People are nothing more than loving certain conditions and qualities. Reading Pascal, I feel this deeply.
On one side, there is loneliness and solitude, on the other side, there are people with various conditions and qualities. You are driven by loneliness and solitude to go to the crowd on the other side. If you meet someone you like, it must satisfy certain conditions and qualities. And people have their own preferences and beliefs. So here's the question: if the same conditions, qualities, preferences, and beliefs are applied to another person, would you still like that person? Do you like the person or the conditions, qualities, preferences, and beliefs? If their conditions, qualities, preferences, and beliefs change and become the kind you dislike, would you still like that person? I think in general, you wouldn't. You say that you definitely like the person, not the conditions and qualities. But the premise is that those conditions and qualities must be met. However, people change. If they become a different kind of person that you don't like, you won't care. So what you care about is not the person, but the framework in your mind. Within the framework, it doesn't matter. Beyond the framework, it's irrelevant. So what you love is not the person, but the framework in your mind. Therefore, you escape from loneliness and solitude, and search for the framework in the crowd. Do you feel lonely? Are you even more lonely now? Because even if you find it, you don't love people, you only love the framework. You say, no, I want to love people, not the framework. But what is a person? You first have to break the framework in your mind, which is actually a reflection of your self (positive or negative or from a certain perspective). You can't do it. You can't love real people, you are blocked by the framework, you can't even touch them. You can only love that framework, the image of the person in your mind, or in other words, you can only love an abstract person, not a specific person. If that's the case, what's the point of going into the crowd? So you think, maybe those people are like me, driven by loneliness and solitude, coming together, but even more lonely and lonely. But looking from the outside, there is no sign of loneliness and solitude. You hatefully think that they are deceiving themselves, but upon closer observation, it doesn't seem like they are deceiving themselves. They are really engaged, maybe they think differently from me, they think they love people, specific people, real people. Maybe some people can really do it.
Pascal:
What is the self?
A person looking out the window at passersby, if I pass by below the window, can I say that he is standing there specifically to see me? No, because he didn't specifically think of me as a person. But a person who loves someone because of their beauty, do they love them? No, because smallpox can destroy that person's beauty without killing them, so they no longer love them.
And if someone loves me because of my judgment, my memory, are they loving me? No, because I can lose those qualities without losing myself. So where is the self if it is neither in the body nor in the soul? These qualities will disappear, so they cannot constitute the self. But if not for these qualities, how can we love the body or the soul? Would we abstractly love the essence of a person's soul, regardless of the qualities within it? This is impossible and would be unjust. Therefore, we never love people, we only love qualities.
So let us no longer ridicule those who are respected because of their status and position, because when we love a person, it is only for those borrowed qualities.
Hannah Arendt:
In my life, I have never loved any nation, any collective - I don't love Germany, I don't love France, I don't love America, I don't love the working class, I don't love any of these. I only love my friends. The only love I know and believe in is love for people.
Ukrainian educator Sukhomlinsky:
It is easy to love all of humanity, but it is difficult to love one person.
Fyodor Dostoevsky:
Love specific people, don't love abstract people. Love life, don't love the meaning of life.