IS IT MEANINGFUL?
Over the centuries books have been written, ideologies have been pursued, activities encouraged, all in the search of meaning. The eternal question appears to be "Do our lives have meaning?" Of course, the answer is no - - unless you make some for yourself. It's up to you to create some meaning in your life. A camel doesn't think about or want any meaning in its life, it wants enough to eat and drink and find a mate once in a while. There are humans like camels, but most of us try to be different to some degree.
The current question to ask is whether a group of people, as a group - - a collectivity - - can create meaning for itself, an identity. There are always groups of people attempting to do so. I want to focus on just one group and that is the current Iowa legislature. They are desperately trying to either find or generate some meaning for themselves and an identifiable identity. They want to be meaningful and they want an identity.
Currently their attempt at creating these things is not limited to themselves as persons; they are intent on creating meaning and identity for Iowans in general. They desperately want to give our lives some meaning it currently doesn't have and they are doing this by legislation. For instance, they are encouraging us to dislike anyone different from ourselves. This appears to be at the top of the legislative agenda. I should only approve of a person like me; if you are not like me then get that way. I don't want you around causing issues.
A second and related agenda item appears to be my identity as a person. Not only are they (our elected representatives) insisting that I have certain ideas about people different from me, they are insisting that I have certain ideas about myself as well. They want to give me two categories with which to claim an identity - - male or female. Now for me, that doesn't necessarily create a problem but I understand that for some it very well may. Meaning and identity can not be separated; which apparently is known by our legislators from some form of osmosis in that there does not seem to be any articulated reason for their efforts.
You are allowed certain things to make your life worthwhile; if you are male you have a male identity and you do male things and if you are female you have a female identity and do female things. To our legislature, other identities are not only irrelevant but somehow subversive and they are not going to have it. Apparently all other methods of creating some identity and meaning in your life are not to be tolerated. These would include your occupation, your education, your religion, your daily activities, your family and friends. These things don't appear to be relevant to our legislators who insist that sex is the only identity and that is what is going to give meaning to your life and that is what matters and there's only two of them and that's that.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
