Often in life I ponder deeply complicated matters, sometimes matters about which I feel strongly, and a great many matters about which my feelings are mixed and ambivalent. A great deal of the complexity of life comes from the fact that so many of us have so many different interests and worldviews and a great deal of conflict tends to exist from these balances of well-being as well as ideological positions. Sometimes these elements are in contrast to each other, and sometimes they agree harmoniously. At times we hold true to our principles even at the cost of our material well-being. Sometimes we seek after our own well-being and pay lip service to our ideals. Sometimes we simply may not know our best interest and cannot even take into consideration when we are making decisions.

There are a few reasons why life is complicated beyond mere self-interest, though. For one, our actions often make life far more complicated than it really has to be. For example, I have noticed before the fact that songs are a part of a great conversation [1]. Today I pondered the existence of a certain song that is part of a larger song war, the song “Paper Doll” by John Mayer, a song about Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, of course, wrote a song about John Mayer called “Dear John,” which revealed a hitherto unknown relationship between the two singers, John Mayer being substantially older than Taylor Swift, it should be noted. John Mayer, who is in general a man of fairly ambivalent feelings, having deep blues interests as well as pop sensibilities and a reputation for being a sympathetic fellow to the interests and concerns of women, suffered a great deal of difficulties for the rather impolite way he dealt with the breakup, and writing a song that compares Taylor Swift to a paper doll is not going to help in such matters. Our conflicts, and the way that our pride or lust interferes with our best interests as well as the better aspects of our characters.

Politics are often complicated for similar reasons. All too often pride and arrogance get in the way. For example, as I have noted before [2], our government has been shut down for a week and if it weren’t for the press few people would notice. That said, the way that the shutdown has been handled has been somewhat complicated. Death benefits for families of veterans have not been paid, and ordinary federal workers whose only fault is working for the federal government are on furlough, and popular federal landmarks and properties are off limits to ordinary citizens (but not to illegal immigrants, apparently [3]), while priests are prohibited from saying mass to people on military bases while the commander-in-chief has not had his golf game suffer at all because of his inability to do his job of leading in a principled fashion. When people in charge do not suffer while they cause other people to suffer, they lose credibility as leaders because they prove that their own self-interest and pride outweighs their devotion to whatever principles they possess. In a case like this, while we must blame both sides (and a lot of people in general [4]) for the shape our nation is in, we can certainly blame others for seeking to manipulate what is under their control for selfish and partisan benefit.

Even our own personal life can be complicated when we are not cultural icons or political leaders. Even the lives of ordinary people can be complicated because of unusual factors and cross-currents that make our efforts at relatively simple and straightforward tasks rather harrowing. The things we want most from life, love, security, respect, honor, can be difficult to attain. Sometimes our efforts to achieve some goals may greatly hinder others. Sometimes ignorance about the thoughts or feelings or perspectives of others greatly hinders our abilities to work out the best interests of everyone in the situations we find ourselves in. It shouldn’t be so complicated in life, but it is that way sometimes, at times because we are at fault, at times because others are, and at other times simply because we are people in the wrong place at the wrong time pursuing imperfect ends with imperfect means. In such circumstances, complexity is inevitable.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/the-great-conversation/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/patriot-games/

[3] http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-opens-national-mall-to-illegal-aliens?cid=rss

[4] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/usa-inc/