The Experience of Clarity

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

202 If on the one hand fanatical explosions of righteous behavior are consequent of an overwhelming suspicion that one is not a “man of integrity” and can only win that rank by performing a grand and redeeming act ... and if on the other hand integrity really is impossible, then the attempt to hold to the moral identity becomes more and more dangerous as one becomes more and more honest about the failure: “Am I only too weak ?” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

371 He points the prow toward the shore because he likes to feel the wind on his face.  Never mind that as the wind blows his world grows smaller by the hour.  Never mind that he will never set foot on solid ground.  Never mind that he renounces a greater joy simply because he will not tack against a lesser one. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

203 There is a difference between the status of Beta accepted and the status of Beta as an unacceptable demotion from Alpha.  I call the latter the “alpha-minus.” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

372 With the majority of topics it is a compliment to have one’s ignorance exposed. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

204 The True Beta: One dominates others through the aid of a superior, and at the bargain price of being dominated by this superior.  This relationship recruits many air-vibrations into its service, such as, love, righteousness, respect, duty, patriotism, integrity, loyalty....  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

205 Humiliation Factor 1:  One type of overcrowding occurs when a population surpasses its means of communicating a network of social hierarchies as they are resolved through conflict.  There are too many competitors for too few rungs, and thus social stability is impossible, for one must have a rank, and now “society” functions like so many sailors clambering for too few ladders within a sinking ship. With the ranking order of a species whose dominant trait is childish dishonesty, if one is not a cowboy, then one becomes an Indian.  If one shoots the other, the other denies it. If one cannot hold to the top rung of any existing ladder , one builds a new ladder and upon which one can assign the rival to a lower rung. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

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

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

373 Everywhere, the stimulus presents itself to the human subject as something substantial, something solid. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

206 Humiliation Factor 2: Cross cultural experience creates a situation where there is no rung in the foreign but dominant culture with which to confirm a value inherited from one’s own culture.  One builds a new ladder. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

374 I am both bell and dog, but never Pavlov. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

207 Alpha-minus exists within conditions which require superior intellectual ability than that of the prevailing Alpha.  When it manifests itself as righteousness , it is a proud insubordination which succeeds in justifying itself.  At its highest, it is a severe rationality and fearless honesty.  But the impetus toward that higher standard, against which it reflects its value, is humiliation. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

375 Control is secondary: The aim is control, and to be in control, I must control the frequency of contact with key stimuli. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

208 He can salve the humiliation of his unavoidable subordination by assigning the entire mechanism of dominance to Evil: “Power corrupts.”  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

376 I can march or I can dance .  It all depends on whether I decrease or increase with a stimulus. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

209 Alpha possesses a mechanical force against which Alpha-minus can only counter with a rational exposure of that force.  The fact that Alpha-minus has the greater motivation to be reasonable gives him a fair chance of actually becoming more reasonable than Alpha, and this only aids the reversal of moral values.  However, Alpha-minus is also motivated to leave the mechanism for “righteousness” obscured:  he cannot now admit that he himself indulges in this same mechanism without giving up the right to triumph over the rival through his moral exposé .   Thus, his moral justification depends upon his repression of any interest in a dominant status.  This mechanism – this drive to dominate – this frantically spiritual need to redeem humiliation – is ignored and the suppression of what would otherwise be a spiritually fatal event results in the commandment: “thou shalt not dominate.” This reversal of values employs a new word-set and a new method for the ...

377 The louder the criticism the more I want to know of it?  As if the best place to hear cannon fire were directly in front of it? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

210 A moralist pretends to have no self-interest or ulterior motive in his righteous behavior .   He is good for the sake of being good.  He wants peace and equality without regard to self-advantage.  In reality the mechanically dominant individual – alpha – constitutes the condition from which alpha-minus can only maintain esteem through a redirection of the dominance drive.  Alpha-minus goes around mechanical force and seeks a new standard with which to prove his “true” superiority.  Alpha-minus now dominates spiritually, rationally, ethically....   Alpha may or may not see his dual status. Too often, he is unconcerned. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism