John Ruskin said at the dawn of the industrial era in Europe that we are losing our souls.
I think his point is still relevant for the world today. I believe Ruskin identified with a feeling of meaninglessness which became ever more apparent during this era.
What I want to know is how industrialism and consumerism, has invoked a common feeling of meaninglessness.
Why is this feeling so concurrent with modern life? What changed at the beginning of the industrial era? The story that I wrote below tries to unveil the process by which we have come to embody a feeling of emptiness or meaninglessness within our lives.
This story is called, "The Man Who Lost his Soul:"
This story is about a man who lives happily in a forest.
One day, after seeing many trees grow, he plants a seed and suddenly realises that he can grow things for himself.
So he takes the seeds he finds and plants them in a patch of dirt.
The man then takes some wood from the trees and builds a fence around his plants,
to protect them from the wild of the forest.
He feels happy when his plants grow big enough to eat.
He is proud. Look at what he has achieved!
He can control his external world in order to preserve his wellbeing,
thus controlling his internal world.
He can govern the earth with his hands and determine his own existence.
He can consume at will.
But wait...what has he lost?
Now he fears the forest.
The forest can’t preserve his wellbeing.
The forest wants to provide for him but it also wants to destroy him.
He doesn’t want to be destroyed!
He is comfortable now.
He overcame the forest!
The darkness, the danger, the freedom...
Wait! The freedom?
He ponders...
‘No!’ he says. ‘I am free. I have the freedom of control!’
But deep inside himself, he begins to feel a lurking hollowness.
He ponders more…
‘Well maybe if I can extend my fence a little, then I can control more and I can have more freedom.’
Inside the fence the man is comfortable and safe.
He only allows in what he wants to allow in.
He only allows for those things that will preserve his wellbeing.
Then one morning, upon the border of his fence he finds a pond, and so he casts his fence around it.
Later that afternoon, he finds himself feeling rather stagnant.
He goes and peers into his pond, searching for something in his reflection.
At first he enjoys gazing at his own reflection.
He sees a keen, noble man gazing back at him!
But then it starts to change…
The deeper he looks the more empty space he finds.
‘What is here?’ He asks himself.
‘Woe is me! What is this emptiness, this stillness that binds me?
Can I overcome it?’
‘I can!’ he says.
‘Maybe if I just extend my fence a little more,
if I can take a bit more forest for myself…then! I will be ok.’
So he goes and builds his fence around some trees and cuts them down and builds a house.
He is so proud. Look at what he has achieved!
He has food and a house to guard himself against the cold.
He goes back to the pond.
His reflection looks brighter now.
‘Look at all these things I can control!’ he says to himself.
‘I can control when the rain touches me!
I can control where the grass grows!
I can control what food I want to eat,
and when I want to put it into my body.
Why I’m above it all!’ he says.
‘I know more than this forest, I can control it when I fence it…
Look at what I have achieved!
This forest is my enemy! It is sinful in its randomness.
Nothing can control me now but myself.’
He ponders…
‘I must continue to protect myself from the unstable world beyond my fence.’
Then once again he goes and peers into his pond,
gleeful for what he has discovered.
He peers deeper this time,
deeper and deeper into his own reflection,
searching endlessly amongst his thoughts.
And then, in a moment of stillness,
what he finds is not the happiness he sought…
Its not happiness at all.
So in his despair he turns to God confused and says:
‘God, please help me to overcome this confusion and discontent,
this hollow black space inside me.
Where does it come from?’
And God says to the man:
‘Who is this God to which you speak?
You may not address me for you have bound me!
Did you think that taking those things that belong to me would make you happy?
I cannot be taken fool!
I died within you the moment you put a fence around me.
This emptiness you find is the death of me inside you!
You think there is but freedom in your ease?
What have you achieved human? What have you achieved?
You ignore my order and seek control to feed yourself into life.
But in your selfish feeding,
and in your desire to control your fate,
you reduce me and forget that you deserve to die.
Your fence protects you from my wrath,
but it also protects you from my beauty.
And so in your emptiness you extend your fence
to subdue the lingering of your empty heart.
So in your emptiness, you gaze upon your own reflection,
and seek beauty there.
But your true beauty can only be seen through my eyes!
And now you wonder why you feel empty!
Ha! What a fool man is!’
