To paraphrase Woody Allen (whom, I hasten to add, BAP does not
quote), life wants what it wants. What does it want? At the upper
reaches, among the higher animals (BAP is relentlessly hierarchical),
what it wants is mastery of “owned space.” “Owned space” is the most
important concept introduced in Part One and the key to understanding
the rest of the “exhortation,” if not necessarily the rest of the book.
BAP argues that life, fundamentally, is a “struggle for space.” All life
seeks to develop its powers and master the surrounding matter and space
to the maximum extent possible. For the lower species, this simply
means mass reproduction and enlarging habitat. For the higher animals,
it means controlling terrain, dominating other species, dominating the
weaker specimens within your own species, getting first dibs on prey and
choice of mates, and so on. BAP sees no fundamental distinction between
living in harmony with nature and mastering nature. All animals seek to
master their environments to the extent that they can, and the nature
of man, or of man at his best—the highest man—is to seek to master
nature itself. Not in the Aristotelian sense of understanding the whole,
nor in the Baconian sense of “the relief of man’s estate” via
technology and plenty; more to assert and exert his own power. Indeed,
BAP posits an inner kinship between the genuine scientist and the
warrior; he calls the former “monsters of will.” ...
Early modernity actually offered the higher types vast opportunities to
explore and conquer new space. Thus bugdom is not caused or defined by
science and technology. To the contrary: science and tech at their best
can form a kind of frontier that allows for man’s higher motives to find
vent when and where space is constrained. For BAP, science in modern
times is, or should be, a manifestation of the will to conquer space.
Sheesh, ever heard of SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic? The highest men are already there, diligently working to master heaven itself.
Stop the preening and get with the program.
