A second take on this subject—being and becoming. The human mind begins with being because the notion of something emerging from nothing is imponderable nonsense, purest magic; Being with a capital B must already be present at any creation. The promotion of becoming to primus inter pares is based on the dialectical pairing of nothingness and being. If being emerges from nothing, thus becomes (“emerges” in modernist parlance), becoming appears as the veritable agency of creation. But the human mind won’t go there. Nonsense.
What this illustrates, in turn, is that all traditional thought intrinsically relies on the assumption that reason must have real standing before we can make even a toddler’s halting step towards any kind of meaningful knowledge. The dialectical progression from nothing to something violates reason.
Discussing this subject with Brigitte brought the perfect ending to this posting. With that special look she sometimes has, she said to me, “But you have to admit this, my dear. Being Arsen means becoming a blogger!”
(Interesting, I can't comment on the post above for some reason. Oh well, this is close enough.)
ReplyDelete"The superior emerges magically from the inferior as Hegel’s god creates himself."
It sounds to me as if one of the modern assumptions you may be going after is that what is new is inherently better than what proceeded it. A dubious proposition to be sure.
For some reason I'm reminded of one of my favorite Robert E. Howard quotes. It's from the Conan story "Beyond the Black River" (1935):
"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. "Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."
Have you ever read that story? I have a feeling you'd like it.
“But you have to admit this, my dear. Being Arsen means becoming a blogger!”
ReplyDeleteAhh, but is this progress sprouting magically? Or will it lead to an inevitable decay into barbarism. I suppose if I see a post titled "Lord of the Flies", I'll have my answer.
"Becoming a blogger" means discovering new features. I discovered that you can suppress comments if you want to. In this case I divided one day's entry into two separate posts, hence I suppressed comments on the first. Oh the magic of it all.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to borrow the Conan story.