The human spirit is dying. It has been diminished as time marches on, its strength sapped away by the most pernicious of causes. Adventure is dead, independence is dead, uniqueness as well. Society is now content with spiritless conformity, without meaning, without truth, never knowing beauty, never knowing passion, all but like the silent dead. Even those who profess to fight again this grey void know nothing, as the fight conformity with more conformity, pouring fuel on the growing greasy black flames of the spiritless. Indeed, they profess to non-conform through irony, adding yet more dissonance and ugliness to a world already marred by the loss of passion. Mankind has become the ultimate irony; passionless seekers of passion.
What has caused this great tragedy? Why has mankind lost the treasured attribute of passion? While there are many demons that have let loose the gates of Hell to sap the passion of mankind, the chief of them is modernism. Modernism has rejected the passion and beauty of romanticism, leaving nothing but a meaningless void that traps mankind, bound with the black ropes of nihilism and formlessness. Modernism demands pure industry, and neglects the natural beauty and grace of leisure in nature. It consumes, leaving behind a depressed shell of mankind, slaving meaninglessly into the grey fog which blinds them to the sky, wind, and earth with both gives and confirms life. Mankind has erected a formless concrete tower as its own tombstone, and a meaningless, shapeless blotch of paint on canvas as the drape on its coffin; both standing by waiting for the death-rattle of the human spirit to cease.
This destruction of the human spirit has not been without opposition, however. Postmodernism rose from the shadow to supplant modernism. But it turned out to be merely another imp, gleefully stabbing its trident into the heart of mankind's spirit, and drinking the blood of passion from the wounds. Postmodernism does not stop at pointing out the meaninglessness of life, but revels in it. It is the demon on the shoulder of mankind, chattering obscenities at beauty, and cowardliness at passion. Modernism built the door to nihilism, and postmodernism urges mankind forward through it to embrace meaninglessness. Even postmodernism's attempts to add meaning are anemic parodies of the beauty captured in pre-modern times. The beauty of the whole has been replaced by the chaos of the components, and mankind has taken note. Passion and pleasure, satisfaction and effort, and love and socialization have been separated, and people pursue the action without the underlying meaning. They notice not the beauty around them, just their nihilistic cage of their thoughtless pursuit of pleasure, built by modern thought, and locked by postmodern.
How can we fight this disaster? What can mankind do to dissolve this cage of meaninglessness? An appreciation of beauty must be restored. Look at the sky, the trees, the mountains, and note that there is still beauty in this world. Rather than be discouraged by adversity, let us recognize that hardship is merely a part of adventure, which we should desire, not dread. Know that pain passes into memory and fades to nothingness with time. And when you notice that your fellow man is caged, free him. Break the chains of meaninglessness without mercy, and show that life is beautiful, and passion increases its beauty. Explore, learn, and work to improve this earth. Then perhaps we can return to loving beauty instead of meaninglessness. Then the spirit of mankind can live once more.