I went to SXSW a few weeks ago. As a writer, I didn't really have any business being there, but I like the internet and my company was paying for it because I'd made a compelling argument about needing inspiration. Which was true. You try writing funny things about cleaning products 40 hours a week. So, like most things everyone says is amazing and/or you beg to attend, it was disappointing.
I should clarify. I didn't stay for the cool music portion. I was in Austin exclusively for SXSW Interactive where it was seemingly acceptable to begin a conversation with, "So, do you have a start-up?" "No asshole, I don't have a start-up, and neither do you. But let's go see a cyborg anthropologist talk about how our smartphones are our external brains and in 50 years we won't be able to remember anything on our own." That was pretty much the whole scene in a nutshell.
Of course I'm exaggerating. There were some fantastic speakers and I learned a lot, but I certainly didn't leave thinking, "I can't wait to get home and start using highlight to stalk everyone who crosses my path," or "Gosh I feel uplifted by the direction society's moving in." Because I don't. I left feeling exhausted by everyone else's enthusiasm. I had a nerd hangover.
Yet there I was 48 hours later, sitting in a lecture hall at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco, listening to another speaker. But not just any speaker, Alain de Botton, whose work I've admired since I picked up On Love four years ago. Oh, why am i being coy? I adore him. His writing is genius, insightful and funny. As it turns out, in person he's even better.
He was speaking about his new book, Religion for Atheists, which asks us to put aside the most circuitous debate in history--is there a god?--and discover religion without the deities. The world's religions can teach us wonderful lessons, like how to better educate, build a sense of community, make our relationships last, inspire travel or connect with the natural world. So why not take the "best bits" of each one and find a better way to live? Well, because that's not what you're supposed to do. I'm just not sure who decided that.
As i sat there, I couldn't help but note the stark contrast between what he was saying and what I kept hearing in Austin. Life isn't getting any easier because we have fifteen ways to connect and share with people we vaguely know. Western society is, on the whole, more depressed than ever. Yet we focus so much on the advancement of technology while our humanity problems continue to loom large. Technology isn't the answer to everything. The answer is in how we live our lives. How we love. How we treat other people. If anything can teach us how to do those things better, we should embrace it. And I guess whether you believe in a god or not is largely irrelevant, isn't it?
*I can call him Alain now because we've met** in person.
** it was thrilling.
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