to a grand, triumphant aim, a human strategy, aphorism 481

481 

If everyone were found to walk exactly the same distance and to have exactly the same destination in life, then the manner of our travels would soon change. We would then compete with our styles of walking.

To be a decent human today is to be “equal,” to deny oneself the rank in society which one unconsciously craves. To be such an empty social animal is to ignore a hidden need, deceitfully comparing and contrasting, always with the intent to outdo one’s neighbor, with “deniability” ... and if one is able, one will continually change the object of the competition in order to surpass each and every companion in each and every context ... for to be consistent with one single object in life would be to resign the majority of experiences to defeat.

However, if one could sum up all of the aims, observe how the several vectors of the several social contexts collide and resolve all into a single concluding aim ... a direction and force in life too far removed from the senses to be observed except as reconstructed on a chalkboard ... would not this give one the vision with which to adjust each and every vector in the day to a grand, triumphant aim? ... would it not redeem the petty losses of petty contexts? But how does one keep this chalkboard in full view in each and every humiliating moment — in those contexts which are necessary, but beneath one — so that one does not veer off from the grand direction by reflexes which are all too natural to the species? This chalkboard itself is dependent upon solitude, and yet the experience is dependent upon the incidental conflicts with people.

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