Man is a freak of nature. Because, at the same time he is an animal and at the same time he is the only case of life having awareness of himself. This in itself, this situation of having awareness of himself and yet being in the body of an animal would create a tremendous sense of separateness and fright. Therefore man has to look for some union and he can do it in two ways: He can either regress or he can progress. By regress, I mean he can try to be an animal again to do away with awareness and reason; or he can try to develop his human powers to such an extent that he finds new unity. Well this is only a very brief statement but I want to elaborate with regard to this point. Now the person who cannot live productively who cannot create at all; nevertheless does not want to be a passive person like dice thrown out of a cup. He wants to transcend. Now one way is to create and here become have the productive person. Create in some way even if it is something I do with my hands a simple thing. But if I cannot create, I transcend my creature status also if I destroy. To destroy life is as much of a transcendence of life as to create it. To create requires conditions of interest, of capacity; many conditions. To destroy requires only one thing: A pistol or a strong arm if your opponent is weaker. But in the process of destruction I also fulfill the desire to transcend life, to transcend my passive creature status and I triumph over life. It is my vengeance, you might say my vengeance against life for not permitting me to be oriented to it productively. And therefore I think destructiveness is one of the deepest forms of mental pathology.
23 фев 2023