"Most people would agree that the word 'alienation' applies to modern man, that something happened in history which gradually despoiled the average man, transformed him from an active, creative being into the pathetic consumer who smiles proudly from our billboards that his armpits are odor-free around the clock. "
~ Ernest Becker
~ Ernest Becker
“The utter failure came at the Crucifixion in the tragic words, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'
If you want to understand the full tragedy of those words you must realize what they meant: Christ saw that his whole life, devoted to the truth according to his best conviction, had been a terrible illusion.
He had lived it to the full absolutely sincerely, he had made his honest experiment, but it was nevertheless a compensation. On the cross his mission deserted him. But because he had lived so fully and devotedly he won through to the Resurrection body.”
—Carl Jung
If you want to understand the full tragedy of those words you must realize what they meant: Christ saw that his whole life, devoted to the truth according to his best conviction, had been a terrible illusion.
He had lived it to the full absolutely sincerely, he had made his honest experiment, but it was nevertheless a compensation. On the cross his mission deserted him. But because he had lived so fully and devotedly he won through to the Resurrection body.”
—Carl Jung
"Without the lift of whiskey I wonder if I am not less than intelligent in facing my problems. I am fifty. Can I go on writing stories forever? Why not?...
I think that I should move to a hotel, but then I think that I cannot leave my family; my eyes flood with tears, and I empty the whiskey bottle.
I should take advantage of my maturity and not be dismayed at the loss of my youth."
~ The Journals of John Cheever
I think that I should move to a hotel, but then I think that I cannot leave my family; my eyes flood with tears, and I empty the whiskey bottle.
I should take advantage of my maturity and not be dismayed at the loss of my youth."
~ The Journals of John Cheever
The only thing to be done now,
now that the waves of our undoing
have begun to strike on us,
is to contain ourselves.
To keep still, and let the wreckage
of ourselves go,
let everything go, as the wave smashes us,
yet keep still, and hold
the tiny grain of something that no wave
can wash away,
not even the most massive wave
of destiny.
Among all the smashed debris of myself
keep quiet, and wait.
For the word is Resurrection.
And even the sea of seas will have to
give up its dead.
-- D.H. Lawrence
now that the waves of our undoing
have begun to strike on us,
is to contain ourselves.
To keep still, and let the wreckage
of ourselves go,
let everything go, as the wave smashes us,
yet keep still, and hold
the tiny grain of something that no wave
can wash away,
not even the most massive wave
of destiny.
Among all the smashed debris of myself
keep quiet, and wait.
For the word is Resurrection.
And even the sea of seas will have to
give up its dead.
-- D.H. Lawrence
“The best defenses against the terrors of existence are the homely comforts of love, work, and family life, which connect us to a world that is independent of our wishes yet responsive to our needs.
It is through love and work, as Freud noted in a characteristically pungent remark, that we exchange crippling emotional conflict for ordinary unhappiness. Love and work enable each of us to explore a small corner of the world and to come to accept it on its own terms. But our society tends either to devalue small comforts or else to expect too much of them.
Our standards of "creative, meaningful work" are too exalted to survive disappointment. Our ideal of "true romance" puts an impossible burden on personal relationships. We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves.”
—Christopher Lasch
It is through love and work, as Freud noted in a characteristically pungent remark, that we exchange crippling emotional conflict for ordinary unhappiness. Love and work enable each of us to explore a small corner of the world and to come to accept it on its own terms. But our society tends either to devalue small comforts or else to expect too much of them.
Our standards of "creative, meaningful work" are too exalted to survive disappointment. Our ideal of "true romance" puts an impossible burden on personal relationships. We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves.”
—Christopher Lasch
"...creativity has always depended upon a fascination with the mysterious, and an appreciation for the kinds of questions that reveal more than answers can ever provide.
When creative processes become subordinated to preserving established interests; when the glorification of systems takes priority over the sanctity of individual lives, societies begin to lose their life-sustaining vibrancy and may collapse.”
― Butler Shaffer
When creative processes become subordinated to preserving established interests; when the glorification of systems takes priority over the sanctity of individual lives, societies begin to lose their life-sustaining vibrancy and may collapse.”
― Butler Shaffer
“We should not be surprised, therefore, when we look back over the great conflicts that have torn the world apart since the Enlightenment, to discover that optimists have been far ahead of pessimists in their expressions of anger, and that the great crimes – the Holocaust and the Gulag included – should be laid, in the end, at the doors of those who were drunk on false hopes.”
- Roger Scruton
- Roger Scruton