The Mechanics of Virtue, Matt Berry, introduction

Introduction
Habit is satisfied by maintaining its own inertia, whether by removing an obstacle, by returning from a diversion ... but usually by simply persisting, that is, by doing nothing at all.  An accustomed thought ... a concept upon the screen of consciousness must persist.  An accustomed action too must persist.  A concept and an action that accompany each other do not have to “match up” or “be consistent” – they only need to persist alongside each other as they have persisted before. In sum, for the inertia of a habit to persist, right or wrong, society must remove every obstacle presented.
Now, what should happen if the habit-script were a mandate for an action which threatened the inertia of the script itself?  For example, the actualization of a chant for “fearless honesty”?  This inherited (and therefore revered) message sets the stage for a passion play.  The herd receives its Holy Habit, but the chant requires an action which supersedes “mere chanting.”  The chant itself demands a distinction between a complacent harmony through habituation and a consistency seen only through grounded reasoning.  All the while, repetition blindness prevails in the majority, and the chants and actions persist in their sacred form, rationally inconsistent with each other ... and pleasant. 

There is quite often, however, in every over-crowded herd at least one insubordinate who actualizes the cry for “Truth at all costs!”  With him alone, the act matches the principle and not the habit. He thus presents himself as an obstacle to the persistence of the error, and the culture now crucifies the highest type of its own morality.




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



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