Once the demands of hunger are satisfied (and they are soon satisfied), then the vanity, the need - for it is a need - to make an impression and survive in others comes to the fore. Man tends to hand over his life for his purse, but he hands over his purse for his vanity. He is vain, for want of something better, even of his debilities or deficiencies, and is like a child who struts about with a bandaged finger in order to be noticed. And what is vanity but the longing to survive? The vainglorious man is in the same situation as the miser, who takes the means for the ends, and, forgetting the latter, pursues the means as an end, and goes no farther. Seeming-to-be, en route to being, finally forms our purpose. We need to have others believe we are superior to them in order to believe the same thing ourselves and to base upon this belief our faith in our own survival, or at least the survival of our fame.
Miguel de Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations
Aucun commentaire:
Publier un commentaire