humanizing the world 91human life when viewed from outside, in its cosmic context—
overshadow all that we are able to experience and accomplish within
our human realm? Or shall we succeed in preventing the meaningless-
ness of the world from undermining our ability to ground ourselves?
We can step back from the edge of the abyss and build a human
realm suffi cing to itself. In this realm, human beings create meaning,
albeit in a meaningless world. Th e power and authority of their produc-
tion of light can be all the greater by virtue of its contrast to the sur-
rounding darkness and of the consequent urgency and value of the
saving intervention. Only in this way can we rescue ourselves from the
absurdity of our condition.
Th e creation of meaning in a meaningless world is not, however, a
matter of mere speculative fabrication. It is not enough to spin out con-
soling stories about our position in the universe. In fact, such an activ-
ity forms no part of our rescue, the premise of which is to acknowledge
unfl inchingly the reality and the gravity of our situation. It is the secur-
ing and the improvement of what is human, not a changed description
of what is non- human, that can save us.
Th e aim is to ensure that society not be contaminated by the mean-
inglessness of the world, that it not operate under the sway of forces
and according to standards that make life among our fellows almost as
alien to our deepest concerns as is nature to the shared experience of
humanity. If this inner line of defense fails, all is lost. If we can hold the
enemy, of life- shadowing meaninglessness, at bay, in the zone between
an indefensible outer line and an indispensable inner line, we can go
forward. We have reason to hope.
In the transformation of the human world, we must succeed in pre-
venting force and guile from overtaking cooperation and solidarity. At
any moment a struggle may break out over the terms of social life— the
terms on which people lay claims to one another’s loyalty and labor and
to the resources produced, or made useful, by labor. Th is struggle may
be accompanied by war among states or societies.
Any social and cultural order amounts to a temporary halt in this
practical and visionary fi ghting. However, if that is all it is— an uncon-
ditional surrender of the defeated to the triumphant, the order will not
be stable because it will not be legitimate in the eyes of either the losers
or the winners. Its arrangements will not be susceptible to being read as