A Job To Be Done

Eric Hoffer noted that man is an unfinished animal and that we become fully human when we channel the nature that is within us into a creative effort.

Theodore Dreiser also commented on this peculiarity of the human condition:

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

Dreiser pointed out that since man separated himself from nature he lost forever the automatism that is the chief characteristic of the denizens of the jungle:

On the tiger no responsibility rests. We see him aligned by nature with the forces of life - he is born into their keeping and without thought he is protected. We see man far removed from the lairs of the jungles, his innate instincts dulled by too near an approach to free-will, his free-will not sufficiently developed to replace his instincts and afford him perfect guidance.

As our technology tames the nature without, we are confronted by the challenge of conquering the nature within us--and there is always the danger that we will revert to savagery. Dreiser understood the precarious position of humanity:

In this intermediate stage he wavers - neither drawn in harmony with nature by his instincts nor yet wisely putting himself into harmony by his own free-will.

Dreiser also understood that the fate of man hangs in the balance:

We have the consolation of knowing that evolution is ever in action, that the ideal is a light that cannot fail. He will not forever balance thus between good and evil.

Eric Hoffer insisted that if history has any meaning, it lies in man's struggle to break free from nature and to become a being apart. For only then will man fulfill his spiritual destiny. Dreiser was in full accord with this view when he insisted that man's true calling is to win the internal battle against nature:

When this jangle of free-will and instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary. The needle of understanding will yet point steadfast and unwavering to the distant pole of truth.”

We still have work to do. Nature will not give up so easily. Let us set our hearts and minds to the task before us. Eric Hoffer knew that the "dark destructive forces released by affluence can serve to fuel the creative process." Let us then fulfill our creative destiny and become fully human.