Ouch

Yevgenii traveled to some pretty dark places in his 'tragic sense of life' post. Not only did he emulate the first principle of Buddhism, but he also stated that the majority of the human race is both ignorant and vile! He believes most of us are wasting are breaths on this planet and are greatest accomplishment will be dying! This is a bleak outlook, but exactly what Professor Sexson is wanting from us. He wants us to see the world as half-full; he wants to see our lives as a sickness from which we can never recover. From the day we wake up in a state of ignorance, we are opening up a fresh wound that festers throughout our lifetime. No matter how hard we try to put bandages over it or seek ways to overcome our wound, it continues to rot away at our flesh. It's stench is so foul, it smothers any joy that might be left in the world.

And if you think that's dark, it's about to get a lot worse.

I reread the 'Rebellion' section in the Brother's K and was still shocked by the brutality of Ivan's descriptions a second time around. Ivan sees and feels empathy towards those who are suffering, but ultimately is still confused and frustrated with God's plan. Ivan states, "I understand nothing...I don't want to understand anything now. I want to stick to the facts. I made up my mind long ago not to understand." He sees the suffering in the world and is so repelled by it, he can not bear it any longer. No one from the church, including Alyosha, can answer his questions so he can only fall back on 'facts', otherwise known as science. I can easily see where Ivan is coming from. He has the right to be outraged by these blaring hypocrisies of religion. He goes on to say, "And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for the truth, than I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. I don't want the mother to embrace the oppressor who threw her son to the dogs! She dare not forgive him!" Ivan's basically saying he doesn't want to live in a world where such retched sacrifices take place. He sees it as an unfair price to the innocent suffered. And I agree with him. The best answer Christianity can come up with to answer Ivan's questions is: God works in mysterious ways. That is not an answer, but a cop-out. Priests and pastors simply don't have all the answers to life's questions. Some people accept this and still keep their faith in God. Others hope for the best and hope their luck lasts long. Because in the end, dying has a lot to do with luck. People of Jewish faith living in Nazi-occupied Europe: unlucky. The residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: unlucky. The residents of Kokura (the town that was supposed to be nuked instead of Nagasaki) were lucky because it happened to be cloudy that day. Why did the entire town of Nagasaki deserve to die and not Kokura? Why couldn't God have put cloud-cover over Hiroshima and Nagasaki too? If you think you know the answers, you're either wrong or you'll provide an answer that boils down to sheer luck.

And that's the world Ivan would live in over a world that has mass human sacrifices for the greater good. Even if one life was spared for perfect harmony, Ivan still recognized the grotesque acceptance that went along with it. He would rather give life up to a game of chance.

And if you're like Mr. Sexson, that game is probably Black Jack where the house always wins. Get ready for a lifetime of suffering.