Human, All Too Human, Part 33 summary
Part 33 of 152 · 3 min to read the part
In 33, the speaker argues that belief in life's worth depends on faulty thinking, whether people focus on exceptional individuals, generous impulses, or themselves. Imagining full sympathy with humanity turns this belief into despair over its lack of purpose, though poets possess a means of consoling themselves.
What happens
- The speaker claims that faulty thinking supports every belief in life's worth and limits sympathy for humanity's suffering.
- Exceptional thinkers preserve this belief by concentrating on gifted people or less selfish impulses while overlooking the rest.
- Most people accept life because their own concerns outweigh the world and their imagination barely reaches other people's suffering.
- Complete sympathy with humanity would produce despair because humanity as a whole lacks a goal.
- The speaker compares humanity's wasted activity to scattered leaves and identifies poets as capable of this feeling and of self-consolation.
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Why do most people accept life's worth, according to the speaker?
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