Thriving on the futile

By Alex Lacey

Is it just me or is everyone becoming increasingly indulgent in pointless exploits? I personally find myself regularly descending into the depths of blatant uselessness with my day-to-day activities. What I mean by this is that people (including myself) seem to be engaging themselves in things that are completely devoid of any sort of logical reason. Take the massive increase of people who are now absorbed in MMORPG’s (massively multi-player online role playing games). Millions of people everyday are transfixed in these fictional worlds where they can take on the role of Kelidor the noble elven knight, protector of the algorithmic kingdom of Baraderre. That strikes me as slightly odd; what purpose is there in wittering away hours of your ACTUAL life to spend time taking on the role of something that you can never actually be. Perhaps it’s form of escapism for those who have little faith in the real humanity; for those who cannot deal with their normal existence and therefore create a version of themselves that they feel they can be proud of. It could also be that society is increasingly becoming very bored. In a world where we have access to everything that we could possibly want, perhaps we are drawn to a world where things are not so readily available and to gain things is an achievement.

Don’t you just love pop tarts? There’s something very warming about knowing that when you feel indulgent they’ll be there waiting for you in the silver packaging of joy. I actually feel genuine excitement placing a pop tart in the toaster and gleefully waiting for it to re-emerge moments later with the melted chocolate center and the slightly browned edges of the base. Obviously I know that pop tarts aren’t going to make the world a better place, I know that I’ll probably be disappointed when I eat one and that they won’t in any way further me as a person. Ultimately though, I’ll find myself there again with the pop tart in the toaster and the discreet smile on my face that says, for the next few minutes everything’s okay because I have a warm pop tart. It could be that I’m just a bit weird; however I suspect that many of you find happiness in similar relatively insignificant things. A conspicuous example of this is the proliferation of websites such as ‘youtube.com’ and ‘newgrounds.com’. These sites are frequented by millions of people who are either looking for a cheap laugh or to plunge themselves into an animation, video etc. which will briefly distract them from reality. Do these websites provide people with life skills? In most cases not. Do they enrich people’s brains with useful knowledge? It’s unlikely. Do they allow for an escape of everyday monotony? I reckon so; why else would people spend so many hours of their lives doing absolutely nothing of use?

I guess the obvious question would have to be, ‘where has this culture of futility come from?’ Furthermore, is it possible that it’s actually been around for the entire span of human history? Is it just that in recent years we have simply had easier access to futile things? Picture the scene. It’s a bright summer’s day in Rome in the year 339AD. Thousands of people are gathered in the stands of the grand amphitheatre and one of the gladiator’s has just been knocked to the ground where he is now susceptible to a death stroke. The choice, death or life, lies in the hands (or rather the thumbs of the audience). Thumbs up the gladiator lives, thumbs down he is slaughtered brutally in front of the audience of thousands of blood thirsty Romans. Minutes later the disheveled cadaver of the former gladiator is being cleared up by one of the rings keepers. Where is the futility in this situation you may ask? Consider this; hundreds of people gathering to watch the one man fight another in a battle that is mostly likely to be to the death (if the audience get there way anyway). Do the audience make the choice of whether the gladiator lives or dies based on his character, or on the basis that they want to see his insides sprayed across the sands of the amphitheatre’s floor? Basically the audience choose for him to die because they want to see someone die. Is there any logical reason for wanting to see someone die, does it give their life more value? Of course not. What it does do however is demonstrate to the audience a life that is worse than theirs. I’m not sure why it is, but most humans seem to take joy out of being able to say “at least I’m not that guy”. I like to call it the humanitarian futility constant.

One thing I have noticed is that these grey area’s of pointlessness don’t seem to occur so much in less developed or privileged societies. Is excess the source of our culture’s eccentricities? In most cases it’s simply that when you’re living on a budget of less than $2 a day, you’re not going to make a lot of time for slaying dragons on ‘world of warcraft’ or watching clips of Hulk Hogan talking with Mr. T about how everyone in existence is a fool. In these cases because the lives of such people are already, in many regards essentially futile, they have no need or desire to bring such things into their lives. In these cases people are living with(or perhaps against depending on your outlook) futility rather than thriving on it.

So westernised society brings us online blogs, celebrity deathmatch, breast implants, big brother, breakfast AT MCDONALDS, string in an assortment of colours, microwave burgers and books on how to lose 10 stone without putting any effort in at all. Hurrah for capitalism! Good going humanity, the meaning of life is by no means lost on you…

Do you ever do things for no particular reason?