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Job, Stockdale and Epictetus: Reflections on Constructing a Life
Sometime ago a friend of mine suggested that most people had trouble sorting out their lives and needed to readthe 'Great Books' - not necessarily because all the answers were there. Though many of the critical questions thatcome up over & over again were carefully considered by some of the greatest minds and it was participating inthat examination that he felt would help. While agreeing with him as a principle my counter was that most/nearlyall are swamped from these efforts by the requirements of daily existence. Yet learning to cope with those trials &tribulations is what it's all about. At the end we sorta agreed that what was required was 3rd party intervention tohelp capture, synthesize and communicate, as well as enhance and extend where possible, key insights. At the end of the day though I have to more than concede that my friend was fundamentally correct - investingsome time in frequent consideration of these 'spiritual' explorations and their application to daily life is vital.With that as preamble I'd like to submit some further reflections on Job, an intro and reflections on Stockdale's'Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot' and Epitectus - Stockdale's ultimate mentor and inspiration.
Reflections on Job
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Sometime ago another friend remarked that Job was one of the more, if not most, difficult books of the bible; andone he didn't resolve or feel was well resolved by most discussions he'd seen. After further reflection that seemstrue to me but it also seems to be me that most of the analysis/reactions/difficulties lie in how the judgments areframed. People read the book looking for a simple reward & punishment world where the authority rewards goodbehavior and punishes bad.Let me start with argument that the perceptual error is assuming that there is an inherent moral order in theuniverse and all one has to do is align oneself with it to live a just, happy and well-rewarded life. In other wordsbad things never happen to good people.1. These difficulties are often resolved, or at least attempted, or parsed into conclusions by a) using them forthe wrong reasons - that is re-interpreting them into evidence of punishment and reward, to be measuredby the author's preferred yardsticks, despite the repeated discussions in the text itself of different caseswhere this is not true. Or more generally, logically and impracticably by b) arguing that God is beyond ourcomprehension, finite minds cannot encompass him and therefore his reasons are inscrutable and not tobe questioned by such as we.
 
Reflections on Job, Stockdale and Epiectetus
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The trouble is further compounded because the original authors chicken out and Job is eventuallyseen living happily ever after, having been returned to prosperity - thereby making terminallywishy-washy the raising of the most profound questions. The two key, nay critical,
ones are what is the moral nature of the universe? And what is Faith? 
Stop, take a minute and set yourinclinations to answering those questions in your mind.
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The story's resolution doesn't particularly appeal to me because of the wishy-washy thing. On theother side the classic (inscrutability) answer appeals even less - it strikes me as too clever bymore than half and uses logic chopping to avoid confronting the heart of the matter. Despite it'sbeing true as well as laying some groundwork for serious consideration if it were carried farther.
o
So the test being proposed is that we
confront Job's challenges head-on and resolve them within the boundaries of the world we live in rather than duck out on either the fairy-tale or theorists side of things.
2. Let's start with a first proposed resolution and add on some consequences and considerations. We’ll startby arguing the universe is as it is - meaning that it's 'here' and we have to deal with it.
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And further that it is as it must be - that is there seems to be a natural order that organizeseverything we've been able to examine but that order doesn't appear to be driven by firstprinciples per se (or at least headed to some goal) nor is there an obvious moral purpose fromthe universe's unfolding. More mundanely, not all children are above average and the naturalworking of things seems to generate bad events as a natural consequence (novas blow up butare necessary to create the more complex elements which sustain planetary development andthe evolution of life, these elements create chemistry which leads to biology and so on, life suffersextinctions - often enormous ones - as the universe bumbles along, lions eat zebras and peopledo bad things). Or, put still another way,
the natural order seems to require events that are both good and bad, taken separately and in isolation, that do not appear to have an inherent moral economy that defines good & bad for us in universal terms.
 
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On the other hand if the universe has no inherent moral code we are free to choose the rules welive by. That is the morality of the universe is what we choose it to be by our actions. So thequestions really being raised are what moral nature do we choose? And what is your Faith?
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And, as applies to Job, let's think it thru (pause for reflection). If Job's, or anyone's, badexperiences are simply the natural workings of the Universe - as created by God - then ours is tobear up under it, do the best we can, try to improve things where possible and meanwhile act inand have/maintain Faith. This in fact is a better answer than the one traditionally given - though ittakes a powerful lot of thinking thru and then contemplation to see that. But it's the one Jobalmost gives and the author eventually ducks.
 
Reflections on Job, Stockdale and Epiectetus
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3. So, if there is no mandated moral behavior per se, neither is it prevented or precluded. In other words weare free to choose to act morally and in fact have an inescapable responsibility to do so.
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The evidence does seem to suggest however that choosing to a) place the women and childrenfirst encourages species survival but also leads to a type of society we'd prefer to live in, and thatb) we're all better off, by and large, together. That is, it is thru complex, cooperative behavior thatsocieties become wealthier and enable a bigger pie to be created, though who gets which shareis an on-going debate. I am my brother's keeper - and visa versa - so watered, well-fed, andclean cages or otherwise here we all are together.
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Finally c) it turns out that most people most of the time feel better in doing as right as they canmanage. It's why we like to see movies where heroes win after triumphing over adversity.(Personally I'd like to see more movies that are both uplifting and realistic - the hero could die andbe unrequited but it was his choice and he has/had a good chance of seeing some gain). Onecan debate where this innateness comes from, the nature vs. nurture, and the levels ofdevelopment that are genetic vs. those that are added by education - the best evidence is thatgenes and culture co-evolve and that we feel good when doing good because those have beenthe choices of the survivors from before we were homo sapiens.
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It is 'amusing' that many fundamentalists present and defend the most primitive possible view ofthe universe - a simple-minded punishment vs. reward model - as the primary reason for goodbehavior and attack evolution because it challenges this model in their own minds. An interestingcomment on the relative spiritual maturity scale is that they apparently view things much the wayone views disciplining kids or raising puppies. We’re all for good behavior so if it's necessary fortheir's to envision God as lurking around with a giant newspaper, rolled up and ready to swat, well- whatever works.
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Recently we heard an apparently extremely well-respected Baptist fundamentalist whohad a huge church, a $2M/month cash flow, was on all the boards and committees onPBS talking about an epiphany. It seems he was sitting around dandling his grandchild inhis $million home, watching the $50K home theatre and saw the genocides in Rwandaand had an exchange with God. Which went something like -
hell isn't a place you go to for not adhering to the practices of the fundamentalists. IT's here and now and is created by man.
For this piece of blasphemy he's been excommunicated, excoriated inall the right thinking magazines as a dangerous apostate, shunned by his old mentor andfriend Pat Robertson who'll no long return his calls, had his church die, his parishionersabandon him and tithes disappear - along of course with his lifestyle. By-the-Way (BtW) -it should probably be noted that this very simple view of hell is not traceable to gospelsthat I can tell, especially the New Testament but owes more to that humanist Dante aswell as ancient pagan religions. Need we point to the ironies of it all?
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