Mrs. Lessing's view of recent politics is not everyone's. Her view of the future (inevitably brutish and painful) is that it is the present: that we are all hypnotized, awaiting cataclysms which we are in fact living through now; that we are now - as we run and read - in the process of a rapid evolution; that we are mutating fast but can't see it, the chief characteristic of our race being its inability to see what is under its nose; that historians and scientists, in their timid traditionalism, feed our fantasy view of ourselves - suppressing truths about the human condition, about madness, about sanity, about the essential nature of the mind.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Lessing argues that humanity is unaware of the rapid, chaotic evolution happening now, misled by traditional views.
- In plain terms
- We are changing fast but cannot see it because experts hide the truth about our nature.
- What can you take from it?
- Human perception fails to recognize immediate, drastic change.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What truths are we ignoring right now?
- How do we know if we are evolving?
Another view
The view is highly subjective and dismissive of scientific methodology.
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