As I sit, late into the evening, with a glass of bourbon, I realize I am a truly the most foolish man I have ever met. We, as humans, believe that there is some greater cause for which we exist. We believe that there is some process, some refinement, some succession of existence that we represent, undergo, or manifest in the world. Some call it God, some call it Faith, some call it a progression towards freedom. But alas, this is merely a construction of the mind.

Freud called it an “auxiliary construction”. It is a system, a structure, a path, or a goal that we all strive for. It is that thing that we all work towards, that thing, that makes our lives worth living. It is that thing that allows those laborious days in the sun, those frustrating days in the office, those hungry nights at home and those lonely evenings, “worth it”. For, if we had no structure, no faith, no goal, no purpose, would the suffering of our world and lives be worth tolerating?

It has become clear to me, in a moment of clarity, that this refinement, this succession, this process, is a reality in and of itself, for itself. By creating the goal of the highest human emotions and ideas we give ourselves purpose. And so, the refinement, the process, the succession does exist, in reality, but merely as an incidental side effect, a unintentional outcome, to our true reality.

That reality is that we are merely animals. Floating through space and time, with no understanding of where we come from, where we are going or why or how we are here. We strive to create a world that gives us hope…but, alas, we are merely animals. With apposable thumbs, language and an intuition that we label “reason”, we seek our highest goals and ideas merely for the purpose of occupying our minds, but more importantly, justifying our actions.

The trek towards the Highest has indeed been created. But not for the purpose of itself. We have moved towards freedom, we have moved towards Truth, we have moved towards enlightenment because that rationale, that justification , that excuse, is what is most easily empowering.

The fact of situation, as dark and sad as it may be, is that those who seek their needs with vehemence and fervor, utilize the highest ideas as the fodder for their rhetoric as they climb their way, through the same existence, in search of the same food, the same security, the same comfort that cro-magnon man once so honestly and brutally killed for.

I am the most foolish man I have ever met. For, I never saw the climb towards a better life, a better world, a better society, a better system and a better existence as merely the accidental, ironic, unforeseen result, of a world full of scared, hungry, ambitious, and frustrated series over-developed primates in a world where their intelligence and self-recognition confuses them.