Hello to whomever is reading this :)
I am so pleased that one week ago, my TEDx Talk was released on the TEDx YouTube page! It was such an incredible experience and so rewarding. The process was very challenging and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Above is the link to my Talk: Enjoy!!!
That being said, I wanted to offer anyone that is interested the opportunity to read the original piece of work for this TEDx Talk - which is vastly different from how the speech turned out, since I had to drastically change it to render it appropriate for the TEDx platform. The original was much more academic, rooted in philosophical analysis that I was unable to mention in the taped version of the speech.
I was truly passionate about this piece of writing and I hope you enjoy reading it!
It is based on the following question: Is It Possible to Escape Time?
A journalist by the name of Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey once said that “time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves. We lose as much to life as we do to death”. Indeed, time defines the nature of our existence. We breathe its essence as though it were oxygen, an omnipresent lifeforce that allows us to make sense of a reality that is often so difficult to grasp, so painful for our fragile minds to comprehend.
It constitutes the framework through which we perceive both the world and ourselves. It renders our understanding of reality more harmonious, for a reality deprived of any means to identify itself becomes chaotic. It was the great French philosopher Saint Augustine who posited, among other things, that time was conceived for the purpose of developing a clear conception of the past, present and future; in order to better perceive the course of our lives. For this reason, time is inalienably attached to existence: we cannot break away from its grip, we cannot fight its clasp, we cannot run from its hold on us.
Augustine of Hippo
Confessions
And yet, time’s unrelenting force of nature does little to shake our desire to combat its impact. We dread time, we flee from it, we try to escape its grasp despite it being impossible to do so. You may ask yourself, if time is so fundamental, if time is so intrinsic to the human experience, then why do we nonetheless fear it? Should we not accept its ubiquitous presence, as it is inherent to our existence? Should we not welcome the path it will inevitably lead us down? What about time do we find so alarming?
The answer lies in one of our most primitive fears: death. We fear death more than anything else, we are biologically engineered to sustain life to the best of our ability. Our most primal instinct is to protect ourselves from any impeding danger that could pose a threat to us, it is a foundational survival impulse rooted in every human being. Time corrupts the human body: it ages us, decays us, slowly but surely, until we are but dust and bone. For us, time becomes the harbinger of death.
If we fear death, then we fear anything that could cause it, and therefore it is only natural that we do what we can to escape time; to us, it is the source of our mortality. But how can we ever wrest away its control over us?
This fundamentally philosophical question may seem completely unfeasible, utterly impractical, entirely impossible, yet there are ways to escape the clutches of time that are accessible to all of us. If time leads to death, and death is the cessation of existence, then we must re-evaluate what “existence” means. The most evident way of defining it is through the notion of being a living, breathing human body, however existence can also encompass the concept of a non-physical presence, tied to the human mind.
Consciousness is not limited by time as it exists independently of our physical limitations. By expanding our consciousness and mobilizing its abilities, we can fight against limit time’s unyielding control over us, ensuring that we continue to live, even beyond our deaths.
One may argue that although the body can decay, the lasting effects of the mind never do. A complete death, in every sense of the term, implies the end of our life in this universe, as well as the end of our impact within it.
To truly die is to have all trace of us erased, it is to have our mark on the world eradicated. It means to have any achievement, any influence, any memory, utterly forgotten. To escape time, we must ensure that our influence prevails long after our death, and we can do this through remembrance. Indeed, remembrance embodies a deliberate effort to ensure the legacy of an individual to commemorate their contributions to their society, to their families...
and even to themselves.
It can be interpreted as the collectivization of memory, a vessel through which we are able to live timelessly, freed of the clutches of the material world. Our existence perseveres through others. Our friends will remember all of the times we made them laugh, our colleagues will remember the hard work we placed into all of our projects, our teachers will remember us for our blossoming dreams and ambitions, our children will remember the many lessons we have taught them.
As insignificant as these individual moments may seem, it is undeniable that these small pieces of memory stay with us until our own untimely deaths. We remember the smell of our college boyfriend’s mac and cheese as well as we remember a Van Gogh painting so beautiful it brought us into tears. Every human being has affected the world in which we live in, whether through small actions or monumental achievements.
That is not to say that momentous accomplishments are at the same level as a mere comfort dish. It must be noted that the wider the scale on which an individual is remembered, the more likely that individual will become immortalized. For this reason, one of the most efficient ways to escape time’s grip is to through the medium of fame: celebrity, stardom, and widespread recognition of an individual’s achievements can allow us to escape death because these will ensure that our legacies live on long after our passing.
We remember actors for their mesmerizing performances in brilliant films, we remember artists for their exceptional pieces and the way they redefined larger movements, we remember political activists for having fought for social justice and the changes they brought about, and we even remember war criminals for having committed horrendous atrocities on minority groups that shocked the world. It is worth noting that in our culture, fame is not only attributed to those embodying a moral ideal, but rather to those who have had any kind of remarkable impact on our society. Fame enables us to break free from time’s grasp, because our legacy continues on in perpetuity. Nonetheless, it is debatable whether or not this is the ideal solution to this existential dilemma of immortality.
As powerful as remembrance may seem, it does not last forever. If a memory is not passed along or shared with others, it can die along with the consciousness that contained it. We would not be able to remember our grandmother’s beloved apple crumble recipe if this was not written down and passed down to our parents, just like we would not be able to remember the millions of men who have sacrificed their lives during the World Wars of the 20th Century if there weren’t burial sites to commemorate their efforts. In both cases, the lives and legacies of these individuals did not simply exist in the minds of future generations, they were physically materialized.
The physical realization of human accomplishment can transcend time because anything materialized does not die the way living beings do. We have previously established that the human body is corrupted by time, that time is the harbinger of old age, which eventually causes our deaths.
Although we are gifted with consciousness, which allows us to maintain the memories of those who have long since passed, those memories cannot solidly be sustained if they are not transformed through a physical vessel preserved through time. For this reason, whatever mark we leave on the world needs to be externalized in some way, as only then will it truly last through time. Ideally, we would use our mind’s capacities to improve the lives of those around us, for the betterment of society as a whole. In this way, the mobilization of our ideas and actions becomes the means through which we can resist time.
The influence of certain works will continue to exist as long as they are preserved and maintained properly. The most exceptional composers still bring beauty and brilliance through their music, moving us years after their deaths. The most exceptional artists express their vision through their pieces, inspiring emerging talent of future generations. The most exceptional writers share their perspectives through their stories, adding to the collective account of human experiences.
The most exceptional philosophers help us better understand our purpose as human beings, guiding us through the ages.
It is clear that individuals like Jean-Sebastien Bach, Frida Kahlo, Alfred Hitchcock, Jane Austen, and Simone de Beauvoir have defied time’s clutches through their ability leave behind notable works and ensuring they forever remain relevant to their respective domains.
We have now established that there are many mediums through which we can escape time: we are able to live past our death through the vessels of memory, prominence, and influence. However, as we try to flee from death’s grip, have we not in some sense dismissed a much larger issue at hand here?
It is possible that our quest for escapism may be leading us down a path of disappointment, self-deception, and perpetual nihilism? Instead of asking ourselves if it is possible to avoid time’s grasp, should we not be asking ourselves whether this quest defeats its own purpose?
We seek to escape time to because we fear its most brutal consequence: death. But is this deep-rooted desire for survival and immortality not keeping us experiencing everything life has to offer?
Existence is more than a purely primal state of being. Life can be joyous, exhilarating and vibrant, providing us with meaning, significance, and purpose.
If we were truly the sum of our most basic functions, breathing, eating sleeping, then we would not revel in the beauty of a glorious sunset that paints the sky gold, we would not find delight in savoring a meal that reminds us of home every time we take a bite, we would not become joyous at the very idea of being held in our partners’ arms, we would not find hope in moments that seem hopeless.
So how do we come to terms with the fact that these beautiful moments will eventually fade away and disappear? How do we break away from our obsession with death in order to truly appreciate the time we have? The answer may lie in an exceptional story. Long ago, a man born into royalty, wealth and power lives a life of distinction and privilege, in which he is provided with more than his mere needs, he is presented with an obscene amount of riches.
He lives an utterly sheltered existence, confined within palace walls under the rule of his father.
Despite the advantages he has been given, despite the affluence bestowed upon him, he remains adventurous, curious of the outside world he was forbidden from exploring.
Against his family’s wishes, he leaves his life of privilege behind in search of a new experience, naïvely enthusiastic of the adventures ahead. This enthusiasm is quickly tarnished as he is faced with the hideous realities of the outside world: as he explores the streets of his city, he encounters poverty, disease, suffering. He witnesses beggars on the brink of starvation, children living in dreadful conditions, and death becomes a part of his existence.
He becomes totally disillusioned with his previous life, in which he was shielded from such horrors, and led to believe that the human experience was rid of such atrocities. From that moment of realization, he renounces his privilege and comfort, and instead comes to believe that existence is nothing but suffering and begins to lead a life devoid of any luxury, pleasure, or well-being.
And yet, his story does not stop there. This man comes to understand that although life is inherently filled with misery, it is not solely defined by this. We experience pain, yet this does not define us. The man comes to understand that life can be the bearer of wisdom, and illumination, that we are not limited by the restrictions of the material world and that we can free ourselves of human suffering through the power of the mind. He accepts that death is a natural part of life and finds enlightenment through several practices that would later become intrinsically attached to his philosophy. This man’s name was Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha.
His story pertains profoundly to our deeply ingrained fears surrounding the passage of time. We want to view life through an overwhelmingly positive lens, for accepting that death in intrinsic our very existence, and that we are bound to experience hardships, discomfort and despair, can be too much for us to endure.
We hope that the joyous moments last, we cherish them, and we yearn to experience them again, because these are the things that make life worthwhile.
But our fervent desire to only experience the positive has unintended consequences, making the harsher realities more difficult to bear. If we can embrace the fact that life can be as beautiful as it can be ugly, as pleasant as it can be arduous, and that death is part of life, we will be much closer to softening the ravages of time.
Whether through remembrance, legacy, influence or physical works, it is possible to live on after our deaths. Yet we should never make escaping time our central purpose, a goal to achieve, a treasure to seek, as it ultimately diminishes the fundamental joys of human existence. To perpetually fear our impending deaths disregards the fact that life should be lived to the fullest. For using the time we have wisely, embracing the light and dark sides of existence and endeavoring to improve the lives of those around us, may be the only true way to escape its tight grasp .
Thank you to TEDxWarwick, and thank you for reading!
I hope this was insightful.