Man is Condemned to Act

Obligatory Action

Humanity cannot evolve without human intervention

According to Universal Mechanics, humanity is evolving toward its perfection. To accomplish this apotheosis, the builder-man is condemned to act. He is condemned to act in the direction of this purpose and with the feeling of being free — thus rejecting the idea that everything is determined. Through this impression of acting according to his free will, of building with his full freedom, he can express all his will.

Not only must our species feel master of its acts, but from time to time it must also pass through periods of euphoria and pride (such as the one we are currently living). Phases in which man imagines himself all-powerful and the creator of his own destiny.

Freedom and Omnipotence as Bait

In reality, freedom and omnipotence are simple lures. Necessary illusions, included within our destiny. The representation of man as an autonomous subject capable of mastering his fate is an illusion — a necessary illusion for our self-construction, but an illusion nonetheless. Because even when man consciously masters his destiny, it will still be his destiny.

Will as a Motor

Will is one of the qualities of the living. It is also inscribed in the physiological and psychological constitution of the builder-man. It is one of the indispensable instruments of human evolution.

Our will is at the origin of humanity as it has become. But this force is closer to the blind drive of which German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer speaks than to any voluntarist conception of history. Our will shall remain in darkness until humanity understands the real meaning of its actions — the purpose of what it is building.

Will is blind but not absurd, since it directs human society in a very precise direction. In this sense, it obeys external requirements — constraints included within the overall rise of the living toward a higher spirit.

Human Energy Demands to Express Itself

The energy associated with the living is our primary commander. From the moment of waking, man is animated by a kind of potential he must exhaust in action and reflection. These activities respond to the vital need to work (to build both oneself and the world), to struggle against dangers, or to resolve his questionings.

There exists in us a natural tendency toward activity. One cannot remain idle for long. One needs to be occupied. Inaction is intolerable to the human spirit. It engenders unease. A part of this unease is born of the unknown. It compels us to build and to seek answers — and these answers progressively illuminate the deep questions of humanity: where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? The secrets behind which everything holds.

Building Good Rather Than Evil

Not only are men destined to act, but they must do so in a very specific direction: toward the good. The diversity of human characters, interdependence and the propensity toward good together orient the sum of human actions in the direction of what is good, right, lawful, just — and progressively, this slow positive orientation leads our species toward its perfection.

There exists in us a natural tendency toward activity. One cannot remain idle for long. One needs to be occupied. Inaction is intolerable to the human spirit. It engenders unease. A part of this unease is born of the unknown. It compels us to act and to seek answers — and these answers progressively illuminate the deep questions of humanity (where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? The secrets behind which everything holds).

Heroes at Work

All Altruists!

Working for an Unknown Future

This path we shall travel together. Edmund Husserl

But for what reason should we build a kind of earthly paradise destined for a relatively distant future?

Why construct something for future humans of whom we know nothing? Why build a world we shall not enjoy? In short, why does humanity not wallow in nihilistic concepts along the lines of "après moi le déluge"?

Quite simply because the constitution of the human spirit obliges the majority of men to show solidarity toward their entire species. Despite violence, wars, fear of the other, we must act for the good of humanity — first for our children, and then also, unconsciously, for the good of all human beings.

An Unstoppable Mechanism

The psychological nature of man is irresistibly positivistic. Man has a great innate sense of responsibility toward his descendants. His natural propensity to sacrifice himself for family, group, country, community is enormous. As the group expands — from tribe to planetary village — all these forces orient our evolution in the direction of permanent improvement.

Family love is also a good motor of positive evolution. It naturally urges man to want better for his children than for himself. It suffices then to extend "man" to all men, and "child" to all children, to understand that this mechanism pushes humanity to always want better for its descendants.

In other words, the present instinctively works to manufacture a future superior to the present.

Irresistible Destiny

From Impulses to Consciousness

The Motors of Evolution

Even without knowing it, we are heading there… So let's head there knowing it! Jean-Marc Tonizzo

Until now, impulses, passions and desires have been the greatest motors of human action. These forces — despite antagonism, periods of chaos, uncertainty, threat, and the apparent disorder they include — have propelled the primate we were all the way to the human we are. And that is already enormous.

The organisation of society obliges the individual to act in a very precise direction. He must permanently develop his environment and his spirit. This positive gear irresistibly leads man to become ever more conscious. And naturally, one day, consciousness will take power over impulses.

Once this point is reached, consciousness will take charge of the march of humanity. We will then continue to build our world — but consciously.

Of Creation

Man as Necessity

An Obligated Life

After billions of years of the universe's expansion, the Earth appeared, then the living, and finally humanity.

Humanity was born of a quantity of possibilities. A sufficient quantity of possibilities (like the sperm) to succeed in the adventure and avoid all failure in the appearance of our species. One day, in my view, science will demonstrate this. That day, the concept of a deterministic destiny will at last be proven.

What Is, Had to Be

Once a thing exists, the inverse version does not exist. One cannot say of it: it might not have existed. Humanity being here, it could not have failed to exist.

Of Natural Selection

The living, science tells us, is characterised by a progressive rise toward a superior psyche. Under this principle, natural selection (of which the reductionist model speaks) is one of the mechanisms used by the living to progress.

If since the appearance of life the evolution of the mind has never wavered, and if the human psyche is destined to reach ecstasy (ecstasy, beatitude, nirvana — in short the sensations coinciding with all religious pre-visions), then we might conclude that the living is governed by a destiny whose motor is spiritual. This would therefore demonstrate that there is something divine.

The ancient tragedies (notably those of Aeschylus and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles) express a fundamental belief in a fatum governing all human actions, and one can say that the whole problem of human life is to be reconciled with one's destiny (amor fati). To make of one's destiny one's own destination: Oedipus blind recovers his inner serenity when he recognises that all is well and that the order of things has been accomplished. For man's true happiness is to be able to realise himself through the events that befall him: to exploit all events in the direction of his will, and to recognise in what happens to him the sign of his destiny. Larousse de la philosophie, Didier Julia.

Page created in 2000
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