Let your eyes drink me in. You are seeing colors you never saw before. You are realizing sensation you never even dreamt about. The foregoing discussion of the process of abstractification leads to the central issue of the effects of Capitalism on personality: the phenomenon of alienation. By alienation is meant a mode of experience in which the person experiences oneself as an alien. One does not experience oneself as the center of one’s World, as the creator of one’s own acts—but one’s acts and their consequences have become one’s masters, whom one obeys, or whom one may even worship. “Yea, wo unto those that worship idols, for the devil of all devils delight in them. And, in fine, wo unto those who die in their sins; for they shall return to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins,” reports 2 Nephi 9.37-38. Therefore, we should rediscover characteristics of the human soul and of mortal’s existential predicament which has been covered by the Essentialist tendency of modern thought. The material conditions of human existence allows one to derive religious faith from the desire of mortals to overcome finitude in a transcendent World. However, the alienated person is out of touch with oneself as one is out of touch with any other person. The courage to be as oneself is expressed in terms of a practical solipsism (the view of theory that the self is all that can be known to exist) that destroys any communication between mortal and mortal. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

 This form of alienation creates Nihilism. Nihilism presents the picture of a World in which human existence has fallen into utter meaninglessness. The split between subject and object from something which precedes both of them—life—and to interpret the objectified World as a self-negation of the creative life. This is the tragic self-destruction of life once technical reason has come into control. People become experienced as things are experienced; with the senses and with common sense, but at the same time without being related to oneself and to the World outside productively. The older meaning in which alienation was used was to denote an insane person; aliene in French, alienado in Spanish are older words for the psychotic, the thoroughly and absolutely alienated person. (“Alienist,” in English, is still used for the doctor who cares for the insane.) In the last century and a half the word “alienation” was used by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegal and Karl Marx, referring not to a state of insanity, but to a less drastic form of self-estrangement, which permits the person to act reasonably in practical matters, yet which constitutes one of the most severe socially pattern defects. In Marx’s system alienation is called that condition of mortal where one’s own act becomes to one an alien power, standing over and against one, instead of being ruled by the individual. This theater is full of discoveries in the deserts and jungles of the human soul. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

However, while the use of the word alienation in this general sense is a recent one, the concept is a much older one; it is the same to which the profits of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible referred as idolatry. It will help us to a better understanding of alienation if we begin by considering the meaning of idolatry. The prophets of monotheism did not denounce heathen religions as idolatrous primarily because they worshiped several gods instead of one. (However, we still should not judge other cultures because we do not understand them.) The essential difference between monotheism and polytheism is not one of the number of gods, but lies in the fact of self-alienation. Mortals spend their energy, their artistic capacities on building an idol, and then they worship this idol, which is nothing but the result of one’s own human effort. One’s life forces have flown into a thing and this thing, having become an idol, is not experienced as a result of one’s own productive effort, but as something apart from oneself, over and against the individual, which one worships and to which one submits. “Assur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods; for in thee the fatherless find love,” reports Hosea XIV.8. Idolatrous mortals bows down to the work of one’s own hands. The idol represents one’s own life forces in an alienated form. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

The principle of monotheism, in contrast, is that mortals are infinite, that there is no partial quality in them which can be hypostatized into the whole. God, in the monotheistic concept, is unrecognizable and indefinable; God is not a thing. If mortals are created in the likeness of God, they are created as the bearer of infinite qualities. In idolatry mortals bows down and submits to the projection of one partial quality in oneself. One does not experience oneself as the center from which living acts of love and reason radiate. One becomes a thing, one’s neighbor becomes a thing, just as his gods are things. “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of mortal’s hands. They have mouths but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like them; so is everyone that trusts in them,” reports Psalm 135.15-18. The individual self becomes an empty space and the bearer of something which is not oneself, something strange by which the self is estranged from itself. Monotheistic religions themselves, to a large extent, regressed into idolatry. Mortals projects their power of love and of reason unto God; one does not feel them any more as one’s own powers, and then one prays to God to give them back some of what one, mortals, has projected unto God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

In early Protestantism and Calvinism, the required religious attitude is that mortals should feel oneself empty and impoverished, and put their trust in the grace of God, that is, into the hope that God may return to one part of one’s own qualities, which one has put into God. This form of idealism and naturalism are alike in their attitude to the existing person; both of them eliminate one’s infinite significance and makes one a space through which something else passes. Both philosophies are expressions of a society which was devised for the liberations of humanity, but which fell under the bondage of objects it itself had created. The safety which is guaranteed by well-functioning mechanism for the technical control of nature, by the refined psychological control of the person, by the rapidly increasing organizational control of society—this safety is bought at a high price: mortals, for whom all this was invented as a means, becomes a means oneself in the service of means. Every act of submissive worship is an act of alienation and idolatry in this sense. What is frequently called love is often nothing but this idolatrous phenomenon of alienation; only that not God or an idol, but another person is worshiped in this way. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

 The loving person in this type pf submissive relationship, projects all his or her love, strength, thought, into the other person, and experiences the loved person as a superior being, finding satisfaction in complete submission and worship. This does not only mean that one fails to experience the loved person as a human being in his or her reality, but the one does not experience oneself in one’s full reality, as the bearer of productive human powers. Just as in the case of religious idolatry, one has projected all one’s richness into the other person, and experiences this richness not any more as something which is unique to the individual, but as something alien from oneself, deposited in somebody else, deposited in somebody else, with which one can get in touch only by submission to, or submergence in the other person. The same phenomenon exists in the worshiping submission to a political leader, or to the state. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

The leader and the state actually are what they are by the consent of the governed. However, they become idols when the individual projects all one’s powers into them and worships them, hoping to regain some of one’s powers by submission and worship. Yet, people should fight against economic dehumanization, and struggle for creativity, instead of allowing humanity to slip into the spatial realm of dead objects. In the Rousseau’s theory of the state, as in contemporary totalitarianism, the individual is supposed to abdicate one’s own rights to protect them unto the state as the only arbiter. In Fascism and Stalinism, the absolutely alienated individual worships at the altar of an idol, and it makes little difference by what names this idol is known: state, class, collective, or what else. “Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched person that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities,” reports 2 Nephi 4.17.  We must save life from the destructive power of self-objectivation. Philosophers generally struggle for the preservation of the person, for the self-affirmation of the self, in a situation in which the self is more and more lost in this World. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

 Philosophers wanted to indicate a way for the courage to be as oneself under conditions which annihilate the self and replace it by a thing. Therefore, it is important to have a continuing freshness of appreciation. Self-actualizers are seldom bored, stale, mediocre and people find that impressive. They constantly find novelty, wonder, beauty, and delight in the World. Even repeated experiences are new and delightful. Passionate, intimate love, for example, is never just a routine’ each coming together is a refreshing, re-vivifying experience quite unlike the experience of Deficiency-Motivated or self-alienated person who says mist experiences, sexual or otherwise, “Thank God that is over!” The self-actualizer is mature, capable of innocent delight in and appreciation of simple things: flowers, art, butterflies, people, a good cup of coffee. They experience more Peak or Oceanic feelings than the ordinary person. The self-actualizing people is overwhelmed wit a feeling of joy at being alive. One feels totally; all systems are involved—intellect, emotion, physical sense. One person described it thus: “I was a drop of water in the gigantic ocean, infinitesimal and insignificant, but totally aware that the gigantic ocean, infinitesimal and insignificant, but totally aware that the gigantic ocean is made up of simple drops of water.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

 Experience is a paradoxical sensation: being at once tiny and all-encompassing, being nothing and being everything, being helpless and being all-powerful, being weak and being super-strong. It is not a religious or supernatural experience, though it resembles the mystical experiences described by St. Francis, William Blake, Sarah Winchester, and others. It also resembles the transcending experiences reported by some people who are experiencing an elevated state of consciousness, though self-actualizing people generally have no use for stimulants. It seems to be a feeling experience; yet, during the few seconds the person is involved in it, centuries of time may seem to pass. Moreover, self-actualizing people report that it is a growing experience. They feel that they have come more real, more authentic, more of what they were before. We achieve the abundant life by becoming true disciple of Jesus Christ—by following in his ways and engaging in his work. The healing hands of Jesus Christ reach out to all who seek him. Believing and loving God and striving to follow Christ can change our hearts, soften our pain, and fill our souls with exceedingly great joy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

Believing God leads to faith in him and developing trust in his word. Faith causes our hearts to grow in our love for God and others. As that love grow, we are inspired to emulate the Savior as we continue our own great journey on the path of discipleship. They have a strong kinship feeling for other people. Healthy, authentic people feel engaged with and related to other people. They seldom become hermits. They are part of the human race and value the association. This allows the feelings of kinship to humankind as a whole and to individual persons in particular. Feelings of pleasure come from the company of others. Other people are drawn toward these people, too. The benefit derived from these kinship associations is not exploitive, at least not from the self-actualizer’s side of it. Their interpersonal relationships are profound. Because they trust more, empathize and associate more with other people than the typical person, they seem to develop greater love, and are able to break down the barriers that we all build up. Their love is warm and comfortable, seldom clinging and possessive. It is possible to have many acquaintances and casual contacts, but usually a small, select circle of deep friendships. So seeking friends who exhibit similar traits is a priority. It is the love of God that rescues, restores, and revives. God knows you. You are his child. He loves you. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

Even when you think that you are not lovable, God reaches out to you. This very day—every day—God reaches out to you, desiring to heal you, to life you up, and to replace the emptiness in your heart with an abiding joy. God desires to sweep away any darkness that clouds your life and fill it with the sacred and brilliant light of his unending glory. Differences in class, color, creed, or personality are accepted by these people as part of the rich variety of humankind. There is a surprising lack of racist or ethnocentric prejudice among them. The scriptures teach us that without faith it is impossible to please God: for one the comes to God must believe that he is. In my experience, these people value individuals as individuals and tend to emphasize the common bonds existing among human beings rather than the superficial differences. Their only prejudice seems to be in the direction of preferring other Being-Motivated people. Although they respect other people and their opinions, they tend to draw them out and try to enable them to become more of what they can become. Their relationships with others have a therapeutic quality about them; they do other people good by being with them. The love of God enters their hearts, when awaking in the morning, and stays throughout the day. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

Therefore, it is important to voice prayers of gratitude at evening’s end. This is the inexpressible love Heavenly Father has for us. Separate means from the ends. The means is as enjoyable as the end. The doing is as satisfying as the accomplishing. Getting there is half the fun, is a good cliché to describe the outlook God wants us to have. This again shows the impulsive rather than the compulsive quality of self-actualizing people. Being self-actualizing allows people the ability to take off for a weekend drive and enjoy wherever they go; whereas other people set a goal and if they do not attain it, feel that nothing was done or enjoyable. “I took a ride, fallen in the state that I am in, away from the lights, an ending before so we can begin now. And it is all I see, this scene is burnt out so meet me tonight and we will leave behind all that we have been. Do not let it slide further away with our eyes closed, in circles again when I am waiting and hoping for you to say that we will go. And then we will ride out, a silent escape that I am craving. I figured out, for all our mistakes we could win. It is all I see…these dreams call out. It is all I need and I need this now,” reports Emma Hewitt (State that I am In). #RandolphHarris 12 of 12