The Secret of Life

Imagine yourself strolling around a town you don’t know too well, wondering whether to call in somewhere for a cup of coffee. You've almost given up and reluctantly settled for a Costa outlet, when you see a traditional second-hand bookshop on the other side of the road.

‘That’ll do,’ you say to yourself. 'It may even have a coffee shop.' You nip across the road, skipping lightly as a young gazelle over a huge puddle. On pushing open the door, a reassuring bell tinkles and a delicious bookish aroma greets your senses like an old friend.

‘Foul weather,’ grunts an aged, dusty-looking proprietor from behind half-moon spectacles and an ancient desk piled high with books.

‘Isn’t it just?’ you reply automatically, eyeing with anticipatory pleasure the maze of crowded shelves stuffed with books. ‘I'm just browsing,’ you add with characteristic honesty.

‘Aren’t we all,’ grumps the proprietor, returning to his books.

You find yourself eyeing a shelf labelled ‘Esoteric’ which sounds an interesting place to begin. As you peer at an array of tight-packed spines, trying to find an interesting tome to fondle, your eye falls on a slim volume bound in black cloth. It is crammed between a book on modern magic and an excitable account of crop circles, but you manage to extract it with a little care.

The title is stamped on the cover in faded gold lettering – The Secret of Life.

Oddly enough there is no author and very little information – not even the usual publisher’s details. The book seems to have been written in the nineteen thirties – a typical product of the times with good quality paper and bound in black cloth. Maybe it was printed privately?

You begin reading and soon become gripped by what the unknown author has to say, because this book really is about the secret of life. It describes the human condition in such a way that you have to buy it. The price is pencilled on the fly leaf - £2.50 – far too cheap and far too interesting to leave all alone on the shelves.

*****

So what might be written in this amazing, but imaginary book? The secret of life obviously, but what does it actually say? 

Suppose you are so impressed by it that you decide to tell everyone you know all about your remarkable find. How many of your friends and family would be interested? How many would dampen your enthusiasm with a covert verbal shrug?

Suppose you risk copyright laws, putting it on your blog and publishing it as a free e-book? How much interest would there be?

Very little is my guess. I think many of us already understand the human condition fairly well - in our various ways. But there are good reasons to prevaricate. In fact I think the demands of social cohesion compel us to prevaricate.

Hierarchical societies need to maintain important illusions from the top to the bottom of the social scale and throughout academia, professions the media and particularly politics. Yes we may allude to these illusions indirectly, but if anyone should make it their business to tell it as it is, then they will not be heard. At least, not by many.

In general, those who tell the truth do not manage to climb the greasy pole. The only way to get round the problem is to tell the truth privately but dissimulate in public.

As we all know.

Those who insist on telling the truth publicly, will with only a few rare exceptions fail to rise. So dissimulation is built into social cohesion – it is vitally important and without it, social cohesion would fail to cohere.

So what is the secret of life? Many of us already know - or suspect we know - but can’t say. Even if someone does tell the truth about the human condition, they do not get enough positive feedback to make a habit of it. 

We all need positive feedback, but for certain, socially sensitive issues we don’t get it. There are things we cannot say outside small but receptive social contexts - such as blogs or the pub. 

Even though they are true.