What is your purpose?

We all have a sense of ourselves.  We know who we are, at least in a general sense, and we know where we stand in terms of our life's trajectory.  Lives include early, mid, and possibly, hopefully, late life stages.  How do we measure up to our internal standards of achievement, of the many ways in which we have achieved our short range objectives, and maybe how we are moving towards our longer range ones.  We have a sense of ourselves and we know generally how we fit into the world we live in.  We know who likes us, who we like, and what makes us fit into the world in which we live.

Can we summarize this manage of objectives and achievements into a sense of purpose?  Do we see our lives fitting into a pattern and forming a path that leads somewhere, and that somewhere becomes our objective, driving us towards our purpose.  The skills we have support what we do.  The way people react to us tends to reinforce our sense of accomplishment where recognition and affirmation of what we do propels us forward.  We hopefully move forward following what we feel is the right path, doing what feels right.  

At times things go astray.  A key relationship may falter and end.  Close friends we know may move away.  The social systems we have been immersed may fail to provide the support we are used to getting.  Maybe a job ends, and retirement begins.  Or unemployment.  Our world falls apart.  Or so it seems.

The idea I want to deal with here is the sense of purpose that drives us forward, that helps us find our place in the world around us, perhaps as we search for a goal we have set and articulated for ourselves.  Maybe it has not been stated out loud, but rather remains as something we think about and possibly long for from time to time.   

Who are we fundamentally, where we recognize ourselves as a part of the social world around us?  Our friends are people we can call on with short notice for connection and deep connection.  For many, members of our family can be counted on to support us.  Life long friends, though they move far away, can be counted on to answer our calls and listen to us pour out our heart's pain, and respond helpfully.  After all, that's what friends are for.

What is our purpose?  How is purpose different than our self-image?  Does purpose include the idea that a goal is involved?  Does it include a desire to fulfill ourselves within the world in which we live?

Why Can't We all Just Get Along?

 Throughout history there are examples where historically stable societies are preyed upon by outside and aggressive newcomers who desire to take over the land, resources, and space occupied by the local residents.  European conquests seem to be a continuous fact of life, as well as what we have seen with the the age colonization, imperial conquests, etc.  More "advanced" societies take over local groups, decimate them by direct conflict, and by sharing diseases the locals have no immunity to, among other strategies.

In general, the displaced cultures are not completely eliminated, but are reduced in number and moved into some smaller portion of the lands they held when first contact occurred.  (As an example, the American Indians moved onto reservations.)  In time their cultures and number recover to some extent, and with time the attitudes of the aggressor society can change and modify into something like accommodation, if not the recognition of the displaced group with possibly restitution in some way (financial payments to descendents of the original inhabitants, granting of casino licenses, and more).

During my recent tour through Scotland and Ireland I was reminded of the historical past, esp. with respect to British attitudes towards these areas and cultures, and how the past has shaped the current political and social climates of the two regions.  We learn about these things in grade school when we study European history, but seeing them in person, accompanied by a Tour Director who spelled out the history of each and every place visited with the names and dates of those participating, with short and long term consequences noted, it became a living history as seen through the eyes of those who were there so many years ago.

OK, great introduction, Desmond, but what is the Big Question hiding behind all this rhetoric and nostalgia?  The sequence of events that have created the world we live in today are all too familiar:  exploration, colonization, exploitation, colonial independence from their European origins, expansion of territory, elimination of native inhabitants, and so on.  This all seems to be historical fact based on hindsight, at least with respect to colonial activity in "the New World", meaning north, central, and south America specifically.  British, Spanish, and Portuguese colonial activities shaped our current world, and they all followed the same general pattern just described.

Philosophically, the issue may be about the one-sided domination of native cultures, and the lack of respect and accommodation that might have occurred if the colonial powers had used a different approach.   I looked up the history of the Moriori, one of the more pacifistic cultures the world has produced, who agreed to work peacefully and cooperatively with the invading group into their islands, and were summarily exterminated by them.  Pacificism doesn't seem to always work, it seems.  Could colonizing cultures have worked in a different manner that recognized locals, respected them, and worked with them in some form of harmony?  I admit, it is hard to imagine this happening.  There are certainly very few examples offered by history.

Come prepared to discuss your favorite example of cultural replacement, sharing perspectives from both sides of the process.  Is cultural expansion a norm in the societies we live in?  Was it true in the past but not today?  Will it always be true?