The Experience of Clarity

227 I can keep a giant at a safe distance by brandishing a needle, until he is inured with the first few pricks.  Hence, if we are to be intelligent, we cannot also be too bold.  Often the real strength of our weapon lies in the inexperience of the enemy.  Which is it, courage or cowardice that gives him that experience? We either have the courage for what victory demands, or its cowardly betrayal for a mask of courage. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

228 We should not debate courage and cowardice so vigorously that victory can not get a word in. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

229 The problem is not that we are simplistic creatures governed by too few mechanisms, but that the basis of the objections to our simplicity are too often proofs of the assertion and not refutations.  The objection always hinges on a simple fear or humiliation.  However, once we dismantle our insecurities and study the parts, learn how each works together into a whole, then the complete machine, with all of its hinges, wires and circuits, appears more than complex.  When it so much as walks, for example, it resembles more the flying god than that simple hinge which can only squeak when an insecurity is pulled. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism