The Experience of Clarity

20 There are sins so great that no compensation is to be had except through the attraction of their confession.  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

144 A thorough skeptic is one who denies the possibility of a starting place — but nonetheless finds it impossible to act accordingly.  Indeed, I never found a skeptic so thorough that he would go hungry due to his inability to prove the significance of the menu.  And just like the rest of us, the skeptic still ranks authors according to their worth and makes his purchases accordingly.  He scans the newspaper for a good movie and then proceeds toward the cinema with an unconscious confidence that all will proceed as anticipated.  The laboratory rat, too, sniffs and “knows” full well that the cheese has been pressed once again in that self-same corner, and he sets off with an unconscious confidence that all will proceed as before ... that is to say, as anticipated . However, when it comes to philosophical conversation, competing stimuli are neglected because they are of “no importance” — stimuli which set up a desire this moment, then knock it down in the next — ...

21 I might not have failed if I had not stopped with a valid excuse.  But even if I would have failed in any event, it might still have been better to confess the failure – without resting on the excuse – in order to preserve the impetus to get up again and justify myself through victory alone. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

145 A responsible skeptic does not say, “Here is the abyss.”  A responsible skeptic says, “Here is the undeniable abyss.  Is there not something affirmative and substantial in the fact that I am here as its observer.  I think and therefore I am.”  Yes, and I can even say, “ I do not think and therefore I am.”  Or, “ I am not and therefore I am.”  To think, to utter, to lie, to renounce oneself ... all bear witness that some part of me, however feeble and error-prone, participates with that abyss.  Thus, the ability to posit the nothingness of my existence proves its substance.  That I can and do assume is more substantial than any possible assumption.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

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

22 To confess a recognized sin is to be humiliated a second time.  Now one repents for having repented, a third humiliation. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

146 We exist only within paradox.  That is the condition of our existence.  We acknowledge the absolute reality of the immediate world but must reflect to do so.  Our reflections are rendered meaningless when dismantled again into immediate realities.  In fact our reflections are only as rich in wonder and meaning as they are far from our immediate reality.  Yet our distance ... our singular response as conditioned by the multitude of previously received reinforcements ... our totaled immediate reality accounts for both the surface and the depth, the stark reality and the meaning of this very observation we are making in this very paragraph. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

147 A rigorously grounded logic — a harsh grip upon surface reality — is a stale biscuit: we cannot deny its ability to sustain us through difficult times, but we rarely find ourselves that desperate. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

148 Within the human experience of the real , there are no real prisons, since we always have this one, horribly meaningless door which in times of peace we deny, avoid, or refuse to talk about ... while in dire emergency — for example, when we understand reality to the point of claustrophobia — we find ourselves laughing hysterically through the legitimacy of the exit. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

23 In a morality where the standard is set by the most contrite, a sin is not only a sin but a means.  And the innocent man is less valuable for his being incapable of genuine contrition. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

149 The human experience remains unexplained, not because the species lacks an organ efficient enough for the task.  On the contrary, it is because he is too proficient in the art of explanation.  He often holds this tool up so close to the eyes that he blots out the greater part of experience. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

24 It may be true that confession may sometimes aid honor, but only in the same manner in which a styptic pencil aids us when we are bleeding.  We would never conclude that the object of a styptic was to cause bleeding.  However, because confession can limit the loss to one’s honor, one finds confession occurring with and therefore associated with honor.  If we take the simultaneous occurrence of confession and honor and conclude a causal relationship, we create the misguided notion that a virtue is achieved through humiliating confessions.  Now the object of our styptic is to cause the bleeding. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism