Ritualism, habitualism, cynicism
I have always been dismissive and even borderline derisive of New Year’s resolutions.
The two contributing factors are 1) my disdain for ritual and 2) realism/cynicism.
The realism/cynicism: you buy your gym membership in January, go 2-3 times, then never again. If it was important to you, why would you wait until January to do it? If you were serious enough about a commitment to change, then that motivation (and thus the change) would have come earlier, and wait for January 1st.
“I’ll stop smoking next week” is never true. If it was, you would have stopped 5 minutes ago. The only way it will be true for you next week—that smoking is something that should be stopped—is if it’s true enough for you to stop right now.
This has always been my attitude even as a kid. But I’m probably wrong.
Realization #1: My objection is not always true. Especially is if you are planning to make a ritual around it. And a New Year’s resolution is somewhat ritualistic (Sociologists, Anthropologists, Historians and Psychologists or anyone with half a brain: you may now feign your first gasp of shock.)
As for my disdain for ritual – it’s somewhat parallel to the above point about now vs. future motivation. If something is true enough or important enough, or embedded enough in your thinking, then a ritual is not personally needed.
You need not wait until Valentine’s Day to say “I love you” or be extra thoughtful. If you do need Valentine’s day for that… then what does that say about the other 27 days of that month? If you bought the Christmas gift on December 10th because you want to cause your loved one joy, then why in the world wait until the 25th to do so? (Realization #2: Anticipation can be more impactful and exciting than the event.) (You may now feign your second gasp.)
Plato-for-brains
Another part of my disdain of ritual: I have some Plato stuck in my brains. (The ideal vs. actual split is often useful, but occasionally pernicious.)
Unfortunately, I have a problem about the specificity and imperfection with which an abstract is made concrete. It’s my Plato problem.
That is, when something is intended a reflection or symbol of a truth, then aspects of that truth are lost. Then I find myself objecting to the specific form the symbol or ritual takes, as it is only a distorted reflection.
To be fair, New Year’s Resolutions are probably at the bottom of the list when it comes to this problem of ‘ritualness’ – but ‘ritualness’ has always this stench for me, regardless of its harmlessness. At this point, you should mentally insert your family tradition or peeved religious malpractice of choice.
In fact, what bothers me most is then the effect rituals have on people’s attitude towards them, precisely because of their potency – because rituals can do part of their job a little too well (and the ones administering them do their jobs not well enough.)
Invariably the following happens: the ritual becomes the point. The sign meant to be a pointer becomes the object of attention itself. Instead of the ritual serving a function of transmitting meaning, the form it takes becomes itself reified, petrified, and becomes treated as the meaning itself. (Albeit now void of actual meaning, as it was only ever intended as a vessel.)
And once that happens, the aforementioned ‘specificity-problem’ of the ritual becomes salient, as ritual-followers now dogmatically cling to it as ‘the point’ – with all its shortcomings compared to the ‘abstract perfection’ of the thing it was intended to point to.
The importance of the form blinds us to the original function.
Counterpoint I must warm up to: if the ritual still somehow has the desired effect, my Platonic objections should not carry as much weight as they do.
Eppur si muove
So how might a reified ritual still function well-enough?
Psychologically and socially: because patterns shape patterns. Second derivatives shape culture, too.
Because both the emotional anticipation and emotional memory of repeated rituals shape our behavior and understanding of the world. Especially if we do it as a group. (Insert third and final feigned gasp.)
Repetition carves deeper pathways for these truths, even if they are only pastiches. Because we learn by analogy.
And anyways, the fully abstracted theoretical truths are heady, boring, and completely irrelevant to everyday life unless actually applied to a given situation with the specificity it demands – and because life is messy, the only way to live out these is with a grudging battle-cry: “platonic ideals be damned!”
Why am I writing this? I guess this is how I process a shift towards trying to change some habits on January 1st.
Let January 1st be a marker of change! Hear ye all!
Let us heed and mark January 1st! The day when the Earth is 11 revolutions past the point in its orbit around the Sun at which the angle between Earth’s rotational axis and the Earth–Sun line is farthest from a right angle.
That’s when I’ll stop smoking for sure! Platonic ideals be damned!