Fight the temptation to choose a clear, safe course for that path only ever leads to stagnation. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. The mind can go either direction under stress — toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training it to focus on the meaning of the moment, the subjectivity of why you are there and then. How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.
Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. Just as the human body connects us with the mammals and displays numerous relics of earlier evolutionary stages going back to even the reptilian age, so the human psyche is likewise a product of evolution which, when followed up to its origins, show countless archaic traits. Reason alone therefore is not sufficient for living, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being and there is no coming to consciousness without either pain or sacrifice, embarrassment or stumble. No feeling, passion, or impulse can be opposed but by a contradictory feeling, passion, or impulse. Fear is quenched by hope or comedy, a habit of vice by a habit of virtue, and an instinct towards pessimism by a fanaticism towards idealism, high-mindedness, and fairness. Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.
Primitive superstition lies just below the surface of even the most tough-minded individuals, and it is precisely those who most fight against it who are the first to succumb to its negative effects while blocking out only the intuitions which help to guide. You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so. How often today we have seen the truth condemned! It is sad but unfortunately true that man learns nothing from history. Most civilization is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. You tame.
It's easier to be terrified by an enemy you admire, and all the world is a stage for them today. Riots and true comedy (not the late night shows) are but symptoms of the times, profoundly revealing. They betray the psychological tone, the deep uncertainties... And the striving for something better, plus the fear that nothing would come of it all. Your forefathers knew, you should never stay in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die. So too with power. Power bases are very dangerous because they attract people who are truly insane, people who seek power only for the sake of power. Power does not corrupt, it is a magnet to the corruptible.
