The Necessity and Dangers of Desiring the Impossible

Extract

[...] Moreover, technological progress is rapid and propels us into a world in which man is free to indulge in desiring the impossible. Desires evolve with man and rhythm his existence through impossibles that become possible despite certain sufferings generated by utopian impossibles. After all, when we think about everything that was impossible in the past and has become possible today, desiring the impossible is hoping, dreaming, imagining that this impossible becomes possible and thus enriching our existence with hope and projects. [...]

[...] I can also desire the love of a person who does not want me. This desire to live this impossible love can become a source of suffering or even lead to the loss of the taste for living. But I persist in desiring this impossible love. Why? It appears that desire represents a tension, a movement towards an object, a person that one imagines as being a source of satisfaction. The term 'to desire' has an etymology in the Latin desiderare which means 'to evoke, regret a star that has disappeared'. [...]

[...] [What if the impossible became possible. However, a person insensitive to another person can change. The impossible would become possible after reflection. Today, man can fly, communicate with the entire world in no time thanks to the evolution of technology. What was impossible in the past has become possible today. We cannot always live on another planet but maybe in a distant future, it will be possible. Indeed, human beings are in a state of permanent evolution, to the point of even desiring immortality. [...]

[...] The imagination can be powerful. It constitutes the faculty of representing an absent object. This imagined tension towards an object of desire is disconnected from reality. To desire by abstracting from reason is therefore a danger for man. All the more so since the goal of a desire is to acquire satisfaction, consequently, to transform the impossible into the possible. Indeed, not reasoning about an impossible love could lead to depression, isolation, or even suicide in extreme cases. It remains essential to reason, to react to give another direction to life by desiring other impossibilities that will allow building one's existence, being recognized, and finding the path to happiness again. [...]

[...] Sometimes the circumstances of life make these desires impossible to achieve but they allow us to progress in life, to make choices. Unlike needs, which are possible to satisfy, desires tend to aim for the impossible, which is the very essence of desire. The impossible, being beyond the real by definition, it remains essential to distinguish from the start the desires that do not lead to suffering, satisfied or not. [Desiring the impossible can bring suffering. Moreover, the impossible aimed at by desire can constitute a dangerous utopia that leads to suffering, the loss of the taste for living. [...]