The Murder of Humpty Dumpty

New forensic evidence has revived speculation that Humpty Dumpty’s fall was not an accident, after all, and Aristotle is a person of interest in the case.

We have long suspected that Aristotle has some culpability with regard to the sad state of the modern world, having taught us to break apart and study the pieces of things we want to understand, but not emphasizing enough how important it is to figure out how all those parts work together. Our focus has increasingly narrowed, and we’ve split things into smaller and smaller units until we’ve gained great understanding of the pieces, but we cannot put them together so they can work again.

The problem has spread from science to politics to work to relationships. People have lost the ability to look up and see beyond their self-defined interests, and they have lost the desire to look at, listen to, or understand those with different interests. Ethnic traditions, religious views, lifestyle choices, and economic status have become targets for derision. Efforts by some to emphasize the need for tolerance and inclusiveness have, instead, prompted many people to push back and mock them.

To be sure, Aristotle was not promoting division. His investigation of particular things — whether plant and animal life or the earth and the heavens — was part of his quest to find universal truths. His “natural philosophy” combined the study of phenomena in the natural world with the development of ethics and metaphysics, and he grouped physics and biology with logic, poetry, and the arts.

Not everyone was as smart at Aristotle, and, through the years, those who took up what he started turned some of his findings into dogma while others viewed them as irrelevant, depending upon their disposition. What has survived most successfully is the realization that, by focusing on pieces, we can understand them, even if we don’t understand how it all works together.

There is no denying that our pursuit of knowledge has resulted in more comfortable living conditions, a wide range of food choices, wealth for some and relief from destitution for others; but all that we have accomplished is threatened by what we are doing to each other and to the planet upon which we live and depend.

Intolerance and ridicule have isolated people. By narrowing their concerns to those of like mind, many have learned to ignore those with different views, which, in turn, has allowed greater divisions. After years of trying to overcome differences in race, economic classes, and ethnic backgrounds, we find those differences are the base of deep-seated hatred. It has culminated in a world without compassion for the poor, empathy for displaced people, or understanding of cultural heritage.

Our world is being shattered, with forces on all sides striking blows at its inhabitants, raping the planet for short-term gains, and breaking down the wall upon which Humpty Dumpty sat.

Fortunately, we also have the means to pick up the pieces and perhaps put them back together again. It begins with listening to the other side, and, instead of getting distracted by areas of disagreement, focusing on where any agreement lies. Sometimes, beneath the dark, objectionable material, one finds a gem of truth that reflects the light of reason and hints of the universal truths we have lost sight of.

That is the direction this quest has taken us, and we will be trying to look past the differences to see what lies beyond. The mission of quest, as Backcountry Ben set out in his poem, is “to lead you through the darkness/not tell you what to see.”

January 27, 2016