Slaves to Ambition.

I’ve never been ambitious. I’ve had lots of aspirations, and have realised the majority – just far enough to get as much as I can get from them before moving on to another one. Aspiration is OK. Ambition is something different, and I dislike it. Ambition carries a highly dislikeable connotation. It’s generally about getting to the top, and often brings with it a ruthless imperative that has no truck with kindness, compassion or consideration. Macbeth was ambitious: ‘I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition.’ Yes indeed.

And yet we foster it more and more in a culture increasingly obsessed with targets and the cult of personality. It begins in school, where kids are put under unconscionable pressure to ‘succeed.’ Succeed at what? Getting a ‘good education?’ Who defines what a ‘good education’ should be? They’re too young to have the seed of vaulting ambition sown in them that way, and feel the pressures it brings with it, even before they’ve started to make sense of the big wide world. And it doesn’t stop there. The seed grows, as indeed it’s meant to grow, into a relentless force that stays with them throughout their working lives. It might lead to success of sorts to some of them, but at what price? Forty years of stress sitting constantly on their shoulders while they worship the god of ambition. What kind of a life is that?

I want to quote a couple of extracts from Khalil Gibran’s first complete book, Spirit Brides. Bear in mind that it was written in America over a hundred years ago.

We who spend the bulk of our lives in densely populated cities know virtually nothing of those who inhabit the secluded villages and farms of Lebanon. We have joined the tide of modern civilization, coming to forget or ignore the philosophy of that lovely, simple life filled with purity and goodness. Whenever we contemplate that life, we find it radiant in the springtime, heavy laden in the summer, fruitful in the fall, cozy in the winter. It resembles Mother Nature in all her phases. We exceed the villagers in our wealth, but they are more noble than we in their souls; we sow much but reap nothing, while they harvest whatever they sow. We are slaves to our ambitions, while they are children of their contentment. We imbibe the elixir of life mixed with bitterness, despair, fear and ennui, whereas they drink it pure.

***

Youth is a delicious dream, the savor of which is stolen by the riddles of textbooks that render it a harsh vigil. Will ever a day come when sages can combine the reveries of youth with the joys of learning, the way a common enemy unites the hearts of those who hate one another? Will a time arrive when nature becomes the teacher of the son of Adam, and humanity his book, and life his school? We do not know.

I’m glad you’re not here to see it, Mr Gibran. It’s getting worse, not better.

Source: http://jjbeazley.blogspot.com/2010/07/slaves-to-ambition.html