Á Deux

11

- Your timing is correct.7 At the break of the last century, within the shortest period of history, multiple drastic changes occurred. One might consider it a second, this time unanimous fall – or an error, a miss. This immense progress in science, technology, manufacturing looked as something positive. But have been taking place at once, these achievements brought a radical transformation of social order and, on a deeper level – of consciousness, of ways by which human beings cope with reality.

I am talking genetics, quantum mechanics, Relativity Theory and so on, that induce sense of bewilderment up to these days. In addition, automatic weapons, new transport – submarines, planes arrived; but most importantly – mass production, which led to the rise of a huge unfamiliar category of people, belonging to none of the known classes or estates. They needed to be organized anew within existing state formations.

To explain the results of these novelties with traditional thinking was impossible. But since these results quickly became disastrous, there was an urgent need to adjust to reality; and people began feverishly fabricate new theories. The most useful for the general use turned out to be a rather primitive but swiftly consumed by the majority, reasoning technique called “ideology.” The mind having been at a loss, hastily worked out few formulas to simplify the complicated world. It bulked from its main job – searching the truth. What unified people eventually, so that they could become parts of a new society, did not have to be genuine, just effective.

Thus, a new man arrived – Nietzsche called him “a hollow man” – who embraced such a simplified world. He did not bother with efforts of working on himself: he thought – something, believed – in something and nothing else. That was a hollow man. Somebody (or something) was taking care of him, not himself.

The world absorbed a new feature that seemed to be mind but was not.

The system of collective relations that people find themselves in, is impenetrable for them, nontransparent, whatever form it takes at the moment. It appears in the way a man uses it in practice. A human being exists within ideology, economy, culture, politics, philosophy, and so on; but historical events happen beyond this separate parts.

And along with the apparent order, unperceived forces continued pushing the world in a catastrophic direction.

Now I can answer your question. Is the show over? No.

You were curious about protective mechanism. I will mention only a set of initial parameters – your scientists have started to mention them only recently, calling them “fine-tuning.” You do not know yet many aspects of the matter, but you will discover them sooner or later. Much more important are multiple layers of the fine-tuning of which you have learned… I don’t know, maybe one-sixteenth?

It is not about me. You do not know how the universe works; therefore you cannot destroy it. Only when the thought of such destruction cannot enter anyone’s mind, then you would near the Universal Theory. Just do not forget the unavoidable ethical basis, so you are not get confused by the seemingly unfathomable technology of such transformed universe – humans, not bio-robots or hybrids populate it.

- Forgive me, but can you visualize it?

- To visualize is your privilege. I do not see anything. But I guess you would not see it either even if you find yourself in it. That is what the saying “The Kingdom of God comes not with observation” means. I can guess that while having been living in it, you would still take it for something else, again not quite satisfactory to you.

But I know that such a universe is possible. There was a moment when you shared this certainty with me. After that you became buried under the avalanche of other information; felt sorry for your commitment and called it a sin. It was not a sin; it was a singular heroic act. I share with you the grief that came along this act, albeit in my own way. I am not forced to inter loved ones; I do not have them.

Next – salutary power of arts. You see the demise of creative energy in an alleged absence of so-called “successors.” Do you mean that widely accepted, significant and influential characters do not surface any longer in any fields of art? But what this absence looks like? Degraded media attention; or their limited public appearances? The existence of such figures always depends more on public opinion than their significance and gravity. Many of them have mentioned this phenomenon themselves. As to public opinion, it, in its turn, often forms out of incidental circumstances, irrelevant to creativity.

Your judgment and those who were capable of genius appreciation might have often coincided with common feelings, but have you been aware of the difference between the bases for these opinions? One year they could find no one deserving the Nobel Prize for Literature – what a scandal!

Current disunity, addiction to celebrities of another caliber, or some other reasons reduced the possibility of a more or less unified assessment; and artists slipped from public attention. Quite painlessly for the public too, since their value for it has been pretty superficial. Only a few appreciated genuine value of arts at any time. Are you ready to assert with certainty that there are no great artists today? What if there is indeed none for the majority, but you simply have not heard of them yet; not got acquainted?

Remind yourself how the previous ones that you so cherish considered their state: Marina Tsvetayeva has referred to Montaigne, who in his turn referred to Seneca, and that one – to Democritus, and Democritus could not even recall the man who after having been asked: why he spends so much effort on art which would reach just a handful of audience, replied: “A few is enough for me; one is enough; even no one is enough…”

Speaking of inspiration, you should not ask me. Ask those who are seeking it, when you find them. I have no power to give it or withdraw; an inspiration can only be taken, accepted; and it depends on them.

Finally, these billions. They are live creatures, but are they human beings? I am not talking of great villains, swellheads or murderers, but of common men and women born as a piece of flesh – the nature is incapable of producing anything better. And they are not human beings yet.

You adore the purity and innocence of a baby, but equally adorable are kittens and puppies. Nature is profusive: you kill a moth or an ant that crawling on your table and annoys you, and you are not afraid that you interfere with the life of the universe. Sure, you know that everything is interdependent. But this murder would neither stop the universe nor destroy it as well as killing domesticated and wild animals; although these acts are potentially destructive. The act itself, the idea of it is maleficent, if you are sensitive to violation of the goodness, values.

But the universe forgives your callousness. Up to a certain point, it is optimized for your imprudence; for plagues, incurable yet diseases. That is why it should be abundant. After all, natural disasters did not annihilate humanity.

Could you develop destructive ability to the degree that it would threaten the nature itself, overwhelming its self-preservation reflex? You could hypothetically, but the closer you come to this madness, the more evident it will be that you are killing yourself. You would become nauseated; your animal nature would get into play.

- You mean everyone has grown stupid at once?

- Many. There were also those who have not lost intuition and kept working, including those to whom you refer with rightful adoration. They sensed that the problem required new effort – not a thought acceleration, but re-orientation of the kind. They wanted a man to do something with himself – not with the problem, but with the one trying to pin it down.

When you look at impressionists’ paintings, you must do something with yourself to see what is there. It is not the same as if you look at Rafael or Leonardo. Stravinsky and Beethoven; Dickens and Kafka… Neither good nor bad, but different.

To do something with yourself is an eternal responsibility of a man. To think in such a way so that everything in the thought process belongs to the one who is thinking, and does not become a plaything of foreign forces. You cannot do it once and for all, open your eyes forever; you should do it whenever required.

- Looks like it did not work out well.

- Yes, so far forces have been uneven.

- And now what? Wait? For biologists, new artists?

- You are lucky to be afraid. It would have been unfortunate if you noticed nothing. No waiting. You are to live, search, think. But first, to see clearly what should be taken seriously and what not, as your righteous ones suggest. You recognized in their reality – ‘a total reality,’ and got scared, not quite without reason. But they are not consistent in their narrative; they do not mean the whole reality, just the one made by your awkward hands. You should not be afraid of that one; neither of fear itself.