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Since the earliest humans retired at the end of a hard day’s foraging , speculation has gathered about the constitution of animate
beings and the distinction between what we may conveniently call their bodies and their souls. Bodies have gradually revealed their secrets
to successive generations but the soul , or spirit (pneuma) remains an entity clouded in swirling doubt and nagging uncertainty.
We may still choose to grapple with one or another mystical theory proposing a systematic effacement of ‘the natural self ’ , suspending
the activity of our regular sensory perceptions , appetites and emotions to a 'higher' end. But most human beings want those activities
to continue , not because they are ‘weak’ and anxious for a ‘good time’. They know that on balance , life involves more than its fair share
of suffering , and occasional fun and games are not to be sniffed at. By contrast , the sage resolutely turns his back on the innocent
pleasures of ordinary life in order to gain a deeper knowledge of an ‘inner spiritual reality’ whose existence is unknown to the workaday
world(1). A South African called
Eugene Marais, published a series of articles between 1925-26 under the title Die Siel van die Mier ( usually given in English as the
Soul of the White Ant). These introduced the prescient insight that a termite colony should be considered as a single organism. His work
was plagiarised in 1926 by the Dutch Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck , who published La Vie des Termites (translated into English as
The Life of Termites) a book which has been called a classic example of academic plagiarism. So much for the noble pursuit of scientific
truth.
From the 1960s onwards , several propositions were put forward by way of direct routes to self-knowledge. Some favoured the ingestion of
psychotropic drugs , others favoured meditational schemes and/or yogic postures. Thus inducted into suspended conscious animation , they
report on an inner land of peace and the temporary cessation of otherwise habitual intimations of conflict and stress. Psychological
explorers have tracked the subterranean soul into a post-Freudian red-light district governed by the triumvirate of Ego , Id and Superego.
A familiar situation here , with the solitary Ego caught unwittingly between Rojos of the Id and theBaxter ranch of the Superego
(2). We might suppose that everyone who examines their own life has access to some sort of truth about themselves but
the temptation to disguise or embellish often proves an opportunity too good to be missed. When we contemplate the widespread participation
in winter games of sport , whether amateur or professional , we conclude that men in particular must register a secret pleasure in donning
a pair of shorts and baring their legs. If an equal warmth suffuses each memoirist as he bares his soul to the world , this can be ascribed
to the fact that most of us nourish an heroic idea of ourselves at heart , however lowly our situation and modest our abilities.
We have entered the realm of the personality. Our unique character and charming idiosyncrasies can now be paraded electronically on Facebook
and they are implicit in the twittering question “ What am I like ? ”. Envisage some visiting extra-terrestrial consulting that
microcosm of the modern world , television , in order to assess what earthlings were like. They would gain an impression of creatures
in thrall to images of sex and violence when they weren't being advised on property investment or watching cooking competitions. Some
anthropologists have proposed a scheme of human development whereby the 'discovery' of cooking made digestion of foodstuffs easier and , over
the requisite pasage of time , a shrinking intestinal tract released evolutionary energy for an expansion of brain capacity. With pleasing
narrative closure , the bigger brain eventually came up with television technology and enabled nightly homage to the agency that set homo
sapiens on his way. We cooked , therefore we are.
Wig.
(1) Many such theories follow thick and fast in the indispensable tome Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism by Gershom Scholem, peace be upon him.
(2) Reference to the plot of A Fistful of Dollars, the
first ‘Spaghetti Western’ and Clint Eastwood’s breakthrough film.
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Archive
Virtual rambler #1 – Posturing, 9th March 2010
Virtual rambler #2 – Managerialism, 17th March 2010
Virtual rambler #3 – Nostalgia, 27th March 2010
Virtual rambler #4 – The Alpha Male, 13th April 2010
Virtual rambler #5 – General Elections, 3rd May 2010
Virtual rambler #6 – The Leisure Industry, 15th May 2010
Virtual rambler #7 – Guide to The World Cup, 15th June 2010
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