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| "And then the madman said, 'God is dead.'" |
Good news!
I've uncovered the source of mankind's trials!
No need to trouble yourself further.
The reason there is the Absurd, the reason abjection exists, the reason there is this dichotomy in Western thought, the reason we are swallowed up in cynicism, the reason that humans are human and philosophy is even a thing that happens is simple.
Humans are organizers.
We are shape-sorters and absolutists above all else. We group and correlate and connect dots we've invented to try to make sense f the world around us, and we reach points of conflict. There are discrepancies, opinions or people or events that don't fit into our neatly categorized world, and this is where the problems happen. Suddenly, there is dark matter in our happy little world.
You deal with it different ways.
You declare it Absurd.
You declare it a mystery that will never be solved.
You declare it irrelevant.
You declare it relative.
You declare it right.
You declare it wrong.
You shove this square peg into the circular hole it fits into the best and try to ignore the difference gaping at you, the hollow core of your belief system.
There are no moral or social problems in the world. There are no morals. There is no right and wrong. There are no truths. The world simply is, and we simply are, and we will continue to be within a reality that will carry on, as it always has, despite what we believe about it.
It is this basic, human need to create rules and borders and groupings that prevents you from grasping that, in reality, there is no stagnation and there is no order to the universe, that you have impressed every fact you have ever believed upon yourself.
And that's okay. That's perfect. That's human.
If there was no clash between reality and the mind, no difference of opinion (or, really, any opinion), there would be no creation or innovation. There would be no stories or science or ideas. We would simply exist.
I, for one, would rather thrive on the dissonance and indifference of the universe and, liberated, do more than just exist. I want to invent. I want to imagine. I want to dream big, wild dreams that no one else has dreamed before. I want to alchemize that raw conflict between myself and reality into words, characters, ideas.
2 comments:
Hmm, well said. I also think humans have a strange need to classify. I know there's a professor at U.C Berkeley who studies this and is very well-known for it.
I really like this. In an interview with James Marsters (actor), he was asked what he thought the biggest attribute and worst fault was in humanity. He said the best thing is also the worst thing: We are really good at finding patterns. This leads to art and music and science, but it also leads to things like racism and homophobia when we force ourselves to find patterns that don't exist.
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