Thursday, October 13, 2005

False Condition

The endeavor to overcome the human condition leads only to our falsifying it.

4 comments:

Nimiwey said...

What do you mean by "overcome the human condition"? What is the human condition, in your view?

Nature's Rebel said...

Overcoming the human condition takes a variety of forms. For the Christians it means overcoming original sin. For the modern liberals it means overcoming past oppression. To me it means any definition of the human species as bad with a subsequent prescription for what is good. All too frequently, however, what is good is an idealized and unattainable vision, and the attempts to achieve it lead to a dangerously false perspective of who we are. In my eyes the human condition means the limited range of our species. We are bounded in ways that the ideals of our day fail to recognize. We are finite creatures.

Nimiwey said...

OK, then I absolutely agree with you. So many live their lives on the basic principle of some merit-based afterlife, that we are not finite and will receive just reward. We glorify our existence when it is really a blink in the eye of eternity. Embracing the human condition is far more dignified. We cannot overcome the past, but learn from it as we move forward.

Nature's Rebel said...

Then we do agree.