The Human Condition
There are many angles by which to attack the topic of the Human Condition. Be it religion, philosophy, history, art, literature, anthropology, psychology, or biology, these areas of study often only act as superfluous statements to an otherwise broad topic. Studies on the subject have often left people more confused at the end, then they were at the beginning. Consider that Heavy Metal Band, “With Life In Mind,” once fashioned an answer of their own, by writing a song entitled, “The Human Condition,” they figured they were answering the big question of What is the human condition?
Lyrics from the song include: -
‘We’re staring through the eyes of a bitter soul. Constantly surrounded by this empty feeling…Never good enough for those ideals that seem to mean the most…Driven into madness, I see no end in sight, and inadequacy seems like the only means to pass through this life. And I sit and ask myself when will it end? The art of contention is an uphill battle I’m not ready to fight.’
Simply depressing, is it not?
What if I told you that we could put a positive spin on the topic, itself? Let’s assume that the debate on The Human Condition can be argued by pitting two points against each other. The essential question is do we feel inhibited by our natural animal instincts Vs something more akin to sophisticated behavior. So, ladies and gents; are we ready to feel more at home without the slights of women and lacking the bravado of the stereotypical male facade or should we reveal ourselves to be the more like our pre-evolutionary brothers and sisters?
As a literary term, “The Human Condition,” is simply phrased in typical context of ambiguous subjects such as the meaning of life or in pursuit of a moral compass. As it cannot be more clearly defined, and in simpler terms to boot, how now do you feel about sitting in your classroom reading this?
Life is a series of unexplained phenomena happening before our eyes as we live and breathe it into fruition. This is life explained from the noblest of expressions; to be free or emancipated from the binds of our animal nature is to truly be free of The Human Condition. This is the purpose of this article, to understand that scholars and intellectuals have been debating this topic from the above mentioned angles for many a generation. The Human Condition is not just a means to fall depressed from reading all prior hypotheses on the topic, but to be used as a coping tool to better understand the world around us. Here is a nutcracker for you: All the topics, described as angles by which to understand the Human Condition leads you to, through and from all the coinciding topics discussed. They are used to broaden the horizon of the reader and to help us understand that all things, especially related to intellectual thought, is simply cyclic… just like most other things in life.
Two famous philosopher’s, referred to only by Coles and Lawson, designates by extremity the resignation and terminal alienation of young students incapability to fully comprehend the hypocrisy of being free and lacking the intent of accepting their words as truth. But consider that in the modern day sleeper hits of American Cinema manage to address the conundrum of human behavior. Ex Machina, Dredd, Blade Runner, The Watchmen all point to the same question and could not be more compelling in its guise to spoon-feed these exasperating yet old ideas to us in Widescreen Cinematic Wonder.
Ex Machina and its ability to incite these “preposterous” ideas through a character known only to the audience as Nathan. As with most things unattainable, there is but one thing that helps us define things, a question is what we are looking for. In this instance, who is most superior, creator or machine?
Similar in scope and distinction, Blade Runner expects us an audience to answer the question; are androids conscious of the lives they lead? With both examples, “Ex Machina,” and “Blade Runner,” the point is simple, if an android is capable of this level of sophistication, are we as creators/human beings devoid of it ourselves?
One must never negate the foundations by which these things are laid out for us to better understand the dynamics of being human, but are we so incapable of accepting compassion as a key tenet of being human?
As with both philosophers Coles and Lawson there is common ground by, which they stand. Both believe and suggest, though not spoken, that there is a simple explanation, is that The Human Condition has and finally will be found as compassionate. Both assert that though the ideologies of the subject may never really be fully appreciated, its key and fundamentally core value is that we are differentiated from members of the animal kingdom because we as human beings are capable of compassion.
