metonymy4u

One of the cultural inventions of the so called modern era is the experience of isolation. Descartes’ famous cogito, ergo sum is a formula for expressing the isolation of the individual and a cry into the darkness for comfort, and solidarity with an unknown other. But in this creation we realize a thus far insoluble problem: how can a highly gregarious creature survive a lifetime of solitary incarceration? What Kierkegaard understood was that the task of a single life was the task of reconciliation with our grief, a riddle now forgotten by modern humans in our world of technology and systems. We seem to believe that our systematizing of the world redeems it automatically, that redemption is simply a by product of manipulation. But, when the whole world becomes nothing but standing reserve for the urge driven impulses of an eternally lonely creature, what ceremony of words can truly mend the havoc?