It's all very noble and grand and happy to make statements such as these. It takes us to a new level of intellectualism to say things like this, right? Anything we assume that, when questioned, holds up is therefore valuable. But not worth living? That seems inaccurate.
Unexamined lives don't amount to much, true. People that work the land or the cubicle, that marry someone, have a family, maybe grow old (maybe not) and eventually become statistics, these are people that live lives worth living. These are generally happy people, even if they're not content on a day-to-day basis. But the examiners, from the first question they think, condemn themselves to lifelong frustration.
Frustration with their fellow men for accepting everything at face value, disgust with their inability to seek truth, let alone find it. Anger at everyone, that even if unvoiced remains a pest in the ear. Examiners become like Winston Smith; a single thought that forces a choice:
1. To be condemned
or
2. To live a shallow life that he can see to be shallow
...and examiners often end up like Winston Smith as well. They have no grand affect on the world. It continues to turn while they are shut down like Winston.
So the unexamined life is entirely worth living, but only possible if you have the rare ability to think about nothing at all.
I like your argument, however I would qualify it. Rather than the complete inability to think, I would rather say the ability to ignore everything that happens around you. I feel like that way we include all those mindless drones Death of a Salesman talks about (hopefully I am thinking of the right work otherwise this comment will be very awkward)
ReplyDeleteI agree that by the time a person asks himself about examining his life, it's too late to be happy living in the shallow world that he was previously satisfied with. In my blog I think I said something similar. I don't think it's fair that we have to choose between being happy and searching for truer meaning.
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