get ins-pie-rd

One is the resolution expressed in the confession of the 18 year old; to make of his life something worthwhile; something that would survive him honourably; justifying his journey on earth. That resolution was tested by circumstances that appeared to reduce it to a pipe dream. But mocked by what appeared to common sense to be insuperable futility; although buffered on a bent; it did not falter.
The other characteristic is the experience of disillusionment thats virtually coterminous with life itself, consciously lived. Our inspirations, molding our expectations; take account of what we would like the empirical world to look like rather than what it actually is. Thus endlessly, empirical reality denies the validity of out expectations and aspirations. We expect the oracle to give us a clear cut answer; what we get is an enigma, compounding the riddle. What remains is the searching mind, conscious of itself and of the world; seeing , hearing, feeling, thinking and speaking- seeking ultimate reality beyond illusion.

-Morgenthau