The nature of man is to resist – this is his singularity.
At the animal level prey do not resist predators; the weak do not resist the strong, the timid the aggressive, and none resist the conditions of their environment. Their nature and physiology equip them for survival therein, and only man, in his unique realm resists. He resists the nature of his fellow creatures, he resists the nature of his environment, and he resists the nature of himself personally. Anyone of these would mark man as exceptional, but the latter moves his game into an entirely new league.
All that is observable on this planet and in this universe can be seen clearly as an all-inclusive, interlocked, intricate collection of parts working together complimentarily. Pushing, pulling, merging, dividing; and everything from electrons to quasars to elephants, has a permanent discernible nature by which it fits peacefully into its pertinent surroundings, (even if its nature be violent).
Put simplistically, life is like a gigantic living machine in which all parts are perfectly fitted to perform their particular function – except, (from man’s view), man. He does not speak of this matter in this direct manner, but indirectly is it the ever main course in his conversational meals.
Easy to realize is that most all of human speech and writing is some form of complaint: about physical conditions, about other people, or about oneself. This is no attack on man nor a mere accusation. An honest listen and look readily reveals this to be so. Cock ear or eye from Presidents to Popes; from Homer to Hollywood, and to all of everyday idle chatter and social conversation. You will not commonly find two sentences in a row bereft of a complaint.
A complaint is a resistance, a resistance to how-things-are. This is what distinguishes man from everything else in this universe, for we speak not of the automatic retreat of a slug from sunshine, or an electron’s repulsion of a proton. Man alone, from an outsider’s soundless perspective, resists things which have no observable existence, nor any discernible pertinence.
J.