Cardinal Clancy Centre for Research in the Spiritual, Moral, Religious and Pastoral Dimensions of Education.
Spiritual, Moral and Religious Education is a Flagship area for Research in Australian Catholic University

  The search for meaning in contemporary events

The following is a chronological record of reflections on this topic.

4^th September 2001

The search for meaning in the life of an individual

A developing program of research in the School of Religious Education at Australian Catholic University is concerned with peoples’ search for meaning and identity.   However, it is becoming clear that the words “search for meaning” are problematic.   In one sense, people live in a world that is ‘awash’ with meaning.   What is important then, is not so much ‘a search’ for meaning, but an uncovering of what actually counts for meaning in the lives of many of the people around us.   Also important are the questions:   “How does meaning function psychologically?”  and “Who constructs meaning and makes it available?”   What also becomes important is a critical evaluation of what currently serves as available meaning so that people (particularly young people) are in a better position to choose meaning that is valuable and humane and to develop a commitment to that meaning.

Another aspect of the ‘search for meaning’ is that it often becomes an issue when there is some crisis, or when something new challenges the values and thinking that have previously sufficed.   When things are running smoothly, there may not be much concern about meaning.   A crisis often sets off ‘soul searching’  --  looking at the principles/values that underpin what people are doing in their lives (consciously or unconsciously).   It brings to the surface principles that are embedded in individual’s lives and scrutinises them.

Seeing the implied meaning in what you have been doing (or not doing), or in what is happening in the world can be a shock to the system.   It can mean facing uncomfortable truths that previously we were able to avoid or not think about.   For example, an individual may be very happy in his high powered job, then apparently out of the blue, his wife says to him “I am going to divorce you because you spend all of your time totally identified with your career and you have systematically alienated your family.”   This is something he had never thought about, but it had been a concern of his wife for many years.   It made the individual look at the meaning implied in his life and he was embarrassed to see that the central focus of his life had been his own work and career, with his family coming in a poor last.   So he was faced with the choice of staying with this direction (probably ending his marriage) or doing something about it, bringing about a change in the fundamental meaning to his life that might flow through into change of behaviour.

The ‘search for meaning’ or the ‘crisis in meaning’ may begin with an uncovering of the meaning that is actually operating in one’s life, followed by a critical evaluation.   It may involve selecting new meanings and an attempt to incorporate these into the individual’s thinking and behaviour.

Interpreting the meaning in contemporary events

Another aspect of search for meaning is the attempt to make sense of contemporary events;   to try to understand why something happens and to put it into perspective.

Consider today’s examples 04/09/2001.

.The asylum-seekers   Seventy-seven percent in a news poll endorsed the actions of Prime Minister Howard in preventing the asylum seekers from landing on Christmas Island.   The meaning behind such opinion affirms the taking of a strong stand against illegal immigrants and turning them away.   This meaning is about law and order, maintaining boundaries against people variously described as asylum seekers, queue jumpers, cashed up illegal immigrants etc.   The Prime Minister’s affirmation of a meaning that is evidently important to a significant number of Australians resulted in a ten point jump in the Prime Ministerial popularity rating.   It is interesting to note that the last time there was a ten point jump in a Prime Minister’s popularity was during John Howard’s prominence in the gun control debate after the massacre in Port Arthur.   The Tampa crisis is likely to have a telling impact on the result of the upcoming federal elections.   However, at a very basic level, what is important here are issues about “Who is my neighbour?”   It reminds us of a particular Gospel parable that is just as pertinent today as it ever was.

England in the wake of the National Soccer team’s 5-1 defeat of archrival Germany:   Television broadcasters have just reported a significant surge in productivity in the workforce and an energising of national well-being that flowed from the English soccer team’s 5-1 triumph over Germany in a World Cup qualifying match.   Everyone can feel good and proud by sharing in the success of a national team—our “heroes have done us proud”.   The spectacular success of the English soccer team seems to have more than compensated for the loss of the previously all conquering Lions rugby union team to the Wallabies and the dismal performance of the English cricket team.   Sport obviously makes a valuable contribution to the lives, not only of the players, but to the fans and general public.   There are substantial links between sport and spirituality / identity which it would be naive to dismiss.   Sport can make a good contribution to constructive meaning.   Like in any area of life, extremes and excesses in sport would inevitably create problems.

Ardoyne, Northern Ireland:   A human shield of security forces with helmets, protection shields and batons was needed to get young girls through the entrance to their Catholic primary school located near a Protestant sector of the town.   An abusive crowd spat and hurled missiles and jostled the security forces and parents who were endeavouring to get the children safely into their school.   Compare the meaning that the different sides have.   The meaning embedded in this situation involves deeply seated religious and social prejudice.   Sight of the distressed six year olds having to go through this ordeal comes as a shock to many outsiders who cannot understand why people could possibly behave in such a negative way – “What on earth are they trying to prove?”   The meaning that the crowd relied on, either consciously or unconsciously, was to justify their actions.   However, it could hardly stand up to scrutiny in the public domain where the cultural assumptions in that town do not apply.   Nevertheless, their action could probably rate a seventy-seven support rate from within their sub-cultural group, just as Prime Minister Howard attracted a comparable support rating for his action in the Tampa crisis.

Domestic violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities:   The Four Corners investigation broadcast on the 3^rd of September provided an example of where some very ugly meaning lay beneath the surface of the action of men in a number of Aboriginal communities, both in semi-traditional and urban areas:   That a significant number of women were regularly hospitalised through bashings from their husbands while there was no significant police or community action taken against them.   This suggests that there was meaning (an unspoken code) showing a level of cultural acceptance of the problem in the community to allow it to continue without being seriously questioned.   That more of the violence was perpetrated while the men were under the influence of alcohol was not an adequate justification for accepting the continuance of this sort of behaviour.   While no doubt the decimating influence of European colonisation on Aboriginal culture and spirituality has contributed significantly to the problem, there remains a type of justificatory meaning, long embedded in Aboriginal culture, which is still problematic.   It tends to regard a patriarchal society, a level of masculine dominance and violent behaviour towards women as somehow acceptable.

The exceptionally high and tragic suicide rate amongst children and young adults in the same Aboriginal communities raises other fundamental questions about cultural meaning.   In these cases, one contributing factor to the suicides could be the sense of these young people that there is no worthwhile reason or meaning for living.   In the light of their horrific experiences, they had given up on reasons for living;   they took the option for finding some peace by ending it all.   In this instance, it is a matter of fundamental reasons for living that are at risk.

If the meaning of a situation, interpreted from a particular point of view, is important in determining behaviour, then learning how to interpret and evaluate this operation of meaning is very important for education and for Religious Education in particular.   Content that allows for appraising reasons for behaviour and reasons for living is essential.   A key task for Religious Education therefore, is a process of identifying and evaluating meaning.   Interpreting current events is a valuable part of this process and one to be encouraged both in formal education and in experience generally;  it can show what counts as meaning for people in situations, and what meaning is culturally available at the time.   Then there is the question of determining the worthwhileness of particular meanings and deciding on whether or not it would be good to incorporate particular meaning into one’s own beliefs / values system.

12^th September 2001

September 11, the day the world changed

Just last week our reflections on cultural interpretation looked at some different and conflicting interpretations of the same event—particularly where it related to racial prejudice and violence.

What we saw on television last night has added a new and dramatic perspective that is going to have a long lasting worldwide influence in many countries, particularly on the meaning of violence.

This day terrorism has been taken to a new level.   It is has gone beyond what the “die-hard” films and other action movies have imagined about the terrible things that terrorists might do, but which are usually thwarted in the end by the heroes and heroines.   The pain of reality is such that it will probably change peoples’ capacity to enjoy violence and terror as a form of adrenaline-pumping entertainment.   The renting rate for the die-hard trilogy, The Siege, and other similar films is likely to drop significantly, at least in the immediate future.   It is likely that some of the current action films now being made or planned will be put on hold   --  mad terrorists have been staple characters for action films.

What has been a constant blight on the life of people in parts of the Middle East has now become something that can evidently happen in any western country.   For people in the United States, the unthinkable happened, a substantial terror attack on citizenry on the homeland.   People both in the United States and elsewhere can no longer feel relatively secure, thinking that all the violence is in other parts of the world.   September 11^th is likely to change the way people think about overseas travel generally, and particularly about visits to the United States and the Middle East.   It will be difficult for anyone to get into a plane in the next year or so, without thinking of what happened to four flights on September 11^th.   The image of a Boeing 767 turning at low altitude will never be an inconsequential image again.   There is emotional connotation that will take a long time to change.

What then is the meaning we make out of this event?   For those who are shocked at the death and destruction, much of the incongruity has to do with the apparent meaninglessness of the terror.   There is no satisfactory explanation which could justify those suicide missions.   The role of kamikaze pilots in the later stages of WWII was difficult enough to understand.   But in peacetime, to think of using civilian airlines as flying bombs is incomprehensible.

From the point of view of people in the United States, their horror, outrage, hurt and desire for revenge and retaliation are understandable.   However, as events unfold, it will become more clear that the perpetration of terror is not the same as war in the technical sense.   It is more psychologically damaging and perplexing, and it instils a crippling fear.   Those who are behind the terror activities are not as easily identified as are combatants in a war.

How would those on the terrorist side interpret the meaning of the events?

The terror attacks were carried out for various reasons, even if many would not accept the validity of those reasons.

The terrorists no doubt believed that the international politics of the United States, particularly in its support of the place of Israel in the Middle East, was contrary to the welfare of a number of predominately Muslim nations in the Middle East and central Asia.   They also believed that killing innocent people, disrupting civil and economic life and creating a fear of potential terror was an appropriate way of attacking the United States (and of retaliating) and a way of protesting against the political, economic and military power of the United States  --  a country they believed to be evil.   Being able to brand others with the identity of evil makes it easier to feel comfortable in harming them.

Then religious beliefs enter and affect the meaning.   The suicide attackers invoked an interpretation of their religion to reinforce the justification for their action and their motivation for carrying it through — that they were doing this in God’s name, that it was part of a holy cause and that they would be substantially rewarded in the next life for self-sacrifice.   Suicide and harming others inappropriately or unnecessarily is against the Islamic faith.   Nevertheless, this is the meaning out of which they sustained their commitment and action.   It shows how the idea of God is usually brought in on the side of one’s action to justify what is being done.   Is it a fair judgment to suggest that there must be something in the Islamic religion lends itself to this interpretation.   This question needs to be clarified further by those who have more knowledge and understanding of Islam.   By contrast, are there interpretations within Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism for example, which would encourage believers to take suicidal action against the innocent as a way of attacking a political system they believed to be evil?

We could look back to the time of the crusades and acknowledge that while they had a nominal religious purpose (political freedom of the holy land and protection of the sacred Christian sites) and we know that a lot of violence, killing and harming of innocent people was undertaken by the crusaders who used a claimed Christian religious motive to justify their cruel, inhumane and unchristian action.   Anyone who has read eyewitness accounts of the crusaders’ slaughter of people in Jerusalem would need little convincing in this regard.

This discussion raises fundamentally important issues about the way in which religious beliefs can be used to justify inhumane actions which the orthodox religious authorities would condemn as abhorrent and irreligious.   Acknowledged religious authorities have a key role here.   One wonders what might result if there were strong religious leadership exercised in this matter by key religious authorities in Islam.

All of this suggests that there is a need for a careful scrutiny of the way that God and religious beliefs figure in the way people interpret the meaning of actions and events.   Strongly conflicting views will often propose that God is fully on their side and that God blesses their action.  While it is easy to see that this cannot be, it requires a deeper understanding of God and God’s involvement in the universe and in human affairs.   This needs to be part of a relevant education in world religions, particularly in Islam.

What we have been talking about here is trying to think about the unthinkable.   It is not intended to give an explanation of what has happened.   But hopefully it will prompt thinking that will help us see more clearly the many complicated issues that are at stake—issues that we need to help our students look at and think about in education and in Religious Education.

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By Graham Rossiter

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