Homo solitudis

What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” (Ellen Burstyn)

Man’s greatest chimera is not the achievement of happiness but the idea that he owns original thoughts. Tabula Rasa theory is a utopia. We come with a set of preconceived ideas and what we do for the rest of our days, is to live what is given to us. This is not fatalist determinism conveyed by some higher power I am talking about, but about sets of thinking patterns that we have to struggle with or obey to. We live with the illusion that we can and are allowed to reinvent the wheel. Dostoyevsky once said “there is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it”. Does mankind keep on repeating itself?

A friend of mine once told me that “when one has written enough original thought over a long period of time one can't help but become a cynic”. But again, what is original? The virtue of introducing new ideas? The power of being unconventional? Since when being unconventional come to mean original and not anarchic? Is then anarchy original? If freshness means originality how original is a cheese cake which is not made out of milk cheese but soy cheese? It is still cheesecake. There is nothing out there that is original, not even nature. Not even our emotions are original. Not even our genetic evolution is original. It is said that chimps share about 98% of their DNA with humans. Isn’t obvious that chimps have actually gone through more genetic change than us? Any human venture to discover or invent something new is pure rubbish. "There is nothing original in life except the moment one creates and shares with another one". That is our uniqueness. How we relate to people, how we vulgarly and sentimentally display our emotions, weaknesses and flaws. It is not our strength that makes us unique, it is our weakness.

Humans are not meant to live together. We are not meant to live in packs, as we are not wolves. Even if we gather ourselves in small social groups, and we like to think we can live in packs, the human is defined by solitude. We are self sufficient and meant to live in a solitude that is of our own making. Homo sociabilis is a utopia. We are homo solitudis and we are condemned to solitude as much as we are condemned to happiness. (2009)