I think it was when I was old enough to learn the first degree equations, that I had this Math teacher who, as I recall him, resembled Andre Malraux. I can remember he was tall, and was chain smoking, even as he was giving the course. This, seems today so improbable, that I admit my childhood memories might have been distorted, but still, if you ask me, he was chain smoking in the classroom. Yes, that was an other era…
He also had this dark, tenebrous, worried look in his eyes, a look that seemed to be trying to ponder if there was a slight chance you could grasp the beginning of one of his elaborated thought, or if you were just a mere sophisticated cow, as Marlaux’s honcho de Gaulle famously said: “French are cows”.
As for my Math teacher, his looked more as if he was resigned to the idea that he was facing half baked brains, and that there was no hope we could ever even begin to understand him, except maybe for the first degree equations. And in retrospect, he was absolutely right.
He was sitting hidden behind his cloud from the Gitanes without filter, maybe his feet on the desk, but again, I would not swear on it. An he might have had a Citroen Dyane, where the real Malraux would have had a Citroen DS.
The only lesson I remember, I was only distractingly listening, as often I guess, but it had something to do with: “We only see things the way we see them, because we are build to see them that way”.
He then looked at us for a while, took a deep inhale on his Gitane, and said: “you don’t have the slightest idea of what I am talking about, do you?” And to be honest, nope, I had no idea. He then picks on one of the kid, not one perceived as the brightest: “You for instance, (I forgot his name), what does this evokes to you?”
The kid grumble a bit and then replies: “Yes, that’s as if we could see heat.”
Wow! Shock and awe in my brain! Where was that coming from? (It’s actually only later that I adopted the belief that ideas always comes from somewhere, someone else, or are a recombination of pre-existing ideas. And if not always, then 99 percent of the time. 1% left being the product of geniuses like Einstein)
The professor, after a second of surprise, got all exited. Finally some sign of intelligence in his class! He takes his feet of the desk, speak rapidly, moving his arms in the air as if chasing a fly: “Yes! You hear that? That’s a fantastic example! What if we could see the heat from this radiator for instance?” He then went on with the vision of bees or flies, and then I can’t remember.
I actually recall this episode as I was reading the report commissioned for the United Nations Conference on Happiness initiated by Bhutan. In the chapter “Rethinking the Keys to Happiness”, Jeffrey Sachs point out that “we are largely unaware of our mental apparatus”. And that was actually what my teacher was trying to tell me! “You only think the way you think, because you are build to think that way.” “To see” is just a metaphor for “to think”, you see?
The report has been criticized and censored by China, as it leaves China at the 112th rank, out of 156. But beyond China, it is interesting to see the attention the UN is paying to happiness and mental health in general. Beyond physical survival, it is reassuring to see the World Health Organization focusing on mental health, as it seems reasonable to expect a sharp decline in the global mental health worldwide in the near future. As the population is aging, the percentage of people losing their cognitive faculties increases.
We then need to add the fact that population is increasing faster in poor countries. When you don’t have the basic needs like food and shelter, it is very difficult to elevate the reasoning beyond the urgency.
And then we finally add the fact that if a society is too opulent, it looses track with reality, as Jeffrey Sachs tell us in his report:
“Affluence has created its own set of afflictions and addictions. Obesity, adult-onset diabetes, tobacco-related illnesses, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, psychosocial disorders, and addictions to shopping, TV, and gambling, are all examples of disorders of development.”
So if we sum up, the population is increasing, but the general mental health on the planet might be decreasing. It is more insidious as we cannot “see” the mental health, as we can see a healthy body.
I still wonder how it would be to see like a fly.
In the report on happiness, the case of the Bhutan seems very interesting. (No wonder, they actually are the reason why this report exist in the first place). The King declared the goal of happiness over the goal of wealth. It would be good if our occidental leaders cared at all about the happiness of their population. They would probably say that happiness is a byproduct of economic growth. Too bad for us! This growth is not sustainable! We are just going to be unhappy then! Or maybe, if we can, we will index our happiness on something else. Yes, good, because economic growth, forget about it!
Going back to Bhutan, we can wonder if a poor, censored, completely ignorant but happy society is preferable to a rich, free thinking, developed but unhappy one. Voltaire, Rousseau. Does knowledge and civilization makes us unhappy and vile?
An other example of secluded society, is the Amazonian tribe of the Pirahã who apparently manage to be happy without been able to count after two. They only have words for one, two and many. Don’t you instinctively feel the urge to ask them: “Yes, but how many fingers do you have?” and they will happily answer:
“Many!
-Yes, but how many?
-Many.
-Ok, many. I’m happy. But if we were in Europe, I would not be happy if you can’t count to three. You would be bullied at school and very sad. One, two, THREE!!! People would make fun of you, would take many many money from you, you would never find a job, let alone a wife: “how many kids do you have?
-Many!
-No! no! One, twoooo, THREEEEE!!!””
With progress comes greater expectations, and with greater expectations comes greater pressure and disillusions. If being able to count up to three is relatively easy for someone who grew up in our society, it would be almost impossible to you if you grew up amongst the Pirahã. But there, the pressure and anxiety induced by intellectual competition is reduced to almost zero, as the challenge to count up to two should be easily met by the whole tribe. The idea of suicide seems completely foreign to the Pirahã.
It is also funny to note how the Pirahã dismissed the existence of Jesus. Everett is the american evangelist who tried to convert them to Christianity. The Pirahã asked him if he had met Jesus.
Everett said:
“no, I have not.
-then he does not exist. Case closed. Let’s go fishing.”
Einstein, apparently, has been very slow to develop speech. He only started talking after the age of three, or, as some would say, after many years. But he would then, after many many years, be able to say things like:
“I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves–such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty. The ordinary objects of human endeavour–property, outward success, luxury–have always seemed to me contemptible.” (Einstein: The world as i see it).
Well, it does seems a bit harsh on Bhutan, to call them a herd of swine, just because they put happiness before… literacy for instance. Such was not Einstein purpose, and he was certainly not speaking about Bhutan in particular. But we can also deduct that unhappiness is not always a sign of bad mental health, Einstein being after all an example of a relatively good use of a brain. And he admits to have needed new courage to face life cheerfully, which means that things where not always as easy as it seems. It is absolutely normal for a healthy body to feel discomfort at -30 degrees centigrade. So why a healthy brain should not feel discomfort in an absurd environment or facing difficult circumstances?
“Being preoccupied with the objective” is a metaphor for truth. Maybe Freud would have said: “Being preoccupied with the subjective”, and we could have expected Einstein to be “preoccupied with the relativism”. But no! Relativity is not relativism, and Einstein did not need to tell us he was preoccupied with relativity. We would have said:
“Yes, yes, thanks Einstein! I’m not stupid. Everybody knows you are preoccupied with relativity! Duh!”
Relativism on the other side, is a slippery slope leading to any possible absurdity mankind can possibly imagine. Nevertheless, in order to be able to see like a fly, it is also necessary to accept some sort of cultural relativism (Well, in the case of the fly, it would actually be more than that, but let’s simplify here). And we can easily think that this cultural relativism plays a role in the mental apparatus we so desperately try to be aware of (Aren’t we trying desperately?) This is in contradiction though, with the objective and unique truth. Einstein puts the art and the scientific research on the same field, but we could argue that objectivity can not be applied in the same manner to art and to science. But both art and science have in common a difference with the fish, in that they are both indeed unattainable. For Einstein, happiness would be the byproduct of goal achieving.
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
Maybe he could have added: “tie it to an unattainable goal, something like a unified field theory”
Do not rely on things: Fair enough. Do not rely on people: well, this does not sounds very romantic, but logically it does sounds right. I guess Einstein was a scientific, not a poet. Also it means you should not rely on particular persons for your happiness, but it does leave open the possibility to rely on society in general. Einstein actually built his knowledge on the knowledge of others, even if from there he managed to go where no-one had gone before.
Lets imagine Einstein growing up amongst the Pirahã:
“ Einstein: Herd of swine! Can’t you see what comes after two?
Pirahã guy: what?
E: Three!
P: I don’t need it to be happy. Let’s go fishing. Fishing makes me happy.
E: Animals! Unworthy human beings! Can’t you see that if we can’t count to three, we will never be able to build the atomic bomb. And the Germans, let me tell you that, the Germans, they know how to count to three!
P: Fishing makes me happy. Have you seen an atomic bomb?
E: No, it does not exist, YET!
P: Then it does not exist. Case closed. Lets go fishing.
E: Your goal of catching a fish, gives you reward and makes you happy today. But by counting to three, some man will build machines, and those machines will one day come and destroy your environment. There will be no more fish, no more fishing, no more happiness. By deferring your gratification, you can change this future. You cannot just be! You have to become! You have to build a system that will protect you, your environment and do the fishing for you, so that you have time to elevate your thoughts above the level of a pig!”
P: But I like fishing! Have you seen the future?
E: No, it does not exist, YET! But time dilation is relative to velocity.
P: …
E: Ok let’s go fishing…
P: Do you know how to catch a monkey?
E: I don’t need to catch a monkey! I have unattainable goals! I will invent relativity for Gods sake!
P: No dinner tonight then!
E: I can’t possibly be born here! Which planet is this?
P: What is a planet?
E: Ooone… twooooo …
P: Are you making fun of us? No, because you are not different from us, you know! We are both human beings living on the same planet, and in the same forest for that matter.
E: I know, that’s why I love solitude. I am the lone traveler. I don’t belong to anything nor to anybody.
P: Well, you can’t live apart from the tribe here. You would just die. There is no 7eleven around the corner you know…
E: I am doomed. How can my potential possibly realize itself in this social environment?
P: …
E: …
P: Let’s go fishing?
E: Ok, let’s go fishing.
E (hectically waving his hand): What on earth is wrong with those flies?”
This is the undeniable demonstration that Einstein could never had written the theory of relativity in the Amazonian jungle. He would have been forced to find happiness in fishing, and his unattainable goal would have been to count up to three.
Oooone, twwoooooo, …