In the Midst of Life
We are used to thinking of life as a movement from point A to point B. As something linear, manageable, open to optimization. But what if we are almost never at either the beginning or the end?
What if individuals and societies exist within processes of breakdown and recovery, rather than on the other side of them? What connects physiology, the psyche, social crises, and existential turmoil? And can we speak of growth where destruction is all that appears on the surface? A binary view of the world helps hold these opposites together.
Phagocytosis in Society 🔴
In a retelling of Denis Semenikhin's words, the preparation of Soviet Olympic athletes could be described as a "method of partial destruction."
The athletes were at the top. 🔝
Catabolism is a necessary condition for metabolism. Without breakdown, there is no renewal; without strain, no adaptation.
This raises a question: is there something similar within society and the state, if we regard them as a single organism?
Of course.
Phagocytosis in city streets is happening right now 🔴. Social immunity: crude, painful, imperfect, but functioning.
“The sheriff, twirling a finger by his temple,
set up patrols, but the unthinkable is within.” 🎵— Oxxxymiron, HPL
This is not for those “patients” who simply want to eliminate stress and lead a calm, even life (I. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept).
This is not about individual comfort. It is about the collective Shadow.
About partial self-destruction as a condition for further growth—just as in training: breakdown → recovery → supercompensation 💪🔝
The key question is not destruction itself, but whether recovery follows it.
In the Midst of Life
In media vita means in the very midst of life.
“A pale young man with burning eyes set out from point A to point B.
Along the way he put on weight, drank away his armor, and married a laundress.” 🎶— Oxxxymiron, Неваляшка
That is every other person here...
Human, all too human: a feast during the plague and love during cholera.
Life does not pause because of a crisis—it flows through it.
Straight ahead, as usual, only now without the inseparable companions or old confidants...
Snow in shining flakes conceals the dirty Neva,
And people, squirrels in wheels,
Fleeing freedom, race toward their “beloved bridge.”And here, it is as if the whole dream comes into focus in waking life,
And meaning can be glimpsed there, on the shore.
Instead of a Conclusion
Destruction is not evil in itself. It becomes evil where recovery does not follow. Neither individuals nor societies live “outside crisis.” We are almost always within it—in media vita.
The question is not how to avoid breakdown, but whether recovery comes afterward, and whether there is meaning that makes it worth continuing onward.
Questions about this article
01Can destruction become a condition for growth in a personal or social crisis?
Yes, when breakdown is part of a cycle of destruction, recovery, and supercompensation. Without recovery destruction becomes evil, while continued movement requires meaning for both a person and a society.
02Why can life not be reduced to a journey from point A to point B?
People and societies nearly always live inside unfinished processes: a crisis does not suspend life but becomes the medium through which it continues.