From: Tristich-AT-aol.com
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 09:46:03 EDT
Subject: Three attributes? Rather, two lies and one declaration of faith.


Engineer-man writes:

> Good post. I'd like to start with all animals move freely in space, as
>  oppossed to plants, and thus have will and will to power. What is the human
>  will to power? The following three attributes stand out:
>  
>  1. The will to power of a prey species is an altogether different form from
>  that of the predator. The prey is defensive, the predator constantly seizes
>  the initiative and is on the offense wherein lies his greatest chance for
>  victory. This is the will to power of the blood, the born predator.

Lie Number One.  [The predator is an opportunist. Since the threat of injury
is the greatest threat he faces, the predator always looks for the easy prey,
the best being already dead. The predator does not care about victory, he only
wants his tummy full and hopefully no torn ligaments or broken legs. The
predator does not choose his path, he just follows the chuck wagon.]

>  2. Humans, unlike any other species, are creators. That is, on an
individual
>  basis we create our own technics for living. This is the essense of our
>  being human and this form of our expression of our will to power is
>  responsible for all our "every art and science".
>  However, this also creates the tragic human condition of attempting to live
>  outside of Nature. It is a pitiless struggle and in the end Nature proves
>  the stronger.

Declaration of Faith. [We have faith that this is so. We want to believe that
we have free will. We constantly look for some defining characteristic that
makes us human and them animals. But with every defining characteristic, we
learn again that it is just a matter of degree, that oppositions are
illusory.]

>  3. The first stage of man, when we were solitary predators with a
>  male/female pair bond possessing a territory with a den site and created
the
>  weapon technology which allowed this lifestyle, could be considered The Age
>  of the Hand. Here the mind created the technology and the technics of use
>  with the partnership of that most astounding of Nature's appendages, the
>  hand, the human organ of touch. Here we see the will to power of the
>  intellect. But underneath this surface, and driving it, is the will to
power
>  of the blood, the born predator.
>  
>  John T. Duryea

Lie Number Two. [Humankind were never solitary predators, but in the earliest
stages were always cooperative food gatherers who, when lucky, supplemented
their diet with a little animal protein. The male/female pair bond was not
until much later the possessor and defender of territory -- after agricultural
technologies were developed that changed economies of scale (it certainly did
not pertain to hunting territory), and after social innovations that permitted
the male/female pair bond to depend on the others to defend their territory
for them.]

Fritz


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