Kurginyan explains why Man has to ascend

30.12.2021, Moscow.

The age-old idea of Man as “a thinking beast” has always been opposed by optimism saying that Man can transform himself and ascend, said political scientist, philosopher and the leader of the Essence of Time movement Sergey Kurginyan on December 22 in his original broadcast The Meaning of the Game.

“What is Man in principle? He is a two-legged beast with mind, who upon an unbiased examination is terrible, because he is not regulated by instincts, and he does not kill just to have enough to eat, he kills endlessly,” Kurginyan explained the essence of his concept.

This beast is ravenous, and in his competition he develops “nuclear fangs, or bacteriological, viral, hypersonic, laser, and other varieties,” he noted. The only reason why Man develops these fangs is to destroy his own kind.

“This is a pessimistic assessment of  Man, either secular or religious, and it is based on the original sin or a similar concept” the political scientist explained. This age-old pessimistic assessment has been opposed by social optimism, on the one hand, and belief in the possibility of transforming Man, on the other hand.

“First, there was social optimism (be it Marx or Rousseau, it does not matter), according to which Man needed to return to an appropriate social environment, out of which he is disfigured and injured, and then Man would become beautiful and noble,” the philosopher outlined the basics of the optimistic view of Man.

The failure of the USSR demonstrated that this idea was naïve, Kurginyan believes. In addition to the disastrous role of the elite groups, which encouraged and pushed the USSR towards its failure, the entire population was involved. “In any event, we must acknowledge that it was the population that did this as it was seeking certain consumer goods, regardless whether they were illusory or not,” Kurginyan notes.

“This project collapsed, together with the idea that Man can become good if placed in good social environment. Thus, this Rousseauist-naive communist idea that appropriate social environment is the key to progress turned out to be false,” the political scientist continues. “Even Dostoevsky discussed this extensively in his books, that if you give Man this paradise, it will be destroyed and torn apart by what he has inside him.”

However, Sergey Kurginyan reminded, there was another idea, which “permitted the hope that this beast would not destroy humanity, and moreover, that he is the crown of creation, salvation, and cosmic outlook for humanity.” This was the idea that Man can change.

According to this idea, not only God can perform a transformation, but also Man on Earth. The idea was that “Man can ascend, to God for a religious person or to a new, improved Man for a secular person,” the philosopher believes.

This renewed Man is the one who will be able to create another kind of a society and social environment, which, he believes, “will provide new opportunities for this ascension and for encouraging Man to unleash and awaken his higher creative capabilities, to seek his cosmic ideal, his higher cosmic functions etc.”

It was this idea that was the truly communist, or Marxist, idea.

According to the philosopher, Man will either ascend and develop his creative capabilities or degrade to an extent when strict control over him will be declared necessary.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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