The Siren Song of Delusion and Despair

wax for your voyage

In some ways the war for your mind and soul is infinitely complex. In others, it is simple. I propose that all one must do to walk the path of righteousness and virtue in a world where vice and evil often reign is to sail the narrow strait between delusion and despair. Delusion allows you to tell a drunken story of glory and triumph casting yourself as the righteous hero when an impartial observer might well see you as the villain. Despair makes you the totally worthless observer of a reality upon which you exert no meaningful influence. It is essentially the difference between being an unwitting accomplice to evil, and failing to fulfill whatever innate responsibility you have to exercise your will. Knowing that these are omnipresent threats is simple. Navigating the true path around these threats is the ultimate challenge for those in search of a life well lived.

Despair

Despair is by far the easier of the two obstacles to recognize and avoid. In fact, life’s travelers often deliberately choose to walk the path of despair if only to distinguish themselves from the contemptible masses luxuriating in delusion. This is, of course, a false dichotomy. Just because many satisfy themselves through delusion doesn’t mean it is impossible to seek understanding of the world as it is without despair. Indeed, I argue that some measure of optimism is always rational, although being able to perceive this when times are tough can be challenging. This isn’t because it is difficult to consider the clear logical basis for maintaining hope. Rather, it is only because being mired in despair dulls the faculties to such an extent that the irrationality of pessimistic assumptions about the world aren’t directly addressed. As Samwise Gamgee explained to his black-pilled companion in one of the greatest stories ever told “there’s good in the world Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” How do you argue with that? That there isn’t any good in the world? Or that, if there is, it isn’t worth fighting for? Either proposition is absurd. If good didn’t exist in the first place, the evil that we witness wouldn’t be so tragic. As for good being worth fighting for, what else are you doing with your time, exactly? Too busy feeling sorry for yourself and the fate of everything you hold dear? Doesn’t it make more sense to make the source of your chagrin the foe to vanquish in a righteous quest to achieve your own destiny?

Delusion

At first glance ascribing oneself such a degree of grandiosity might seem delusional. Is it though? Are we not the most important people in our own stories? There is a balance to be struck to be sure. The key to attaining that balance is also the underlying reason why resisting the pull of delusion is so perpetually difficult. The only way to reliably avoid delusion is to see yourself as you are, and this is no easy task. Understanding the world as it is comes next, and is infinitely more challenging and complex. To understand the world as it is requires that we not only understand ourselves, but others as well. To achieve this in even some small way is another incredible challenge, but that doesn’t mean that making such an attempt is futile. To resist the seductive call of delusion we must orient ourselves to an opposite force, and that is truth. We will never fully understand the universe as it is, but we can attempt to do so in earnest. Such an orientation is our only means of escaping a life mired in delusion.

Checking Your Work

Are you living a life in accordance with nature or delusionally rationalizing your own self-interest in a manner that would leave you filled with shame if only the scales could fall from your eyes? For my Christian readers the answer to this question is determined after death. For non-believers, there can no objective arbiter, but even absent final objective judgement, pursuing truth over delusion is a moral and practical imperative.¹ No matter what you want for your life, your best chance of getting it is to always strive to interact with reality as it is, not as you would prefer it to be. If you allow yourself to thrive in delusion it is possible if not positively likely that you are betraying your deepest purported principles and commitments. Let us examine a basic type of secular humanist that wants the best for people. This may manifest as a desire to minimize suffering, or at least engage in behaviors that allow for such a perception. Skipping past the important role suffering plays in spiritual development, it should be obvious that attaining the perception that you are reducing human suffering is much easier than actually doing so.² If this tendency is not accounted for it is unreasonable to expect that your actions are having the effect you desire.

Spiritual Awareness

To bring this talk of despair and delusion back to a recurring theme here at H2F Man, discerning the narrow path between these common pitfalls requires some awareness of your purpose and the wisdom to successfully align your behaviors with fulfilling such. Those who know not their purpose are destined to despair. Those willing to accept self-serving delusion over deeper and often inconvenient truths betray any purpose they have rightly identified. We are all tempted by the siren song of delusion and despair to at least some extent, and many of us will ultimately crash upon the rocks of reality in some cosmic punishment for our failure to resist this malign call. Knowing your purpose is no panacea. There will be times when fulfilling it might seem impossible. At other times your journey along the path might be leisurely and comfortable, perhaps too comfortable. Constant vigilance against despair and delusion can never provide a guarantee that you will not stray from the path. Despair can unsettle even the most stoic beholding a great tragedy and delusion can blindside even the most humble. One of the difficult truths embedded within this reality we all share is that we must always be susceptible to the competing siren songs of delusion and despair. Such is the cosmic cost of the free will and agency granted us. Vigilance is the continued price that must be paid to exercise these blessings to their fullest extent.

1. Yes, even for atheists

2. Effective Altruism achieves this quite spectacularly by conflating the abstraction of saving lives and alleviating suffering with how such a thing occurs in reality. Peter Singer famously argues that there is no moral difference between helping a neighbor and someone halfway across the world, but of course misses the fundamental truth that it is likely that you will have direct feedback as to how your efforts impact the life of your neighbor, whereas you have no such ability with those on the other side of the world. You are left then with feedback from third parties comprised of human beings with every incentive to demonstrate to the source of the funds that such support is instrumental in making the most critical of differences and virtually no consequences for exaggerating the extent to which such claims are true.