The Divine Spark of Genius
From pre-history to the present time through some mysterious life- process humans have given birth to that rarest of all creatures: the genius. Long preceding the advent Oriental thought and of Greece's golden age of the dawn of philosophical reasoning and beyond, there have surfaced those shining creatures, symbols of what human creativity and genius can aspire to.The alignment of the heavenly bodies in the night time sky - did they foretell the birth of artistic, scientific, philosophical genius? Or did Nature nurture such genius at a moment of supreme boredom - her idea of a practical joke played upon the as-yet-unaware sensibilities of an unappreciative world?
A genius of mind and soul of unprecedented proportions. Now you see it - now you don't. Allowed to ripen and thrive in the mortal time-span continuum of an all-too-brief human passage on this mortal coil. An immortal genius of singular wisdom, vision, ability and creativity. Nature's apt interpreter. As close to the divine as a mortal is permitted. A supreme achiever.
How early? We'll never really know, since human advances which have been set down for posterity through the discovery of the utility of the written word tell us much, but not what occurred before, when the discovery of fire and its colossal gift to mankind pre-dated written history, much as the discovery of early technology in the manufacture of rude hunting tools has an assumed history.
Mankind, rude as we are, has built our knowledge base, understanding of the world such as it is, and technological advances upon the bright genius of those who have brought us, step by painful-learning-step forward as a species - which has used our very geography and environment to cradle, shelter and support us in a way no other animals have been able to. In the process, needless to say, also doing great damage to our geography and our environment.
The quite interesting point of all of this is that mankind himself, his curiosity, adventurism, abilities, and brain power have not really changed. We are as we were; we were as we are today. The power of our imagination, our creative ability has not grown singularly; we have merely built upon the discoveries and the work that our predecessors pioneered. The "we" being those gifted few among us, drawing forward the great bulk of us in their wake.
There have been geniuses and there have also been the even rarer type of genius whose vision was so all-encompassing that, like Imhotep (2980 B.C.) who was able to master so many disciplines as to make him appear more than a mere mortal. He was a sage, a scribe, a priest, an architect, an astronomer, a physician; deified in Egypt, Greece and Rome. His work pre-dated that of the universally respected Hippocrates, father of Western medicine by two millenia.
These shining examples that transcend mere human existence would erupt into the world without warning, actually, many coming from humble stock - genetic diversity at play, perhaps, since the aristocracy was given more to intermarriage among others of high birth as a means of gaining greater power and wealth.
Greece's golden age of the dawn of philosphy was particularly rich in gifts to the world and we can thank Plato, Aristotle, Socrates for their insights built upon the surprising insights of earlier savants. Nature's rare, special gift to the world despite the impetuous, unruly humans she permits tenancy here.
Nature has a wicked sense of humour; her way of demonstrating to us how much closer we are to beastly unreason than sublime intelligence tells us so, creating as she does all too often human creatures that belong to the former group as opposed to the scant few who represent the latter.
She demonstrates for our feeble edification the heights humans can attain, what we should and perhaps even could aspire to, tempered, it would seem, with her contempt at what we manage to produce, instead. We are burdened with too-human emotions and failings of envy, suspicion, intolerance and a propensity to war.
Early lawgivers like Hammarabi, Draco and Solon gave expression to the need to conform to a set of agreed-upon legal ideals for the protection of society at large, and the individuals which made up those societies. Ironically, protection from our own worst proclivities as an unhomogenious whole.
The later philosophy of Moses Maimonades, Baruch Spinoza, Emanuel Kant, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes helped guide western thought to a finer understanding of humankind's place in the world, an emphasis on the nature of things, the requirement to become fair-minded, respectful of others, obedient to the laws of the land inscribed for universal protection of human rights.
History tells us of storied prophets, early geniuses such as Moses, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Mahommad, Confucius - enlightened beings who sought to inspire and to bring order and serenity to peoples' lives through the worship of an all-powerful, peaceful lawmaker a spirit who directed human behaviour. A spirit unseen, whose word was sacred and to be obeyed.
There were others who inspired fear and respect through their military exploits such as Ghenghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose genius was expressed through conquest.
The genius of artists of the calibre of Michelangelo Buonarroti gifted the world with expressive art of a nature not yet equalled. He struggled throughout his life and career with the mediocrity of small minds, reluctant patrons, miserly payments for his efforts, but through colossal will of purpose left the world some of its most important, touchstone artworks.
And then there is the greatest, most versatile genius the world has yet known - Leonardo da Vinci, for whom life was a continual travail of struggling to convince patrons of his superior talents, yet this man, academically unschooled, taught himself architecture, philosophy, musical performance, the inventions of warfare, of civil engineering, anatomy, technology, nature studies, to augment his natural genius in the arts of painting and sculpture unparalleled by any other renaissance mind.
There was the genius of born story-tellers, like William Shakespeare whose literary equal has never graced the world, whose plays resonate with a fine appreciation and understanding of human emotions and human failures in all their labyrinthine agonies and ecstasies.
There was the sublime music of Georg Frideric Handel, Johann Sebastien Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Ludvig van Beethoven, to whom music lovers the world over will remain eternally grateful for the manner in which their sublime music lifts our spirits, gives us hope, elevates our aspirations.
There are the geniuses represented by theoreticians such as Albert Einstein, able to picture in their mind's eye logical sequences and consequences that none of the rest of mankind could even conceive of. Charles Darwin helped us to understand the evolution of mankind; we are one race, but prefer to separate our streams into superior-inferior, one degrading the other.
Nature has her way of demonstrating to us how much closer we are to beastly unreason than sublime intelligence, creating all-too-often human monsters among our populations. It is their bold, unreasoning initiatives that compel us to war; we abide by their words and actions rather than embracing those of the elevated minds among us; our lost panoply of geniuses.
There were lesser mortals who aspired to genius and to whom the world will remain forever grateful for the progress that their discoveries, their intellectual resources, their artistic vision provided for the gradual advancement of mankind and society.
Mankind has built upon the great leaps of genius brought to bear by these distinguished, storied figures. Their discoveries and talents have advanced us in countless areas of human endeavour, but in the end we have failed in the most signal of ways: to become better human beings.
The rare geniuses among us have shared an uncommon vision denied all others. But their rarified vision has been unable to lift the rest of us from the common clay of the lowest common denominator. They performed their tasks upon this earth in a manner given to them by their genius, and by their example we could be inspired, are inspired, but in such an insipid way as to sink back into the morass of insignificance.
Little wonder that Leonardo da Vinci, viewing humankind from his exalted vision and talents became a reluctant critic and finally a full-fledged misanthrope. Samuel Clemens, with his inciseful insight into human nature described us well in his "Misanthrope".
Over the millenia nothing much has changed. We are still, as a learning species, heedless of genius, as we are of the misery of our history and the imposition of the human condition. While we continue to elevate and celebrate the mediocrity that it seems the great bulk of humanity represents, subscribes to, and celebrates.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 09, 2006
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