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The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths

por John Gray

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2751095,664 (3.71)1
"An exploration of the failures of reason in human life and the enduring role of myth in science, politics, and morality"--
Adicionado recentemente porbiblioteca privada, miopia, robertdavies, Tato-2023, jimsob8, icepatton, Zare, CalvinJames
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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. ( )
  Zare | Jan 23, 2024 |
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. ( )
  dcunning11235 | Aug 12, 2023 |
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. ( )
  hstone2 | Apr 21, 2021 |
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 ( )
  jonfaith | Feb 22, 2019 |
This one did not sing to me as clearly as Straw Dogs, but Gray has still written a challenging collection of thoughts that pulls the threads of modern progressive humanism. Gray has a wonderful voice, lightly mocking, intelligent and erudite.

This is probably a book I should read again, as it feels like I'd be able to pull more from it a second time around. Perhaps better might be to peruse some of Grays sources, all of which stray from the path of mainstream culture.

( )
  Beniaminus | Nov 1, 2017 |
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