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The Funny Thing About Enlightenment
Most of the pains of our existence are cultural. Ask yourself where life hurts and you will see that it is not in your body and you will see life hurts in the spaces where it is not seen, where you are being denied, in your spaces of heartbreak, it hurts not to have the respect of your co-workers or your neighbors, your family and friends. You’ll see that deep down what moves us humans is that ancestral need to be recognized, which means that we are valued, that we consider our contribution to the group, and that it’s demonstrated it in their treatment of us…Because only in the space where one has presence, one is productive and one can live with satisfaction.”
— Humberto Maturana
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…it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
— Bertrand Russell
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