Master Circumstances

Honoré de Balzac was a noted French novelist and playwright.  His magnum opus is considered to be La Comédie Humaine.  La Comédie Humaine is multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories.  It depicted French society during the period of the Restoration, and the July Monarchy (1830–1848).  Honoré de Balzac is considered one of the founders of realism in European literature because of his unfiltered observation of society.

He said, “There are no principles; there are only events.  There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances.  The superior man espouses events and circumstances in order to guide them.  If there were principles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man cannot be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.”

And that is true.  The concept of morality is mutable.  We would all like to pretend that we are civilised, that there is a higher calling.  That is a lie.  Even religion is a vehicle for our prejudices and our faults, justifying our oppressions in the name of the Divine.  As such, since it is unsatisfactory to be the victim of circumstance, it is ideal for us to seek power and influence, so that we shape the world to our needs.  Even if we do not, others will do so.