2017-01-17

Человек есть существо ко всему привыкающее

Man is a creature that can get used to anything - so said Dostoevsky, and he documented that amply with specific examples in the House of the Dead.
Лидия Вележева, Идиот, 2003
These days, it seems as if the human species is in danger of losing its self-consciousness entirely amid a never-ending stream of self-administered electronic dopamine jolts transmitted from one mass hive to the next.  And we seem to be just fine with that - after all, as long as there is still ice left to melt, your drink stays cool, right?  Only one with the stubbornness of a Nastasya Filippovna -- one who can be self-directed along an independent path even at the risk of unreason -- has a chance of breaking out of those patterns.  As her example shows, however, there are costs and dangers to that path.




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