Jim Collins is the pope of business management. His pronouncements are infallible, and if he kisses a baby, it gets into Harvard Business School.
Jim Collins (and Jerry Porras, the Garfunkle of Built to Last) said that visionary companies preserve their core ideologies and stimulate progress. This implies (and Collins explicitly states) that "a core ideology [is] a primary element in ... visionary companies." And he explains that core ideologies have two parts: (1) core values and (2) purpose.
Fundamentalist Collinsian teachings indicate that making shit-tons of money is not a good enough purpose (which pretty much makes Milton Friedman the Satan of business management). You've got to come up with something better.
"Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life." (Built to Last, p. 55)
If your customers, management and employees get excited about your company's compelling purpose, then your company will blow people's minds. In Table 3.1 of Built to Last, Collins lists the mind-blowing core ideologies of the visionary companies that he's identified.
Here's the problem: if you're an atheist or agnostic, what's a compelling purpose? Without both God and an afterlife, any imputed purpose collapses into meaninglessness.
When I say I'm an agnostic what I mean is that I'm convinced that God doesn't exist, but I'm also keenly aware that I could be wrong. By "agnostic" I mean "doubting atheist."
I arrived at my agnosticism against my will - you know, the heart cannot embrace what the mind rejects as false - and I've noticed that I half-subconsciously avoid thinking about the ramifications of my agnosticism because the general lack of purpose is depressing and the effort required trying to discover or create purpose is exhausting.
One thing that binds atheists and agnostics together is our reliance on evolution. Natural selection imprints purpose into our genetic code, a purpose that is not philosophical or emotional, but primal. That purpose is to survive and reproduce; unfortunately, "fucking and not dying" isn't anywhere on Table 3.1.
Excellent post, but it does spur me to a few thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. Evolution is about survival of the most adaptable, not the fittest.
2. Is religion perhaps a guide to this adaptability in humans? In other words, Does belief in a case greater than oneself lead one to be more adaptable?
3. I came to the conclusion years ago, that the answer to "why does existence exist?" can be answered without a need for spirituality. However, the question "why isn't there nothing?" can only be answered by assuming a spiritual nature. In other words, we are not physical beings that have a spirit, we are spiritual beings that happen to have taken physical form.
4. This sounds much more profound after you have had a few drinks.
Ed, thanks for the comments! I'm stone-cold sober, but I'll still try to respond to your thoughts.
Delete1. We disagree, but I don't think it matters much.
2. I 100% believe that religion aids survival. (I also think that there's an interesting way that natural selection can explain people's belief in the supernatural.) I would choose to believe in God if it were just a simple choice.
3. "Why isn't there nothing?" is a compelling and interesting question; however, I don't see how the fact that there isn't nothing implies God, religion, or spirituality. But like I said in the post, I'm convinced that God doesn't exist, AND I'm convinced that I could be wrong.
4. I will purchase a bottle of wine on my way home tonight and reconsider my responses.
I should have said, "this is more profound after I have had a few drinks."
Delete1. You don't disagree with me, but with Darwin. He never said, "survival of the fittest"
2. We agree, blah, it is more fun to disagree.
3. The deeper I think about it, the more it becomes clear to me that the "Why isn't there nothing" is the better question to ponder. (PS - Take a look at Pascal's wager.)
4. Red or white?
PS - There is an old joke we Catholics tell: Q) Why did God invent the Jesuits? A) So the agnostic could stay in the Church. It is even funnier now that the current Pope is a Jesuit.
Oh, Greg. Just because you're an agnostic doesn't mean you don't have purpose (and speaking of God: God, what a mangled mess this sentence is. Anyway, you don't have to believe in God or any other higher power to have a sense of purpose. Couldn't your purpose be happiness? Or fulfilling your role as a provider? Or being a great dad? Or contributing to your community? Aren't these purposes? Not as lofty as religious belief, perhaps, but still very purposeful in my mind. Religion just doesn't need to factor into it, in my view.
ReplyDeleteMelinda, your comment (besides making me know how much you care about me) forced me re-think the assertion that "without God and an afterlife, any imputed purpose collapses into meaninglessness." It's hard to examine the truth of that assertion while being blinded by the good feelings it produces, but I think I've got to stand by it. Assuming we will all die and cease to exist, and "eventually the solar system will wind down or collapse, and all trace of your efforts will vanish" (Thomas Nagel), it's hard to argue that there's any purpose for any of us. But that's the purpose of blog - the search for purpose despite the obstacles. That said, I know I can still find passion within myself. In a future post I'm going to explore the relationship between passion and purpose.
DeleteSorry, to jump in on your thread with Melinda, but the "all trace of your efforts will vanish" is precisely why the question, "Why isn't there nothing?" is so important to ponder.
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