I have to die, and, probably, suffer. If now, well, nothing to do. If not now, then I may as well have lunch, pointed the founder of Stoicism. After lunch, consumed only if it were excellent, or really necessary (thus excellent), I would have fun, make fun, give fun and offer love (a philosopher in New York, Massimo, pointed out this Epicureanism, not Stoicism. Well I claim they are related, see Note to appear soon…)
My integral of love, fun and games better be greater than my unavoidable integral of pain and suffering.
“In the Martian”, the stranded astronaut is turning as much as he can, into a joke, or turning to good humor. This is not just because he is a happy fellow. It’s because he is also an engineer, absolutely obsessed by “science the shit out of this“. Cheerfulness moves him into action, it’s the engine which gets its engineering spirits in gear. Cheerfulness as the engine of humanity is an everyday lesson. Action, by opposition to depression, requires to celebrate the animal spirits. Should we never celebrate animal spirits, what’s good being an animal? Moreover, never letting the animal spirits roar is contrary to the owner’s manual (as many writers and philosophers have pointed out, including Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, Abelard, Sade, Nietzsche, Foucault…).
I remember once sneaking onto a mountain antelope. It was too busy having fun, it did not see me. Antelopes are not supposed to have fun. Their lives are supposed to be all about sex, supremacy, fighting for females, flight, survival, grazing, climbing impossible cliffs. To my amazement that chamois had found a suitable snowfield, and would slip on it on its back, as if it were skiing. Then it would rush back up, and repeat. It looked delighted, It’s all the more amazing, because the area is prowled by wolves and lynxes (and I have even seen a wolf hunting a chamois; it missed because I intruded).
Thus fun is not restricted to primates and other advanced animals. All birds and mammals are more or less social, and many probably need to have fun, be it only to operate their brains properly.
I read critics who were mystified by the stranded astronaut’s cheerfulness. How could it be? He is stuck on Mars! His food is going to run out! What about his oxygen?
Well critics ought not have been mystified by the good humor of the astronaut: good humor was the key to his survival. (Or actually to anyone’s survival: a mass injection of good humor in the Middle East would do wonders!)
For the stranded astronaut, it was either a cheerful disposition, or depression, thus death. But not just that: the astronaut is not really alone. He is in a dialogue with posterity, even before he re-establishes contact with NASA. Indeed, he records everything.
That makes the fictional, yet stranded, astronaut just as the best thinkers ever were in the history of humanity. He is happy, because he is not working for himself, but for the ultimate patron, humanity itself. No wonder he is cheerful: by working for the greatest moral “person”, the greatest moral entity, out there. So doing, one gets on our side the only god the existence of whom we can demonstrate. Humanity, or, at least, the Holy, Loving and Cheerful spirit it certainly has to exhibit for nurturing others, and, necessarily, children.
Patrice Ayme’
Tags: Epicureianism, Good Humor, Mars, Stoicism, Stranded, The Martian
October 14, 2015 at 12:17 am |
I would gladly die to be the first to colonize a different planet. Imagine planting the first crop.
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October 14, 2015 at 5:49 am |
Hi Richard: many think like you. Many postulants, thousands for that Dutch led Mars adventure, Mars One.
Martian soil is more fertile than some Earth’s soils, apparently. Just mixing it with a bit of poop, human poop, as they have been doing in China for thousands of years would do wonder as depicted in the Martian book… Also there is enough CO2 in the ice cap to bring pressure to that of Mount Everest, if the south ice cap melted. Finally some lichens and cyanobacteria (which make O2) survive in Mars conditions (say some German scientists, who tried)
PA.
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October 14, 2015 at 1:08 am |
The Martian is an excellent movie, straight out of the even better book. It makes stoicism a very pragmatic attitude.
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October 14, 2015 at 4:44 am |
As is said, “Life is a terminal condition.” Not seen the film yet, sorry movie, but it is receiving good reviews, over and above PA’s review, and seems like one to catch soon.
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October 14, 2015 at 5:50 am |
Movie is great, book is better. But I would go see the movie first… Saw it in 3D. Not bad.
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October 14, 2015 at 2:03 pm |
I will see if there is any movie theater showing the film close by. Thanks.
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