THE FLOW OF LIFE.

Marxism and Buddhism have in common that first they draw our attention to a central problematic fact about human life. Their point being to highlight this fact as the root of all our troubles. And then they describe the way that this central problem can be overcome. But the ‘way out’ that each of these two doctrines offers is less convincing than their portrayal of the problem itself.

So the First Noble Truth of the Buddhists is (crudely stated) that “everything is suffering”. By which I suppose they mean that all human experiences are unsatisfactory. There are the obviously unsatisfactory unpleasant experiences of physical and mental pain. But even the pleasant experiences are unsatisfactory. Because they are soon over and when they end we are disappointed that they couldn't have continued longer. And if they do continue longer we get bored of them and we start wanting something else. How tiresome! In general, life is a continuous flow of wanting and getting or not-getting. (Like Wordsworth almost said: “wanting and getting we lay waste our powers”.) Where's the out? you ask. Where’s the relief from this constant going-on?

The parallel to all this in Marxism is the statement that “all history is the history of class struggle”. In other words it’s an inherent feature of society that people are constantly fighting over control of the means of production. In any economic setup the ruling class who control the means of production exploit all those who don’t control it. When society develops materially and the means of production changes then the economic setup becomes unstable and society is transformed by revolution. But then there’s just a different ruling class. And they’re still exploiting everyone else. (Like The Who said “here comes the new boss, same as the old boss”.) And on it goes. Again the question is where’s the way out from this apparently ceaseless flow of struggling? How does it end?

For the Marxists revolution is the answer. But an unconvincing one. Because if all history up to now is the history of class struggle then how is it suddenly going to stop being so? All humans act according to their class interests. Why would they all of a sudden stop doing this? Let’s say that the working classes decided that they were mad as hell and they weren’t going to take it any more. And they cobbled together a revolution. Even then all that you’d end up with is a society organised in the interest of the working classes. Which people of other classes would seek to overthrow with immediate effect. So the struggle continues. In general the Marxist idea is that any social and economic order is always one which suits the most powerful group in society. But if this is the case then how do you ever get to a social and economic order which is to the benefit of everybody?

For the Buddhists the way out of the flow is to cease wanting. Cut yourself free from the attachments of desire. If you don’t desire anything then you’ll never suffer the disappointment of not-getting and so will never be unhappy. But at the price of giving up being a human being surely. Of not feeling anything for the world. A somewhat Pyrrhic victory you might say. (The same pyre that Brunnhilde jumped onto?)

[February 2010]