Man’s Search for Meaning Lesson #5

Links for Parallelism

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Parallelism

Parallelism’s importance is most apparent when looking at mapping components in a thesis. We want those components to be written in parallel form whether we’re referring to a list of phrases or clauses.

Example

Faulty

Full-Potency Frankl is unrealistic because there is no absolute definition of meaning, there is no all-or-nothing equation to meaning, and Frankl's unrealistic expectations.

Corrected

Full-Potency Frankl is unrealistic because there is no absolute definition of meaning, there is no all-0r-nothing equation to meaning, and there is no practicality to Frankl's self-sacrificing definition of meaning.

Faulty Parallelism Example

Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs, its medicinal properties; it’s a fool’s errand to wage a war against it, and keeping it illegal increases criminal activity.

Above we have a mix of clauses and phrases. We should correct it by changing all the mapping components to clauses.

Corrected

Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs; it has medicinal properties; it is too common to waste money in a feeble attempt to eradicate it, and in illegal form it results in too much criminal activity.

We use parallelism in all types of writing.

Faulty

The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and likes to self-aggrandize.

We see above two gerunds followed by an infinitive, which is a faulty mix.

Corrected

The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and self-aggrandizing.

Using parallelism after a colon

Faulty

Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and make the shoulder muscles bigger.

Corrected

Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and shoulders.

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Parallelism

Correct the faulty parallelism by rewriting the sentences below.

One. Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do; they have giant mood swings, and all-night tantrums.

Two. You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony; they feature fatty, over-salted foods and high sugar content.

Three. I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absence of loud “gym” music, and I’m able to concentrate more.

Four. To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and writing an intellectually rigorous thesis.

Five. The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the sheer abundance of rules you have to follow, and to integrate your research into your essay.

Six. You should avoid watching “reality shows” on TV because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism; they distract you from your own problems, and their brain-dumbing effects.

Seven. I’m still fat even though I’ve tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and fasting every other day.

Eight. To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and developing a thesis that elevates the reader’s consciousness to a higher level.

Nine. Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and the importance of a positive attitude are essential for academic success.

Ten. My children never react to my calm commands or when I beg them to do things.

Example of Thesis That Incorrectly Uses Parallel Structure Followed by Correct Version:

Higher gas taxes are essential if we are to encourage alternative energy research, cut down on gas consumption, raise revenue for energy research, roads and infrastructure, and being conscious consumers of energy makes for an overall healthy society.

Counterargument and Refutation Essay Structure Example

Mesa College has a good counteragument essay structure example and explanation.

While opponents of my subject make some good points against my position, they are in the larger sense wrong when we consider that they fail to see and interpret correctly ____________, ______________, _______________, and _______________.

While Author X is guilty of several weaknesses as described by her opponents, her agument holds up to close examination in the areas of _________________, ______________, _____________, and ______________.

Even though author X shows weakness in her agument, such as __________ and ____________, she is nevertheless convincing because . . .

While author X makes many compelling points, her overall argument collapses under the weight of __________, ___________, ___________, and ______________.

Introduction and Thesis Example Using Your Skeptical Self

Anyone with half a brain knows there is no such thing as Hakuna Matata, a life of no worries and responsibility. On the other hand, as we grow older we often feel forced to take on more and more responsibility to the point it feels like we have a gun to our head, like we have no freedom, and like we are painfully absent of meaning. Whenever I complain about being a slave to the life of responsibility, a voice in my head says the following:

“Put up or shut up. Stop your whining. Work hard, pay your bills, devote yourself to taking care of your family, then die. That’s it. There’s nothing else. So stop thinking about “meaning” and stop reading books about it because I’ve got news for you: Your life is what it is and nothing more. So don’t be a dumb ass and go to those touchy-feely support groups, fiction workshops, journaling workshops, yoga classes, mysticism seminars, etc. Face the fact. You’re just a slave to your responsibilities, so stop trying to elevate yourself with “meaning.” Now be a man, put your chin up, and accept your fate for what it is, a life of responsibility. There’s nothing more. There is no Meaning Out There to be found. There’s only your character, your attitude, and your temperament and all of that’s inside you. Fix that and perhaps your crisis will be resolved.”

Indeed, we read in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning that we don’t find meaning outside ourselves floating around space on some silver platter. Rather, we find meaning by building our character, which Frankl writes is contingent on _________________, _____________________, _____________________, and ______________________________.

Another Example of an Introduction, Transition and Thesis

Over the last 25 years I’ve seen some tired students shuffle into the class and slouch in their seats all period. Sleep deprived and undernourished on a diet of Funyuns, Snickers, and Kool-Aid, a few students will sometimes fall asleep and drool all over themselves.

One student I had about 15 years ago didn’t fall asleep; instead, she’d sit comatose during the whole class. She was a large woman, over 220 pounds or so, with flaring nostrils and heavy lidded eyes that always looked half shut like a lizard’s. I don’t remember her name. I just remember her as Lizard Eyes.

During lecture one sunny afternoon I was getting very animated and watching the students laugh . . . except for Lizard Eyes. She was sitting motionless with an impassive expression, her eyes glazed, her chin shiny with spittle. As my students continued to laugh, I saw out of the corner of my eye a very tiny fly, perhaps a baby fly, zoom around Lizard Eyes’ head a few times before entering my student’s right nostril. I expected Lizard Eyes to move violently or do something drastic in order to expel the fly from her nostril but she did nothing as the fly remained inside her nose for almost a minute.

At last, the baby fly exited her nostril, circled her head two more times and then entered her nose again: the same damn nostril. Whatever the fly had found in that orifice, it had come back for more.

When class was dismissed, Lizard Eyes stood up and walked out of class with the fly still presumably lodging inside her nose.

I think the fly is still there.

While Lizard Eyes is not a bad person, her apathy is a result of a life that needs meaning. Indeed, Viktor Frankl warns that a life of meaning is the only cure for the malaise of the existential vacuum evidenced by __________________, _________________, ____________________, and _________________.

How We Find Meaning

Discipline, keeping a clean room

Listening, surrendering the ego and learning patience

Gratitude, recognizing the good amidst the bad

Maturity, having a more evolved conception of happiness

Integrity, sacrificing your intake of money in order to make sure others are treated fairly

Third Eye, learning how to detach from explosive, volatile situations

Part One. How Can We Avoid the Common Life of Fraud and Deception?

Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich opens its second chapter with the famous line: “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” One of the novella’s themes is that most of us embrace the common, “ordinary” life and sad to say such a life is one of fraud and self-deception.

The catastrophic fakery is not the product of evil people living on the fringe. Rather, it is the common lot of the mainstream who languish through a life of meaninglessness and charlatanism, clinging to this fake life as if it were the highest pursuit imaginable. And even worse, most people don’t even know they’re living this “proper,” that is, “horrible,” life. Reading the novella, we see over and over that Ivan Ilyich lived a “proper” and “correct” life and it is precisely this conformity to that which is “proper” and “correct” that perpetrates a fraud and the existential vacuum discussed in Man’s Search for Meaning.

No doubt, the “proper” and “correct” life has a huge appeal for most of us; otherwise, the terrible life would not be so ordinary and commonplace. What is this “proper” life? What is its powerful draw? How does it make us lead a life away from meaning?

First, a definition of the “proper” life:

Short definition: Conformity out of fear of being scorned by your peers and achieving power to massage your ego with status.

Longer definition: The proper life is a life that emphasizes power, vanity, and selfish ambition dressed up behind the flowery garments of middle-class niceties and proprieties. When we live the proper life, we give implicit encouragement to power-mongering, vanity, and selfish ambition by praising others for their “achievements” and “success” while putting up an affront of piety, claiming to admire the more noble virtues, loyalty, courage, sacrifice, humility, etc.

But these latter qualities are only important to us as a show, not as real substance. For example, in the novella it is explained that when no one was looking Ivan Ilyich, a judge, was cruel and obnoxious to his underlings, but when his dealings with his subordinates were under the banner of “official business,” that is, those dealings would be seen and scrutinized by others, Ivan Ilyich’s behavior was “fair” and “decent.” We also read that he loved to withhold his power and authority, not out of humility, buy by showing others how remarkably restrained he was.

The “ordinary” and "proper" life, then, is one in which we want to be perceived as good, just, and generous even though we could care less if we our character is really worthy of being those things. Again, we can look at Pascal’s observation of this hypocrisy to better see the ordinary life of fraud and self-deception:

We are not satisfied with the life we have in ourselves and our own being. We want to lead an imaginary life in the eyes of others, and so we try to make an impression. We strive constantly to embellish and preserve our imaginary being, and neglect the real one. And if we are calm, or generous, or loyal, we are anxious to have it known so that we can attach these virtues to our other existence; we prefer to detach them from our real self so as to unite them with the other. We would cheerfully be cowards if that would acquire us a reputation for bravery. How clear a sign of the nullity of our own being that we are not satisfied with the one without the other and often exchange for the other!

Pascal’s description is of the ordinary human condition. And indeed it is a terrible one in part because such a morally bankrupts life is perceived as normal when it is lived by the majority and as such is “ordinary.”

According to Frankl, conforming to this immoral and meaningless way of life creates the existential vacuum. This imitation of a real life is not instinct but a learned behavior. As Frankl explains:

At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal’s behavior is imbedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like Paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development inasmuch as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).

In the case of Ivan Ilyich, he entire “proper” life was a conformity to a life he did not really want. It was an idea of a life that had been presented to him as a way of winning the approval of others and he did not realize he despised this life he had chosen until he was dying away in a home where he was held in contempt by his own family for imposing the rude inconvenience of becoming fatally ill. It is only as he endures a terrible, slow death and as he sees his own grave that he begins to ask himself, “What if my whole life had been wrong?” It’s sad that he does not ask this question until lying on his death bed.

He was too distracted by all his diversions, as philosopher Thomas V. Morris would tell us, to face life’s important questions until death is knocking on his door. Morris explains this procrastination in Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life: “How many of us would think about going to a gas station only after the car stalled for lack of gas? And yet too many of us never stop to reflect on what is needful for a good life until is too late.” All the diversions Ivan Ilyich relied on to stave away the question that his whole life was a lie are explained as a universal problem by Morris in this way: “Our lives are empty. We cannot face the vacuum. So we fill our lives up with junk, with trash, with refuse.” Explaining what the philosopher Pascal really meant when he explained what we fill our hearts with, Morris says it more bluntly: We fill our hearts with “crap.” Our lives of diversion and deception, the life that caused Ivan Ilyich to ask himself if his whole life had been wrong only when he was faced with his own mortality, made realize that his life was complete bullshit.

When we reach the point, like Ivan Ilyich, that our lives are full of crap, we tend toward nihilism, the belief that there is no meaning. The danger of bullshit and its resulting nihilism has been explained in Professor of Philosophy Harry G. Frankfurt’s terse essay, published as a book, On Bullshit. In defining the term, Frankfurt relies in part on Max Black’s book The Prevalence of Humbug in which Black writes that humbug is “deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.” This definition of humbug, which can be applied to bullshit, is a precise summary of Ivan Ilyich’s life, one of “deceptive misrepresentation,” to others and himself.

Moreover, Ilyich’s life was one rife with pretentiousness and ornamentation, a façade, a deception, or, if we want to cut to the bone, complete bullshit. Not until he was dying, horribly alone without any love from his own family and “friends,” does he contemplate that his whole life was built on a sham.

Is there anyone in contemporary society, real or fictitious, whose life can be studied as a life that is, like Ivan Ilyich’s, a complete fraud? One salient example is Seinfeld’s George Costanza, whose life without meaning is shown in its full hideousness in Daniel Barwick’s essay “George’s Failed Quest for Happiness: An Aristotelian Analysis,” published in Seinfeld and Philosophy.

In this essay, we see that George Costanza and Ivan Ilyich suffer similar afflictions: They are both the “many” or “ordinary” and as such lead “horrible” lives; they are both unstable and untrustworthy because they equate happiness with its “obvious” superficial definitions such as pleasure and status; they both experience, in the absence of meaning, only the most “transient happiness” (based on good fortune), which always needs upgrading; both feed on spite and vindication; both measure their happiness by comparing it to others’; neither seek meaning of their potential in order that they might flourish or experience what Aristotle calls eudaimonia; and both realize that they never experienced fulfillment and that their entire existence is a huge mistake and a fraud and as a result both succumb to nihilism.

While George is quirky and neurotic and unforgettable in his extremes, he is, according to Daniel Barwick, one of the “many,” a term by Aristotle used to describe the majority or “ordinary” who do not seek wisdom but blindly follow their irrational desires. Following these impulses leads to self-destruction and despair, which is why “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” Both George Costanza and Ivan Ilyich are studies in “how not to live one’s life.” One important lesson we can learn from studying their misery is how transient their happiness is. Costanza erupts into a child’s joyous eruption quickly followed by feelings of rejection and despair. The problem is that Costanza’s highest values—petty vindictiveness, carnal pleasure, to name a couple—are always short-lived and show their inefficacy in pleasing the soul. Every short-lived pleasure must be followed by a greater one. Ivan Ilyich falls into the same trap, requiring high job status and income, followed by a temporary appeasement with his wife, followed by them bickering again, and their acrimony can only be assuaged by yet another promotion and pay-raise and on and on they go, trying feebly to veil their mutual hatred with greater status and wealth.

Another self-destructive quality shared by George Costanza and Ivan Ilyich is petty spitefulness evident in George’s insatiable appetite for gloating over the human race every time he snatches a perceived victory over them. As we read in Barwick’s essay:

George essentially encounters two kinds of experiences that he would characterize as happiness. First, he experiences momentary elation, typically when he has achieved some victory over others. Often, he expressed this victory in terms of attaining something that he has always wanted, but the desirability of the thing attained is almost always dependent on George’s perception denied to him. . . . This is George’s way: to see himself in the context of others; to adopt a sort of scarcity mentality where there is never enough to go around and there must always be a loser (usually him). By transforming others into losers, he erroneously believes that he is thus transformed into a winner; that he is what he is only by comparison to others. Whether called approval-seeking, other-directed, or reactive behavior, such conduct is not uncommon. George, however, is a caricature of a man who measures himself by measuring himself against others.

Similarly, Ivan Ilyich has fallen into the trap of lusting over things, not for their own sake, but because he perceives they are desired by others. A job position that he wants is increased in desire when he sees that others want it and when the job is denied him he becomes bitter and obsessed, childishly so. Upon losing the promotion, he goes into a sullen rage and the narrator explains “that what was for him the greatest and most cruel injustice appeared to others a quite ordinary occurrence.” Feeling victimized, Ivan Ilyich languishes in a condition of “ennui,” chronic depression and boredom with life. Throughout his adult life, his mood oscillates between elation and self-pity depending on his fortune. And from his worldview, like George Costanza, good fortune is having people fawn all over him while putting his perceived enemies to shame. Such misguided passions render both Ivan Ilyich and George Costanza to be stunted emotionally. We would call each of them, to use the modern parlance, a “man-child.”

Because neither have any core meaning in their souls and because neither have flourished as emotionally adult human beings, they are prone to facing their abyss with nihilism and despair. On his death bed, Ivan Ilyich sees that his entire life was a mistake and a farce and realizes all his efforts at leading a “correct” life have been in vain. Likewise, George Costanza sees his life as an equal sham, hopeless and futile, and he is overcome with regret. His nihilistic self-loathing is captured in a Seinfeld scene from “The Opposite,” referred to in Barwick’s essay in which George says: “It all became very clear as I was sitting out there today . . . every decision that I’ve ever made in my entire life has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have in every aspect of life, be it something to wear, something to eat . . . it’s all be wrong. Every one.”

What is the alternative to this nihilistic self-loathing and regret? Or better put, how is living the opposite of both George and Ivan the best way to find happiness in the best sense of the word, which would be having a meaningful life? Barwick argues that the opposite life of George consists of seeking the good in the sense that Aristotle meant the good: “The good, for Aristotle, is whatever man, in virtue of his nature, is actually seeking. What does man seek? Unfortunately, there is no single English word that captures the meaning of Aristotle’s term, eudaimonia. It will be sufficient for our purposes, however, to adopt the most common explanation, which is that the good for man is the fulfillment of his function.” And this function, Barwick explains, his the practice and habit of moral virtue. In other words, living a life of virtue leads to a particular kind of happiness that eludes Ivan Ilyich and George Costanza.

I think it would be safe to say that flourishing, or living a life of fulfillment by living a virtuous life, is compatible and supports Frankl’s contention that we should not be like the many or the ordinary who live a life of “bitter self-preservation”; rather, we should “remain brave, dignified, and unselfish.” Few people live according to this virtue, as Frankl states: “It is true that only a few people are capable of reaching such high moral standards.” However, our only chance at real achievement, which is fulfillment and meaning and virtue, is by making ourselves worthy of our suffering.

George Costanza stands as a warning to what happens when we recoil from our suffering and see it as justification for our bitter, nihilistic, childish orientation. We become slobs. And George Costanza is the quintessential slob and the highest example of how not to be worthy of our suffering. As Barwick describes him:

His baseline state of perpetual melancholy and cynicism is punctuated by bouts of rage (usually against those whom he perceives are persecuting him in some way and usually misplaced), obsession (perhaps with his weight, baldness, a woman , or a new pastime such as parking cars for a living), lust (usually satisfied vicariously through Jerry or Kramer), and deep depression (usually necessitating a trip to the beach, where George goes to think his most despondent thoughts). His miserable existence is alleviated only rarely by even the most transient happiness: even in such cases, we see that George’s joy (usually centering on some victory over a perceived enemy) is forced and hollow. . . . If by chance you are a Seinfeld neophyte, take my word for it: George is a failure, a flop, a nonstarter, a paradigm of inefficacy, sloth, and incontinence.

One of the dangers of the “ordinary” and “terrible” life is that cynics see these lives as the true human condition and as such the cynic embraces a life that rejects the possibility of meaning, that is, a life of nihilism.

Searching for Happiness Leads to a Life without Meaning . . . And No Happiness

One. The search for happiness strips meaning from us and makes us unhappy.

In Mean’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl explains in his Preface that it is misguided to directly pursue happiness. Our goal, he argues, should be to find meaning and a higher purpose and let happiness be the “unintended side-effect” of our search. The pursuit of happiness disconnected from meaning is a futile and dangerous pursuit. Without a higher purpose, life’s daily pains, however minute, become magnified and we medicate ourselves with narcissistic self-pity, crankiness, and self-indulgence until we descend into a private hell of solipsism, meaning our self becomes our only reality and a strong argument can be made that when the self becomes the only reality we have arrived at the consummate definition of insanity.

Two. Example of self-indulgence leading to a meaningless, insane existence:

An illustration of a man going insane as he disconnects from the human race, and himself, from pursuing happiness without purpose is powerfully rendered in Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical essay “On a Streetcar Named Success” in which he writes about his own inward journey into solipsism. He explains how he flourished more before he became a famous writer because humans are better equipped for struggle than they are for self-indulgent stagnation: “The sort of life which I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before, but it was a good life because it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created.”

But then comes the fame and success from his play The Glass Menagerie. He stops writing, cocoons himself in a luxury Manhattan hotel, hires prostitutes, hosts wild parties, and has room service cater to all his other needs. Having retired from his life calling as a writer, he has no goal other than to indulge his appetites, and isolated in his hotel penthouse, he begins to go insane and sinks into a chronic depression. As he writes:

I sat down and looked about me and was suddenly very depressed. I thought to myself, this is just a period of adjustment. Tomorrow morning I will wake up in this first-class hotel suite . . . and I will appreciate its elegance and luxuriate in its comforts and know that I have arrived at our American plan of Olympus.

But no such Olympus materializes. Having debauched parties at all hours of the night, his living conditions break down: An arm falls off the sofa, the furniture is mottled with cigarette burns, rain through an open window causes water damage. He’s in such a state of dissolution that when room service brings him his dinner, steak and an ice cream sundae, he mistakenly pours the chocolate sauce over his steak. But there is a deeper spiritual breakdown going on inside of him, as he surrenders to a mental disease he calls, borrowing a term from William James, the “Bitch Goddess.” As he explains:

Of course all this was the more trivial aspect of a spiritual location that began to manifest itself in far more disturbing ways. I soon found myself becoming indifferent to people. A well of cynicism rose in me. Conversations all sounded like they had been recorded years ago and were being played back on a turntable. Sincerity and kindness seemed to have gone out of my friends’ voices. I suspected them of hypocrisy. I stopped calling them, stopped seeing them. I was impatient of what I took to be inane flattery.

He becomes paranoid of the intentions of others and may have gone completely insane or died prematurely in the sort of way Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin died prematurely; however, he is fortunate to be forced to leave the hotel to undergo eye surgery for a cataract (an apt metaphor if there ever was one). While convalescing in the hospital, he re-connects with his friends and begins to gain a perspective on the spiritual disease that has been brewing inside of him while cooping himself inside the penthouse.

Well, the gauze mask served a purpose. While I was resting in the hospital the friends whom I had neglected or affronted in one way or another began to call on me and now that I was in pain and darkness, their voices seemed to have changed, or rather that unpleasant mutation which I had suspected earlier in the season had now disappeared and they sounded now as they used to sound in the lamented days of my obscurity. Once more they were sincere and kindly voices with the ring of truth in them.

Soon after, Williams checks out of the hotel, moves to Mexico and rekindles his writing career and he is able to connect with his real self once again: “My public self, that artifice of mirrors, did not exist here and so my natural being was resumed.”

Williams’ experience proves the adage that the self-indulgent man is not happy. Self-interest without a higher purpose degrades into a provisional experience, which taken to its extreme is a form of dehumanization and insanity. Or as brilliantly expressed by Tennessee Williams himself:

Success happened to me. But once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle you are equipped with the basic means of salvation. Once you know this is true, that the heart of man, his body and his brain, are forged in a white-hot furnace for the purpose of conflict (the struggle of creation) and that with the conflict removed, the man is a sword cutting daisies, that not privation but luxury is the wolf at the door and that the fangs of this wolf are all the little vanities and conceits and laxities that Success is heir to—why, then, with this knowledge you are at least in a position of knowing where danger lies.

Three. Meaning is only achieved after we’re stripped to our bare existence:

Frankl explains that to find meaning, the person must first see his life as a failure and a sham and believe he has nothing to lose before he embarks on his search for meaning. His search becomes urgent and sincere because “he has nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life.”

Part Two. How Do We Let Go of the Things That Are Killing Us?

One. Letting Go of Fear. To embrace meaning, we must, Frankl tells us, assert the courage to give up a lot of things. We must look at our lives stripped bare of all our false necessities, comforts, vanity, and diversions. We must let go of our provisional self-interest. We must let go of our instinct for safety. We must find a way to let go of our fear of death by valuing meaning and integrity more than our physical comfort and safety. Easier said than done, of course, but Frankl lived such a life. We read in Man’s Search for Meaning that over and over he lived according to his own principles of courage and dignity no matter how extreme the circumstances, including times his own life was in grave danger. Whenever he was faced with a presumably safer option of leaving his friends or the inmates who needed his medical help, he always resolved that it was better to be where he was needed rather than to go where it was deemed safer. And in many cases, these “safer” places would have been a certain death for Frankl while his comrades who fled to the “safer” places met their death. As Frankl puts it: “They tried to save themselves, but they only sealed their own fates.”

Frankl further explains the way fear pushes us toward our self-demise with an analogy that explains how those who obsess over staving off death actually precipitate and invite the very thing they wish to avoid. This is the allegorical story of Death in Teheran. As Frankl explains it:

A rich a mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him. He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Teheran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse. On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, “Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?” “I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,” said Death.

The story illustrates how living in fear compels us to live a life of self-betrayal and how we are our worst enemies. This fear, Frankl, shows throughout his book, is a reaction to an unfulfilled life that results from having no meaning. He writes about inmates fleeing and finding that death awaited them. For example, just before the Germans surrendered the concentration camps to the Allies, some of Frankl’s fellow inmates transferred to a hut where the Nazis burned them alive. Frankl escaped fate, which toyed with people. Frankl writes, “We found out just how uncertain human decision are, especially in matters of life and death.” In his case, had he focused on escape and self-preservation, he recounts many times he would have died. But his focus was being loyal to his friends. One striking example is when, just before resolved to escape, he looked into the eyes of his dying friend and when he saw his look of hopelessness, he knew he needed to say to give his friend comfort. He was so close to making an escape, but he chose to help his friend. After making the painful decision to stay behind, he knows he did the right thing and he writes, “I had gained an inward peace that I had never experienced before.”

Two. Letting Go of Learned Helplessness.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite children’s books, Stone Soup, explained this phenomenon. When travelers or soldiers arrive to an unfamiliar town and are hungry, the townspeople are too selfish to share their provisions until the soldiers use a ruse: They start making a soup of stones. The idea piques the interest of the selfish townspeople who slowly but surely contribute a small share of ingredients to the soup in order to see just what will materialize. Their selfishness is replaced by fascination with the soldiers’ creative concoction and by contributing to it they participate in a community event that brings them out of their shells. The folk tale is a story about nail-biting victims learning how to improve their lives through reciprocity and community building, which they learn is a superior alternative to a self-insulated provisional existence.

The tale also teaches that being a helpless and self-centered victim with no responsibilities is less desirable than having some initiative and embracing the responsibilities that such an initiative entails. But the point is we can’t be told not to be selfish and live a life of learned helplessness. We have to learn through experience that a life of reciprocity and initiative is a better life. For example, I heard the comedian Ricky Gervais talk about a 1,200-pound man he saw on Oprah, a gelatinous mass with two fish-like eyeballs sticking out of it, as I remember Gervais’ description. The morbidly obese man had to be lifted out of the house with a crane and hospitalized and Gervais was incredulous that when the man did not see any warning flags when he tipped the scales at such a colossal weight. Most of us, Gervais said, have warning flags go off when he hit 300, but this guy was oblivious at 400, 500, 600, etc. I assume that the fat man’s senses were too dulled to be alarmed by his escalating weight and he just lived in obesity with no consciousness of it. I am reminded of a quote by Kierkegaard: “Despair is not knowing it.” We often don’t know how high we’ve ascended on the Fat Scale or the Misery Scale or whatever horrible scale we can come up with and as a result we keep moving upward with nothing to curtail our direction.

Three. Letting Go of Vanity.

When I lecture on this subject, I call this obsession with image the Chanel No. 5 Moment. I heard the term used by the comedian Sandra Bernhard in the 1980s. I always think of it whenever I teach a life of image to my students and I always give them the following example, based on a composite of couples I’ve known about over the years:

A boyfriend and girlfriend frequent a night club where they always make sure to have a different wardrobe and are horrified if anyone at the club is wearing the same clothes they are. They always sit on the same bar stools and look superciliously at the other mingling and dancing people. They are in a perfect pose with their hair coiffed just so and with their martinis held in just the right position. The boyfriend likes to whisper little jokes in his girlfriend’s ear upon which she laughs in an affected way so that she tossed her head back and reveals her beautiful long neck, glistening with a diamond necklace that reflects the light on the overhead chandelier. The light splashes off her neck and everyone’s attention is now on the couple. They’ve just had a Chanel No. 5 Moment, the very essence of their existence. Minutes later, the couple is in the boyfriend’s Lexus, parked in the club parking lot. They’re holding hands and giving adoring eyes at each other, still wallowing in the Chanel No. 5 Moment. Everyone thinks they’re in love.

But this is a huge error. In truth, this couple has been together for five years and they hate each other’s guts. Additionally, they have no money since they spend it all on orchestrating these Chanel No. 5 Moments.

Miserable, broke, stuck in a rut, they don’t see their life for what it really is, a complete sham. As Kierkegaard said, “Despair is not knowing it.” The couple won’t understand their existence until their stripped of their Chanel No. 5 Moments and stare eye to eye with their naked existence.

Putting the above lecture into a thesis for your essay

Viktor Frankl's prescription for meaning as a way of flourishing is the only the antitdote we have for the ordinary life, that of the existential vacuum, which kills our real self with its cowardice, conformity, fakery, distractions, and transient happiness.

Sample Thesis Attempts

Frankl’s definition of meaning is too saintly, too impossible to live up to have universal application; thus, we must, regrettably, argue that meaning, if it exists at all, is not so much a choice but a predetermined aptitude. A close look at Frankl’s extraordinary life shows that he did not so much choose a life of meaning but was hardwired to life of meaning evidenced by _________________, ____________________, __________________, and ______________________________.

While Frankl’s life of meaning sets a standard few of us will ever achieve, it is important that we not see meaning as a static, absolute, unobtainable entity. Rather, we should see ourselves as Works in Progress working toward meaning through many important ways compatible with Logotherapy and Frankl’s philosophy including __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and ________________________.

Since by Frankl’s own admission meaning is relative, individual, and subjective, absolute meaning cannot possibly exist. “Meaning” is just a term for finding a motivational tool to pull us out of our sense of emptiness. We all need to be motivated by something but that something is not meaning per se; rather, that something is simply a motivational tool and nothing else. We all like to call our motivational tools “meaning” but we only do so to make ourselves feel better. No matter what we find that gives us a sense of purpose and motivation, it is merely a mirage that cannot stand up to the definition of meaning evidenced by ____________________, ___________________, __________________, and ________________________.

I’ve read Man’s Search for Meaning three times, listened to all of McMahon’s lectures and feel more confused and depressed than ever. I can’t stand McMahon’s class, resent him for giving us this assignment, and am currently wondering if it’s too late to drop his class and start looking for a new 1C instructor.

Having a life of meaning is the only way to go because you’ll feel better about yourself, have proper motivation to live a correct life, and people will like you more.

Viktor Frankl’s book and his heroism have changed my life. Now I feel ready to face the world.

Of course there’s no meaning. Just look at the world. It’s going down the toilet.

You need meaning to raise a family, have a good job, and prepare yourself for death.

Without meaning, I’d probably just watch TV all day and drink myself to death.

I feel personally insulted that McMahon would question whether or not my life is rich in meaning. He has no right to raise these questions when I’m raising a family, working a full-time job, and trying to get through school.

McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure

Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.

Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.

Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb

Faulty

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.

Corrected

For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.

Faulty

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.

Corrected

In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.

Faulty

Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.

Corrected

The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.

Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause

Faulty

When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.

Corrected

Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.

Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction

Faulty

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.

Corrected

Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.

Faulty

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.

Corrected

Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.

Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over.

Faulty

In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.

Corrected

In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.

Faulty

Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.

Corrected

Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.

Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.

Faulty

We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.

Corrected

We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.

Faulty

Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.

Corrected

Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.

Faulty

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.

Corrected

Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.

Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent.

Faulty

The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Corrected

Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction

College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.

Faulty

Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.

Corrected

Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.

Faulty

A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.

Corrected

A torn rotator cuff causes chronic pain in your shoulder.

Faulty

The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Corrected

I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.

Faulty

The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.

Corrected

I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.

In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:

One. Verb after a prepositional phrase

Two. Verb after a dependent clause

Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.

Five. Faulty predication

Six: Faulty apposition

Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction