'All
of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a
room alone.'
Blaise Pascal
I have often wondered if
Man (in the gender-neutral sense of the word) has a nature. To ask
this question does risk being massively general, not to mention
seeing Man as a fixed entity, rather than an evolving entity. It is
also a question running the risk of generalizing ones own cultural
heritage (or brain-spamming) across a vastly varied globe.
I
do, however, think Man has a nature. And that nature is 'to do
things'. It sounds a bit obvious and general - and you might accuse
this vague answer of being meaningless. Of course Man has to do
things! Yet I am not saying 'to do things' as a massively broad
prophecy. I am in fact saying that Man would rather do
something over
nothing.
Given a choice between grief and nothing, Man would choose grief; it
agonises Man less than boredom.
Man is a creature of
motion, never able to stay still without a powerful reason to do so.
The essence of Man is therefore action. Even stupid or 'evil' action
will suffice over inaction. In fact, what does Man call more evil
than inaction? (He may also call inaction anti-social or cowardly!)
The gaps in Man's endless
movement - which we call holi-days, are windows set into his tightly
packed schedule. And those holi-days are not spent in rest, but
grief! If the sabbatical were to be truly a time of rest, Man would
do nothing with them, rather than something. Sadly for Man, he is
obliged, even coerced, into going on holi-days in an attempt to prove
to the world that he is enjoying himself.
For Man is a social animal,
however much he may try and deny it and call himself an
individualist. In short, he cares about what other people have, what
other people think he has, what other people think he should do, what
other people think he thinks about what they think he should do, and
so forth.
Preferably,
Man would like to have more than his fellow specimen one or two
notches up or down on the 'scales of success'. Man is the great
comparer, the great envier. He is pushed and pulled into motion by
his petty dreams; dreams of quantity over quality. Even though this
appalling state of affairs is so dismal and unsatisfying (even for
the winners), Man would rather clutch onto his second-rate existence
then pause for thought. For to truly think about the soiled world he
lives in is to destroy it utterly.
But why? What drives Man on
in the face of such obvious ignorance, depravity and simple
stupidity?
The
simple answer is evolution.
We have not evolved to be thinkers - we have evolved to perform
immediately pressing linear tasks. But this is not to reduce the
whole of Man (the story-teller, the inventor, the artist) to chemical
reactions and genes. That would be silly, Man is not
his genes.
However,
part
of Man is his physical body and this is forever an influence upon his
character, producing in him
that
which feels intuitively right without explanation. For instance, why
should Man fornicate and procreate? Because it feels
right
to do so.
Nature
is a circular entity. Try asking it question:
Why exist? That I might exist. Why grow? So that I may grow. Why
reproduce? That my offspring may reproduce. Why adapt? That I might
become more adaptable to my environment.
Unsatisfying answers to the philosopher!
Observing the white moss
growing on the windowsill, one colony has dominated more of the sill
than its fellows. In the context of the moss, that larger moss is
something of an expansionist empire! But why are they growing? That
they may grow. There is no reason beyond this and nor do they
need a greater reason to continue their quest for mastery of the
window-sill. To the outside observer, it seems utterly futile, but
try telling that to the moss (or by analogy, anyone who thinks the
purpose of life is just to procreate and seek nutrients)!
Fortunately,
we homo
sapiens sapiens have
been 'blessed' to be more than a colony of moss, or a fruit fly, or a
tiger, or what have you. We have the power of language, the power to
create many great things - literature and mathematics and of course
philosophy! And we have the creativity to dream of timeless scapes
and create wonderful works of art. And we can invent incredible new
devices that alleviate the suffering imposed upon us by nature. And
we can reach the stars.
We have imagination.
Our
ability to imagine the perfection of affairs in the world (in this
world) creates for us a virtuous character to strive for. This is
the boon of our imagination. Many a philosopher has posited worlds
which exist outside of space-time where perfection exists. Many a
religion has promised bliss and eternal salvation in this life or the
next. I do not believe either of these to be
true. They are perfections which exist only
in our minds, as opposed to the actual world confronting us. Still,
they are another means of keeping us moving.
These
perfect dreams are what grant us purpose,
and allow us to be virtuous; for virtue can only exist when there is
an end purpose toward which we may move. Far from making us idle
utopian dreamers, this perfection is the yardstick against which we
can compare our underachieving selves.
We
do
have
a purpose, and that is to glorify our creativity, our intellect and
our spirituality (self-awareness) over our evolutionary commands.
When something feels
right without explanation, it is nature's voice. Love, hatred,
visceral emotion, sensual pleasure, this is the voice of nature. When
something is dreamed as in art, or reasoned as in philosophy, or
observed as in scientific endeavour, it is the creation of Man, built
on the foundation of his so lofty mind. It is of great value. It can
take us beyond adaptation to our environment into the realm of what I
call the imperfect
balance of Man;
the best we can possibly do. Fiction and art is often a direct
representation of this striving, a spiritual journey without which
life would be quite unbearable.
For to think that we have
no cause greater than to procreate, seek worldly power and enjoy
physical pleasure is to set the bar extremely low, and invite all
sorts of horrid wars, greed, hedonism, pretense, madness and
tribalism into the 'daily life' of our species.
To conclude, I would fain
return to the beginning of this article. We must allow our
wretchedness to fail and die, rather than maintaining it for the sake
of something to do. For this we must recognise that sometimes, just
sometimes, doing nothing is better than doing something.
St. Zagarus
