“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
There are exceptions… When a child first learns that he or she is mortal, I doubt that that is a happy day for him or her. Truths are valuable, but some are rather bitter.
Yes, and I think this is the one big crucial exception… That is the one bit of knowledge that is truly evil. The one datum that is unbearable torture on the mind.
In that sense, one could define an adult mind as a normal (child) mind poisoned by the knowledge-of-death toxin. The older the mind, the more extensive the damage.
Most of us might see it more as a catalyst than a poison, but I think that’s insanity justifying itself. We’re all walking around in a state of deep existential panic, and that makes us weaker than children.
Well, it’s not the knowledge of death that’s evil, it’s the actual phenomenon—there’s not much point blaming the messenger for the bad news. Especially not now we’re at the stage where we’re beginning to have a chance to do something about it.
Ernest Becker agrees with you, but I always read the one star reviews first.
For myself, I’ve lost touch with Becker’s ontology. I’m reduced to making the lame suggestion of playing Go in tournaments in order to practice managing a limited stock of time, such as 70 years.
— T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
There are exceptions… When a child first learns that he or she is mortal, I doubt that that is a happy day for him or her. Truths are valuable, but some are rather bitter.
Yes, and I think this is the one big crucial exception… That is the one bit of knowledge that is truly evil. The one datum that is unbearable torture on the mind.
In that sense, one could define an adult mind as a normal (child) mind poisoned by the knowledge-of-death toxin. The older the mind, the more extensive the damage.
Most of us might see it more as a catalyst than a poison, but I think that’s insanity justifying itself. We’re all walking around in a state of deep existential panic, and that makes us weaker than children.
Well, it’s not the knowledge of death that’s evil, it’s the actual phenomenon—there’s not much point blaming the messenger for the bad news. Especially not now we’re at the stage where we’re beginning to have a chance to do something about it.
Ernest Becker agrees with you, but I always read the one star reviews first.
For myself, I’ve lost touch with Becker’s ontology. I’m reduced to making the lame suggestion of playing Go in tournaments in order to practice managing a limited stock of time, such as 70 years.