The Problem with asking Why

It seems healthy but asking why is more trouble than it’s worth. You should stop, really.

Most children will ask why, and most of the time there is an answer. But most answers are only a stepping stone to the next level of questions. If you have enough time to follow it through, and a mind that is free enough, asking why can lead you to some pretty dazzling heights.

The other W questions can all take a seat, as what, where, when, and who can all be pegged to an objective reality within our multidimensional lives. But Why?... Reasons. And the reasons for those reasons? More reasons. Knock over the dominos back far enough and you arrive at the single point that distinguishes us as a species and that is: the instinct to survive and reproduce cannot explain every choice we've made, even when incorporating the most twisted of interpretations.

Essentially, the ultimate answer to Why? is I Don't Know, But...

In most cases the questioning ceases before that, when the answer arrives at the confession that This is simply what I deem as important. Happiness or a clean soul are as good as any answers we currently have. Obviously, they are incomplete at best, but they should get the job done (if the job is to stop questioning and get back to living).

So what good comes of asking why? On a day to day level, asking why helps us understand low lying problems and how to overcome them. On a reflection of our lives level, why is an important way of making sense of the decisions we have made to bring us to where we are today. However, beyond that, asking why becomes more self-detrimental than helpful.

Of course, it could be argued that asking why is a last resort. This stems from the idea that the only reason to ask that question is when you don't know what to do. If you're satisfied with the what, where, and when, then you probably know what to do, and can proceed. It is only when you still don't know what you should do, that you have to pull out the big gun. By this logic, any time you are asking why (for which there is not a complete answer) you are already not in the right place or time to receive a satisfactory answer, and are by default, wasting time.

So, should we stop asking why altogether? When you can, yes. Sometimes one reason is enough, sometimes a couple of reasons behind that, does the trick. Whatever the depth, if you can see a route that gets you out of questioning and back to "doing"; a route that keeps you satisfied with the Because that you already have, then take it. This would be the equivalent of knowing that there may not be a why, but that ultimately, you don't need it to live and enjoy life.

It you feel trapped on a shrinking stone with no answer for you to step to, and that without an ultimate Because, life has no meaning, and without meaning you are not motivated to do anything, then your only option is to stop living. If that doesn't sit well with you (and I sure hope it doesn't) then your ultimate answer to Why? is simply: That is How to Live Life Itself. Herein lies the power of why.

Why is everything we don't know, but know exists. Why is that X factor that you can't define but can't win without. Why is that 1% that has the power to beat the 99% forcing you to acknowledge that probabilities are not useful. Not knowing why is the curse we all must live with. The key to life might just be that when you reach a Why that has no answer, you grab the next best thing, i.e. Why-For You. The power of why is it's ability to keep us going, and to never feel like we have conquered life, and are done with it.

But... Why? Well, because that's just the way the cookie crumbles! "But cookies crumble when they are bitten into, along the lines where their components are bonded the weakest, so there is a reason for why it crumbles that way" Maybe, but is knowing that more important than eating it in the first place?

You could make the cookies differently so they don't crumble at all (but in that case they'd actually be biscuits). You could dissect the cookie to pinpoint its fault lines (essentially rendering it unenjoyable as a cookie, crumbled or not). You could try to generate a 3D model of the cookie via scanning, and analyse that, thereby knowing the likely ways it would crumble. Factor in tooth and bite scenarios and run the model through a quantum computer. Well, assuming you have the time and something else to eat while waiting, you would discover how That cookie would have crumbled hypothetically, with the real cookie never actually crumbling, but sitting in a scanner, giving you an incredibly useless answer. Consider, that if you weren't going to eat the cookie, would you even be asking why it crumbles as it does in the first place?

At some point, we all stop asking why for one of two reasons. We succeed in finding a good enough answer to motivate us through our struggles, or we accept that nobody knows, but that this cookie tastes damn good... now What's next.