“HEIDEGGER: Those questions bring us back to the beginning of our
conversation. If I may answer quickly and perhaps somewhat vehemently,
but from long reflection: Philosophy will not be able to bring about a
direct change of the present state of the world. This is true not only of
philosophy but of all merely human meditations and endeavors. Only a
god can still save us. I think the only possibility of salvation left to us is
to prepare readiness, through thinking and poetry, for the appearance of
the god or for the absence of the god during the decline; so that we do
not, simply put, die meaningless deaths, but that when we decline, we
decline in the face of the absent god.”
As long as our bodies are largely intact and functioning our lives are full of meanings (for better and worse) but no eaarthly salvation even for those with gods of their own, so what are we to do other than think and read poetry in the face of such an absence?

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