Thursday, November 16
passion and compassion today
if precious jewels of life rained down like manna
free for anyone to possess
and if all men resided in caves
hidden within shadows of the abyss of sin
then in a time where men were passionate about life
crowds would race into the open
snatching up the jewels
trembling in uncertainty
in fear of being exposed by light
in their passion towards life
they would be unashamed by their own nakedness
forgetting their shame in the face of the prize that lay at their feet
but if men suffered from anhedonia
if they were empty and fearful
unable to work out their salvation in fear and trembling
they would watch the jewels with vacant expressions
and in the rustle of shadows in caves
they will appraise the man who ventures to the edge of the darkness
then flees back into the solace of the dark
with watchful hawk-like eyes, they will hold people in silent regard and contempt
for the cowardice of others
as they sink further into the shadows.
* * *
three men were sitting on the edge of a cliff when one suddenly slipped and fell off the edge.
hanging precariously on a branch, the man struggled to clamor upwards,
and shouted for help
one man promptly turned to the other and said
"i bet you a hundred pounds, he's going to fall off."
so they watched in morbid fascination for an hour,
till the man, out of sheer fatigue let go and thus fell to his death.
grudgingly, the losing party paid the other man, and they each went their own way home.
armed with all the intellectual acuity and sensibility of our age
the scathingly worldly-wise individual possesses, at best,
the shrewdness to make astute guesses about the world around him
and the dynamism to lay a wager on the results of his hypothesis.
* * *
THE NEW SHOES
Authored by: Anti-Climacus (Soren Kierkegaard)
The Sickness unto Death, p.187
It is related of a peasant who came barefooted to the Capital, and had made so much money that he could buy himself a pair of shoes and stockings and still had enough left over to get drunk on--it is related that as he was trying in his drunken state to find his way home he lay down in the middle of the highway and fell asleep. Then along came a wagon, and the driver shouted to him to move or he would run over his legs. Then the drunken peasant awoke, looked at his legs and since by reason of the shoes and stockings he didn't recognize them, he said to the driver, "Drive on, they are not my legs."
if this isn't a fantastic allegory
of a man's loss in his sense of self as he becomes something that he is not
i don't know what it is.
in this respect
the story is somewhat reminiscent of memento,
discounting the theme of the veracity of written information as an open source to be interpreted
back to the points that kierkegaard wishes to bring across.
some questions to ponder over:
1. why did the peasant go to the capital?
in search of wealth? but why did he want to seek wealth in the first place?
economics is the study of the allocation of limited resources
in order to satiate as much as possible the unlimited wants of men.
in economics, resources are apportioned according
to the willingness and ability of people to pay.
the desire for money is identified in psychology as an acquired (secondary) drive
it doesn't do anything on its own, but it helps us obtain what we want
in the case of the peasant, he sought material comfort
and in so, lost what he originally had.
2. did the peasant become something in alienation of himself
(seeing that he is not able to recognize his own two feet)
as he attempted to possess what the world considered to be of value?
perhaps the peasant was really trying to be someone that he was not
and when we try to become something that we aren't
we tend to lose ourselves.
3. what is kierkegaard's point about money and material possessions?
as them being peripheral and allowing us to succumb to bestiality?
3.1 considering kierkegaard's position as a devout christian
it would probably make sense to regard his viewpoint towards money in light of the Bible
considering
3.1.a what constitutes true riches?
3.1.b the difference between what is owed to man (the denarius) and what is owed to God
3.1.c how the intimate relationship of man and material wealth potentially bars man from entry to heaven.
4. what does the peasant's final comment reveal about his attitude towards others?
is it okay for the driver to drive on,
so long as the legs that would be crushed aren't my own?
0. oOo
