The Experience of Existence

A short piece from a collection of arguments I am currently writing and will finish sometime when I'm old. Its not the best one of the lot... but I like it nontheless...

The Experience of Existence

In the human mind, the area of experience—that is to say, who gains it more easily—is one of the most simple, yet odd of recesses of the brain to explain. It would almost seem that experience can only be understood by a mind so fresh, so brilliant, so virgin to the world that it is the mind of a simpleton. “Come now,” I can almost hear you say, “How could that be so?” Please sir, stay, let me explain myself more fully.
The simpleton mind is more able to easily understand the entity of experience because he accepts “facts” without a second thought. He is a man whom, upon learning that two added to itself makes four, would accept it as any child would. Therefore, once he faces adversity, he will undoubtedly accept the experience that it brings and move on (his addled brain not yet functional enough to believe otherwise.) In that respect, he is superior to what I will now call, “the conscious man.” That does not mean that he is smarter then him though.
The conscious man is more aware of his surroundings and, coincidentally, he is therefore less able to accept experience because of it. He is a man who, upon learning that something is stated as fact, will question as to why it is so. ‘Does twice two really make four? How is it so?’ That is what he will ask himself upon hearing such and such things. Only once he observes something from every possible angle and scenario will he be able to accept and learn from it. Therefore, he will undoubtedly take longer to learn from adversity unlike his fallow friend the simpleton. In this he is inferior to the simpleton because he takes longer to accept something. In this is found the oddity, sir, but the simpleton is still dumb!
I do not believe that someone can be made to learn from the mistakes of others. I believe that the very concept can only be achieved by Donkeys and fools! If one were to be made to learn from the mistakes of others, then the life he would live would not be his own. A man can sit all his life and watch a game in the arena but, until he gets off the grandstand though, he will never be a gladiator. The same is of a man that learns from the mistakes of others. “Do not touch the stove, it is hot.” But is the stove really hot? Does the fire really burn? Until one touches the flame he will never really know, will he?
“Oh but of course the stove is hot. Any fool will be able to tell you that.” Aha, see! It is in there that you are wrong, it is in there that lays the divine absurdity. The simpleton does not really know if the stove is hot at all. He only believes it to be so because he was told it was, or he saw someone suffer for it. Therefore, he is but a foolish bystander in the play of life and not the actor he ought to be. He will never truly know if the stove is truly hot unless he touches it and, in that circumstance, becomes an active conscious man, knowing both good and evil.
If he does not though, he never would have experience it. He will never have known if the stove is truly hot or cold and will not be able to truly decide until he tries it. The simpleton will pass his life as a simpleton—always depending on others to experience life for him and tell him what sensations he is to feel. He will only truly know that the stove is hot and that twice two is four but will realize—above all—nothing!
The conscious man is a knowing man and will never be able to learn from the mistakes of others. He will wonder if the stove is truly hot and, after finding it is such, he will begin to wonder if touching it in a different area will produce the same results. Oh the absurd genius of the conscious man! He will begin to experience everything and miss nothing. His mind will morph the boundaries of existence through what he knows and has felt, and bring to new heights every sensation of reality. He will not have been just the gladiator or the spectator, but will be both one and the same. He will be the entire arena! He will not exist long.
The simpleton will always exist longer then his conscious fellow. The strain upon the conscious mans mind through experiencing everything will kill him off eventually. However, can one call a life where one drifts in the shadow-zones of time—knowing neither good, nor evil, but rather nothing at all—life? The simpleton may accept experience easier and last longer, but he does not truly feel. The conscious man will not last long but it is he who feels through first-hand knowledge and, as such, is the only one who can say that he truly lives.