The Experience of Clarity

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