The Human Predicament 2 – The frenzied nature of man

The Traits of Man

He is great, but at the same time weak and miserable with insatiable desires. Man is the greatest being in the universe, yet he is so fragile that a little thing such as a bullet, for instance can annihilate him. He is wretched but he is great even in his wretchedness because he knows his wretchedness. The fact that he is aware of his wretchedness shows that he knows what he ought to be more than he actually is.

He knows that he is not really his true self that he used to be more than he is at present. In other words, he is conscious of his fallen state. It is only a deposed king that feels happy about his state of not being a king. If he had never been a king at all he will not feel unhappy about he not being a king.

He is a deposed king, a fallen creature, longing to be restored to his former dignity. In a similar way, Jean Paul Sartre describes man as a being who is not what he is and who is what he is not, a being who carries a vacuum, an emptiness within him at the heart of his being.

Nothing can satisfy him as long as he carries that vacuum inside him at the heart of his being. No amount of money, no amount of wealth, wine or women can satisfy man’s deepest yearning because nothing can fill that vacuum inside him. This means that all his endeavours in life to acquire wealth are futile. Expressing similar ideas about man’s dissatisfaction and restlessness, Augustine says to God: You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

Man’s unsatisfied nature

Augustine, who in his youth lived a carefree life, later learnt from experience that nothing could satisfy the deepest yearning of the human heart.

In his Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus illustrates in a dramatic way the futility of human endeavours and the absurdity of human existence. He compares human existence to the life of Sisyphus who spent all his life rolling a heavy stone up a hill. He would start early in the morning rolling the stone up the hill and spend the whole day rolling it, exerting all his energy and perspiring profusely all over his body.

When at last he succeeded in rolling it to the top of the hill, the stone will roll down the hill, and Sisyphus would come down and start all over rolling the stone up the hill again, exerting all his energy as before. And when again he succeeded in reaching the top of the hill with the stone, it would again roll down the hill.

Sisyphus kept doing this every day of his life until he died. He worked very hard, but what did he achieve in the end? What was the meaning of what he spent his whole life doing? What was the purpose? It had no meaning, no purpose. It was totally absurd exercise. He lived a meaningless life.

Is human life on earth less absurd than the life of Sisyphus?

You can read the Part 1 here – A Keen Reflection on Human Life

Credit: Inusah Awuni – MPhil, MA, BA ( Lecturer – AUCC & DUC )

Email: agolgoti@yahoo.com