János Salamon on mankind's escapism
24/01/2010

Mankind's biggest enemy is objective reality, which is very different from the reality people fabricate for themselves, writes philosopher János Salamon in the left-liberal weekly Magyar Narancs: "For centuries we have succumbed willingly to the illusion that the place where we live, the Earth, is the logistic centre of the Universe and that we enjoy a special status among living beings. ... We have clung stubbornly to this fairytale, this cosmological and theological fantasy, as if our very lives depended on it. ... If a living being ... comes face to face with its enemy it has two possibilities: to fight or flee. Every time we have encountered reality we human beings have automatically sought refuge in fairytales, fantasies and myths. In the end we decided to heed Kant's call to look our enemy in the face. ... But before reason looks into the face of reality it must straighten things out with itself."