Clarissa's Blog

The entirety of human culture is the elevation of non-material aspects of being over the material ones. The capacity to experience these non-material factors more acutely than the material ones is what makes us human. Culture brings transcendence because we can transcend the materiality of existence. Culture happens when we add any other factors to the maintenance of bare life. A porcelain plate is not needed to maintain bare life. Neither are a painting or a book.

The capacity to enjoy the non-material aspects of life is, to a large extent, inborn. It is a function of a high IQ. It responds well to early exposure. It can be developed. Every time you create beauty for its own sake, you affirm the primacy of the non-material aspects over bare life. If you set the table beautifully, put a vase of flowers on the table, and arrange the place settings, you delay the ingestion of the food until the environment is organized and not chaotic. In this way, you affirm your mastery over the animal part of your nature. You affirm that you are human and have control over your instincts. Culture is a system of limitations that are willingly sought and imposed by the higher order of your self on the raging maw of desire that is the animal self.

Culture is always excessive. It’s by definition unnecessary to bare life. We don’t relieve ourselves in the streets. Instead, we have created toilets and we maintain them clean and pretty. Seeing a dirty toilet depresses us because it reminds us that bare life is there. It can escape from the civilizational constraints that we put on it.