While a modicum of consciousness may have had survivalist properties during an immemorial chapter of our evolution – so one theory goes – this faculty soon enough became a seditious agent working against us … we need to hamper our consciousness for all we are worth or it will impose upon us a too clear vision of what we do not want to see … Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are – hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the dual nature of consciousness, suggesting that while it aids survival, it can also bring painful awareness of our limitations and mortality.
Thomas Ligotti explores the idea that consciousness, which may have initially served to enhance survival during our evolution, has become a burdensome awareness that compels us to confront uncomfortable truths about our existence. He suggests that this awareness can be so distressing that it leads us to wish for a state of ignorance regarding our true nature as vulnerable beings. The paradox herein is that while life demands our engagement with reality, the inherent struggles of consciousness can lead us towards a desire to escape from that very engagement.
In practice
In a philosophical debate about the burdens of awareness, this quote could illustrate the paradox of consciousness.
For optimists, human life never needs justification, no matter how much hurt piles up, because they can always tell themselves that things will get better. For pessimists, there is no amount of happiness—should such a thing as happiness even obtain for human beings except as a misconception—that can compensate us for life’s hurt.
The human phenomenon is but the sum Of densely coiled layers of illusion Each of which winds itself on the supreme insanity That there are persons of any kind When all there can be is mindless mirrors Laughing and screaming as they parade about in an endless dream
And the worst possible thing we could know — worse than knowing of our descent from a mass of microorganisms — is that we are nobodies not somebodies, puppets not people.
Madness, mayhem, erotic vandalism, devastation of innumerable souls - while we scream and perish, History licks a finger and turns the page.
As a survival-happy species, our successes are calculated in the number of years we have extended our lives, with the reduction of suffering being only incidental to this aim. To stay alive under almost any circumstances is a sickness with us. Nothing could be more unhealthy than to “watch one’s health” as a means of stalling death. The lengths we will go as procrastinators of that last gasp only demonstrate a morbid dread of that event. By contrast, our fear of suffering is deficient.
A: There is no grand scheme of things. B: If there were a grand scheme of things, the fact – the fact – that we are not equipped to perceive it, either by natural or supernatural means, is a nightmarish obscenity. C: The very notion of a grand scheme of things is a nightmarish obscenity.
It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible.
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
People talk vaguely about the innocence of a little child, but they take mighty good care not to let it out of their sight for twenty minutes.
A thought may arise: 'It's okay now, but it's going to be different when I step out the door'. Already you are anticipating your downfall. Recognise these as just thoughts. You can just watch them, feel their pull yet observe them as a movement in consciousness. Stay put as formless awareness.
Suicide is not abominable because God prohibits it; God prohibits it because it is abominable.
Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
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