Everything Is Compensation

I was reading a book the other night called The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, and came across an interesting idea. The line was, “In the world, everything is compensation. When you can’t go as fast, you push harder.” It was a concept I’ve never looked directly in the eye before, and it quite intrigued me, I suppose because it’s true of most everything.

The entire universe is constantly struggling to obtain equilibrium. Bodies of water decrease; rain falls to fill them full. People die; babies are born. The sun rises and heats up the earth; it sets to cool things off. Nature is a thing of perpetual motion, trying to keep its scales balanced.

The human race has its own set of wheels, constantly turning to make sure all aspects of life roll smoothly and equally. Businesses change course to compensate for change in consumer attitudes. Institutes for higher education offer degree programs based on societies need for specific professionals. Leaders are appointed to take charge when groups of men require guidance. Life as we know it is one big push towards the middle.

Because all nature fights for equilibrium, it should come as no surprise that the tendencies of the individual man also struggle for balance. When one member of our race deviates too far from our established norm, we lock them up or attempt to correct their abnormality. To think differently is a curse. To act differently is a disgrace. Systems of education fight to create people who think and act as governments see fit, all under the pretense of forming “free thinkers”.

While pondering on this concept, I was reminded of a speech I read way back when by James Baldwin called “A Talk To Teachers.” Baldwin says, “The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society.”

Baldwin goes on to say that in order for a society to survive, it has to change and evolve, and the only means of doing this is for “responsible” citizens to “examine society and try to change it and fight it.” Ironically, in this scenario the outliers become a means of balance, as working towards change is what causes a society to remain standing.

We like to think that in order for individuals to succeed, others must fail, but a more accurate account would be to acknowledge that for some to fail, they must be manipulated into not succeeding. And that’s compensation at work. Minds are designed to expand ideas, therefore making new ideas, never thought before. Each person has the ability to be unique, and in this way is uniform. Innovative ideas are not a miracle. The miracle is that minds can be manipulated into not having innovative ideas. Success is what comes naturally, and yet we are taught from a very young age that to be “civilized” means we must conform to the traditions of mediocrity formed by less developed ancestors. More often than not ideas are harnessed through formal education, not expanded.

And so, as “responsible” citizens, we must constantly fight to change and expand the way we are told to view the world. And what is more, we must not keep these ideas to ourselves, but rather, we must share what we know and how we know it so that others can pick up the thread of ever expanding thoughts. If it’s a better world we want for ourselves and our children, we cannot be content to simply accept the notions of our governments, our religious authorities, and all other men who give us stale answers to stale questions. We must ask new questions.

The only way I know to do this is through writing. In writing, not only can we make ourselves heard, but we can begin to understand the unique ideas within ourselves. And in writing what we know, we give opportunity to others to expand upon that knowledge, carrying it further than we ever could have done ourselves. Ideas begin with the individual, but they are a group effort.

Joan Didion, an American journalist and author, summed up all my thoughts on writing in two sentences: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Life is filled with questions that do not exist until we take the time to form and ask them.

“In the world, everything is compensation.” It’s time to stop being content with stale notions and ideas. Write what you know, and you might be surprised to find that you know more than you thought you did.