Un-reason
What are the limits of the human sanity? Lately I've been asking myself this question over and over. What tells us apart from the unreasonable man, the madman. What is the grasp every individual actually has on reality?
Human life is full of possibilities. We are faced with a myriad of choices, we are born under the most variated conditions, people under the same conditions do different things with their and it is very hard to tell for sure what is the outcome of a certain character and a certain upbringing. Yet, I believe human nature is a data that cannot be ignored. We are the sons of Adam, daughters of Eve, we are capable of the most wonderful things God enabled us to do so we could give Him glory, we are also capable of following our enemy and committing the most horrible crimes. As we think about these possibilities we are confronted with the hypothesis that whoever is choosing how to act does so because of their reason led them to do so in pursuit of an end.
Even the most despicable monster knows how to operate in the world in order to achieve his ends. Therefore, it is not reason that lacks the criminal at most cases, but moral character. It isn't the capacity to calculate his actions and their operation in reality in view of his ends, but the ultimate ends he seeks with those actions, that determines whether those actions are praiseworthy or reproachable.
However, what happens if one fails to perceive reality as such, what is ones grasp of reality isn't as firm as most people would have it. If we are locked inside ourselves, helpless victims of our disturbed senses, how can we snap out of it. Of course some people are different since childhood and do not recall ever knowing the world in any other way than their own distortion of it. What disturbs me is the thought, frightening indeed, that man may loose his reason. How does one looses one's sense of proportions, his God given capacity to judge in a practical manner the events that surrounds every one of us, the ability to respond to kindness with kindness, rage with rage, and so on. What kind of devilry spawns feelings most disparate out of thin air inside man's hearts, causing violent reactions over trifles?
I have experienced the brief kiss of such madness on my already burdened brow. That is why I ask in desperation how to prevent the disgusting event from ever happening again. I would be most comforting a thought, that of being able to put myself above such dangerous misconceptions of the mind. How is my own consciousness going to tell apart reason from madness? That is worth a lifetime of study and prayer.
Human life is full of possibilities. We are faced with a myriad of choices, we are born under the most variated conditions, people under the same conditions do different things with their and it is very hard to tell for sure what is the outcome of a certain character and a certain upbringing. Yet, I believe human nature is a data that cannot be ignored. We are the sons of Adam, daughters of Eve, we are capable of the most wonderful things God enabled us to do so we could give Him glory, we are also capable of following our enemy and committing the most horrible crimes. As we think about these possibilities we are confronted with the hypothesis that whoever is choosing how to act does so because of their reason led them to do so in pursuit of an end.
Even the most despicable monster knows how to operate in the world in order to achieve his ends. Therefore, it is not reason that lacks the criminal at most cases, but moral character. It isn't the capacity to calculate his actions and their operation in reality in view of his ends, but the ultimate ends he seeks with those actions, that determines whether those actions are praiseworthy or reproachable.
However, what happens if one fails to perceive reality as such, what is ones grasp of reality isn't as firm as most people would have it. If we are locked inside ourselves, helpless victims of our disturbed senses, how can we snap out of it. Of course some people are different since childhood and do not recall ever knowing the world in any other way than their own distortion of it. What disturbs me is the thought, frightening indeed, that man may loose his reason. How does one looses one's sense of proportions, his God given capacity to judge in a practical manner the events that surrounds every one of us, the ability to respond to kindness with kindness, rage with rage, and so on. What kind of devilry spawns feelings most disparate out of thin air inside man's hearts, causing violent reactions over trifles?
I have experienced the brief kiss of such madness on my already burdened brow. That is why I ask in desperation how to prevent the disgusting event from ever happening again. I would be most comforting a thought, that of being able to put myself above such dangerous misconceptions of the mind. How is my own consciousness going to tell apart reason from madness? That is worth a lifetime of study and prayer.
posted by Tiago Ramos at 6:58 AM
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