Disliking Humanity

NOBLE BE MAN, COMPASSIONATE, AND GOOD, said Goethe, upliftingly. Hunanity, like New York, like the United States, is an entity bout which no matter what you say, it is probably true. AS I age, I become more cynical, and negative. Llike mark Twain said: "the more I learn about people, the more I like my dog". But I'm not unreasonable. It isn't unreasonable to identify organized mass violence (war), environmental destruction, unchecked greed and petty anger, collectively and individually, as dominant human characteristics, and to condemn them. Goethe helps. Goethe is considered to have been among the wisest, most intelligent, and greatest writers in european history, including Shakespeare. Bertolt Brecht spoke the truth in his autobiographical poem "Concerning Poor B.B.". "I make friends with people. And I wear a derby on my head as others do. I say: 'They are strangely stinking animals.' and I say 'No matter, I am too'"... Whether we choose to exist as humans, a debatable question, we exist as humans, which is not debatable. Such is our dilemma, whoever made the choice for us. Again, Goethe: "Is not life short enough? Should we not join hands with those who go our way"? Of course we should, at least to some extent. As Aristotle said: "Man is a social animal". We can no more live as true individuals than bumble bees or ants. That was easier to do when I was young. Then, it was easy to find many people going my way, largely because at a young age none of us had yet gone far, our paths had not yet diverged. The older I get, the more my path diverges from those with whom I shared my early life, the less I like human beings generally. Branches and lives diverge, inevitably. In american society, the best time to form friendhsips is in high school. After that, the brandhing out begins in earnest, and as we grow old, we often find outselved alone. I am finding the aloneness of senior citizenship to not be unpleasant. Its almost I have had my fair fill of people, and can look back in appreciation, while enjoying my encroaching solitude. having fewer frineds now seem almost inevitable, almost proper. As I age, I becomme more aggressive, fortunately wise enough to concceal it, and less tolerant, less likely to conceal of intolerance of racism, stupidity, and uncritical thinking, and what I consider rudeness and thoughtlessness. Above all I insist on speaking what the truth seem to me to be, for which I pay a heavy price. As Plato said: "Whoever speaks the truth is the most hated."