Wednesday, 15 October 2008

• Intellectualism and Competition

  It is in the fine, and crisply short days of fall that the fancy of the young and old alike turn back from the woes of agricultural nutriment to the endeavours of the intellectual mind. With this effort comes a special interest in performing upon a cognitive level that many of the populace have no chance to indulge in throughout the rest of the year. The vast majority of humanity recognizes, if at least on a purely subconscious level, the innate benefits of intellectual improvement. All know that it was thence that came the dominance of humanity over the lower and baser creatures of the earth. Without such fine interest, one and all accept on some fundamental level that mankind should be no better than the most wild and ferocious of beasts, unable to harness agressivity and passion into anything more productive or far-reaching than the immediate interests relating to momentary concerns.

  Thus it is that mankind has fostered an interest in the higher arts. While an expensive leisure for some, for others it has became a necessity for basic survival. In these societies, the foundation of group survival has come to centre itself around the intended acquisition of knowledge in order to use the skills learned through that acquisition to fabricate the more basic creations of other societies. And, while this no doubt encourages the furtherance of that most essential quality of humanity, it also invites weaknesses that are unavoidable when one looks askance upon the physical foundation of human labour that has undeniably created the safe haven intellectualism requires in order to flourish.

  And so, throughout history, the societies of mankind have tried, with varying degrees of success, to carefully balance the required ratios of physicality and intellectuality, so that not only can they maintain their dominance among and over the denizens of the planet, but the citizens as well. For man has so long sat on his crimson throne, that he can barely remember the time in which he was threatened by more than his brother and his neighbour. So satisfactory has been the overridingly positive effects of intellectual efforts that all competition among the lower species has ceased even to irk the disposition of the mighty race of men. Now, among threats, man stands alone. He is his own fear in the night in the age of men. Thus, his considerable prowess has for several millennia been required for no other effort than that in which man seeks the destruction of himself. For it is our most fundamental nature to seek the destruction of our brother over that of ourselves, and our cousin over that of ourselves and our brother, and our neighbour over that of our cousin, brother, and ourselves. Such is a tribal relationship in which distance and separation act as barriers to all but the most obligingly obvious of commonalities.

  In such a tribal instinct lies both the key to man’s success and failure. Continued cooperation through the communicatory marvel of language has allowed uniform action and thought so required for general mastery. And yet, tribal urges separate as well as bind us. When set upon by a rival tribe, the spirit of competition drives most highly the destructive urges than any other. While some laud it as the inspiration for greatness, it would seem that more often it acts only in a baleful manner and that through kindred collaboration can intertribal greatness be achieved. Many instinctively sense the end of times as the unavoidable result of such continued enmity in tribal relations, as fostered by emulous spirit.

  Thus once again is the importance of intellectual meanderings foisted upon a percipient audience. While a careful balance of both action and thought are required for enduring success, and an outfall of thought results in weak action, strong action sees thought weakened. Such becomes man’s burden in the new order of things – the careful tempering of his own actions in favour of his thoughts.

   

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