Notes on Human Condition
The beauty of man is in his being; in his mysterious ability to implicitly identify the totemic value before the need to appropriate it takes over. The need to be awed always precedes the need to analyze and improve. Thus, man first recognises the art before proceeding to the science of any evaluation.
It is only a departure from this state of being that leads to the discontent among individual and societies. A degree of dissatisfaction, however, is what motivates an enquiry; so in a sense the condition of human life is an acknowledgement of this incompleteness that furthers an attempt to fulfill it. But however, the identity of man by its definition is a bias - a limitation which cannot comprehend its objective destiny during this journey. This would mean that by the process of life and consciousness man tries to sublimate the search and return to this very desired yet unknown state in as many means as his imagination permits.
Two such powerful avenues would be, thought and emotion- symbolized from without, by Science and Art respectively. But they are concerted identities exclusive of humanity, a bridge to cover the distance, on which a few, if at all, are allowed to pass through. For others, life is not conscious and creative but a mean of passive sublimation of the search.
Speech is sublimation, Sense is sublimation, Sex is sublimation, the whole society is an elaborate sublimation of this search. To what end? The question props instantly.
For man though, the destiny, notwithstanding the success and failure of its value, can only be momentary while the strife remains eternal. At any given time any man can only be part of a certain journey and only a part of a certain destiny, he cannot claim witness or ownership of the entire journey and the goal. Human Life, for any one who has known it, by living it would tell you is all about half-measures and over-shoots. All that sublimates and returns to itself. Resources may vary and desires may take different form and shape; but the process is sustained regardless of nature, value and the conscience of the participants.
It is only a departure from this state of being that leads to the discontent among individual and societies. A degree of dissatisfaction, however, is what motivates an enquiry; so in a sense the condition of human life is an acknowledgement of this incompleteness that furthers an attempt to fulfill it. But however, the identity of man by its definition is a bias - a limitation which cannot comprehend its objective destiny during this journey. This would mean that by the process of life and consciousness man tries to sublimate the search and return to this very desired yet unknown state in as many means as his imagination permits.
Two such powerful avenues would be, thought and emotion- symbolized from without, by Science and Art respectively. But they are concerted identities exclusive of humanity, a bridge to cover the distance, on which a few, if at all, are allowed to pass through. For others, life is not conscious and creative but a mean of passive sublimation of the search.
Speech is sublimation, Sense is sublimation, Sex is sublimation, the whole society is an elaborate sublimation of this search. To what end? The question props instantly.
For man though, the destiny, notwithstanding the success and failure of its value, can only be momentary while the strife remains eternal. At any given time any man can only be part of a certain journey and only a part of a certain destiny, he cannot claim witness or ownership of the entire journey and the goal. Human Life, for any one who has known it, by living it would tell you is all about half-measures and over-shoots. All that sublimates and returns to itself. Resources may vary and desires may take different form and shape; but the process is sustained regardless of nature, value and the conscience of the participants.
In comprehending this -- That in the transciency of his participation lies the glory and the terror of being a man. That he is not allowed to forget to balance all the loves, the passions and the values so dear and true to him, with his insignificance in the grande scheme of the universe to which he is only an evolutionary minutiae.
Painting: La Conditione Humaine, Rene Magritte, National Gallery Of Art, Washington
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