Leonard Cohen and Philosophy (5 page)

In his final statement to the members of the jury, Socrates offered a warning that echoes Cohen’s threat of first taking Manhattan, then Berlin, and told the jurors that their problems would only be made worse by killing him. His death would, he predicted, increase both the number of future critics and their radicalism. If democracy is to survive, he suggested, citizens must learn how to deal rationally with their problems, and to deal productively with the criticisms raised by poets and philosophers. If not, democracy can easily turn into tyranny, as both the fearful majority and the increasingly desperate minority seek to protect their own places in society.

Like Cohen, Socrates was a person who combined considerable empathy for individual human beings with a realistic and somewhat cynical view about the horrible ways that they usually behaved. Similarly, while he was fiercely loyal to Athens, and even risked death by defying a group of tyrants who briefly overthrew the democracy, he was deeply pessimistic about the ability of the majority to craft a just, rational society. Cohen songs such as “Everybody Knows” and “Democracy” exhibit something close to a Socratic attitude toward modern society. In the former song, Cohen emphasizes that people will behave in predictably bad ways; in the latter, he identifies both the shortcomings and the potential of American democracy.

Hey, That’s the Way Stoics Say Goodbye

Never say about anything “I have lost it” but say “I have restored it.” Is your child dead? It has been restored. Is your wife dead? She has been restored. . . . So long as he may allow you, take care of it as a thing which belongs to another, as travelers do with their inn.

             
—E
PICTETUS
(section 11)

Immediately after Socrates’s death, philosophy in Athens was dominated first by Plato and then by Aristotle (384 to 322 BCE), who helped launch research into areas such as physics, biology, logic, metaphysics, and political science. The Hellenistic period of philosophy officially “starts” with the death of Alexander the Great and the subsequent exile of Aristotle from Athens in 323 BCE. Like their hero Socrates, the Hellenistic philosophers were less concerned with the “academic” pursuits of Plato and Aristotle than with what they saw as a more fundamental question: “How should I live?”

The Stoic school of philosophy was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium (334 to 264 BCE), and included thinkers such as Epictetus (55 to 135 CE) and the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 to 180 CE ).The Stoics were especially worried about how we can learn to live with tragedy, suffering, or loss. This same problem is addressed in many of Cohen’s songs, including “Hallelujah,” which (at least in parts) celebrates a painful relationship, and “If It Be Your Will,” a prayer-like song that emphasizes the essential powerlessness of humans to control the world around us. Stoic themes are especially prominent in Cohen’s parting words to a lover in “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye.” Like Cohen, the Stoics emphasize the importance of appropriately valuing the relationship that you are currently in, while giving up on future-oriented talk of “love or chains and things we can’t untie.” The Stoics would agree with Cohen’s focus on the present, shown both by his refusal to think of new lovers and
calm acceptance that his current relationship was ending. They would also concur with his plea to avoid the sort of extreme sadness that often marks the end of relationships. While the Stoics were not “anti-emotion” (as the modern word “stoic” sometimes suggests) they did consider the extremes of sadness, anger, and lust among the biggest obstacles to leading a good life. These sorts of self-centered emotions make it more difficult for us to be happy and to treat others (such as romantic partners) the way they deserve.

While the Stoics did not believe in an afterlife, they did believe in a benevolent, eternally existing universe (the Stoic “God”) in which everything occurred as it was “fated to.” Many of them also believed that time was cyclical, and that each event we experience has happened (and will happen) an infinite number of times. For the Stoics, this might have served a therapeutic purpose, much like the song’s reminder that “many loved before us” and “we are not new.” The idea that we are
not
unique can, somewhat surprisingly, take some of the pressure off of us to “not screw things up” or to “fight against the inevitable.” Instead, we realize that we (just like everyone else) must learn to accept that there are many things that are beyond our control, and that it is useless to fight against them. This change of perspective reminds us of our relatively small, but nevertheless essential, place in the larger universe. From this perspective, we can see the foolishness of assuming that our present concerns are the “center of the universe”; however, it also reminds us that these concerns are
real
, and that we ought to respond to them appropriately.

The Stoics recommend that we focus on the present, and adopt an attitude of “resigned acceptance” toward whatever the future holds. This is not always easy, of course, as “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” beautifully illustrates. As humans, we all want to “hold on” to things even after we realize that we cannot do so. The Stoics, and Cohen, remind us that our lives will be better if we learn to let go.

A Skeptical Story about Leonard’s Raincoat

For he who is of the opinion that anything is either good or bad by nature is always troubled, and when he does not possess those things that seem to him good he thinks that he is tortured by the things which are by nature bad, and pursues those that he thinks to be good. Having acquired them, however, he falls into greater perturbation, because he is excited beyond reason and without measure from fear of a change, and he does everything in his power to retain the things that seem to him good.

             
—S
EXTUS
E
MPIRICUS
(book 1, section 12)

In “Famous Blue Raincoat” the narrator (apparently Cohen himself, if we are to believe the song’s final line) is writing a letter to a man who had an affair with the narrator’s wife Jane and then disappeared. Somewhat surprisingly, the narrator shows considerable compassion for the mysterious man, calling him his “brother,” and noting concern for the man’s apparent isolation. At the end of the song, the narrator says that “I guess that I miss you” and “I guess I forgive you” and thanks him for standing in his way. More specifically, the narrator suggests that having the affair helped Jane in ways that he himself couldn’t have done (apparently because he believed falsely that the “trouble in her eyes” could not be helped, and so he hadn’t tried to do anything).

One unifying theme of the song concerns the characters’ seeming
ignorance
of what the effects of their actions are, and what actions they could take to make their lives better. Most obviously, the narrator has slowly come to realize that the affair has, oddly, turned out for the best, at least in some respects. The letter’s recipient, by contrast, at one time believed that he needed to “go clear,” and change his life in some way, but it seems likely he has given up on this now, and perhaps wonders if he has done something unforgivable. We get the suggestion that Jane too is worried about questions that have no easy answers. Unlike ordinary ignorance, the sort of deep uncertainty experienced by these characters cannot be cured simply by reading a book, asking an expert,
or doing an experiment. Instead, it concerns some of the deepest, most fundamental questions: What is it to love someone? How can I live an ethical, authentic life?

The Skeptical school of philosophy, apparently founded by the Greek philosopher Pyrrho (360 to 270 BCE) and later defended by the Roman physician Sextus Empiricus (160 to 210 CE), argued that achieving this state of complete, unresolvable ignorance was in fact the
goal
of philosophy. While this may seem strange, “Famous Blue Raincoat” provides a good starting point for understanding the Skeptics’ fundamental insight. Sextus Empiricus argues that people become skeptics by accident. They begin by seeking the answer to some particular “philosophical” question, perhaps in the hope that finding out the answer will give them “closure” or allow them to move forward with their lives. So, perhaps the narrator began with the question, “How did my wife’s affair change our relationship?” As the blossoming skeptic begins trying to answer the question, he notices that there is evidence in favor of multiple, mutually contradictory answers (“It has destroyed the relationship” versus “It has made us stronger”). He is left in a state of indecision, and is unable to decide what to believe.

This is where the skeptic comes in, and asks the person “How does this state of indecision make you feel?” According to Sextus Empiricus, the typical answer will be “calm” or “tranquil.” After all, the person has now gotten rid of the unfounded belief that certain things (like being cheated on) are inherently bad, while other things (being the one your spouse loves “best”) are inherently good. The skeptic does not conclude “Well, there is no right answer, so I might as well just give up on this whole philosophy thing” (after all, the claim that
there is no right answer
is far too dogmatic for a good skeptic). Instead they resolve to continue a calm, thorough, skeptical investigation into the philosophical questions at issue. The song illustrates this process, as well. The narrator continues to try and reach out to the letter’s recipient, and to think carefully about what has happened to him.

While Sextus Empiricus emphasizes that a good skeptic will likely reject any “philosophical” claim about religion, love, death, or the like, he also warns against letting philosophical reflection dominate one’s life. In many areas of life, including drinking with friends, enjoying a nice meal, or flirting with someone, Sextus Empiricus thinks that philosophical beliefs can be (and ought to be) largely ignored. Instead, we should simply act as our emotions and habits direct us to. This conclusion also resonates with many of Cohen’s songs. In “Famous Blue Raincoat,” for example, the skeptic would say that it is good that the narrator has taken a moment to reflect on the past, although it would be a mistake to allow this sort of reflection to consume too much of his day-to-day life.

The End of All Winning Streaks

Therefore death to us / Is nothing, nor concerns us in the least, / Since nature of mind is mortal evermore . . . / When comes that sundering of our body and soul . . . / Verily naught to us, us then no more / Can come to pass, naught move our senses then. . . .

             
—L
UCRETIUS
(book 3, lines 835–840)

In “A Thousand Kisses Deep,” the narrator reflects on youth, old age, and the slow approach of death. His younger years would be counted by many people as very successful ones, filled with beautiful women and beating the odds to achieve various successes. The narrator knows, however, that this “little winning streak” will eventually end and that the coming defeat is “invincible.” Through a variety of metaphors, he emphasizes both the “unreality” of the pleasures of youth, and of the ultimate need to come to grips to with what will ultimately happen.

Determining the proper attitude toward death is a difficult philosophical problem, and it was addressed in different ways by many of the Hellenistic thinkers. This problem held a special significance, however, for the Atomist and Epicurean
philosophers, a group which included the Greek thinkers Democritus (460 to 370 BCE) and Epicurus (341 to 270 BCE) and the Roman thinker Lucretius (99 to 55 BCE). This school was distinguished by, among other things, the argument that reality consists of nothing but “atoms in the void” and by their contention that the only truly good thing in life is pleasure and the only truly bad thing pain. On the Epicurean view, humans came into existence by chance collisions of atoms, lived for a brief time, and then dissolved back into their constituent atoms.

The Epicurean solution to the problem of death closely resembles the stance taken in “A Thousand Kisses Deep.” The first step involves recognizing, as the song’s narrator does, that not all desires are equally “real” or “worthwhile.” Some desires, such as those for adequate food and sleep, as well as for companionship, are both
natural
and
necessary,
and it makes perfect sense for us to pursue these. Others, such as sexual desire or the desire for gourmet food and drink, are perfectly
natural,
but are unnecessary. Epicureans held that it was okay to enjoy these things when they were obtained from a pursuit of natural, necessary desires, but it would be a mistake to devote our lives to their pursuit, as they can never
truly
be satisfied, and chasing them can easily be a recipe for misery. This seems to have been one of the mistakes made by the narrator in “A Thousand Kisses Deep” in his youth.

Along with the two categories of natural desires, the Epicureans also recognized a category of
unnatural
or
empty
desires, which they argued had no place whatsoever in a happy human life. These include things like greed, reflected by things like betting on ponies, and the desire for immortality, reflected by a willingness to “ditch it all to stay alive.” These desires are dangerous precisely because they are
impossible
to satisfy—there is no amount of money that will satisfy the gambler, and there is no way of escaping death.

So, how can we learn to accept death, in the way that both the Epicureans and “A Thousand Kisses Deep” would counsel? Lucretius argues that the secret is to recognize that
death is
nothing;
once we are dead, we have ceased to exist, and thus, nothing bad can come to pass. So while it makes sense for us to fear
painful
experiences such as being injured in a war, or having our hearts broken (since we can imagine what these things will feel like), it
doesn’t
make sense for us to fear not existing. As Lucretius points out, we don’t regret the experiences we missed out on
by not being born sooner
(that happened before we were born). He contends that it makes equally little sense for us to regret the things we will miss out on by
dying sooner than we wanted to.