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William P. Krier
Professor David Stubblefield
English 2120
19 September 2014

What defines the limitations to human civilization? The emphasis on human denotes
humanitys emphasis on itself. But, dont all organisms necessitate such a tendency to survive
and thrive to advance its species? Though, it is the appearance that humans are self-aware that
this tendency is exaggerated. Self-awareness produces a controllable progression manipulable by
its manifold of paradoxically derived attributes such as: altruism and egotism, curiosity and
temptation, courage and doubt, loyalty and dishonor, etc. What manifests from this spectrum of
contradictions are fluctuating comforts and discomforts in society. Now, in contrast, the
progression of the lesser animals is not self-controllable, they appear unknowingly well-
oriented in the natural flow of the universethe initial state of existencewith conflicts strived
to overcome. It may take prolonged meditations to realize that the innate exaggerated tendencies
humans have to progress is an obsessed illusion of a self-imposition of intellectual obstacles
through consciousness by the natural flow explaining social conflicts, yet the same innate
exaggerated tendencies can also give self-awareness an optional-imposition through
consciousness, called free-will, to elude the relationships between humanity and its limits
through movements of confession, enlightenment, or self-mastery. What to be discussed is how
these self-impositions create civilizations limitssuch as violence, institutionalism, and
perceptionand how free-will makes the important realizations and solutions using examples
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from historical works of world literature, namely: Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Platos Cave,
The Analects by Confucius, and Augustines Confessions.
Violence acts as a natural condition of humanity or as a reactive resultant from a natural
condition. Original sin is a well-known concept in Christianity and was mentioned as a grieving
of flesh in Augustines Confessions (Damrosch 865-6). This is interesting first for that humans
have a self-imposed discomfort of preceding evils attached to them; meaning the presence of
consciousness gives them the idea of the past and what is to come in the future from the past,
creating a range of conflicting emotions determined by the circumstance. An example of this
took form in Oedipus the King, where Oedipus flees from a fearful future only to learn of his
dreadful past. The second interest in original sin is that his infirm flesh around his swollen feet
symbolizes an imbalance toward eventual grief. Free-will in this example is usually discussed by
analysts concerning Oedipus own decisions to commit his crimes while blinded by tempted
rage. Whereas free-will was performed just as well in his present moments of realization and
solution when Oedipus decided to blind and banish himself when he was blinded of truth no
morean act of true moral progression (Damrosch 536). Secondly, original sin originates from
humanitys error with wanting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of God, an emotion of desire
and mimicry. Rene Girard, in his essay of the scapegoat, explains how society develops a
common desire to minimize survival effort which builds mimetic tension of homogeneity, and
when differentiation is violated society must persecute a scapegoat to purge the stress to retain a
temporary equilibrium of relief (Girard 24). These forms of violence limit progress because they
are cyclic, constant, and solutions are either scarce or hasty. A progressive remediation may
require a more active understanding of natural conditions rather than reactivity toward
uncomfortable ones.
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Two major forms of institutionalism surface in each culture: religion and education. Both
are extreme constructions of self-imposition onto the individuals of a society. From youth only
innocence is known then cultural foundations are engrained to become all what is to know and
accept. Symbolic blindness and darkness found in Oedipus and Platos Cave represent the
limited range of perceptive due to a boundary feared to cross. Plato describes how optical
perceptions alone serve as an analogy to the illusionary realities humans face every day among
human interactions, cultural customs, knowledge base learning, and nature itself. He shows how
the light from the darkness pacifies from achieving understanding, not dependent learning. But it
is comfort and enjoyment in the belief a false superiority that fetters us in the cave and keeps us
from attempting. So, courage and action will eventually lead to enlightenment. However, in
Platos Cave, education must be enforced and tutelage could be dangerous, but realization could
be miraculously wonderful (Hamilton 747-50). Conflict will not give realization only harmony
will. Harmony with community can be found through the Way, as discussed in The Analects
where Confucius describes like in 2.14 where gentlemen must follow the Way and be broad not
trivial (Damrosch 670). This is how cultural systems get established. Confucius preaches an
extension of filial piety resulting in hierarchy whereas Plato calls for Philosopher-Kings to rule,
establish the conformations of their societies, and to prevent conflict. Another important self-
imposed institution is the politicthose who control the controllable progression mentioned in
the introduction. But again, with dependence on enforcement or ritual by others, self-mastery is
not achieved and a self-imposed barrier of a truer reality diverges, limiting civilizations from any
further capabilities.
This can be related to contemporary issues as well. Wars occur because of differences in
the perceptions of realityrealities that are self-imposed to homogenize a social system that is
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designed or evolved to maintain order. Random crimes occur when the higher officials persecute
those who corrupt that order based on their guidelines only. But free willthe other half of the
innate tendencies humans adapted to have in order to surviveis not ordered, its a random
distribution of options called freedom of dignity. The universe tends toward increasing entropy,
or disorder, and thus free-will is the natural flow, not determinism. Free-will developed from
self-awareness, and a universe flowing with free-will from self-awareness could resemble a God
or whatever a religion calls their divine figure. Augustine discusses what God may be: an
overflow of lifea force of tendencies to survive, including free-willencompassing everything
entirely (Damrosch 849-53). This is similar to views of the New Age which has taken a foothold
in many communities today. This goes full circle here though because complete chaos is unstable
socially, economically, politically, and morally. That is why there will always be limitations to a
civilization seeking progression. A community can respect each other, have peaceful gatherings,
and never need to purge; though because nature has its own obstacles, despite any defeat of
human obstacles, and survival is the natural tendency, the two will always conflictthat is what
keeps everything in motion.








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Works Cited

Damrosch, David. "Augustine: Confessions." Longman anthology of world literature + new
myliteraturelab: compact edition.. S.l.: Longman, 2013. 846-879. Print.
Damrosch, David. "Confucius: The Analects." Longman anthology of world literature + new
myliteraturelab: compact edition.. S.l.: Longman, 2013. 667-681. Print.
Damrosch, David. "Sophocles: Oedipus the King." Longman anthology of world literature +
new myliteraturelab: compact edition.. S.l.: Longman, 2013. 500-538. Print.
Girard, en hat is a yth The Scapegoat. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1986. 24-31. pdf.
Hamilton, Edith, and Huntington Cairns. epublic VII Plato: Collected dialogues of Plato.
Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Random House, 1963. 747-752. pdf.