedes essence. We have our options whether we want to live our life and work as a writer or a soldier not because we were born to do it but rather, we created a version of ourselves that is able to be something that we want to be. The time when someone becomes confused in finding a purpose and meaning in his/her life is when that person is considered to experience an existential crisis.
Nihilism on the other hand believes that life has no purpose or meaning at all, everything is baseless whether it be moral, ethics, or even knowledge because we are the ones that gave meaning to it. In other words, things become important and valuable because we consider it to be. This often leads into a crisis when we finally realize that the world does not possess certain objective value or meaning that we wish it would have, but this crisis is considered by Nietzsche as a sign of a modern age, where rationality would eventually rise though it might not yet be fully realized. So, what is the correlation between these depressing branches of philosophy got to do with jobs and work in general?
Try to ask yourself a simple question: why do you have to work, and what is specifically the purpose of your work? Take your time, don’t be in a hurry, and most certainly, don’t try to lie to yourself because at the end you might not be able to give an answer, or try to answer it by suggesting that you work for things or people other than yourself and interest. But that doesn’t mean that it is wrong and that you should quit your job, what I am trying to do is to refocus your reasons to work so that you won’t be working just for the sake of the work itself, just like Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s notorious “The Metamorphosis”.
If you ask for a solution from me to find and give you the meaning or purpose that you look for, I am afraid that I cannot give you any of it. But instead, I can offer you a way to find it by finding your “will to power” (der Wille zur Macht) as the main driving force. It could be anything, whether it be your lust for power, love, and wealth; or it can be your fear of death and abandonment. The will to power exists within every single one of us, it gives us the strength and vigour to be alive and stay alive no matter how hard or absurd it is to live a life that has no meaning. After all, the absence of preordained purpose or meaning would eventually give us the liberation to freely decide what we are going to do with our own life. It’s free real estate.
Penulis: Dicky Harvana
Penyunting: Kezia Simanjuntak
