Give me chastity and continence, but not just now

Youth is a wonderful part of life. Wisdom is budding, but temptation is flowering. Lucretius is unknown or far away. Something deep in us may stir and whisper "give me chastity and continence". But our hormones are shouting: "no, no, not just now; because just now I desire sparkling wine, wild women, good fights, victory and power!" What is true of the individual seems equally true for society. To judge from its wild behavior, mankind as a whole is still in its "foolish youth", as Villon called it. Drugs, porn, violence, dollar billions and power still dominate the lives of both individuals and societies. In the 20th century, more people died by violence than in any earlier century. The most commonly searched word on the internet is "pornography". Most computers are used for weapons and games of violence. Why are we still driven, like primitive predators, by our hormones? May it be because mankind is little more than the sum of tens of thousands of generations, each one with an average life span of less than thirty years? Each one dying while still in its "foolish youth"? Remember that it is only in the last two centuries that many people have lived long enough to summarize a life's experience into some wisdom. Even today, most people who have left behind the boiling hormonal years rarely get time to think about the profound. If they are decently clever, most of them fall for the temptation to enter some huge organization, political party or company, foregoing their cerebral capacities into a blind competitive process. Thus it can be feared that while a few individuals, after many years, may reach some "chastity

and continence", mankind may never do so. Augustine himself became one of the most learned men of his time once he finally understood the merits of studies. What are they? Studies usually give more money. That is a vulgar reason. More important, studies help you appreciate living. The origin of life is a miracle (p. 00). So is the evolution of the first bacteria into the somewhat inflated one we call man. Segment by segment has been added to the DNA-spirals, neuron by neuron to the brains. This process is about as likely as if a very strong hurricane passed through a very big junk-yard, throwing around the pieces in such a way that, when the cyclone had passed away, the pieces had formed a ready-to-take-off Boeing airplane! The miracle of evolution is, as miracles usually are, a most unlikely process. Nevertheless, it has happened! Studying also gives value to these two miracles of life. Nobody has expressed this better than Socrates. To his somewhat moronic judges, he tried to explain: "And if I were to tell you that there can be no greater good for man than to discourse daily about virtue and about those other things you hear me discuss, examining myself and others - for the unexamined life is not worth living by man - you will believe me even less." One who came to understand this, but too late, was one of our most libidinous libertines, Francois Villon.