Humans’ historic denial of the issue of the human condition

Tragically, unable to explain and thus resolve this deepest of dilemmas of the human condition, humans had no choice other than to live in denial of the whole issue. While they lacked understanding of the human condition, denying it—extremely dishonest, false and, as we will see, limiting a response as that was—was their only sensible means of coping with it. The truly extraordinary aspect of humans, and a measure of their immense bravery, is that they have managed to keep a bright and optimistic countenance despite the awful realities Page 34 of
Print Edition of their circumstances. The courage to live in denial, despite the dishonesty of this behaviour and the extremely artificial and superficial existence it left humans with, has been the very essence of our species’ immense bravery. Humans may be the most alienated species in the universe but they must also be among the bravest.

Humanity’s historic denial of the issue of the human condition began when consciousness first emerged from the instinct-dominated state some 2 million years ago and has been reinforced ever since. (The emergence of the dilemma of the human condition with the emergence of consciousness in our human ancestors, and our resulting departure from the fabled Garden of Eden where humans lived instinctively in a state of cooperation in the so-called ‘Golden Age’, is summarised in the early part of the Plato essay, the first essay of this book, and is comprehensively explained in Beyond.) As a result of having practiced the denial of the issue of the human condition for so long, humans now live in a state of almost complete denial of the issue, to the point effectively of being unaware of it at a conscious level. The issue of the human condition is now deeply buried; a part of humans’ subconscious awareness.

Common to all the human race at a subliminal, subconscious level is an immense insecurity, a deep sense of guilt about being divisively behaved.

On the face of it, to be told there is a crux, fundamental, all-important issue facing humans that they are currently not consciously aware of must seem absurd. It is not easy to accept that there is an ‘elephant in the living room’ that people have lived in such denial of that they are no longer aware of its existence. While this situation may sound unbelievable at first, the mental process involved is no different to that which takes place in the minds of, for example, incest victims who, after finding they cannot comprehend such violation, realise that their only means of coping is to block out any memory of it. ‘Repressed memory’, living in denial of an issue, is a common occurrence. In fact blocking thoughts from our mind has been one of humans’ most powerful coping devices.