Life is Good: The Taboo of Suffering & How to Respond to Evil
One of the oldest stories of depression & suicidal ideation is tucked away in the Old Testament. Though many of us are not well biblically versed nowadays, there is tremendous wisdom in these archaic stories that remains deeply relevant to modern life.
I will attempt to give a synopsis of the story in as brief as possible, then draw out the implications for the industrial scale Evil that has occurred in the 20th century, the connection that Evil and then in turn the attitudes demonstrated in Job have with the patent manifestation of the suicide crisis, particularly for men under 35, in the West.
The story of Job is a deeply interesting, provocative and troubling one. Job is a prosperous, upright man whom God extolls as someone who is exceedingly righteous in his eyes. However, Satan (literally ‘The Accuser or the Adversary’ in ancient Hebrew), challenges Jobs piety, stating that he is only in such harmony with God because God has blessed him with material bounty, a large, loving family and good health. Take those away, so reasons the ‘Adversary’, and what will you have? Someone who will curse God, wagers Satan to God.
God takes up this Adversary on his bet and allows him to send dear old Job through two rounds of Hellish torments. First, Job’s family, except his wife, is killed and his material wealth is destroyed. Yet, Job still praises God, offering him sacrifice and stoically bearing this downturn in fortune.
God seems satisfied with Job, but the ‘Adversary’ points out he still has his health. Take that away and what will you have? God ascents to this challenge and allows Satan to cover Job with sores from head to toe. Job is in immense pain and ostracized by his friends.
This is where Job hits his breaking point. He leaves his village and mourns for 7 days in silence. Eventually his three friends come out to check on him, attempting to provide solace to him in his sufferings.
On the 7th day, Job breaks his silence, seemingly unaware of his friend’s presence. He exhorts to God and anyone or thing that will listen, lamenting the day he was born and wishes that everything ‘light’ be turn to darkness. Job goes full emo.
Indeed, this part of the story is lengthy and poetic. Job wishes for the leviathan, the ancient mythical monster representing primordial chaos, be released into the world again, directly contradicting and reversing the great traditions of that region and time period that featured deities conquering said primordial beast to bring habitable order to the world.
Once Job is through lamenting his current lot, his friends find that they need to rebut his arrogant and blasphemous mouthing-off. Though some are more understanding, while others are more strident, the three friends essentially take the core positions that a. there is a causal relationship between sin and suffering b. that God is always right c. Human suffering is insignificant to God in the first place (Abraham's Silence).
It is interesting to note that these three friends and Job have a conversation back and forth. Within this conversation, Job sometimes directly addresses God, claiming that he has pointedly taken interest in destroying Jobs life and that God bears significant responsibility in this. In his book Answer to Job, Carl Jung provocatively suggests that in this story, Job is morally superior to God. Job freely admits he is an insignificant being compared to God’s mightiness and would openly bear the consequences of his sins were they deserved. He is strikingly and refreshingly honest and confrontational with God. More on this later.
Once Jobs friends are through blaming Job for what the readers know is really the outcome of a bet with the Devil and an omnipotent being, God takes the stage. He shows up in a ‘whirlwind’, taking Job on a trip through the cosmos, demonstrating his infinite power and thus the insignificance of Job, impugning the validity of Job to raise his puny, worm-self in protest of so mighty a being as the Almighty. Interestingly, he takes Job on a tour of the animal kingdom in which human beings are not mentioned.
This is a strange move for God. As we have already noted, Job previously admitted his insignificance, so the fact that God would double down on this fact seems cruel and humiliating. Is it not some sort of Divine insecurity that would instigate such bullying behavior from an all-powerful being? Why would God not take the challenge in good faith, especially knowing that Job’s fate was indeed the outcome of his cosmic bet with ‘The Accuser”.
This is precisely what Dr. Jung points to as the demonstration of Job’s moral superiority to God in this moment. Job is fully aware that he is mortal, weak, vulnerable and relies on the Covenant with God and the offices of his good graces. When this is stripped away from him and he dares to even voice a peep in the direction of addressing a semblance of Justice, he is not only walloped by his friends piling onto his suffering, but by God himself.
This amazing flash point is the quintessence of the human condition. We not only often feel that we have born great suffering, whether personal, existential or some combination along the continuum; but we also have it thrown back in our faces for even mentioning this or trying to talk about it honestly. This quality is as true today as it was in the times this story was written.
But the story does not end there. Though Job does repent ‘in ashes & dust’, God then does another funny thing. Though we would think that based on his initial reaction, he would smite Job in an OG biblical manner, with some lightning bolt or another; in fact he reprimands Job's friends for justifying Gods actions for him to Job. He says that they in fact spoke inappropriately to Job. This is rather astonishing in an already astonishing story.
If we assume that the story of Job is not a literal historical account, but is a ‘Treatise of Wisdom’ (https://www.amazon.com/Abrahams-Silence-Binding-Isaac-Suffering/dp/0801098017) , a series of ‘What-if’ hypotheticals and a brilliant piece of literature rolled into one then we can see it as a piece trying to archetypally (*Jordan Peterson-Kermit voice*) get at what the nature of suffering and the human condition really is like.
So, what is this story reflecting back to us that suffering is really like? In summation, not only will you be cosmically screwed by a being you thought previously loved you by the arch-force of evil in the universe, but you will also be blamed by your friends for these circumstances and humiliated by the very same God you thought you had established a loving relationship with. All in a day’s work.
The story also shows how deeply the Taboo of a. voicing one’s suffering and thus b. questioning God’s Goodness and Justice (known theologically as Theodicy). This still wreaks havoc in modern times as we will explore a bit later.
So how can we connect with the level of suffering that Job experiences to our own experiences today? To me, it seems pretty obvious, the starkest example being the geopolitics of the 20thcentury.
The 20th century is perhaps the most direct evidence of Evil ever manifested in human history, which is indeed saying something. Numerous nations, in the throws of the apotheosis of the political consequences of the enlightenment, enacted deliberate, industrial campaigns of slaughter along racial, economic and political grounds to the tune of hundreds of millions of lives lost through those decades. The nearly incomprehensible collective shrieks of the souls in the suffering on our planet may in fact have been audible in space.
Even the ‘righteous’ nations of the world that defeated these regimes of Evil like the Nazi’s or Soviet Russia in turn became much more imperialistic, authoritarian and compromised significantly many of their core principals to the point of outright hypocrisy.
There’s also the fact that nearly every single world power and thus governing societal structure is steeped in blood of millions of deaths historically regardless and the minor detail of the capacity for nuclear annihilation.
Add to this any of the litany of horrors occurring today, for example just within western societies, such as the pharmaceutical industry, the Military Industrial Complex, the political Duopoly, the authoritarian technocratic bio-state, the Catholic Church abuse scandals; the list goes on.
This is all at the level of national and geopolitics. These forces weigh heavily on every individual, as the very psychology necessary to operate with a modicum of functionality in these systems impinges on all individuals genuine expression of their free will and overall health.
One must also account for all the personal tragedy and evil in ordinary life such as domestic & sexual abuse, murder and inter-relational manipulation of all manner. These crucibles are all born by the individual. Pretty quickly we can see the psychological acuity in the portrait painted of Job. It seems as if in modernity, everywhere we turn, our way to a happy life is blocked. As Nietzsche aptly said, when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.
This bears out as well in the recent development of suicide data. Though of course this is not just data, not just numbers on an excel spreadsheet in some drab government office in any capital of the world. No, these are real human beings whose pain was so great, and whose answers go so unaddressed, that the only solution they can see to this whole conundrum is to take their own life.
Specifically for men, the numbers are strikingly dire. Suicide is now the leading cause of death among men under the age of 35. Men are 3:1, 6:1, 4:1 more likely to kill themselves than women in the UK, Greece and US respectively.
The reasons why men seem to be at higher risk of suicide are both positive & negative. Women tend to speak about their emotions more, seek help professionally more often and don’t follow through on actual attempts violently like men do. Men on the other hand often face considerable stigma for even feeling depressed or experiencing suicidal thoughts. They’re more likely to take bold, aggressive action and they are more likely to perceive their problems as ‘failure’ to meet up to societal expectations thus revealing an inherent character flaw within themselves.
The story of Job can, if nothing else, help us fathom the depth of this problem. When men go about having the courage to address their suffering in an honest and forthright manner, they are not only immediately blamed by their friends but by God himself, this is what is can feel like, and unfortunately often is like. Written another way, if you openly admit your suffering, you invite strong rebuke from not only your close relationships, but also Being itself.
This is a drastically important insight, for it shows us how deep the problem goes. And in order to truly address a problem you must ascertain its full scope. It also points to the courage needed as a man to honestly address your own suffering.
But Job doesn’t do just that for us. It also suggests at a way forward. Like any great story, it does not hand us the answer outright, but points the way to ambiguous possibility. Though Job repents, God seemingly vindicates his speaking out in an honest and vigorous manner by reprimanding his friends and also comparing Job to the Leviathan, the most powerful creature that God created and that God indeed rejoices in.
An apt modern example of this theme comes from a psychologically superb German movie from 2014, Labyrinth of Lies. In post WWII Germany, a young, ambitious lawyer naively stumbles into the fact that there are thousands of former Nazis who actively participated in the regimes atrocities, blithely continuing their lives unpunished nearly twenty years later. He unwittingly initiates a crusade to unearth these crimes and bring them to justice. In fact, he eventually finds himself prosecuting Waffen SS soldiers who were instrumental in the running of Auschwitz.
Throughout the entire movie, he faces significant resistance from many of those around him. He is constantly told he is arrogant and self-righteous; his work is openly derided and covertly sabotaged, and he is charge with opening a wound that needs healing. At a poignant moment in the film, one of the office’s top lawyers shouts at him “Do you want every son in Germany to ask their father if he was a murderer?” to which he replies, “That is exactly what I want.”.
Later still, at the very end of the movie, after much tribulation (including finding out that his own missing father was indeed a party member) they put 18 former SS men on trial. 17 are convicted. It set precedent for the whole of West Germany and the world. The movie aptly ends with a monologue by the main character: “In the end, the only response to Auschwitz is to do the right thing”.
This has resounding echoes like our story of Job. These examples of extremis can point us in the direction of how to deal appropriately with existential evil. To face it fully head on, appreciate the depth of the Taboo you are confronting and to do the right thing regardless, knowing God has made you for this. Like the Leviathan, you are a beast to be reckoned with.