Sunitus - De instelling van de geest

Man, as a creature with an experiential scope exceeding his physical presence – a mind - has, because of this expansive attribute, an inherent need of a notion of himself, to ground his metaphysical experience in his physical being. This idea must, as I will explain, include an idea of a greater structure, of which he understands himself to be part. In the following text I will attempt to give a moral definition of man culminating in a conception of what he may become, if he properly understands himself.

If someone goes the extra mile, a thing is accomplished and the world continues to exist. – The Revolutionary

I would like to take some of your time to explore with you what a possible perfect world might look like. But I am going to look beyond what is right to do, at the preferred consequences of our actions.

There are many scenarios for bad, worse and worst cases, but hardly any for a situation better than the present one, except vain wishes for a world without pain. We do have concepts for a better world beyond this one– the Kingdom of Heaven, Paradise – but we do not seem to have the drive to think out a specific best-case scenario for this specific world, which is physical and therefore embodies also suffering and death.

Zangria was een stadje met een slotgracht, en drie bruggen die vanuit de woestijn, waarin het stadje gelegen was, naar binnen leidden. In de slotgracht had al sinds mensenheugenis geen water gestaan, en vrijwel niemand van de inwoners kon zich vandaag de dag nog de tijden heugen dat er nog gesproken werd over de strijd waarin het stadje ooit verwikkeld was geweest, en waarin de Sultan had besloten een slotgracht te graven, en die te vullen met limonade. Velen waren in die strijd onplezierig aan hun einde gekomen, spartelend in citroenlimonade, die bij het verzuipen ook nog eens brandde in de ogen.