The Folly of Man

“All the evidence of history suggests that man is indeed a rational animal but with a near infinite capacity for folly. His history seems largely a halting, but persistent, effort to raise his reason above his animality. He draws blueprints for utopia, but never quite gets it built. In the end he plugs away obstinately with the only building material really ever at hand: his own part-comic, part-tragic, part-cussed, but part-glorious nature.” — Robert McNamara

But isn’t the drawing of utopian blueprints also the least rational and most foolish thing we do, the excuse for us to unleash our animality?