Every human is an island

My argument is fairly old. I shall try to restate it quickly. I have for some time had a notion of the mind as working mostly (perhaps only) in synthesis. Kant wrote, I exist as an intelligence which is conscious solely of its power of combination. This notion is at the root of one of my beliefs, of one of the few phrases that I have held on to: to be human is to be open to being a multitude. Among the many other things, this phrase means that the one moral path I always try to follow is that of empathy.

I read somewhere that Jonathan Swift once wrote that man is not a rational animal but an animal capable of reason. I agree. Law and the reason of mankind will never rule a human state because, as some of the pragmatists insist, pleasure and pain are the rulers of our kind and guide all human reason.

Fascism and monarchy may be conceived through empathy, but they have never been ruled with empathy. Constant world-embracing empathy is impossible, there are too many people, too many desires. Most people have not even a shred of empathy anyway. Most attempts at purification lead not to purity but to repression and blindness and condemnations and anger and strife. I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword. One may strive for purity but must accept that purity is not something we are capable of and must admit one’s faults and work through them, not repress them. Catholicity, in the oldest sense of the word catholic, is what is needed. To be human is to be open to being a multitude. Wisdom is not purity. Wisdom is empathy, catholicity, the opening of one’s arms. Empathy means freedom, means that one may attempt to guide others if one wishes but ought not command.

A well-ordered human state is impossible. Human government is bound to failure. Government is only a multiplicity of human relationships and human relationships are always a sad sweet farce.

Poetry can multiply our vision, can give momentary stays against confusion, can make clearer our sight, can make us feel, can multiply us, can teach us how to embrace. This is the only way I wish to move through the farce.

Swift also wrote, I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.

Old man I do not want a part in your republic.