A Lesson from the Underground

"Merciful Heavens!

But what do I care for the laws of nature and arithmetic, when, for some reason I dislike those laws and the fact that twice two makes four?

Of course I cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it, if I really have not the strength to knock it down, but I am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and I have not the strength."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Notes from the Underground)

This is one of my favorite passages from literature. It encapsulates all human ingenuity, resolve and strength into a single expression of protest.

It reveals the only path forward within the human experience; anything less leaves us mired in failed efforts, calcified by the most offensive phrase in the English language... "It is, what it is."

Spoken by a character in Dostoyevsky's novel, the passage above reveals the tension between what is, and what ought to be, as it exists in every man's life.

Fate versus Free Will, the inexorable march of the calendar versus remaining forever young at heart. The mundane opposing the miraculous.

Demanding more from life than others would give you from it. Choosing, rather than letting choices define you. Error? Choose again! Success? Perhaps failure would be a better teacher? Only an individual knows, and that only for himself.

Dostoyevsky's character knows well the burden of an overbearing state - he has chosen a life underground to avoid the weight of it. The entire novella was written to put the lie to the idea of man's perfectibility, through science, reason and, ultimately, coercion.

Dostoyevsky railed against the then-emerging concept of Progressivism, the same farcical notion animating the Left today.

He further explains -

"Man, everywhere and at all times, whoever he may be, has preferred to act as he chose and not in the least as his reason and advantage dictated.

And one may choose what is contrary to one's own interests, and sometimes one positively ought. One's own free unfettered choice, one's own caprice, however wild it may be, one's own fancy worked up at times to frenzy – is that very "most advantageous advantage" which we have overlooked, which comes under no classification and against which all systems and theories are continually being shattered to atoms.

What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice."

He goes on to describe a man given everything he needs, so he has nothing to do but "sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species," will invariably rebel against that circumstance, even to his own detriment. He will make a mistake just to have something all his own, even if it's a mistake, it's at least his.

In the end, he resolves the question by declaring the inevitable consequence of Progressivism, the loss of free will, and with it, the spark of humanity.

"And why do we fuss and fume sometimes? Why are we perverse and ask for something else? We don't know what ourselves. It would be the worse for us if our petulant prayers were answered.

Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our activity, relax the control and we... yes, I assure you... we should be begging to be under control again at once.”

This, the voluntary surrender of independent thought and freedom of choice is the inexorable result of "reconciling oneself to the wall."

Dostoyevsky stared utilitarianism in the face and slapped it hard. He exposed and mocked the scientism of his time, the idea that through formulae and study, mankind could be "solved" like a puzzle, leading to perfection.

He drew battle lines nearly 160 years ago that still stand today. There are no "gray areas" between the Progressive mindset and the rest of us. To embrace the one annihilates the other. He declared, that even if such perfection could be attained, the cost would be too great to the perfected human, making him no longer human at all, but rather "an organ stop. *"

*(an organ stop closes off the air to a particular pipe in a pipe organ. It's either open or closed, the most rudimentary of tools.)

The opening quote was preceded by this statement -

"Upon my word, they will shout at you, it is no use protesting: it is a case of twice two makes four! Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions. A wall, you see, is a wall... and so on, and so on."

In the end, with all his arguments made, his positions taken and examined, the Underground Man recognizes the implacability of those with whom he argues, who, despite his eloquent defense of Free Will, nonetheless demand he follow their formula, and act as they direct.

He responds, as all free individuals must...

"'I'll go this minute!'

Of course, I remained."