You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the existential confusion of humanity, despite advancements in science and technology.
Walker Percy articulates a profound concern about modern society's disconnection from self-awareness and purpose. He suggests that, although we have made remarkable progress in scientific and technological fields, we remain fundamentally lost regarding our identity and the meaning of our actions. This reflects a paradox where material advancements do not translate to an understanding of the human condition.
In practice
During a lecture on existential philosophy, this quote can be used to illustrate the dissonance between technology and human understanding.
They all think any minute I'm going to commit suicide. What a joke. The truth of course is the exact opposite: suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I'm as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself -- ah then, I would. I can do without nembutal or murder mysteries but not without suicide.
It is possible, however, that the artist is both thin-skinned and prophetic and, like the canary lowered into the mine shaft to test the air, has caught a whiff of something lethal.
Why is it that one can look at a lion or a planet or an owl or at someone's finger as long as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second, a perilous affair?
We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces away.
Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion.
Since grief only aggravates your loss, grieve not for what is past.
Actually, I have no regard for money. Aside from its purchasing power, it's completely useless as far as I'm concerned.
People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
If language is lost, humanity is lost. If writing is lost, certain kinds of civilization and society are lost, but many other kinds remain - and there is no reason to think that those alternatives are inferior.
it is wrong to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences... but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life a dimension of beauty.
As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.
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