31st
…our world having once emerged for no purpose, nobody knows exactly how, it follows its course perfectly indifferent to our wishes and it will certainly end one way or another: the earth incinerated by the dying sun, the universe immobilized forever in thermodynamic equilibrium, the solar system reduced to a black hole. As to human destiny, “they were born, they suffered, they died,” as Anatole France’s shortest world history would have it. Ultimately, the history of the universe appears to be the history of the defeat of Being by Nothingness: matter, life, the human race, human intelligence and creativity —everything is bound to end in defeat; all our efforts, suffering, and delights will perish forever in the void, leaving no traces behind.
This sounds banal and it is banal and therefore important, as the banal is no less than what is known and experienced by all.
