A natural state by definition does not require our effort: There is more moderation forced upon us through our enfeebling vices than we can achieve through our virtues. It may even be that our vices secure our natural state, an absence of which would release such extreme reactions to the prevailing security and our consequent boredom that a reasoned moderation would have to arrive in the form of fanaticism.
A valuable book, A Human Strategy, aphorism 387
387 A valuable book may be torn to pieces without diminishing the human spirit, just so long as the words have already been read and understood. To feel the loss of the book — at its material destruction, even though one had already digested its contents fully and had aligned oneself toward its overall direction — is evidence that one values the non-human being over human becoming , the static thing over the dynamic process . In response to the fear of our unknowable future we would rather freeze ourselves into a single stage of growth at the expense of the entire metamorphosis. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism