We do not have beliefs or arguments; we have customs., A Human Strategy by Matt Berry, aphorism 348

348

We do not have beliefs or arguments; we have customs.  Take away a man’s belief and he refutes the theft.  Take away a custom and he drowns in despair.


A man speaks with great words, carefully delineating what he lives by ... then loses his job and suffers an emotional breakdown.  Even the loss of electricity and water for one week would provoke an uproar among average “good citizens.”  Observe what would happen to a man’s value system were he suddenly deprived of his usual tobacco, beer, or coffee.  There seems to be no limit to what we take for granted, because they are precisely the limits which we do indeed take for granted.



A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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