Sunday, February 17, 2008
Character of Man
at 10:45 PM
Man has a nature as a cultural being (madaniyyun bi atthob`i) and as social being (ijtima`iyyun bi atthob`i). As a cultural being, man has various concepts, ideas, and beliefs he adopts which in turn will guide him in fulfilling necessaries in his life. Man has concepts on beauty, honour, greatness, and humility. As a cultural being, man is also knows theoretical values, economical values, religious values, power values, and solidarity values; the dominant value of which on a person will also determine whether he or she will become a scientist, economist, religious teacher (ulama or priest), artist, politician, or humanist. Furthermore, there are also mystical scientist, struggler-politician, rational ulama, corrupt human rights activist, philosophical artist, and repressive ruler. A highly-civilized person would feel humiliated if he gained success by making others suffer or if he gained victory by deceiving others.
Meanwhile, a lowly civilized person will be proud that he is able to deceive others, the government, and the society as a whole. According to a lowly civilized person, success is the main goal and the means is merely a technical matter, not a value, while for a highly civilized person, success relying on valueless means is a failure.
Man as a social being has a desire to cooperate and compete at the same time. Man realizes his weaknesses so that he wants to cooperate with other men to achieve common goals faster. Man, however, is also unique; every person is himself or herself, having mind, feeling, and will different from those of others. Therefore, while in cooperation a person may be sincerely cooperating for common goals, while another person may be unique, having his own agenda, wanting to achieve his own goals, beyond the common goals. People having their own agenda will compete with each other, sometimes fairly but often unfairly. The temptation to compete unfairly will stronger mainly in political and business competitions. A lot of people do things humiliating his dignity as a human being for their political and business goal.
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