Something inexplicably funny happens when we come across a crystal-clear, perfect and irrefutable logical exposition that does not exert on the listeners the same brilliance and charm that radiates from the expositor’s words. Thomas Aquinas comes to mind… What can be said? Unfortunately, logic can only impress those accustomed to practicing it or, at the very least, those capable of understanding it. The work of Thomas Aquinas is an impossible feat. The proofs he presents, for example, on the necessity of God’s existence, could not be better or more logically formulated, nor more clearly explained by a human head whose expressive instrument is language. And yet they are useless, absolutely useless and hollow to most mortals.
The Antithesis of Dominant Thought
It really is an impressive phenomenon that the antithesis of dominant thought always emerges, precisely when it believes itself to be sovereign, and ends up being surprised with a violence proportional to the effort made to consolidate it. In the same way, genius emerges when the environment seems to make it impossible. And when we see that, after a few decades, the impossible happens and the tiny overtakes the enormous, we wonder at these frequent coincidences…
The Old Scholars
It is amusing to imagine how the old and very rigorous scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would react if they knew that poetry would soon come to light, under never-before-heard applause, whose recipe boils down to saying foolish things in verses with no meter, no rhythm, no punctuation and no capitalization. And imagine them comparing the much-criticized romantic insubmissions with this! But what is most curious, and perhaps too patent to be ignored, is that the phenomenon has not been limited to poetry, but has also encompassed music and, even more scandalously, the plastic arts. The common man has imposed himself and his preferences, abilities and worldview on all spheres. He has claimed all the means for himself, appropriated the best position in all functions. Finally, the revenge after so many centuries of oppression!
Two Basic Postures
Two basic postures summarize man’s attitude towards life: that of victim and that of creative agent. We see infinite reflections of these in philosophy, historiography, psychology and literature. There is no possible reconciliation between the two, since wanting to create and actually creating have nothing to do with success or failure, fact or possibility, idea or realization. It all comes down to judging oneself as a patient or an agent, always judging what has happened or how one might react. It is therefore a question of whether or not it can be glimpsed a possible field of action, which for some is everything, and for others non-existent. Between the two, once again, there is no possible conciliation, especially since the latter type cannot stand the former’s posture.