Reading 4: The single greatest enemy of contemporary satisfaction may be the belief in human
perfectibility. We have been driven to collective rage through the apparently generous
yetin reality devastating idea that it might be within our natural remit to be
completely and enduringly happy.
For thousands of years, we knew better. We might have been superstitious and
credulous, but not without limit. All substantial endeavors—marriage, child-rearing, a
career, politics—were understood to be sources of distinctive and elaborate misery.
Buddhism described life itself as a vale of suffering; the Greeks insisted on the tragic
structure of every human project; Christianity interpreted each of us as being marked
by a divine curse.
First formulated by the philosopher St Augustine in the closing days of the
Roman empire, “original sin” generously insisted that humanity was intrinsically,
rather than accidentally flawed. We are broken creatures and have been since our
expulsion from Eden, damned—to use the resonant Latin phrase—by peccatum
originale. This should feel not like a punishing observation, but more like relief from
the pressures of 200 years of scientifically mandated faith in the possibility of
progress.
There can wisely be “no solutions”, no self-help, of a kind that removes
problems altogether. What we can aim for, at best, is consolation—a word tellingly
lacking in glamour. To believe in consolation means giving up on cures; it means
accepting that life is a hospice rather than a hospital, but one we'd like to render as
comfortable, as interesting and as kind as possible.
A philosophy of consolation directs us to two important salves: understanding
and companionship. Or grasping what our problem is—and knowing that we are not
alone with it. Understanding does not magically remove the pain but it has the power
to Teduce a Tange of secondary aggravations and fears. At least we know what is
racking us and why. Our worst fears are held in check, and tears may be turned into
bitter knowledge.
It helps immensely too to know that we are in company. Despite the upbeat tone
of society in general, there is solace in the discovery that everyone else is, in private,
of course as bewildered and regretful as we are. This is simply profound relief that we
are not the only ones.
【題組】38. Which of the following best describes the author's view toward the idea of
original sin?
(A) The author finds it bewildering.
(B) The author finds it farfetched.
(C) The author finds it progressive.
(D) The author finds it religious.
(E) The author finds it comforting.