The Eternal Cycle By William Zinsser Analysis
I wholeheartedly agree with Zinsser's essay; through a series of unfortunate circumstances, individuals of today hopelessly misdirected toward notions of success and wealth, utterly oblivious in their incessant worshipping of hard-line goals, have entirely dispossessed themselves of the holistic perspective concomitant with a more satisfactory existence. It’s quite difficult to identify a machine or its overarching purpose and ultimate destination if focus is fixated exclusively on a single minute function or operation; for that matter, it’s impossible for one to truly see his or her self and its relation to its world without stepping outside of it. Too many individuals today behave like mindless cogs in a machine, performing the same functions unchecked and without conscience until they wear themselves worthless and die, only to be replaced by a newer and more able performer in what amounts to, in only the eyes of the distant onlookers, a cruel and fruitless cycle, comparable to the plight of tantalus’ eternity in the underworld.
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Of course, the “eternal cycle” aspect of this analogy is itself nothing new; life has been dutifully fulfilling its existential requirements without conscience forever; simply dying and rebirthing and performing and continuing unquestioningly.
Life has always been victim to its own programming; equipped with reward mechanisms for which to know and thus know without; for us to have and then to lose; for us to inescapably enslave ourselves in eternal longing, be it for sex, food, water, or sanctuary. In many ways it could be argued that it is this quest for satisfaction itself that possesses us of the knowledge of suffering, that the will to live is itself suffering. We are our captors, our drivers; we are life, and we are as inescapable as
death. The allegory of the machine, however, gives form to the distinct state of modern humanity; we wouldn’t see in terms of machines if it wasn’t for the ability to reflect and understand in the larger sense which I prescribed earlier with such connotative reverence as largely absent. This, in many ways, is our great, all-too-ubiquitous paradox. Mankind’s comparatively advanced capacity to “see life from afar” and its conquering of the basic struggle to survive exists interdependent on one another; the ability to expand perspective and reflect, analyze, and react accordingly has given way to the innumerable innovations which have, in many places, made instantly accessible food, water, and effective medical care and thus significantly increased the average lifespan. Conversely, this relatively new ease of survival has amounted to unprecedented amounts of idle time, into which our surplus survival instincts are poured in the form of reflection and the general expanding of our current perspective. Of course, it must be noted that in many areas, namely the sciences, we continue to fight for methods of increasing our survival (medical breakthroughs, environmentally, chemically, etc.), however, the energy of those not preoccupied or particularly interested in such causes often manifests in a variety of forms, the vast majority of these existing as dissuasions from the facts of our existence while ironically still operating as the puppets of the facts of existence. Among these are not exclusively or without exception many religions and legal systems (both are typically nothing more than invented systems from which to measure and judge the value of individuals by mere abstractions of the human mind, and an embarrassing attempt to apply objective characteristics to explicitly subjective interpretations as well as to infinitely varying circumstances and occurrences, not to mention inevitably full of endless contradictions and hypocrisies because of the latter tendency), technology (survival is already easy; the advent of cell phones will and has likely already begun to counter the abilities of humans on an individual level; further technological advancements made not out of necessity but monetary desire shall prove in time also to be debilitating to the autonomy of the human individual), and the American (and most other) economic system(s) (obviously money is just another symbol we’ve created to represent value, something else we’ve invented and determine only by social, religious, or legal constructs, as explained before, also mere fabrications). Truthfully, though, it is likely in error that I refer to all of these things as “merely abstract, invented or fabricated.” It is important to keep in mind that they are all in a large and impassable sense indicative of the basic will to survive. They are all representative of the satisfied and yet still insatiable urge, desire to survive. Creatures always want to be the “best” in their own rites so as to be most desired by the “best” mate. Just as animals have fights or dances or rituals to determine this, humans have complex societies and hierarchies, however discreet, to determine this. Even in religion, which often shuns sex, true adherents will desire another who is equally, if not more adherent, someone who is the “best” at behaving morally. Of course this is all on a subconscious level; these people in these systems go to great measures to convince themselves that they are participating in the highest reality imaginable, that truly it all matters and they can achieve true greatness and respect and various other presumably objective merits. People wish ardently to be more than an insatiable appetite for sex and food and safety and the few other survival needs. But all they do is play into it; they complicate things and as a result their malcontentedness brews unassessed. Everybody wants to be content, but few take the time to wonder why they aren’t. It should be mentioned that we’ve created one group who spends their surplus instincts in art, and may more or less be on some kind of fruitful, or if not at least potentially honest, path. Here, through literary, musical, or image-creating mediums, our reflection is conveyed. Here, if only by performing the process itself, life is given meaning outside of just “prolonging.” The seeking and offering of empathy, of comfort to and from others plagued by the same consuming weariness, or the innate, interminable quiet of despair, or of impending tragedy, or the outright lament for life becomes the new purpose for those who do not consider mere surviving satisfactory, for those who do not consider the endless pursuit of fleeting pleasure awarded to them by eating or intercourse a “justifiable” or worthy life. So, because it was this broad perspective that named the machine and identified ourselves as contributing pieces and thus made the machine a machine, and because it is the machine that furnishes our ability to hold this perspective, we must realize that as both are interdependent, both must also negate each other. Both are perfectly one and futile at the same time.
Perhaps We’ve created God to see Ourselves from the outside, the same way He’s created Us to see Himself from the inside. Being is a strange, necessary, futility; a perfect all, every individual part existing only to abscond into the single, eternal flux. An instant everything, nothing.
It’s always been the same one.
Of course, the “eternal cycle” aspect of this analogy is itself nothing new; life has been dutifully fulfilling its existential requirements without conscience forever; simply dying and rebirthing and performing and continuing unquestioningly.
Life has always been victim to its own programming; equipped with reward mechanisms for which to know and thus know without; for us to have and then to lose; for us to inescapably enslave ourselves in eternal longing, be it for sex, food, water, or sanctuary. In many ways it could be argued that it is this quest for satisfaction itself that possesses us of the knowledge of suffering, that the will to live is itself suffering. We are our captors, our drivers; we are life, and we are as inescapable as
death. The allegory of the machine, however, gives form to the distinct state of modern humanity; we wouldn’t see in terms of machines if it wasn’t for the ability to reflect and understand in the larger sense which I prescribed earlier with such connotative reverence as largely absent. This, in many ways, is our great, all-too-ubiquitous paradox. Mankind’s comparatively advanced capacity to “see life from afar” and its conquering of the basic struggle to survive exists interdependent on one another; the ability to expand perspective and reflect, analyze, and react accordingly has given way to the innumerable innovations which have, in many places, made instantly accessible food, water, and effective medical care and thus significantly increased the average lifespan. Conversely, this relatively new ease of survival has amounted to unprecedented amounts of idle time, into which our surplus survival instincts are poured in the form of reflection and the general expanding of our current perspective. Of course, it must be noted that in many areas, namely the sciences, we continue to fight for methods of increasing our survival (medical breakthroughs, environmentally, chemically, etc.), however, the energy of those not preoccupied or particularly interested in such causes often manifests in a variety of forms, the vast majority of these existing as dissuasions from the facts of our existence while ironically still operating as the puppets of the facts of existence. Among these are not exclusively or without exception many religions and legal systems (both are typically nothing more than invented systems from which to measure and judge the value of individuals by mere abstractions of the human mind, and an embarrassing attempt to apply objective characteristics to explicitly subjective interpretations as well as to infinitely varying circumstances and occurrences, not to mention inevitably full of endless contradictions and hypocrisies because of the latter tendency), technology (survival is already easy; the advent of cell phones will and has likely already begun to counter the abilities of humans on an individual level; further technological advancements made not out of necessity but monetary desire shall prove in time also to be debilitating to the autonomy of the human individual), and the American (and most other) economic system(s) (obviously money is just another symbol we’ve created to represent value, something else we’ve invented and determine only by social, religious, or legal constructs, as explained before, also mere fabrications). Truthfully, though, it is likely in error that I refer to all of these things as “merely abstract, invented or fabricated.” It is important to keep in mind that they are all in a large and impassable sense indicative of the basic will to survive. They are all representative of the satisfied and yet still insatiable urge, desire to survive. Creatures always want to be the “best” in their own rites so as to be most desired by the “best” mate. Just as animals have fights or dances or rituals to determine this, humans have complex societies and hierarchies, however discreet, to determine this. Even in religion, which often shuns sex, true adherents will desire another who is equally, if not more adherent, someone who is the “best” at behaving morally. Of course this is all on a subconscious level; these people in these systems go to great measures to convince themselves that they are participating in the highest reality imaginable, that truly it all matters and they can achieve true greatness and respect and various other presumably objective merits. People wish ardently to be more than an insatiable appetite for sex and food and safety and the few other survival needs. But all they do is play into it; they complicate things and as a result their malcontentedness brews unassessed. Everybody wants to be content, but few take the time to wonder why they aren’t. It should be mentioned that we’ve created one group who spends their surplus instincts in art, and may more or less be on some kind of fruitful, or if not at least potentially honest, path. Here, through literary, musical, or image-creating mediums, our reflection is conveyed. Here, if only by performing the process itself, life is given meaning outside of just “prolonging.” The seeking and offering of empathy, of comfort to and from others plagued by the same consuming weariness, or the innate, interminable quiet of despair, or of impending tragedy, or the outright lament for life becomes the new purpose for those who do not consider mere surviving satisfactory, for those who do not consider the endless pursuit of fleeting pleasure awarded to them by eating or intercourse a “justifiable” or worthy life. So, because it was this broad perspective that named the machine and identified ourselves as contributing pieces and thus made the machine a machine, and because it is the machine that furnishes our ability to hold this perspective, we must realize that as both are interdependent, both must also negate each other. Both are perfectly one and futile at the same time.
Perhaps We’ve created God to see Ourselves from the outside, the same way He’s created Us to see Himself from the inside. Being is a strange, necessary, futility; a perfect all, every individual part existing only to abscond into the single, eternal flux. An instant everything, nothing.
It’s always been the same one.