THE TRAGIC NATURE OF MAN

 

THE TRAGIC NATURE OF MAN

Written by Konstantinos Konstantinidis Amphiktyon

 Man is dual. He consists of a body and a soul. In this respect he has a privileged position in the animal kingdom. How is it possible that two such dissimilar and incompatible elements, destined to torment each other, have been connected in an ephemeral marriage that ends with the final death of the body and the uncertain survival of the soul? A huge question that no one has given an explanation for, except for nature itself. These are two involuntary partners who are forced to live together and walk together in traps that one sets for the other. Most of the time the body is the winner, but sometimes it is sacrificed for the soul (self-sacrifice) When we fail to tame our brutal passions (laziness, gluttony, sensuality, violence, malice, devilry, rapacity, injustice, avarice, etc.) because we do not have the strength but the honesty to subdue them and we find it convenient to assume that our soul was defeated by temptation, fortified in our naturally wicked body. In this way we shift the responsibility from the wicked body to the soul which is burdened with the pangs of conscience, regrets and all sins. In this way, we shift the responsibility from our recklessness, our lack of will, our debauchery to a culprit of every moral derailment and we think that we have escaped the feelings of guilt that torment us forever and sicken us with time and the body, but more so they harm the soul. Thus we reach dead ends either to the detriment of our physical health, or we make our soul sick and this torments us, creates anxiety, pain, melancholy and pessimism. The culprit must always be an “other”, so it happens in the body, the other is separate from my soul and we blame all the wrongdoings on him. And we think that we have sorted it out. Um, no… We separated the soul from the body artificially but we are not finished. Our problem is within, the emotions, the guilt, the regrets and why not the illnesses that we caused. Victim and perpetrator at the same time ourselves. This madness is only expressed through poetry. It is the tragic nature of man. (29/4/25) * Amphiktyon Major General Konstantinos Konstantinidis Writer, Member of the Society of Greek Writers amphiktyon@gmail.com http://amphiktyon.blogspot.com/ http://amphiktyon.org Anyone who wishes to be deleted should return this with the indication “deletion” “in accordance with article 14 of law 2672/98