Paradox of Man

My friend Chris who passed away was a deep thinker, perhaps too deep, but he had an insaciable curiosity about human nature and what motivated man to choose one path over another; what drove "him" to certain things, and what he perceived as the paridoxical nature of man. He clearly saw "the struggle" in choosing those things that led us to our authentic self, and those things that led us away from it. He wondered why it was so hard for man to live a disciplined and committed life, choosing that which was good for him. He pondered things like food, materialism, drugs, alcohol and sex, all potential temtations for misuse and distraction, and the things that can pull man away from real self actualization. Chris was a writer and an artist and a perfectionist. He drove himself passionatly to create beauty and honesty in the world thruough these two artistic venues. But he sometimes got caught up in the other side of his personality which he believed could be distructive. At times, he felt that there was a magnet type pull to this side of human nature that could not be denied; that it was out of man's control to resist.
This is by no means a new observation or a new question, but it is one that continues to plague mankind as it did my friend. Chris was always searching to understand this dicotimy, and though he could not find the answers he was seeking, he did experience the struggle.
Now, for Chris, the struggle is over but for us it continues. In the words of Michael Arlen, "there is one taste in all of us that is unsatisfied. I don't know what that taste is, but I know it is there. Life's best gift, hasn't someone said, is the ability to dream of a better world."
I welcome comment and dialogue about this observation.