"it is only in the striving that we attain"

--| ON THE VALUE OF STRIVING |-----

APRIL 7, 1999

if one doesn't exercise discrimination in finding only the finest
examples of any given thing to study - you could waste all your life
studying drek, and life is too short not to know at least something of
the the highest and best that can be achieved by humans inspired by the
good design, and all-pervading goodness of spirit of beautiful art. i
mean this not merely in the externally aesthetic sense, but in an
aesthetic inspired from spiritual-moral impulses. today, this point of
view is often ridiculed - one that says rather that these ideals are
merely subjective opinion. believing us to be merely mechanical animals
which have invented our own conceptions. but as humans possessing free
will, we participate in the fate of our world, we can CHOOSE our
attitude towards what fate brings us, and act out of this choosing. thus
intrinsically through our combined individual behaviour, we are also
responsible for our actions. with freedom comes inextricably moral
responsibility.

freedom is not doing what you want, but being able to do what one WILLS.
there is no other law than "do what THOU wilt" -> insofar as we
understand THOU to be the highest thing we can look up to in our
conceptions of life - the moral-spiritual conceptions of the world that
impell us to understand that we are all a united humanity, and in the
other man is a divine element common in ourselves also, and when we
ignore our humanity, and believe ourselves nothing more than mechanical
animals, then we deny our own humanity and eternal spiritual natures.
some may say that it is useless to pursue such ideals, for nobody has
ever attained to it. this is a very valid point, but it ignores the fact
that in the striving, we attain. nobody has attained yet to perfection,
each one of us has a multitude of failures in our character. but in the
very striving we can work our way towards a greater humanity. to believe
that this is possible is the first step towards the improvement of the
world. people today often equate "progress" with techonological
advancement.

if the world is considered from a purely mechanical point of view, and
all processes of life arise as a by-product of the interelation of
mechanical and electronic material forces, we eventually reach a blank
wall where science is able to define ever so well the HOW and mechanics
of operation of the universe, but it is absolutely at a loss for the
WHY. then an answer is given - "we construct our own meanings". this
circular logic finds no way out, meaning is derived from meaning, until
nothing means anything anymore. we are told we are nothing more than
mechanical animals, responding to responses in an endless cycle, and we
complain about the conditioning and the context we find ourselves. but
there is a difference! we have thought, and we have the ability to have
noble thoughts. we may be filled with an endless and unceasing stream of
ignoble thoughts, but the fact remains that we are capable of noble
thoughts. if we are so appalled to deny our animal side - which we do
indeed in every human contain, then i ask this question - how do we then
stand justified in denying the element in us, the striving towards which
has resulted in all the greatest achievements of mankind? the force
which brings the entire world to a better condition of living for all
involved is precisely a moral force, and to deny this force is to remain
stunted and blind to our own humanity and possibility.

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this page last updated: march 13, 1999