It’s Indigenous Peoples' Day, the day we forget there are no indigenous peoples outside Africa. The rest of us are an invasive species, irrespective of our status in the Progressive Token Pole. On that score the anthropological science is settled, chief.
To scandalize the leftist, just speak the truth.
Done.
Here's another truthbomb: reality is what is. (!)
But isness as such includes the nebulous world of potency, which in turn relates to what we were saying yesterday about the telos of human development (a telos which either obviously exists or is obviously impossible).
Put it this way: a human being cannot grow up to be a lion or planet or computer. Such developments are not in the teleological cards, because they are neither in the human form nor its proper end. Thus, they are examples of what cannot be, full stop. In short, impossible, and necessarily so.
On the other hand, the human form harbors an almost infinite potential, and this potential is not nothing. It is the great shadow world of the Might Be. Between the Might Be and the Is is where all the action is: for example, moral action, epistemological action, artistic action -- or the Good, True, and Beautiful, respectively. And more. But also less, since truth implies error as beauty implies Joy Behar.
All other animals -- not to mention inanimate things -- are enclosed in their form, and if we’re going to be serious about trying to understand our cosmic situation, we need to explain how we -- Homo sapiens -- managed to slip the furry bonds of biological form into this quasi-infinite vertical space.
How is it that you and I are sitting here enjoying our basic freedoms while finishing our coffee, with no prior restraint? Don’t run away from this conundrum. It affects us all.
Two things to bear in mind: first, while we transcend our biological form, obviously we do not do so completely: you could say that the soul is incarnated or that the body is excarnated, but it's both and neither, since it’s a unique pickle to be in.
Second, while the human form is quasi-infinite, it is not literally infinite, but rather, bound by certain limits. There are rules, not just general ones but particular ones, since the most important aspect of the human form is its unique expression in each one of us.
In the abstract, the human being can be a lot of things, but each of us is an individual, meaning certain potentials and certain limits. A species of unique instances is a logical contradiction, but here we are. The inability of material science to account for the immaterial human form is settled.
It reminds me of the cliche that in United States you can grow up to be anything you want to be. The truth is actually better than that, because -- at least back in my day, prior to the tyranny of progressive conformity (or rebellion, which redounds to the same anti-telos) -- you can grow up to be who you are.
I, for example, could have been any number of things that might have interfered with being who I actually am. Paradoxically, infinite choice can derail finite freedom, preventing us from reaching our proper telos.
The crack above about the tyranny of progressive conformity reminds me of a few hearty laughorisms:
Freedom is the right to be different; equality is a ban on being different.
Nevertheless,
Freedom is not an end, but a means. Whoever sees it as an end in itself does not know what to do with it when he gets it.
Which is why
Freedom is not indispensable because man knows what he wants and who he is, but in order for him to know who he is and what he wants.
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