{"id":1711,"date":"2010-11-12T02:15:51","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T02:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2018\/11\/27\/557-revision-v1\/"},"modified":"2019-08-27T08:20:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T08:20:54","slug":"reflections-on-the-human-condition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/12\/reflections-on-the-human-condition-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Human Condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please\u00a0excuse<\/a>\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/span>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0T.S. Eliot<\/a>\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0April is the cruellest month<\/a><\/i>\u00a0because it reminds us of renewal; once,\u00a0long ago<\/a>, a\u00a0woman<\/a>\u00a0asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in April taunts her.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong>\u00a0Jorge Luis Borges<\/a>, who was undoubtedly intimately familiar with Eliot’s masterpiece,\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0no one is anyone, a single immortal man is all men<\/a><\/em>. We can so easily reverse his words and realise that all\u00a0men<\/a>\u00a0are a single immortal\u00a0man<\/a>. The tragedy of the immortal\u00a0woman<\/a>\u00a0is the tragedy of all.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong>\u00a0Milan Kundera<\/a>\u00a0recalls<\/a>\u00a0Nietzche’s<\/a>\u00a0nightmare<\/a>\u00a0in which a demon tells him that the universe repeats itself eternally so that every action is repeated infinite times. Kundra wonders about the optimist who must believe that though the universe is eternally recurring, it is forever improving. The pessimist must believe the opposite.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/span>\n

Everything comes together. A single\u00a0woman<\/a>\u00a0who is all\u00a0women<\/a>\u00a0suffers for eternity. The curse of spring is the curse of mankind: it is the human condition; having found life but needing relief from it. Come April we have only two choices:<\/p>\n

The optimist can believe that given innumerable cycles of the universe, given their vital yet insignificant role in an insignificant world, one\u00a0day<\/a>\u00a0the woman who is all men will remember to ask for youth as well.<\/p>\n

The pessimist’s only hope is that one\u00a0day<\/a>\u00a0she will forget to ask for immortality.<\/p>\n

This is the human condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please\u00a0excuse\u00a0me. 1.\u00a0T.S. Eliot\u00a0wrote\u00a0that\u00a0April is the cruellest month\u00a0because it reminds us of renewal; once,\u00a0long ago, a\u00a0woman\u00a0asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in April taunts her. 2.\u00a0Jorge Luis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,68,198,204,82,108],"tags":[248],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-author-focus","category-book-review","category-everything2","category-life","category-observations","tag-borges"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2733,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/09\/29\/sunday-september-29-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":0},"title":"Sunday September 29, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"September 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Content: Media review: Spartacus Continuing break-down of Kant-reading Media review: Spartacus Media I appreciate: Spartacus. Superficially this would seem the farthest of likelihood, yet whatever those base characters may be, they are redeemed by any number of virtues. It might be fairer to begin with the listing of the ostensible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1739,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/12\/04\/the-origin-of-speech-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":1},"title":"The Origin of Speech","author":"Pala","date":"December 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Origin of Speech\u00a0is the title of an article published in\u00a0Scientific American\u00a0in\u00a01960\u00a0by\u00a0Charles F. Hockett. It is often cited, even today, for its suggestion that there are 13 \"design-features\" shared by all\u00a0languages. The 13 design-features of language: Vocal-auditory\u00a0channel\u00a0\u2013 While it is true that we have\u00a0cultural adaptations\u00a0that don\u2019t require vocalizing\u00a0communication\u00a0\u2013 sign language,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/04\/09\/walking-towards-right-mindfulness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":2},"title":"Walking towards right mindfulness","author":"Pala","date":"April 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Samma sati is right mindfulness. Sati is also translated as \"bare attention\". It contrasts with the familiar mode of consciousness, which uses impressions as inspiration\u00a0for its experiential confabulations. Those are the papa\u00f1ca elaborations, or embellishments, which are used as springs for the expression of latent defilements. The Buddha described four\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/09\/21\/contextualizing-hegels-philosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":3},"title":"Contextualizing Hegel’s Philosophy","author":"Pala","date":"September 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Experiencing\u00a0the history of philosophy Reading \"Hegel\" by Charles Taylor, about the ideas, beliefs, opinions and motivations that flowed and ebbed in western Europe between the time of the Enlightenment and Hegel's philosophical career. As I read Taylor, and my mind emulates and empathizes with the various zeitgeists, I discover that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":892,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2015\/02\/13\/a-methodology-of-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":4},"title":"A methodology of perspective","author":"Pala","date":"February 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This post was found in 'Draft' mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 13\/02\/2015 The following paper was brought to the attention of the\u00a0Royal Society of Exploratory Studies\u00a0on a\u00a0Tuesday. By Thursday all three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2907,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/10\/14\/notes-on-nature-magazine-08-oct-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":1711,"position":5},"title":"Notes on Nature Magazine 08 Oct 2014","author":"Pala","date":"October 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.nature.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au\/nature\/journal\/v514\/n7521\/full\/nature13752.html Health: The weighty costs of non-caloric sweeteners A new study shows that metabolic changes induced by non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) (e.g. elevated fasting glucose) are induced by (and can be directly induced by) changes to gut bacteria. Include human demonstration. Further hypotheses: (1) Increase in bacteria that break down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-rB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}