We usually reserve the term objectification for the process of sexually objectifying a person. When we do this, we can only see them as an object of desire or aversion.
But there is a wider meaning to the term. It includes any way of seeing ourselves or others as a tool—a means to an end.
Relating to yourself in this way might be useful for ramping up your work performance or training for a race. It helps you see things through a performance lens, bolstering strengths and identifying weak spots. The more you can optimise and perfect these qualities, the better you perform.
Many diverse worldviews can be boiled down to variations of the following statement:
“This is shit, but…”
While they all focus on their unique solution, they agree on the initial diagnosis.
Another barrier to meaning is the idea that it only exists inside of human heads, and that we need to project it over the world. In trying to resuscitate meaning, it dooms the entire project before we even set off.
But to discover meaning is not to engage in positive thinking or affirmation. We don’t have to pretend that loving relationships bring fulfilment or that sunsets and bonfires speak to some deep part of us. It’s built in.
One enemy of meaning is an over-reliance on one mode of knowing. John Vervaeke calls this propositional knowing: knowledge in the form of facts, beliefs and concepts. Iain McGilchrist would identify this approach as left-hemisphere dominant, focusing as it does on abstractions that we can grasp, over open-ended, lived realities.
This propositional fixation is rampant throughout modern culture, no matter where you look. It’s why a rich debate around religion is reduced down to the question of whether someone “believes” in God, why political debate is reduced to repeating slogans from your preferred corner, and why self-help fixates on positive thinking as a means of growth.
I’ve been thinking more about legacy after listening to an inspiring talk a couple of weeks back.
I’m always trying to group the things I do together under one banner. This is doomed to fail on some level, but the term that kept coming up was meaning.
I help people find purpose on a personal level through coaching, help them develop emotional coherence through bodywork, and offer meaning in the bigger picture through my writings.
As a coach, you hear the word purpose rather a lot.
The narrative is that purpose is what many people lack, and that discovering it can bring us meaning and fulfilment.
Purpose is important, but inadequate on its own. The idea that we have or don’t have a purpose is also too simplistic.
John Vervaeke outlines 4 aspects that together grant meaning. I think they’re interesting to explore:
Purpose is the first aspect. It means having goals beyond the present moment. It gives you direction by helping you organise your actions over time. But purpose alone is dangerous; indistinguishable from cult-mentality. It can become brittle and disconnected without the other aspects.
On Day 1, I said I would be writing about what’s interesting to me.
Maybe this sounds a little trite. If you write online, there is often an expectation to mould your writings into short, punchy essays, layered with hot, contrarian takes.
But following what’s interesting is deeper than this.
To follow what’s interesting is to trust your sense of salience. Salience is an exquisitely complex way of pulling meaning from the world. It’s fast, yet utterly personalised. A lot of it happens beneath your awareness. You don’t know all the inputs and you never will.