Salon Talk of the day: Candide and the "Can-dide" Pope

Salon Talk of the day: Candide and the "Can-dide" Pope

IS THIS OUR FATE?!

Yes, it is true. A guy named Pope wrote Essay on Man. I'm assuming that he isn't the Pope we all think he is; the Pope that drives around in a cute little car called "The  Pope Mobile", kissing babies and blessing people on the streets of Vatican City. No, this is another guy. But his name is somewhat intimidating, and it does reinforce a religious consciousness to his writings of what he believes' man's role in the world to be. Basically, Pope claims that man should make do with their lot in life and be content. "Everything happens for a reason," is that annoying quote you're mother will tell you when you're a bench warmer on the school volleyball team and when the coach only puts you in for the last two minutes of the game. Well, that's what happened to me! But this piece of advice continues to frustrate me, today. Hold on! How was I suppose to follow that advice back then? Was I suppose to sit and wait for something to happen? Maybe I'd grow two feet taller and spike the ball harder into someone's face! But that, of course, never happened...( just my own misery and failure).
But, a man named Voltaire argues against this philosophy in his book, Candide. Voltaire's characters believe in this very philosophy and apply it to every situation. Disaster after disaster, they constantly are reassured, hoping that although bad things happen to them, something good will come of the chaos.  I'd say that Pope just got "Cann-dide" by Voltaire. They're broken by the end of the book. Will they build a society on the remnants of what spirit they each have left? I don't know how that would be possible. The book shows us the hell that these characters suffer with a lack of taking action. They lack initiative for  freedom to make sense of the chaos, freedom to challenge it, and the freedom to make change to better their lots in life. These touch upon some of the Enlightenment characteristic: Reason, Progress, and liberty.
When I think of what Pope expresses throughout his poem, he claims that man's undoing is due to our own greediness and pride. We hunger for knowledge and power. We strive to raise ourselves up to a level of godliness. Yet, humanity can only understand so much. What much we CAN comprehend, is the information of the world that we should be satisfied with. We are not capable of seeing the entire truth. If we were to see the actual beings or things that made the shadows in Plato's cave, we'd probably go crazy, and we wouldn't be able to survive. Hence, humanity must accept its lot, and its place as slave or master, subservient to a higher power we can never understand. Humanity must accept its fate, its life, and its death. Pope's stance goes against everything the Enlightenment represents. Although Voltaire's work is an exaggeration of the human experience when dealing with chaos, I believe  his view on progress, reason, and equality are evident and speak for themselves throughout our history. So how can we just settle for our lots in life? Whether we truly are fated to be something or not, well that's up to interpretation. I, myself, like to think that I have free will to choose the path I take.

Laura Miller