Woody Allen and the Despair of Modern Man

The thinkers of our time understand well the predicament that the philosophy of human autonomy has created for us. If we are our own god and there is really nothing outside of the self, then there is no purpose outside of our frail choices, nothing to sustain us or hope in beyond the precarious perch of our personal preferences. One of my favorite popular philosophers is the filmmaker Woody Allen. He understands the nature of this predicament well and articulates it with his characteristic wit. Listen to how he describes our situation:

“More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction of the absolute meaninglessness of existence that could easily be misinterpreted as pessimism. It is not. It is merely a healthy concern for the predicament of modern man.”

If there nothing outside of our choices, there is nothing to hope in outside of ourselves. This just doesn’t work for us. Such despair makes us less than rational, less than human. We were made for something bigger than ourselves.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. ‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’”

~ Ecclesiastes 1: 1-2