The Experience of Clarity

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

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

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

162 When reality interferes with my life: In the daily transactions between my two economies — the mundane business of life and that of my pleasant dreams — I must have a competent manager in both companies, the object of each is to balance the books at the end of the day.  I also must not permit the one to grasp for “more” than is necessary.  I do not want the one to acquire too much debt with the other ... nor to lend too much.  The one needs the other’s future business. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

163 Without dreams life would become something that had to be endured ... a succession of petty, meaningless tasks.  On the other hand, without an eye for the superficial, I could never steer an event, never become anything more than an accident ... never worthy of anything, and life would become just an endurance of disappointments. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

29 Street Morality: He confesses to a sin he did not commit in order to avoid appearing too timid and weak for its commission.  In the street, he holds to a moral standard where the evil is not sinning and the good, sinning, but he fails to live up to it. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

164 Dreams are the stuff of life?  Very well, but one would do well to know that things are the stuff of dreams.  So where does that leave us?  ... with a little more control. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

30 Some cannot stifle the fear of falling into temptation because of a constant self-contempt from not having the courage to commit the sin. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

166 Real change is never as precise or smooth as we would like it to be.  We soon find that our carefully drawn blueprints and our precision instruments no longer apply.  We pick up a rock, screw up our faces and pound. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

31 Often the consequence of a morality is the weakening of the spirit, and so at times a sin admitted proudly can be a first push toward strength.  One has stepped over a moral boundary, one foot in and one foot out: one has the fault of not being weakened. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

32 The Eternal War in Heaven: Being good and becoming good are as different from each other as a present state of Good is from one of Evil.  On the other hand, they are also only as different from each other as being complacent is from discovering complacency. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

165 We are bored with reality: It is ironic that most of those who discuss “causation” do not regard the discussion itself as an effect, and would rather “get on with the matter” when we try to introduce the topic: “Which breakfast would increase our ability to discuss this topic?” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

33 As they would have us believe, to think on the devil is as evil as it is to disbelieve in his existence.  Now, it is a sin to think on what we must not fail to acknowledge. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

166 Real change is never as precise or smooth as we would like it to be.  We soon find that our carefully drawn blueprints and our precision instruments no longer apply.  We pick up a rock, screw up our faces and pound. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

34 Our conscience must serve out its sentence as convicted, until habituation succeeds in its appeal. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

167 Working toward control over human nature is something like applying a screwdriver to a machine whose wheels are spinning so fast that they appear stationary or nonexistent.  We begin with confidence and then ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

168 If there is but one cup of control for the entire ocean of force, I want it. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

169 With self-control, the goal is not to resist desire (temptation) but to engineer what one desires. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

170 Proving control and taking control are different matters.  Better to leave the former to future research, which is dependent upon the acquisition of the latter. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

171 Our necessary error: That we cannot explain nor prove our control does not take it away from us.  That we believe we have it is our good fortune.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

35 Beyond Habit: Living a normal life is not compatible with living life as correctly as possible – which is to say that to live a life as correctly as possible is deviant behavior. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

172 Perhaps one can only hold oneself responsible for one’s destination in old age.  In youth, one’s drives are so strong and full of energy that the last thing one will do is rein oneself in.  Only after a few years do one’s drives recede to the point where one can ... must seize the reins ... but as one who walks an old horse.  To be the exception here ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

36 Innocence-or-Sin? – a vehicle where one begins life’s journey with a foot on the brake.   Ignorance-or-Experience? – the same vehicle, but one accelerates.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

173 The human creature is amazingly complex for having so few tools of influence.  And this flatters us: we would rather sift through our complexities than apply a single tool to ourselves.  We in fact experience “freedom” in proportion to our denial of the self-mechanics that would have added control.  Our denial of reality proceeds like that of a criminal’s defense, expanding in complexity as each revision is put in check.  Simplicity is what we fear most.  The crucial simplicity of our existence sends us whimpering to our knees begging for the illusion to take us back — something as simple as “I am a machine.” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

174 First nature or second nature?  But no one has a right to this question today.  We are all rules that want to become exceptions.  All nature is bound, but we want our “freedom.”  That second nature we wear in public and swear by ... what is that but the hair shirt which rubs our skin raw?  ... our first nature, not outgrown , but too sore to move. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

175 I want control, not the badge of control.  And what do I do with control?  I spend all its force, and soon I have none.  But what ought I to do?  Pursue greater control.  Why?  To accumulate strength and force.  Why?  To pursue greater control ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

176 Someone who seeks control usually does so in a violent storm, because he must have it.  Suppose he gains control.  He would blunder then if he thought that control were only possible in storms, since that would confuse the need for something with the thing itself .  Control is calm.  And one gains it or does not gain it ... storm or not.  But how many people, having found a degree of control in danger, pursue greater and greater dangers without first testing control?  ... and why?  ... because such a real victory would have neither excitement nor spectator.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

177 Revenge is how one deals with an unjustified subordination with behavior resulting in a justified one. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

178 Resentment suffers from a wrong without possessing the means for retribution. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

179 The real problem with resentment is that it is always justifiable.  If it weren’t, the inspection could have cured one.   The situation is so bad that one even has the right to take one’s eyes off of the higher aim. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

34 Our conscience must serve out its sentence as convicted, until habituation succeeds in its appeal. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

180 Resentment may have less to do with other people than we think.  The feeling that one has been cheated is a probable outcome for those who continually empty themselves in the belief that this is how they become full. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

181 There is a bog where the mud is knee deep.  Around the edge of this bog there is dry ground.  If I go around, is this cowardice or self-respect?  Easy enough to answer. Now, consider the same situation but where my worst enemy stands up to his knees in the middle of this bog, taunting me.  Now, if I go around, is this cowardice? No ... as long as I lay the groundwork of the former example before I confront the morass of the latter ... as long as I know that cleanliness is the victory ... that the question itself can be dirty ... that one conquers in this way, like a clever general, by going around. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

182 Can a cause be just and harmful?  I wanted to become A but was told that my kind are barred from serving as B .  I am outraged and struggle my whole life to overcome the political and social obstacles and finally become B .  In fact, I am the first of my kind ever to become B . My cause is just, and I am victorious, but I have now become the wrong person and remain unsatisfied: the pursuit of justice was a way of indulging the spoiled child of resentment.  The child demanded precisely that which had been refused and threatened to set the whole house on fire if unsatisfied ... but left unattended that smaller, weaker embryo, its inherited and privileged task ... which is now just a bedridden, cranky old man. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

183 We do not want a fair fight.  We want a higher rank.  If we are demanding a fair fight, maybe we should reconsider the whole affair, since only those with disadvantages appeal to fairness. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

184 My demand for a level battlefield is an admission that I have a weaker position than my opponent ... that I resent his superiority.  But what else can I do?  And besides, it is this rabid disease, resentment, which does, in its own crude way, level the field already: his sobriety is no match for my raging cause. Now I have gained the upper hand at last but am too infected to enjoy my newfound superiority.  I march down from my advantage.  I banish kings and with them, their wars and victories, and in their place I crown my former cause.  In the name of justice, to protect the meek, that is to say, to license my resentment , I scour the countryside, slaughtering every mind born of high rank. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

185 If we removed resentment from the argument, we could not say, “put yourself in my place,” or “if this had happened to our kind” — since the appeals to fairness hinge upon resentment.  No, if we removed resentment from the argument, the argument itself would be in danger of vanishing.  Nothing would be there ... only debris that we could have sailed on through if we had only kept our heads up.  Instead we laid anchor before the wreckage, involuntarily conferring value upon it ... and with our stopping, new regrets and with them new resentments ... and still more debris floating in from our horizon. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

36 Innocence-or-Sin? – a vehicle where one begins life’s journey with a foot on the brake.   Ignorance-or-Experience? – the same vehicle, but one accelerates.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

186 A petty life is so overwhelmed with the noble that it feels itself unworthy, unable to stand anywhere but in its shadow ... or in other cases, so humiliated, so indignant that it can do nothing but scream, set aflame — always to itself in the hope of scorching its enemy, regarding this self-destruction as “revenge,” or even “self-sacrifice.” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

187 Another person has only as much depth as I concede to him.  He can be a cardboard cut-out or the very God incarnate.  To take conscious control of this mechanism, to be able to switch at will between perceptions of the real and the illusory serves me well.  When another person proves harmful, I can say, “If I am sober, this thing is mechanical and therefore meaningless and I am free of all need for retribution.  It is a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out.  I’ll wait a while.  Time, like a breeze, will blow it away.”  On the other hand, when someone proves congenial, I can say, “You intoxicate me without fail.  Stay a while.”   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

188 Requiting those ignorant of what constituted the offense is cruelty.   And our compassion here serves us well: a stoical apology dispenses with idiots sooner than a refutation they cannot understand in any way other than as an affront.  I move on and away. Never do yourself the harm of keeping as an enemy someone whose excellence in rivalry would have propelled you into a higher existence. Never get revenge on anyone beneath you, nor above you.  Never revenge.  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

189 The object is not to forgive in spite of oneself.  The object is a higher degree of clarity.  That this state “forgives” is coincidental and accounts for the misunderstanding.  To forgive or not to forgive was never the conflict.  The true conflict was one of level: whether one had the strength to climb above the lower conflict, to exist from a higher point of view. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

190 Genius is power of direction.  It actually amounts to less power than talent or innate ability, as there are some talents so great as to be sent out of control. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

191 Potential will pursue an end, at the expense of a higher end, only because one had the means at one’s immediate disposal. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

36 Innocence-or-Sin? – a vehicle where one begins life’s journey with a foot on the brake.   Ignorance-or-Experience? – the same vehicle, but one accelerates.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

192 The problem with irrelevant potential is that one needs to feel capable and suddenly finds that here — at the juncture of decision — one is not only capable but already congratulating oneself. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

37 The righteous claim innocence, while the wise claim experience.  What?  Is it foolish to be righteous? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

193 There is a difference between asking, “What is my potential?”  — and the question, “How can I elevate potential itself?” A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

38 Sin is an obstacle to the goal of innocence?  But if so, then experience would be an obstacle to the goal of ignorance....  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

194 There is a virtue in postponing a valuable act ... if in its place a lesser act has greater value as a habit.  Obvious enough, yet the seduction of an immediate victory is more than the average human can withstand. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

195 A possibility: One resists a victory which is merely available — resists the seduction of every cheap and easy display, knowing that the strength of its seduction lies in its availability and in a deficit of self-esteem. We often build up our weakness into our “elevated purpose.” Such “potential” is the bubble which bursts at its weakest point, the rapid deflation of the human spirit creating the illusion of “explosive power.” The ability to create a goal, to resist every distraction, to hurdle cheap gratifications of pride, to regard them as obstacles and pitfalls, these too should have their claims to “potential” ... our potential intelligence. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

39 Eve may only have sinned because Adam was stupid.  Offer an idiot any fruit from the tree of knowledge and he will no doubt blame you for his cognitive dissonance. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

196 I spin the globe on my desk.  North is up and south is down.  To what extent my orientation to the world has been set by the ethnocentricity of Europe I cannot begin to imagine.  Had America been discovered from the ports of Australia I would perhaps have to read the globe while standing on my head to see what I now see.  But a responsible assumption serves me well.  The need to appropriate an orientation outweighs the obligation to justify that orientation.  One must begin somewhere, but do we see that our beginning is necessarily smug?  ... that the beginning is a privilege granting too much license?  ... that before our personal science begins we have already made the choice: we either affirm reality by our opposing it — as one confronts an opponent and thereby grows stronger as a reality — or we oppose reality with a frantic desire to fly from it and thereby ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism ...

40 True contempt is an indifference that dodges an unworthy object and that to a third party often looks more like good manners than arrogance. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

197 We do not roll smoothly toward the highest goal.  In fact, we trundle over day-to-day pits and bumps that necessarily lower our sight away from any higher destination. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

41 When we make a display of our disdain, we often show more rivalry than contempt. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

198 One needs a magnetic north, something to sail by ... and how many ships remain lost at sea because they know it is not a “true” north? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

42 Above and Below the Level of Shame:  When one “has no shame” one has permitted a crude, unrestrained urge within a refined, restrained convention – without realizing what one has done.  One must now be taught the shame of having no shame. When one is more refined and restrained ... stronger than convention allows, one now becomes aware of the shame of “arrogant” behavior.  Again, one is taught the shame of having no shame ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

199 My guess: That increase in strength is always the object and that any decrease is always the obstacle. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

43 An unrefined virtue is a contradiction, and a refined vice is often a virtue again. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

200 The more I practice the art of high fate, the more I see that there is one thing that one must have ... strength in every sense of the word and in all events.  Whatever one wants to do, whatever one has to do — from duty, from desire, from reckless will — one must acquire every piece of strength along the way. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

44 Gandhi and Hitler:   These are two points upon a spectrum measuring the display of dominance.  This does not suggest that one is less and the other is more driven to dominate – we speak here of the degree of hypocrisy.  One is more capable of hypocrisy and the other less, Hitler being the less capable and therefore the more reprehensible.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

201 The archer aims above and to the left but strikes the center ... so do I have a single eye on strength but strike a high fate. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

45 Gandhi is superior to Churchill by the same principle which finds Churchill superior to Hitler – unless of course we’re British imperialists, in which case Churchill is superior to Gandhi by a new sort of principle which relieves us from having to finish the comparison. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

202 If I use increasing strength as my standard, all habits fall within two categories: descending or ascending.  There is no “in between” ... no standing; those who do not climb weaken. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

46 Virtue , a) That which converts itself into a virtue by one’s having converted another to it.  This works by that same principle by which one who has just eaten raw garlic does not have bad breath if the other is also served raw garlic. b) The consequence of living without public masks, due to inadequate intellect and poor manners. c) What one feels when observing a rival’s obvious shortcoming. d) A single point of virtue so intoxicated with its own sharp perfection that the bearer can no longer discard anything attached to it – which is to say, that he can no longer tell good from bad for the pride that he takes in this single point of excellence.  He often appears as a knight in shining armor shoveling out a horse’s stall, proud of his mastery of the art of the shovel. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

203 Strength is value.  That which I carry everywhere, especially into new circumstances, and which also moves things is of highest value.  And with the strongest, things move even after death. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

47 When we forbid ourselves a vice for the pleasure it gives us, we can still take vicarious pleasure in condemning it in another.  We often begin the social crusade because righteousness wants to get closer to sin. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

204 In the end, it is my strength ... not my words, not my badges, not my reputation ... but my strength that holds my head up. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

Matt Berry, The Mechanics of Virtue A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

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

48 We give more attention to what we want than to the fact that we want.   The object of our desire is often a dispensable conduit.  The human spirit appears fickle.  It will have an enemy, but only as long as this is not its rival’s enemy – in which case, enmity itself can become “evil,” if in holding to the moral position it can imagine itself at a superior rank.  We will gratify our enmity, declaring war in the name of Justice and in the next breath condemn a rival’s enmity in the name of Peace and Compassion.  The human spirit appears fickle; however, we are quite consistent as dispensing machines. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

204 In the end, it is my strength ... not my words, not my badges, not my reputation ... but my strength that holds my head up. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

49 Self-love is not always the same as self-advantage and this is the fault of self-love. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

205 Does object A rise or fall?  But one must have first secured a point of reference before one can even pose the question.  And in case it has not already become obvious to the reader, the point of reference I propose is increasing strength .  Until one secures that point of reference, object A may not even appear to move at all. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

50 Our moral expression is often only a label we use to hide our fear of breaking with a custom , herd , or rank .  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

A Human Strategy, Matt Berry, aphorism 207 A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

206 What has accounted for our “strength” thus far?  That tremendous force we spent on the preservation of our weaknesses. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism