If there ever was a creature that was torn between its own nature and limitations and apparent unlimited creativity it is human being. Imagine a creature so involved with itself that it tries to hide all its faults by inventing such an imaginative worlds and concepts to explain itself to itself (instead of just looking in the mirror) that it ends up in constant turmoil, always aware of its faults and always unable to admit them and driven by this constant turmoil creates magnificent things.

Author gives us overview of the ways humans paint themselves for themselves so they can live with themselves, various myths starting from how we generally describe ourselves as civilized (chapter about Naples was horrifying), and how we flirt with our divine role on this world. We live with so many noise in our heads that very way of handling this static is what actually makes human a human. Though sometimes unbearable this noise is what drives us forward and enables us to create beautiful and amazing things but also forces us to come up as so unintelligent at times it is unbelievable.

It is constant search for meaning of life. While rest of the living world (even non-living if we are to allow for some of the philosophies) lives in peace satisfied with their own existence (or at least they are living their existence without constant attempts to reinvent themselves) humans are in essence incapable of such a feat. Humans want to find the meaning of life because it seems that living the life for life's sake is just not enough. And of course this causes so many short circuits in the brain that people do things that range from wonderful to deeply terrifying and disturbing.
Take religion for example. It always had its place in human life (again this constant strive for purpose and meaning) and we can never remove it, it is part of human psyche and required for normal functioning of humans that every replacement, be it science, sociological theories or various theories on human past, present and future only ends up being revered as a new religion (in standard fashion of out with the old, in with the new). As author states we say to ourselves (and thus we build myths) we do not need it but we constantly create new religions to which we want to devote our lives to. We do not call them religion but approach it with same zeal that for objective outside observer (if such thing was possible) would see no difference at all.

I especially liked chapters on Freud and Jung, author managed to capture the very essence of their disagreement and it is not surprising that Jung became the more famous one while Freud was shunned away - his thesis and approach was too close to the target.... and that hurts.

What permeates the entire book is the notion that no matter how far we think we have come we are still only an advanced animal and I mean this not in some romantic but pure biological sense. We need to come to terms with that if we want to progress and actually level up scientific/technological and social achievements. We need to change our own behavior. Unfortunately same as the author I am skeptical that this will happen any time soon. If anything this year proved maxim that remains true and unfortunately will remain true for a long time - humans are and will remain irrational and incapable of common sense behavior, they want drama and chaos because then they can find the meaning of life at least as martyrs in forced hard conditions of life. And that is one very sad fact.

I cannot but chuckle whenever I hear how we will conquer the space:) it seems like 1960's happened in parallel universe. Short episode in human history, time of enlightenment that was cut short because only small number of people was involved - for majority this was something that happened at the edge of their perception and this is where this breakthrough period withered and died. Reality and survival will always prevail over something that for majority is unreachable and in the end does not have immediate practical value.

Very interesting book, author's style is great and draws you in a way that you are glued to the book till the very end - you will find yourself constantly saying just one more page. And this is quite an achievement for the the philosophical/sociological work.

Highly recommended. ( )

Whenever I finish a book of John Gray's, I always feel like I've read something amazing, but that I'm not quite sure I know what it was.

4 stars, until I have a chance to re-read. ( )

Ich gehe in dieser Rezension davon aus, dass es einen Gott gäbe, der das Universum sinnvoll und gerecht angelegt hat. Die tiefste Botschaft, die man diesem Gott unterstellen könnte, indem er den Mensch und das Tier dem Werden und Vergehen (also dem Tod) ausgesetzt hat, ebenso wie alles andere, liegt darin:

Jeder sollte als Geheimnis bzw. die Warnung Gottes erkennen, dass erfolgreiches menschliches und wirtschaftliches Streben unvermeidlich in Dekadenz, Korruption und Gier abgleitet. Also eher kommt ein Reicher durch ein Nadelöhr als in das Reich Gottes. Die bescheidene Lebensspanne von 80, 90 oder 100 Jahren verführt uns aber trotzdem zu dem Irrglauben, dass alles mit Raubzügen und Unterdrückung anderer möglich wäre, ein teuflischer Plan, den sich Religionen sogar zur Sklavenhaltung Ungläubiger zunutze machen.

Die Gier und Unterdrückungslust des Menschen reicht gegen unendlich. Der Wille zur Macht ist stärker als jede Vernunft, ein Potenzmittel für ewiges Leben. Es wird umso stärker, je mehr humanistische Utopieideale dagegen gesetzt werden, man zum Guten "gebetet" wird, mithin etwas nahezu Unmögliches erreichen soll. Oder wenn sich Religionen diese Unterdrückungsmechanismen in ihre Grundlagen schreiben. Schon Aristoteles erkannte die Problematik, indem er sagte, man solle niemanden zu viel Macht einräumen, entweder durch Beziehungen, Geld oder sonstige Erb-Vorzüge.

Gott schneidet alle Erbmassen und -folgen durch, jeder erhält als gerechte Maßnahme den Tod und hätte genügend Zeit dazu, sich Gedanken zu machen, warum er seine Raubzüge zu Lebzeiten nicht schon einstellt.

Dagegen setzt das die Problematik durchaus erkennende humanistische Menschenbild ein Ideal, welches scheitern muss. Und zwar umso stärker, je mehr es bedingungslos gefordert wird. Der Mensch ist und bleibt ein Führer-Raubtier, das sich bzw. den Untergebenen Gedanken und Utopieideale des Humanismus schenkt, die umso stärker versagen, je inbrünstiger Untergebene daran glauben. Untergebene arbeiten sich daran ab. Religionen und Utopien oder Ideologien schenken sich in diesem Zusammenhang nichts.

Der Mensch ist des Menschen Wolf. Punkt.
Und zwar solange, bis er erkennt, wer er ist.
Realistisch.
Ohne den süßlichen Brei vom Angstmarketing der Religionen oder dem paradiesischen Duft der Jetztversprechen sozialistischer Dieseitsideale.

'Wäre der Glaube an die menschliche Rationalität eine wissenschaftliche Theorie, wäre sie schon längst aufgegeben worden.' (Seite 72)

Der Mensch glaubt besser zu sein als er ist. Solange er diese Wahnvorstellung nicht aufgibt, agiert er als Zerstörer, er ist nicht gut und ideal, sondern ein hoffnungsloser Träumer, dem die Schatten der Apokalypse in jeder Sekunde drohen, solange er ein einfaches Wort von Friedrich Schiller nicht lebt: einfach zu blühen, wie eine Blume, das ist's. Den Nächsten annehmen, ihm helfen - und nicht durch hehre, ideologische Ziele sich selbst verblenden.

Humanisten meinen, Menschen sollten in Zukunft rationaler und gütiger werden, sie tun es aber nicht, das humanistische Ideal führt möglicherweise zu noch gefährlicherer Träumen als jene sozialistischer oder religiöser Verblendung.

Ein grandioses Buch mit spannenden Gedankenführungen, einer Tour d'horizon durch die Philosophie- und Menschheitsgeschichte, die betroffen macht, die auf- und anregt, die Probleme der Menschheit radikaler zu denken, realistischer, trennschärfer. ( )

If you liked True Detective's Matthew McConalogues, you will enjoy this book. Dismantling progress, humanity, free will, consciousness, fulfilment and other modern myths - there's a lot of common ground.

ON FULFILLMENT...

Rust Cohle:
“we’ve all got what I call a life trap, a gene-deep certainty that things will be different…that you’ll move to another city and meet the people that’ll be the friends the rest of your life…that you’ll fall in love and be fulfilled…fucking fulfillment…and closure whatever the fuck those two fucking empty jars to hold this shit storm.”

John Gray:
“the contemporary creed is that fulfillment can be found by being the person you truly want to be. Within each of us there are unique possibilities, waiting to be developed. Our misfortune is that these possibilities are mostly thwarted. Hence, we like to think, the sadly stifled lives many people lead; they have missed the chance to be themselves. But do they know what it is that they want to be? If they became that person, would they then be ‘happy’? Only someone who was chronically miserable would base their lives on such a far-fetched speculation. As it is, most spend their lives in a state of hopeful turmoil.”



ON CONSCIOUSNESS...

Rust Cohle:
“I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution, we became too self aware, nature created an aspect of nature seperate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labour under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory, experience, and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody. When in fact everybody is nobody.”

John Gray:
“only humans use words to construct a self-image and a story of their lives. But if other animals lack this interior monologue, it is not clear why this should put humans on a higher plane. Many people think humans are unique in possessing something called consciousness. At its most refined, thinking in this way is like thinking that the universe has come up with humans so that it can look at itself.”



ON RELIGION...

Rust Cohle:
“if the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of shit. And I’d like to get as many of them out in the open as possible. You gotta get together and tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe just to get through the goddamn day? What does that say about your reality?”

John Gray:
“denying reality in order to preserve a view of the world is not a practice confined to cults. Cognitive dissonance is the normal human condition.”



Note: John Gray does not advocate human extinction.

Both however, expose the human condition as something imperfect, broken and unfixable. ( )

The world in which you live from day to day is made from habit and memory. The perilous zones are the times when the self, also made from habit and memory, gives way. Then, if only for a moment, you may become something other than you have been.

Richard Rorty in a number of essays on Derrida and Deconstruction notes sanguinely that if rigor is what satisfies you and your philosophy, you need not follow Derrida. This is my clumsy paraphrase and Rorty readily notes there are a number of reasons to read Derrida, especially as he is one of the brave souls out dancing in the dark; but a programmatic analysis was not included in his methodology nor is it his intention. I feel that John Gray is likewise out sternly strolling in the shadows. His thesis here is that humanism is cognitive dissonance, a bad faith endeavor perpetuated by fictional positivism. Gray believes we confuse technology with a developed sense of self and purpose. The Silence of Animals is a queasy book, one larded with long citations from other authors. One could gather that his premise curtailed the need for escalation or procedure, what would be the point, anyway? I said that last bit in my Marvin the Paranoid Android voice.


2.5 stars ( )