Mentor

If you wish to understand the human condition, there is no easier way than to read the books written by Eric Hoffer. His words are like a powerful tonic that restores clear thinking to a confused mind. His criticism exposes the charlatan and debunks the modern-day medicine man. His writing is accessible to anyone with an eighth grade education. You can probably learn more from his books that you can in four years of college. He teaches without teaching, without preaching, without insisting that he alone is right.

"What do I know?" --Montaigne

Hoffer's writing is often pithy, aphoristic, and insightful. A few examples:

Man is a luxury-loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence.

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Once man was tamed by the magic of priest and king, he stopped tinkering with and probing the world around him, and became a beggar--begging gods for good crops and good fortune.

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Perhaps the devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the animal nature, the dark primordial impulses, sealed in the subconscious cellars of our mind. Until we attain total humanization we are all, to a greater or lesser degree, devils--beasts masquerading as men.

The Laws of Human Nature - Part 2

At one time or another, we have all had a paper cut. The slice always seems to occur somewhere on a finger so that we are constantly reminded of the cut by a twinge of pain.

The irritation that we feel will often lead us to comment to a friend that a paper cut is the worst annoyance imaginable.

In truth, it would not take much effort to think of a far worse fate. Why, then, at least in that moment, would we confuse the discomfort of a paper cut with that a more disagreeable experience?

The answer might be termed  The Law of the Relativity of Human Suffering:

A man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.--Viktor Frankl

In other words, the suffering of the moment completely occupies our attention. But what happens when we suffer pain and distress together? Do our mounting troubles cause us to despair of ever finding happiness?

Not exactly. As already noted in an earlier post, our minds are not overcome by misery because the cares of life temporarily distract us from our unhappiness and because we hope our troubles will soon come to an end.

And this brings us to another providential law of human nature that works in tandem with our understanding of the relativity of all human suffering called The Law of the Priority of Human Suffering:

For human nature is such that grief and pain--even simultaneously suffered--do not add up as a whole in our consciousness, but hide, the lesser behind the greater, according to a definite law of perspective....And this is the reason why so often in free life one hears it said that man is never content. In fact it is not a question of a human incapacity for a state of absolute happiness, but of an ever-insufficient knowledge of the complex nature of the state of unhappiness; so that the single name of the major cause is given to all its causes, which are composite and set out in an order of urgency. And if the most immediate cause of stress comes to an end, you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others.--Primo Levi

It is only the greatest cause of our suffering that expands to fill our mind and occupy our attention. If we trip while opening an envelope and break our leg, it will not be the paper cut that we also received which we will recall as being the cause of our unhappiness at that time.

However, if as we tripped we flailed our arms and kept our balance, we would be "grievously amazed" that as soon as our sense of relief had passed, our new awareness of the paper cut would preclude any chance of experiencing absolute happiness.

The Laws of Human Nature - Part 1

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.--Pascal's Pensées

All may seek happiness, but few find it. Sometime fate intervenes, as when we lose our health, and sometimes we let ourselves go to the dogs. We do ourselves in.

The horrific events of the 20th century--in particular, the experiences of many in the concentration camps--ripped open the human psyche and revealed what the great poets have always known: Man is the glory and the scandal of the Universe.

It is true that misery makes man a fiend and that contented people usually do not cause trouble. Is absolute happiness, then, possible under the human condition?

The answer is no. Neither absolute happiness nor unrelenting misery is possible and here's why:

The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite. Our ever-insufficient knowledge of the future opposes it: and this is called, in the one instance, hope, and in the other, uncertainty of the following day. The certainty of death opposes it: for it places a limit on every joy, but also on every grief. The inevitable material cares oppose it: for as they poison every lasting happiness, they equally assiduously distract us from our misfortunes and make our consciousness of them intermittent and hence supportable.--Primo Levi

If absolute happiness is unattainable, then what should we aim for? The answer to this question is surprisingly simple: we should aim for a meaningful existence.

When we are conscious of an unconditional meaning in our lives, we will have less difficulty accepting things as they are. We will find our way in good times and in bad times. We will accept unavoidable suffering just as we accept the love of a child or the beauty of nature.

The Laws of Human Nature - Introduction

My interest in the evolution of man led me to study myself more closely. After all, I am an ordinary person. The laws that govern human nature, therefore, should be discoverable in me.

With the assistance of a few good books, I confirmed what most of us intuitively know: Man is a miserable wretch. Are we doomed, as Schopenhauer maintains, to oscillate between distress and boredom?

Enter into my laboratory. I am going to dissect human nature and show that the only way to happiness is to study yourself so that you become convinced of the necessity of forgetting yourself.

Social Advantage

If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man--and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages--it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.--Henry David Thoreau

Given the recent housing crisis, it appears that American society has decidedly failed Thoreau's test. Thoreau uses a measure of value that does not strictly rely on the monetary system.

If an advanced civilization requires its inhabitants to spend most of their time obtaining a subsistence, then that civilization has not solved even the rudimentary challenges of our existence. It may be that the caveman was better off. He paid no rent and still had time to paint.

It is true that there are some in our day who achieve financial independence and leisure. Thoreau warns us, however, that only the wise improve their advantages. There is a danger that having achieved economic independence, we may succumb to dissipation. We may be tempted to pay with our lives for unnecessary comforts and pleasures.

What may seem an advantage can actually be a disadvantage. A higher standard of living does not necessarily return a greater share of happiness. We may spend our capital--that is, our time--and end up morally and spiritually bankrupt.

Invest in yourself. Cultivate your talents. Discover your treasure within and jealously guard your leisure hours from a system that will steal them away.

"And, remember, that time waits for no one."