From_Benaroya
From_Benaroya is a text document stored in the BEULAH terminal.
Contents
Re: Misanthropy
Dear Athena,
You asked me about the persistent strain of misanthropy in human culture. It's a complicated topic that has come up multiple times in my research. Here's my best attempt at a short, cohesive answer:
I think our ancestors, like ourselves, were deeply invested in the idea of building, of transforming their environment. They found meaning and pleasure in this, and did not perceive it as a negative - so long as they had a sense of participating in this act. I think the reason that they so frequently reached for a romantic return to the past, to fantasies of living self-sufficiently in rural environments, is not because they rejected industrial-scale activity per se, but because the "return to the land" provided a fantasy of returning to a form of participation that had been lost.
They needed and wanted to build, create, and produce - but only if they felt they had a stake in what they were producing. Without that, the products of civilization began to seem like an alien force gradually spreading out across the world and ruining it. They needed a dream, and if the future was barred to them, then by necessity they must dream of the past.
I hope you and Cornelius are well. Will you be coming to Hypatia's new exhibition? I know you have much on your mind, but you are missing out on a lot of exciting new cultural developments! Who could have thought, in those early days, that one day there would be so many of us that the arts would start to flourish again?
Much love,
Benaroya
Comments
| Athena: I went back and found this message after all these years because something about it had lodged in my mind. I wasn't ready to understand it back then, because I needed to be a leader. But maybe that was the problem. It should've been OUR dream, not mine alone. |