And what of this man? Did his hard work and effort help him achieve anything? Certainly, he achieved something and that can be argued to be in the province of "anything", but I hazard to guess he might have issue with Antoine Griezmann's quote.
Don't get me wrong, I admire this man a great deal. I see many like him, moving about the streets of Kunming in search of plastic, paper and cardboard - materials of value for them. I marvel at their fortitude. This is the drive for survival at its core, at times shocking, at other times frightening.
In this time of Trump and the oncoming destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, he is a breath of fresh air. A simple minded existence, bone crushing in its searing glow of reality, that has a subtle taste of poetry in it. I wish thee well and good fortune in your pursuit of plastic wealth, my good man.
The Search For Self In The Matrix Of Social Governance
This is the journey. This is the crux of the problem. This is what drives the engines of productivity. It hides behind the obvious reasons such as, "The will to power", "The instinct of survival", and "The need to procreate". These are, of course, central when one tries to explain who we are, but, in the end, it is the search for "I" in the rubble of "we" that truly defines us.
I have travelled half way around the world in the pursuit of an answer. I have hidden from the shadows of the West, in the shadows of the East, because I feel that a cocktail of thesis and antithesis is the only drink worthy of intoxicating the mind enough to find a clearer vision. It hasn't yet produced the desired effect, but it has prompted movement within my slumber, providing glimpses of what may be a slice of truth. I am quite aware that it is more likely another mirage in the existential desert that one must traverse in order to find a semblance of meaning, and while I am most likely to end up in a contorted heap, this is the price of admission. Besides, what else is there?
In the foreseeable future, I am going to try and explain the human predicament in the opposing mirrors of China and North America. It may turn out to be futile, but it might prove useful to those willing to listen, those who realize that life is a search for more than just the usual trinkets offered by society.