the human condition, a human strategy, aphorism 485

485 

The solution to the human condition and to the problems of the world as a whole, lies not with the perfection of a logical equation or judicial system, but with cultivating and passing down tastes and habits. When culture is seen as a goal and not as an inheritance that we take for granted, then perhaps we can begin to march toward progress rather than continue to retreat from disaster generation after generation. In the next great revolution, a new variation of our species will rip the pages from our law books and wave them before the world as the flags of blunder ... as the failures of our customs. This new species will, of course, be torn to pieces. Then a few others will see that laws do not matter much ... have never mattered much ... even as the evidence of blunder ... will see the lever jutting out of the darker half of the world, unmanned ... and forgetting the heap of books behind them, will grab hold and ...

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