The Experience of Clarity

54 Taking a step back, out of range, can be healthier than turning the other cheek.  It can also be more benevolent. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

55 How to kill what I love: do everything for the beloved ... mercy, pity, help in every way ... never let the beloved strain a muscle.  Ah, but to be truly kind ... one would be crucified for that. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

56 I am convinced that if we were to die and enter paradise the devil would ruin it all by having the damned reach their hands through the gates, begging for alms and forgiveness — and the greater their sincerity, the greater our misery. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

57 He who has a heart of gold is pure in heart: Here is a rich man who has his strongbox full of coins, with no room for more.  He casts what remains to the feet of the less fortunate, nonchalantly and perhaps with an ounce of arrogance ... but also with a pound of foolhardiness, for where else might he have put these trifles and without effecting such a return from their black hearts? They must pay for the respect they now owe, all the more grudgingly when the debt is forgiven: a humble gratitude, from the poor to the rich, becomes another word for humiliation, and this is a debt which must be paid with the coin of resentment.  It is impossible both to owe and to be pure in heart.  ... a warning to those who owe tithes to anyone other than themselves. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

58 To bracket someone within moral condemnation: first method, expose him as an outsider to our morality (an easy task, since “morality,” as commonly understood, is artificial).  Second method, expose him as just another member of the herd (even easier). A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

59 I cannot be an individual without social attachment.  How else would I get the training?  And from whom would I flee? A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

60 The “Truth” is not something which must be defended.  If “Truth” is what is absolutely necessary to well-being, then it need only be pointed out.  That which we have been defending at all costs is only what is necessary to the well-being of our group . But the fact that we defend the needs of our group at the very expense of our own well-being, and successfully I might add, damages my argument.  For certainly, if my own well-being were pointed out, wouldn’t I attempt to secure it?  Wrong question.  Why don’t I try?  ... and how did I learn that I should try?  From that smaller group, the individualists?  It is easy to forget that individualism is a social movement.  So, what am I seeking?  For I need my group ... A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

61 How can I put this crowd behind me and shut them up ... after we have abandoned each other?   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

62 The subjective world is unshared and isolated, each of us contained in our own bubble of illusion and calling it the universe, each of us feeling this universe in common with all of humanity ... and all the more lonely for it. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

63 Individualism is a disease of the social animal for which one amputates a large part of oneself in the hope of a cure. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

64 To grow one must never expose one’s roots to sunlight ... just as one must never hide one’s foliage.  To use a different metaphor, one must build a door between private and social contexts ... one which we lock shut. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

65 We are spiraling; that is sure.  But are we rising or falling?  And if we are indeed rising ... as is the end of all our efforts and sufferings ... are we only rising within the stratum of our class?   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

66 “Are you higher or lower in rank?”  The first question one asks every stranger ... in spite of oneself. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

67 A: You say that I am not easy to work with ... which tells me that I am not exploitable.   B: You say that I am easy to work with ... which tells me that you are easily taken.   A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

68 In most philosophical arguments there emerges a leader whose arguments do not follow, thereby. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

69   You will learn more from losing your way than from someone else finding it for you.  The many ways to indulge in dominance are so subtle and all are so prone to self-deceit that even the sincerest of them only finds in you their way.  A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism