Living Without a Goal
Author: James Ogilvy
List Price: $22.95
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ISBN: 0385417993
Publisher: Currency (01 January, 1995)
Sales Rank: 349,057
Average Customer Rating: 3 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 3 out of 5
goals vs. Goals
First of all, the editorial reviews for this book are mistaken on two points; the author's name is James, not Jay Ogilvy and this is NOT a business book. The principles could be applied to a business environment but the book hardly deals directly with this at all. James Ogilvy deserves credit for attempting to unravel a very complex and paradoxical (e.g. how can you have the goal of not having a goal?) issue. How can we, in a goal-oriented society, live without being driven and obsessed by an endless parade of grand goals? The simple answer, and one that is given in many other books, is to say that we should relax and "let go" of our desires in a Zen or Taoist manner. Ogilvy does advocate this, but he also attempts to deal with the question in a more thorough and philosophical manner. Unfortunately, his arguments sometimes seem like streams of consciousness that don't always accomplish their...goals. Still, the discussion is always interesting. Some of Ogilvy's best lines seem almost like incidental, throwaway phrases that don't always fit into the larger argument. I suppose that's consistent with his message. He does make a few quite valuable and coherent points. He differentiates "small g" goals and "large G" Goals. It is the latter he would have us relinquish. If we live entirely without goals, our lives will sink into nihilism. If we pursue large Goals, however, we will always be seeking gratifications in the future that will almost always disappoint us even if we do achieve them. Ogilvy illustrates his case by creating two fictional characters, Spike and Lila. Spike is a young slacker type who illustrates the pitfalls of goallessness; Lila is a Goal-driven baby-boomer who has been let down by one Goal after another. Spike and Lila could have been fleshed out more; they only appear as actual characters in one chapter, though Ogilvy refers to them elsewhere. Another quibble I had is that Ogilvy is prone to making broad generalizations. Like many authors and social scientists, he sums up entire decades with one or two words (e.g. the 70s were the "me" decade, the 80s were materialistic). In a book that tries to dig deeply in other ways, this kind of reductionism is a little annoying. I would also argue with some of his assumptions concerning language and postmodernism, but these are interesting to contemplate whether you agree with him or not. Plato, Freud and Nietzsche (along with Howard Hughes) are all invoked as representing different positions on the Goal quagmire. For good reasons, Ogilvy favors Nietzsche as the wisest on these issues. Overall, Living Without A Goal tackles some very important issues that are relevant to our personal lives as well as society.
Rating: 4 out of 5
nietzsche's goalessness as such..
When I saw this book on the shelf of my local library, I knew that it was something I had been looking for. It has always struck me how, pyschologically, humans are always thinking towards some greater end in their future, and in the mean while miss being alive in the present moment of endless creative possibilities. James Ogilvy logically defines the life of Goalessness, and clearly specifies the philosophies that it is NOT and what it is confused with. It is a life of artfulness and without extremes, from the perspective of abandonment of politics and religion. Living without a Goal is like creating a work of art in the sense that artistic creativity serves no goal outside itself. Like the artist in his studio, the person in a life must create from the inside out rather than relying on some great blueprint in the sky to justify her actions here on earth. Better to take artistic creation as a metaphor: to see in the challenge of artistic creativity a model or a likeness for the challenge of living life without a Goal. It is not selfishness, it's not hedonism, but it is also not a life without desires (detachment, as in Buddhism) and yes it WILL be a patchwork of smaller goals lest you find this idea impossible or absurd. The difference is that they are not hinged on to any other greater goal besides themselves. There is a necessary balance between freedom and discipline. I highly enjoyed his philosophical and clear, honest style of composition. Recommended!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Starts with an interesting premise but doesn't deliver
I like Ogilvy's premise that we should stop striving toward a distant Goal and be more artful about the small details of living. Unfortunately, though, most of the book goes off the deep end into unreadable philosophical abstractions ("Narcissism Degree Zero," "Semiotics and Sublimation"). Most readable are the stories about real lives -- the author's, Howard Hughes's, Lila's, Spike's. If you're interested in this topic, your time is better spent reading Julia Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY or Thomas More's THE SOUL OF SEX.
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