In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

404 CODES COLLAPSED
Every freedom contains fatality, and even the blindest form of fatality
contains some freedom" (Riezler, 225).
The second version of the concept of Eternity has an existential, even
heroic aspect. It serves as a consolation for the feeling of insecurity and
homelessness arising from the impression that historical change is occurring
ever more rapidly. The Berliner Borsen-Zeitung offers the heroic
concept of Eternity to readers of its New Year's issue: "What we need
above all, in a time like ours, is a firm heart. But only a heart in which
the thought of eternity dwells can be firm ... Remember what you are,
how long you will be what you are-and what you will someday become!
Then your sorrows will seem trivial, your daily struggles and
sufferings will appear unimportant, and all of them will ultimately disappear
in the vast, deep ocean of eternity." With obvious irony, Thomas
Mann, in his story "Unordnung und fruhes Leid," attributes a similar
thought to the historian Professor Cornelius, who lives in a society that
is rife with tensions between Past and Present: "As he takes his usual
stroll along the river before dinner, the professor is sunk in thought. The
nature of timelessness and eternity, he says to himself, is akin to that of
the past. And it is much more compatible with the nervous system of a
history professor than are the excesses of the present. The past is immortalized,
meaning that it is dead. And death is the source of all godliness
and enduring meaning" (Mann, 498). [see Immanence = Transcendence
(Death)]
The third version is linked to mythology, and attracts mainly intellectuals
who live in areas of the cultural periphery that are associated with
the future. [see Authenticity vs. Artificiality, Center vs. Periphery] This
concept of Eternity expresses resistance to change, which becomes the
basis of a quasi-transcendental dignity. The desire for such dignity must
be why the student yearbook of Stanford University contains, along with
essays on the universities of Oxford, Paris, and Tokyo, a description of
the University of Cairo. This institution inspires respect precisely because
it deprives its students of all the elements of modern life that Stanford
students enjoy: "The Mohammedan parent desires for his son an education
which will secure him an honored place among the learned of his
own community, rather than one which will command success in the
modern professions or in official life. The Mohammedan scholar's lack
of scientific interest has greatly retarded the economic progress of his
people. The same wooden plow and the same primitive level which are