Primordial Desire

The disappearance of the neanderthals points to them being the site of the first truly human action. Through a process of genocide, by a combination of slaughter and human-dominant miscegenation, the neanderthal was exterminated and by this, humanity emerged as a distinct group, having fully explicated the differentiation between themselves and the other by exterminating that other. In doing so, the primordial differentiation of the self and the other that carries onto this day was set in place. The neanderthals had less brain size, hardier forms, and were closer related to ancestral species of ape than humans. The human fully marked out their superiority as the intelligence-animal via destruction of this intermediary link between themselves and the animal world. This othering of the animal-person and their destruction has formed the pattern for a species of prejudices to this day. The self is distinguished as the intelligent, the fully human, against the primitive, nature-related savage, barbarian, etc.

This ancient prejudice can be seen as a trend, now in the dynamic between agricultural and non-agricultural peoples. The Greco-Roman idea of the “barbarian”, the American idea of “blackness”, the European idea of the “savage”, the Japanese idea of the “Korean”. The similarities of all of these belie the primordial conflict. The other is bestial, close to the Earth, untameable, unintelligent, uncultured, virile, a creature of the forest and not of the city or farm. This animosity also relays the ancient truth of the “giant”. In primitive state, the human is left to grow fully as an animal, unstifled and undisciplined to the weak and effete form of the civilized man.

What then, is the force between the primitive-other and the human? Commentators on all the listed manifestations of this conflict have drawn it specifically for the cases of which they spoke, but few comprehend the forces in question sufficiently to comment further. That all of these conflicts manifest as desire (which in turn is a force that sparks violence and/or sexuality, whichever channels the desire’s contours provides for libido) shows their foundation role in the self. Whether by lust or hatred, the desire is for intense action to take place in consortion with the primitive-other. In doing so, the human is fully defined by contrast, thus reinforcing the civilized human as a real entity, by having another make up its outer contours.

The ultimate crime of the primitive-other, in being close to Earth, is being unaffected by the true nature of humanity. As revealed in Touhou 17, what enables humanity’s power is their invention of extra-human entities which organize intelligence into ends greater than the sum of their parts, in other words, gods. This is the fundamental difference in kind between the primitive-other and the self, the ontological basis of the person in civilization and its gods.