Never a Vacuum
It’s said, quite correctly, that nature abhors a vacuum. If you create a gap, something will rush in to fill it. This is most true in our lives, personally and professionally, and explains why those who live with purpose tend to be happier and more successful than those who stumble from one random happenstance to the next.
Don’t get me wrong- there’s absolutely a place for quietude. The poet W.H. Davies correctly asked, “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” Mentally, physically, and spiritually, we need the space to release the pressures of modern existence. A former colleague, a practicing Buddhist, had a desk sign which said, “Don’t just do something – stand there!” A highly effective litigator, he knew how to balance the craziness and pressure of the courtroom with the inner peace of meditation. The deliberate practice of quietude, however, is anything but a vacuum.
Vacuums occur when you take one thing away without replacing it with something else. A perfect example is in the lives of new retirees who suddenly stop going to the office or the shop and begin to do…. nothing. Instantaneously, all kinds of bad habits insert themselves into the new vacuum – sleeping in too late, too much alcohol, aimless behaviour, hoarding… you know all the signs.
Vacuums also occur in society, whether in politics, religion, families, and economies. By way of example, the success of the ultra-right is not so much because it has any answers (it doesn’t), but because it presented itself as a vigorous alternative when the left has shrivelled up and lost its way. Trump’s success in 2024 had little to do with his being attractive, and more to do with the left offering not much more than the platitudes of yesterday. Young white men, in particular, not having been mentored by wise elders, saw nothing attractive in the nanny state and filled the void with testosterone.
Our educational system has created vacuums with its “nobody fails” ethos. Where kids run their hearts out to score goals under the hot sun to be given only a “participation medal”, how are we preparing them for the harsh realities of business warfare or professional excellence? While artificial intelligence relieves us of so much tedium and heavy lifting, if we don’t double down on teaching critical thinking and instilling curiosity, are we not creating a vacuum where nobody asks hard questions, or thinks or creates any more? Should we then be surprised if AI steps in to fill the vacuum?
Vacuums don’t occur when life is full, when society functions well, when we extract joy from today, sweet memories from yesterday, and exert ourselves with wisdom and purpose for tomorrow. But when our lives are full of complaints and excuses and sloth, we can be pretty sure that vacuums will occur and we also can be pretty sure that ugly things will rush in to fill them.