Statement 21

Hans-Georg Gadamer, writing in the mid-1960s, desperately tried to find something to hold on to in the nuclear age when the core idea of humanity was being threatened. Something to steady ourselves as we move to the uncertain future. “Birth, life, youth, age, native, foreign, determination and freedom. . . . They have measured out what man can plan and what they can achieve.” It is an interesting thought, noble for sure, leading supposedly naturally from biology to nation to ideals, but still struggling to link the body with the geo-political premise that Man is tied to some things and yet somehow magically free to seek freedom itself. In today’s world, one might be tempted to underline those words. In a world flattened/bloated by globalization, social networks, instant commerce, and Wiland Services, we can no longer focus on the great “measure” of human life. That is for sure. [Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Notes on Planning for the Future,” Daedalus 95/ 2 (Spring 1966): 572-589, 589.]