Those with an easy consciousness draw inspiration from the soldier or fighter. Like him, they are a single, cohesive piece with no curves. They live in their trench and know what they are targeting: the enemy standing before them. Thus, when they think, they are either waging a battle or resuming a war. Every pure consciousness - be it nationalist, religious, tribal, or class-based - thinks this way; "thinking" is synonymous with "fighting." Circumstances that are not suited to their war could arise and push them to agree to a truce or adopt circuitous tactics. Once this temporal and military interval ends, however, they return to their positions in the trenches. Their only rest is warriors' rest.
The difficult consciousness contrasts to this easy, homogeneous and robust consciousness. Its difficulty stems from the fact that it is torn and uneven, perplexed and hesitant. Its sentiments clash at a rapid pace and its hatred of conflict is its firmest principle. Its mind finds refuge in the lab, where it combines, proposes, subtracts, adds, compares, and reconsiders.
These two forms of consciousness have divergent views of time. The difficult consciousness is concerned with the past, which it sees as a distant cause with its many layers and sources, but it also cares about the future and having the capacity to overcome the misery of the present. On the other hand, those with an easy consciousness are seized by the pressing moment. They have no interest in the past beyond omens that had warned of this moment, in the same way signs of nature do in myths. The future does not strike them as a potential promise, nor as something that some sort of human intervention can turn into a promise; their mantra is "Now, now, not tomorrow."
The two forms of consciousness' conceptions and depictions of space also differ. For the easy consciousness, space is like a plain that shares its plainness. Nowhere on this plain is their view shrouded by ambiguity, but a sharply demarcated line separates the two sides of the plain at war. For the difficult consciousness, space is like a mountain with a diverse topography. It is home to caves and caverns, and nothing but the unknown lies beyond it. The uphill is the downhill turned upside down, and vice versa.
The difficult consciousness is despondent. It is dragged into war like a one is dragged into a forced arranged marriage. It is expected to find joy and celebrate something it loathes, imagining and wishing for its end as soon as it is dragged into it. In contrast, the easy consciousness is happy. It sees war as a union born of fervor and passion. It is a moment that had long been anticipated, one that has been rehearsed for, as have its lauded values, such as heroism and martyrdom. This consciousness would prefer for this moment to remain by our side, becoming a way of life and a permanent logic of exchange.
This happiness also springs from their feeling that war unites them with their enlarged family and unites their family (from whom they have inherited, or believe they have inherited, most of their convictions and thoughts) with them. This same family, with its love of life by the sword, pays the debt it owes for their son's recognition, elevating him to a source of pride and affirmation of its authenticity.
Conversely, the misery of the despondent is compounded by a sense of being alienated from their family, whose presumed enthusiasm they do not share. Those with a difficult consciousness are thus portrayed as wretches that the tribe has kicked out. Their words are dismissed as delirium, while their difference continuously creates anxiety and raises suspicion.
While the easy consciousness gravitates towards belligerent rhetoric, the difficult consciousness gravitates towards political rhetoric that reconciles it with its people after a period of estrangement and confirms that the war has ended. In the same sense, history, to the former, seems like an epic brimming with endless heroic endeavors. Each of these heroic deeds culminates in a decisive victory that paves the way for another battle, which is followed by yet another victory. For its part, the latter, being difficult and unhappy, views history as a novel in which everyone loses that ends with a new quagmire and impasse: the current conditions of our world.
This consciousness is also easy because those who have it believe that they are unequivocally right, good, and beautiful. Victimhood is theirs alone, while those they fight are nothing but their anthesis. They have obtained all knowledge a priori, and they are solidly committed to an essentialism that defines eternal virtues and vices for them. Nothing novel surprises this essentialism. You will never see any surprises, coincidences, or even movement within it; everything that the unknown introduces is either a reiteration of an incident from the past or a ruse and a trick whose surface is very different from what lies underneath.
However, among the sources of the difficult consciousness’s difficulty is that, while they see devils on their enemy’s side, they also think of the devils within themselves and their own people. To criticize and refute, in their mind, is also to self-critique and self-refute. Instead of confining their thoughts to a single place, namely the battlefield and its immediate shadows, they try to extend their vision to the many others, visible or invisible, that are shaped by war. Their apprehensions lead them to raise questions about violence, humanity, and the depths of their soul. Thus, we see them advocating for all voices to be raised, in the hope that we may stumble upon an idea, suggestion, or reflection. This contrasts with the simple consciousness's drive to silence all other voices, as everything is clear and ascertained, and surplus knowledge confuses and distracts us. When the difficult consciousness, which is burdened by questions, asks: "What should we do?" the simple consciousness, which is bloated with answers, replies: "Fight and keep quiet." Why raise questions, indeed why speak, when we are all experts in characterizing the enemy? We characterize the enemy millions of times, killing any sense of surprise and making prediction easier; despite that, we keep making characterizations that add nothing and only reorder the full-stops and commas of a sacred text. Contradiction and divergence constrict expression, which can only accommodate simple phrases that soon shrink to become a gesture or a wink.
We will probably continue along this path, intrepidly and resolutely, until the end of times.
