Natalies Wednesday Post

The narrator goes is going through an existential crisis. As he has stated before he is not a man of action, his ability to see both sides of everything renders him action less. Now he says that he would like to be anything, even lazy. Usually describing a person as "lazy" has a negative connotation, but here he says that he would not mind being lazy, he would even be proud, because it meant that he was something. I feel like this wanting to be something, stems from a need to validate himself. If people cannot classify you as someone, or some type of person, then you must be no one. The narrator has once again contradicted himself. Before he had stated how bad he felt about men of action, and how stupid they were, especially compared to him and his acute consciousness. But now he is discussing how he would like to be lazy, because then he would find the happiness in the "sublime and beautiful" and then he would stand up for himself. I feel like he regards his consciousness as both his best and worst quality, which makes a lot of sense. Obviously it is good because he is intelligent and because he has this grasp on many ideas and concepts regular men do not. On the other hand it is a curse because he is constantly over thinking everything.
I liked the narrators discussion on the concept of "advantage". He points out how many people have said that if man sees who he truly is and sees his advantage, then he will become "good and noble". He then goes on to argue against it by saying that by clearly looking at history we can see how this is not true. Many times humans know what is good or advantageous for them, but instead go against it. Many times people are self destructive, and inflict their own pain and danger. I feel like this relates to previous sections from the reading. Many time humans go against what would be logical, and I feel that the purpose of doing this is to create a "purpose" for themselves. I think that many times people put themselves in situations that seem irrational out of pure boredom. He says that the issue that occurs is because humans put their own classifications on the word advantage, and describe it as they please while the entire time leaving out a very important part.