by Jason Stotts
We are our choices. Every last one of them. We are both the chooser and the results of our choices. Every choice we make, and our reasons for doing so, become our character. We are, in the purest, truest sense, beings of self-made souls and it is up to create our lives in the image that we think is best. Homogenesis, the birth of Man, is the act of creating of yourself, and for yourself, the very best. It is transforming oneself into the moral ideal. It is never letting a moment of your life slip by, unnoticed, unheeded, unimportant. It is never taking your accomplishments for granted, of never devaluing today because it is not yet tomorrow, of never appreciating the good, because it is not yet good enough. Homogenesis is a process and a goal. It is not the birth of gods that we are after, but the birth of Man.
The momentum of a few men has driven history forward. Their voices echo throughout time and their words, still, are changing the course of human history. These men were not gods, but men dedicated to the perfection of their own souls, to living the kind of life of which they could be proud; these men were trying to be men. They stood for their beliefs and their unbreakable integrity resonates even now. Some of these men gave their lives for their beliefs, some of these men did something even more difficult: they lived their lives for their beliefs.
The goal of Homogenesis is moral perfection. It is the most radically selfish enterprise that one can ever engage in: the perfection of your own soul. It’s crown, pride, reflects the radiance of that state of existence open to those few who can achieve this purity of soul, this joyful exuberance for the kind of life that is its own sanction. These men do not ask why they should strive for perfection. No! But perhaps they do wonder what kind of person could want to do less. Perhaps they wonder what kind of person could look at himself in the mirror and face the tarnish on his own soul: the progression of poor choices stretching back behind him, tainting both his past and his future. Yet, perhaps they do not wonder about depravity and instead of concerning themselves with how men can fail, they concern themselves, instead, with how men can succeed.
How, you ask, have these men become giants of men? What makes them different from everyone else that gives them the special edge that helped them to overcome themselves? The resolute, unshakable, belief that they have one life to live and they are going to be the best that they can be. Their soul becomes its own justification, their mind becomes its own sanction, their will is pure and it strives for one thing: perfection.
These men, however, did not live lives according to their whim. They did not arbitrarily choose goals and they did not pursue mindlessness. Most were protected from corruption by their own purity of spirit. Unfortunately for us, the corruption spreads relentlessly and the bright light of the nobility of man is now weak.
The sun sits on the horizon: it is either daybreak or the fall of night. But the choice is ours. We do not have to let the sun set on the nobility of man. We do not have to let another dark age arrive to fanfare. It is within our power to stand up, to hold up our torches, and to rekindle the light of reason on earth.
It must be us, for there is no one else.
Yet, how?! How are we to turn back the tide of darkness, of irrationality? The light has been lost, darkness has overcome it. What is good and what is evil is a matter of opinion. There is no reality, save the private subjective reality of our experience. Reason has become impotent in the face of faith and can no longer fight.
The first step is to throw off this mental malaise and understand good and evil. The second is to become the path of our own perfection. The third is to begin to shine with the light of reason and serve as a beacon in the darkness. The fourth, and final, step is to rise up in righteous anger and restore light to the world, sweeping away the shadows. Yet, we must only rise if it is our wish to live in a world of light, our true goal must be our own moral perfection.
Each of us is born human, but we have to choose to be men.