Varto, Juha
A Dance with the World
100178
In the 20th century, individuals were random beings that only blocked the debate on progress. Progress became a main part of the agenda, growing from the evil seeds of the Enlightenment. Progress requires wider perspectives: philosophers declared what is universal. Great men knew how to exploit progress: others should give away their lives and their happiness for something greater, nobler and more general. To forget that you are a singular individual became a virtue. Dostoyevsky remarked that “the progress is not worth a single tear of a child”. So many tears were shed that it is a wonder that the world was not washed away in them. But the tears of singular human beings never form a tidal wave. The author dives into the unspoken sources of human singularity: the experience, body and flesh. A dance with the world becomes more important than progress, or “common good”. We simply don’t know enough to deny the value of the wisdom that appears in unique situations of life.