cowardice or self-respect, A Human Strategy, Matt Berry, aphorism 181

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



Popular posts from this blog

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
Read more
The Ascetic Impulse: We think we deliberately hurt ourselves when it is simply that we do know which version of ourselves will satisfy our needs more fully. We try on a personality as if trying on new clothes. Bizarrely, the self we beat up has heretofore been a complete stranger.
Read more