OUR SIMPLE 1940 A.D. SITUATION

Abstracted and rearranged from 'The Human Situation' by W. MacNeile Dixon.

Part 1 – both material and immaterial.

Let us begin with ourselves. We are alive, are aware of our surroundings and have characters to enjoy, or to grieve over our condition. The Sun rises and sets, the tides rise and fall and people eat, drink and take their pleasures regardless, as if nothing is happening. Yet the first and fundamental wonder is existence itself. That 'I' should have emerged out of nothingness, that the Void should have given birth not merely to things but to 'me', a conscious, live person, is astonishing. During our early years, when all was fresh and new, we took the miracle for granted. We were busy becoming accustomed to living, and nothing of this appeared startling. We accepted life without even asking, "Why should there be anything at all?" But let our minds once awake and this emergence from the womb of the immeasurable Universe rises to its full significance. To find oneself a member of a particular society, with all its own multitudinous affairs, and not knowing why this should be, and how we came into possession of our own particular characters, provokes numerous philosophical questions leading one to become a member of a very negligible minority. Few humans have become concerned with such musings. Most have died, whatever their pursuits, in the vigour of their sensuality and in the full stride of their ignorance. If there has been one God acknowledged universally and worshipped throughout all ages and countries; it is money.

All forms of life, all organisms that have been made manifest, are engaged in an unceasing struggle to maintain themselves against the forces of nature. "To live, my dear Lucullus, is to make war." Each of us, is born with no reasons given, as a man or a woman, an Arab, an Andaman islander, a Chinese coolie, an English gentleman, a St. Thomas, or an Ivan the Terrible. Each is born in the Stone Age, the fifth or fifteenth century, a vegetarian, cannibal, of base or noble stock, the child of half-witted parents, an imbecile, or a fanatic. As an accident of birth, each of us inherits a family blood feud, a belief in Voodoo, or in a Christian creed of love and charity, and so on. Is it accidental, or is it a selection made by each one of us in a previous state? And what is the justice, if one of us languishes on a bed of sickness, while another enjoys health and happiness? These inequalities of place, time, heredity and circumstance are strewn among us with a monstrous partiality. Under what conditions are we allotted good looks, a musical ear, a sunny temper, a talent for figures, or denied these qualities? And from these bodies of ours there is no escape. They do as much as they please with us. What a despot is the stomach! We can be nauseated by ourselves, or nervously and shamefacedly avert our eyes from the dishonours we must endure.

Good health too, has always been prized as the first and greatest of blessings. Yet perfect health is not common. That bad health lies at the root of a great proportion of human suffering and misery, is beyond dispute. A legion of ills spring from this cause, ranging from bad temper to theft and from drugs and drunkenness to suicide and murder. Health is the high road to Earthly happiness. Both health and illness are, in part, a matter of inheritance, yet hardly, if at all less, a matter of climate. The tropics induce inertia and enfeeble purpose, while in too stimulating climates, the struggle to keep alive is exhausting. Possibly, the British Isles enjoy the healthiest climate in which mankind is at its best, both physically and intellectually. As for the British, "Time, the ocean and some favouring star, in high cabal, have made us what we are."

We may also ask whether we have been created by a nature with no interest in man. Men are simply animals, one species among many thousands. Lords of creation maybe, but certainly not heirs of heaven. Viewed from the dimensions of space, no comparisons can better express the insignificance of man among the cosmic magnitudes. In a Universe so wide, how can we creatures of a day strut, pose and bluster, or look upon ourselves without contempt? Also, how slight a thing is man, even amid the works of man himself. The pyramids belittle the pharaohs who built them. Caesar in his capital of Rome, the archbishop beneath his cathedral's soaring towers and the captain on the bridge of his battleship, are barely visible among their magnificent surroundings, and so present but a poor appearance.

However, we should not accept the philosophy, either of the telescope, or the microscope – to be overpowered by mere magnitude is preposterous. This material perspective is the most distorting and cheapest of our many illusions, overlooking the mind that knows more about the stars than they ever will know themselves until their dying day. But man is at once contained within, and yet himself contains, the World in his thought. Thus, if his outer and physical visions minimise his importance, his inner and intellectual ones restore and enhance it.

Let us turn now to the surrounding World. When life appeared, it did so in a World that somehow supported it. Life depends upon nutrition, and cannot get along using only its own resources. Somehow the World supports us and we are nourished in both body and mind. Also, on its arrival upon the scene, the living creature anticipates that it will receive the necessary assistance. The baby is extremely annoyed if its food is not forthcoming. Nor, despite this tremendous assumption, is it usually disappointed. Animals, the moment that they are born, are already experts in their several ways of life. These strange circumstances suggest a harmony between living things and their surroundings. The World is just as suited to be the home of living things, as they are to make it their home. Certainly, there are some remarkable features of our planet that suggest that it was designed as a grand theatre, as if the coming and conduct of life had been anticipated somehow. Had things been otherwise, we should not have been here to discuss them. At first sight, the conditions looked far from promising. But there were notable peculiarities in the situation. For example, the greatest density of water occurs at a temperature of 4C, so that when ice forms, it floats on the remaining water in order that life can continue in the cold water beneath. Probably, this property of liquid water, being denser than its solid form, ice, is unique among liquids. Also, life is not comfortable, save within the narrow limits of temperature of between about -10C and +55C. Note also, that although local changes are taking place continually, during 4,000 millions of years, the climate of the Earth has remained astonishingly uniform. This is due, in part, to the greater stability of the binary Earth-Moon system compared with...