Harold Bloom on Resurrection

There is only one doctrine which demands not separation but reunification, which sets no artificial aims but one common task for all⁠—the doctrine of kinship… Only this doctrine can provide a solution to the problem of the individual and the masses. Union does not absorb but exalts each individual, while the differences between individuals strengthen unity, which consists in (1) the realization by every person that he is a son, grandson, great-grandson or descendant, that is, a son of all the deceased fathers and not a vagrant in the crowd, devoid of kith and kin ; and (2) the recognition by each and everyone, together and not in disunity as in a mob, of one’s duty to the deceased fathers . . .

It seems certain that we do not feel comfortable in our presentday civilization, but it is very difficult to form an opinion whether and in what degree men of an earlier age felt happier and what part their cultural conditions played in the matter. . . . It is time for us to turn our attention to the nature of this civilization on whose value as a means to happiness doubts have been thrown.

What will mind choose to do when it informs and controls the universe? This is a question which we cannot hope to answer. When mind has expanded its physical reach and biological organization by many powers of ten beyond the human scale, we can no more expect to understand its thoughts and dreams than a Monarch butterfly can understand ours. …