Matthew, I thought this very well done, and nicely extends your thinking, which I've been following on Unherd and occasionally elsewhere. FWIW, I find myself largely in agreement. Kudos, and keep up the good work. Cheers!
Dear Matthew, I just read your essay on Unheard and I just want to say that it is the most beautiful and persuasive piece of writing that I've read in a long time. Just marvelous, wonderful. You mentioned somewhere that writing for you is about struggling with the limitation imposed on you by the reader - trying to communicate ideas as clearly and persuasively as possible. Well - you definitely succeeded this time!
Judging from some of the comments here and on Unherd, it seems the subject of gratitude hits a nerve: some people don’t like it a lot. It’s almost unseemly.
Tolstoy wrote, “The most difficult thing, and the most blissful thing to do is to love life in the midst of one’s suffering.”
What can you say about an incapacity so fervently held onto?
A woman’s breast is like surfing in that they both can represent a surfeit of good fortune.
I find this essay incredibly sloppy. You end with an assertion that the existence of surfing and women's breasts are equivalent. Surfing is an act of humans using technology (a surfboard) to flow with the movement of ocean waves. Of course, you completely omit any mention of the surfboard technology involved in that action. So surfing is a human activity involving technology and the ever-changing pattern of waves. A woman's breasts are physical parts of the human body given a name by humans. That name carries with it an array of culture meanings. You ignore the cultural weight that breasts have. There is much thought in this article but I conclude it is more a rationalization of a particular view of the world than a reasonable description of reality.
I guess the title on Unherd is click-bait, and not your own, but a title like that—Can Gratitude Save Humanity?—discredits the article and the entire idea, because of course not. And given the US educational system, we are far, far, ever farther from character building & any range of ideas that would instill gratitude, care, thrift, and any understanding that there is beauty & intelligence in the world itself, separate from our own projection of it. As a world, we seem to be losing our grip on the idea that there is something always there "thinking" in nature, something outside of us manifesting that concerns us & invites us & to which we are connected. So honestly, without vast deep change & the freeing of the captive mind, I don't see how gratitude comes into the picture in any significant way as a practice & actions that are meaningful outside of our wish that it would.
Dear Matthew B Crawford, thank you for this beautiful meditation on gratitude and affection for the world as it is. I am especially taken with your discussion of the world and other people as being outside the self, and that it is this outsideness that is necessary for gratitude. I read a short essay by CS Lewis yesterday on what it means to be miserable, which is not a feeling one has but a condition that exists when seen from the outside. "No man has any natural knowledge of his own inner state," he writes, "and I think that at the beginning we probably find it much easier to understand and believe this about other people than about ourselves." I've been turning this sentence over in my mind. It seems to resonate nicely with what you say of needing this outside-oneself perspective.
Your writing reminds me that being in the world is a question of fit. I would like to fit myself to the world as it is, and to other people. This will be the work of a lifetime, and I hope that I can continually recalibrate what a human is capable of, as you say. Your guidance on this matter is something for which I feel immense gratitude. -- I also feel grateful for having this opportunity to correspond personally with a thinker I so much admire!
Beautiful article, which I mentioned yesterday in my "Night Diary"( Diario notturno) in my blog "Diary of Roberto Graziotto" (Diario di Roberto Graziotto)
The only relevant question is How to live? An examination of gratitude, transhumanism, and living in the real world seems like a “relevant” project to me. I think Mr. Crawford never fails to puts new thoughts and connections in my head, for which I’m really grateful.
I'm sure the writer and the readers and listeners are convinced that this somehow has meaning or even relevance. That's the problem with over intellectualism. It's possible to string together great swathes of words (generalisations in particular) and be convinced they somehow have meaning in the real world, whereas in the real world they convey nothing of substance or importance other than the self indulgence of the participants.
I read and much enjoyed the full length piece on UnHerd: I’ll make time for the podcast as soon as I’m able, and look forward to it.
I did like the reference to cartoons - personally, Road Runner was always my favourite, partly because of Wyle E. Coyote’s constant technological frustrations, but particularly because, every time he fell down into the canyon (a look of resigned acceptance on his face), there was no earth-shaking crash as he hit ground, just an insignificant little puff of dust. Maybe something about that just appealed to my nascent appreciation of human insignificance... Though I suspect that, at the time, I just had a child’s cruel sense of humour (partially outgrown).
Although I generally eschew categorisations, I would certainly rank among one of Oakeshott's conservatives. Regarding gratitude, I do like the thinking that you have given to this topic which so often goes unnoticed. I always find this difficult these days as I personally relate to it in a much deeper way than it is often used in today's world. I hate the way it is used within parts of the spiritual / mindfulness brigade in the context of trite relationships with the world around them. Thanks for your writing and thinking. Loved your 'Why we Drive'.
Matthew, I thought this very well done, and nicely extends your thinking, which I've been following on Unherd and occasionally elsewhere. FWIW, I find myself largely in agreement. Kudos, and keep up the good work. Cheers!
Dear Matthew, I just read your essay on Unheard and I just want to say that it is the most beautiful and persuasive piece of writing that I've read in a long time. Just marvelous, wonderful. You mentioned somewhere that writing for you is about struggling with the limitation imposed on you by the reader - trying to communicate ideas as clearly and persuasively as possible. Well - you definitely succeeded this time!
A very rewarding read. I think it must be right. Keep it up!
This was an excellent article, Matthew, and very glad to see that you're writing here on Substack!
Judging from some of the comments here and on Unherd, it seems the subject of gratitude hits a nerve: some people don’t like it a lot. It’s almost unseemly.
Tolstoy wrote, “The most difficult thing, and the most blissful thing to do is to love life in the midst of one’s suffering.”
What can you say about an incapacity so fervently held onto?
A woman’s breast is like surfing in that they both can represent a surfeit of good fortune.
I find this essay incredibly sloppy. You end with an assertion that the existence of surfing and women's breasts are equivalent. Surfing is an act of humans using technology (a surfboard) to flow with the movement of ocean waves. Of course, you completely omit any mention of the surfboard technology involved in that action. So surfing is a human activity involving technology and the ever-changing pattern of waves. A woman's breasts are physical parts of the human body given a name by humans. That name carries with it an array of culture meanings. You ignore the cultural weight that breasts have. There is much thought in this article but I conclude it is more a rationalization of a particular view of the world than a reasonable description of reality.
I guess the title on Unherd is click-bait, and not your own, but a title like that—Can Gratitude Save Humanity?—discredits the article and the entire idea, because of course not. And given the US educational system, we are far, far, ever farther from character building & any range of ideas that would instill gratitude, care, thrift, and any understanding that there is beauty & intelligence in the world itself, separate from our own projection of it. As a world, we seem to be losing our grip on the idea that there is something always there "thinking" in nature, something outside of us manifesting that concerns us & invites us & to which we are connected. So honestly, without vast deep change & the freeing of the captive mind, I don't see how gratitude comes into the picture in any significant way as a practice & actions that are meaningful outside of our wish that it would.
Dear Matthew B Crawford, thank you for this beautiful meditation on gratitude and affection for the world as it is. I am especially taken with your discussion of the world and other people as being outside the self, and that it is this outsideness that is necessary for gratitude. I read a short essay by CS Lewis yesterday on what it means to be miserable, which is not a feeling one has but a condition that exists when seen from the outside. "No man has any natural knowledge of his own inner state," he writes, "and I think that at the beginning we probably find it much easier to understand and believe this about other people than about ourselves." I've been turning this sentence over in my mind. It seems to resonate nicely with what you say of needing this outside-oneself perspective.
Your writing reminds me that being in the world is a question of fit. I would like to fit myself to the world as it is, and to other people. This will be the work of a lifetime, and I hope that I can continually recalibrate what a human is capable of, as you say. Your guidance on this matter is something for which I feel immense gratitude. -- I also feel grateful for having this opportunity to correspond personally with a thinker I so much admire!
Beautiful article, which I mentioned yesterday in my "Night Diary"( Diario notturno) in my blog "Diary of Roberto Graziotto" (Diario di Roberto Graziotto)
The only relevant question is How to live? An examination of gratitude, transhumanism, and living in the real world seems like a “relevant” project to me. I think Mr. Crawford never fails to puts new thoughts and connections in my head, for which I’m really grateful.
I'm sure the writer and the readers and listeners are convinced that this somehow has meaning or even relevance. That's the problem with over intellectualism. It's possible to string together great swathes of words (generalisations in particular) and be convinced they somehow have meaning in the real world, whereas in the real world they convey nothing of substance or importance other than the self indulgence of the participants.
I read and much enjoyed the full length piece on UnHerd: I’ll make time for the podcast as soon as I’m able, and look forward to it.
I did like the reference to cartoons - personally, Road Runner was always my favourite, partly because of Wyle E. Coyote’s constant technological frustrations, but particularly because, every time he fell down into the canyon (a look of resigned acceptance on his face), there was no earth-shaking crash as he hit ground, just an insignificant little puff of dust. Maybe something about that just appealed to my nascent appreciation of human insignificance... Though I suspect that, at the time, I just had a child’s cruel sense of humour (partially outgrown).
Nice, contemplative piece - thank you.
Although I generally eschew categorisations, I would certainly rank among one of Oakeshott's conservatives. Regarding gratitude, I do like the thinking that you have given to this topic which so often goes unnoticed. I always find this difficult these days as I personally relate to it in a much deeper way than it is often used in today's world. I hate the way it is used within parts of the spiritual / mindfulness brigade in the context of trite relationships with the world around them. Thanks for your writing and thinking. Loved your 'Why we Drive'.
“What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompence, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good proved ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high
I ’sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome still paying, still to owe;
Forgetful what from him I still received,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharged; what burden then?"
—Satan talks about God in Paradise Lost, Book
Satan's desire to ascend "one step higher" is a kind of speaking about transhumanism, isn't it?
"I ’sdeined subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome still paying, still to owe;"