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Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable—Now is the Time for All Good People to Come to the Assist the Party!

ImageNever regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to profit of the community to which your later work belongs. Through education, we have the ability to change and improve the World in which we live. By touching the lives of humanity, outstanding educators make the future bright for all of us. The notion of secondary powers, placed between the sovereign and one’s subjects, occurred naturally to the imagination of aristocratic nations, because those communities contained individuals or families raised above the common level, and apparently destined to command by their birth, their education, and their wealth. This same nation is naturally wanting in the minds of humans in democratic ages, for converse reasons; it can only be introduced artificially, it can only be kept there with difficulty; whereas they conceive, as it were, without thinking upon the subject, the notion of a sole and central power which governs the whole community by its direct influence. Moreover in politics, as well as in philosophy and in religion, the intellect of democratic nations is peculiarly open to simple and general notions. Complicated systems are repugnant to it, and its favourite conception is that of a great nation composed of citizens all resembling the same pattern, and all governed by a single power. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageThe very next notion to that of a sole and central power, which presents itself to the minds of humans in the ages of equality, is the notion of uniformity of legislation. As every person sees that one differs but little from those about one, one cannot understand why a rule which is applicable to one person should not be equally applicable to all others. Hence the slightest privileges are repugnant to one’s reason; the faintest dissimilarities in the political institutions of the same people offend one, and uniformity of legislation appears to one to be the first condition of good government. I find, on the contrary, that this same notion of a uniform rule, equally binding on all the members of the community, was almost unknown to the human mind in aristocratic ages; it was either never entertained, or it was rejected. These contrary tendencies of opinion ultimately turn on either side to such blind instincts and such ungovernable habits, that they still direct the actions of humans, in spite of particular exceptions. Notwithstanding the immense variety of conditions in the middle ages, a certain number of persons existed at that period in precisely similar circumstances; but this did not prevent the laws then in force from assigning to each of them distinct duties and different rights. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

ImageOn the contrary, at the present time all the powers of government are exerted to impose the same customs and the same laws on populations which have as yet but a few points of resemblance. As the conditions of humans become equal among a people, individuals seem of less importance, and society of greater dimensions; or rather, every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd, and nothing stands conspicuous but the great and imposing image of the people at large. This naturally gives the humans of democratic periods a lofty opinion of the privileges of society, and a very humble notion of the rights of individuals; they are ready to admit that the interests of the former are everything, and those of the latter nothing. They are willing to acknowledge that the power which represents the community has far more information and wisdom than any of the members of that community; and that it is the duty, as well as the right, of that power to guide as well as govern each private citizen. If we closely scrutinize our contemporaries, and penetrate to the root of their political opinions, we shall detect some of the notions which I have just pointed out, and we shall perhaps be surprises to find so much accordance between humans who are so often at variance. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

ImageThe Americans hold, that in every state the supreme power ought to emanate from the people; but when once that power is constituted, they can conceive, as it were, no limits to it, and they are ready to admit that it has the right to do whatever it pleases. They have not the slightest notion of peculiar privileges granted to cities, families, or persons; their minds appear never to have foreseen that it might be possible not to apply with strict uniformity the same laws to every part, and to all the inhabitants. These same opinions are more and more diffused in Europe; they even insinuate themselves among those nations which most vehemently reject the principle of the sovereignty of the people. Such nations assign a different origin to the supreme power, but they ascribe to that power the same characteristics. Among them all, the idea of intermediate powers is weakened and obliterated: the idea of rights inherent in certain individuals is rapidly disappearing from the minds of humans; the idea of the omnipotence and sole authority of society at large rises to fill its place. These ideas take root and spread in proportions as social conditions become more equal, and humans more alike; they are engendered by equality, and in turn they hasten the progress of equality. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageIn France, where the revolution of which I am speaking has gone further than in any other European country, these opinions have got complete hold of the public mind. If we listen attentively to the language of the various parties in France, we shall find that there is not one which has not adopted them. Most of these parties censure the conduct of the government, but they all hold that the government ought perpetually to act and interfere in everything that is done. Even those which are most at variance are nevertheless agreed upon this head. The unity, the ubiquity, the omnipotence of the supreme power, and the uniformity of its rules, constitute the principal characteristics of all the political systems which have been put forward in our age. They recur even in the wildest visions of political regeneration: the human minds pursues them in its dreams. If these notions spontaneously arise in the minds of the private individuals, they suggest themselves still more forcibly to the minds of princes. While the ancient fabric of European society is altered and dissolved, sovereigns acquire new conceptions of their opportunities and their duties; they learn for the first time that the central power which they represent may and ought to administer by its own agency, and on a uniform plan, all the concerns of the whole community. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

ImageThe idea that the power of the government should be concerned with the welfare of the entire community was never conceived before our time by the monarch of Europe, now sink deeply into the minds of kings, and abides there amid all the agitation of more unsettled thoughts. Our contemporaries are therefore much less divided than is commonly supposed; they are constantly disputing as to the hands in which supremacy is to be vested, but they readily agree upon the duties and the rights of that supremacy. The notion they all form of government is that of a sole, simple, providential and creative power. All secondary opinions in politics are unsettled; this one remains fixed, invariable, and consistent. It is adopted by state-people and political philosophers; it is eagerly laid hold of by the multitude; those who govern and those who are governed agree to pursue it with equal ardour; it is the foremost notion of their minds, it seems connatural with their feelings. It originates therefore in no caprice of the human intellect, but it is a necessary condition of the present state of human kind. Humans become human in personal encounters. Only by meeting a “thou” does a human being realize that one is an “ego.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageNo natural object within the whole Universe can do this to one. Humans can transcend themselves in all directions in knowledge and control. They can use everything for their purposes. Humans are limited only by their finitude. However, these limits can be reduced infinitely. Nobody can say where the final limits of human power lie. In one’s encounter with the Universe, humans are able to transcend any imaginable limit. However, there is a limit for a human which is definite and which one always encounters, the other human. The other one, the “thou,” is like a wall which cannot be removed or penetrated or used. One who tries to do so, destroys oneself. The “thou” demands by one’s very existence to be acknowledged as a “thou” for an “ego” and as an “ego” for oneself. This is the claim which is implied in one’s being. Humans can refuse to listen to the intrinsic claim of the other one. One can disregard one’s demand for justice. One can remove or use one. One can try to transform one into a manageable object, a thing, a tool. However, in doing so one meets the resistance of one who has the claim to be acknowledged as an ego. And this resistance forces one either to meet the other one as an ego or to give up one’s own ego-quality. Injustice against the other one is always injustice against oneself. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageThe master who treats the slave not as an ego, but as a thing endangers one’s own quality as an ego. The slave by one’s very existence hurts the master as much as one is hurt by one. The external inequality is balanced by the destruction of the ego-quality of the master. This leads to the question whether the “Golden Rule” can be considered as the principle of justice in personal encounters. It is used even by Jesus. And it is certainly an expression of practical wisdom to do to people what one wants to have done by them! However, it is not the criterion of justice in person encounters. For it may well be that one wants to receive benefits which would contradict equally the justice towards the other one, if one received them.  If we are asked for them, we should reject them. If things are demanded or given that are obviously evil, this is comparatively easy. However, if we feel obliged to fulfil what seems to be a just claim, a claim we ourselves would make, it is difficult. Nevertheless we hesitate. We are suspicious of the others as we would be of ourselves; we suspect that behind the manifest meaning of the demand something else is hidden that should be rejected, an unconscious hostility, the desire to dominate, the will to exploit, the instinct of self-destruction. In all these cases the justice in a person-to-person encounter cannot be defined in terms of the “Golden Rule.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageWe have discovered the absolutely valid forma principle of justice in every personal encounter, namely the acknowledgement of the other person as a person. However, we have tried in vain to derive contents for this formal principle from the “Golden Rule.” The question then is: Are there other ways to discover such contents? A seemingly incontestable answer is: The cultural process gives the contents; they are provided by human experience, embodied in laws, tradition, authorities as well as the individual conscience. One who follow those rules and decides under the guidance of one’s conscience has a solid foundation for justice in personal encounters. Humankind is never without a treasury of ethical wisdom which presents its self-destruction and which, in religious terminology, is based on universal revelation. Since justice is the form of the power of being, the being of humankind could not have lasted for one moment without structures of justice in the encounter of humans with humans. Most of the daily encounters between human beings are determined by these sources of justice. In some cases law, tradition, and authority are predominant, in others the individual conscience. This is an important difference and can lead to tragic conflicts, as classically described in Sophocles’ Antigone. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageHowever, it is not decisive for our problems. For objective riles and individual conscience are interdependent. Laws, traditions, and authorities have been established as sources of justice through decisions in which the individual conscience was involved. And on the other hand, the individual conscience has been shaped by processes in which laws, traditions, and authorities have been internalized, and have become rules of justice which make external compulsion unnecessary. In somehow paradoxical ways one could say: Law is externalized conscience; conscience is internalized law. Rules of justice are created by the interplay of law and conscience. Is it possible to transcend this situation? Is there a way, other than the interplay of law and conscience, to get contents for the justice of person-to-person encounter? The only answer left is the classical theory of natural law, the belief that it is possible to discover structures of human relations which are universally, unchangeably, and concretely valid. The Ten Commandments are considered by classical theology as statements of the natural law and so are their interpretations in the Sermon on the Mount. The Roman Church adds the ecclesiastical interpretation of both. It does not deny that they are natural laws. However, because awareness of them is ineffective and distorted, the Church must restate them. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageHowever, these laws remain natural law and they are, in principle, rationally recognizable. In our analysis of equality and freedom two basic tenets of the natural law theory, we have tried to show that in the moment in which these principles are used for concrete decisions they become indefinite, changing, relative. This holds true of all contents of the natural law. They are like the principles which are supposed to control pleasures of the flesh relations—historically conditioned and often in flagrant conflict with the intrinsic justice of these relations. The natural law theory cannot answer the questions of the contents of justice. And it is possible to show that this question cannot be answered at all in terms of justice alone. The question of the content of justice drives to the principles of love and power. A further specific impairment is the development of unconscious arrogance. Again I mean this in the sense of arrogating to oneself qualities one does not have or that one has in a lesser degree than is assumed, and of unconsciously claiming the right on this ground to be demanding and derogatory toward others. All neurotic arrogance is unconscious in that the person is unaware of any false claims. This distinction here is not between conscious and unconscious arrogance but between one that is conspicuous and one that is hidden behind overmodesty and apologetic behaviour. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageThe difference lies in the measure of available aggression rather than in the measure of existing arrogance. In the one instance a person openly demands special prerogatives; in the other one is hurt if they are not spontaneously given to one. What lacking in either case is what might be called realistic humility, that is, a recognition—not only in words but with emotional sincerity—of the limitations and imperfections of human beings in general and one one’s own in particular. In my experience every patient is averse to thinking or hearing of any limitation that might apply to one. This is especially true of the patient with hidden arrogance. One would rather scold oneself mercilessly for having overlooked something than admit, with St. Paul, that “our knowledge is piecemeal.” One would rather recriminate oneself for having been careless or lazy than admit that nobody can be equally productive at all times. The surest indication of hidden arrogance is the apparent contradiction between self-recrimination, with its apologetic attitude, and the inner irritation at any criticism or neglect from outside. It often requires close observation to discover these hurt feelings because the overmodest type is likely to repress. However, actually one may be just as demanding as the openly arrogant person. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

ImageOne’s criticisms of others, too, is no less scathing, though what appears on the surface may be only a self-effacing admiration. Secretly, however, one expects the same perfect of others as of oneself, which means that one lacks a true respect for the particular individuality of others. The crux of the problem is stated well by St. Pau in Romans 14.5: “One man considers one day more scared than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in one’s own mind.” People simply have different opinions about various issues. One person sees no problem in a certain practice; another person considers that practice to be sinful. Most often these differing opinions arise from our family, or geographical, or perhaps, church cultures. I know that a certain practice that was offensive to the church I grew up in was not even an issue in a church I attended in California, whereas the California Christians would have been scandalized by one prominent practice back in Texas. Yet neither practice is addressed in the Bible. Where do these cultural convictions come from? They develop in various ways. Some have their origin in a “fence” someone erected a long time ago and no one knows that the original problem was. Others originated in the individual experience of some Christian who began to lay one’s personal conviction on others. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

ImageThere was once a missionary family who literally were forced off the mission field over peanut butter. They were sent to a location where peanut butter was not available, so they asked friends back in the States to occasionally send them some. The problem was that the other missionaries considered it a mark of spirituality not to have peanut butter. The newer missionary family considered this a matter of differing opinions, so they continued to receive and enjoy their peanut butter. However, the pressure from the other missionaries to conform became so intense, the newer family finally gave up and left the mission field. How could something like this—that probably seems petty and foolish to us—have happened? I imagine it developed something like this: A missionary family who greatly enjoyed peanut better went to this particular mission field. Upon discovering there was no peanut butter available locally, they faced a choice of doing without it or asking friend or relatives in the States to send it to them. As they considered their options before the Lord, they came to the conclusion that doing without peanut butter was a small sacrifice to make for being on the mission field. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Image Though, like the apostle Paul, they have a “right” to peanut butter, they chose not to use that right. “Do you not know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered at the alter? In the same way, the Lord has command that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel,” 1 Corinthians 9.13. The family did as to the Lord. “One who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. One who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for one gives thanks to God; and one who abstains, does so the Lord and gives thanks to God,” reports Romans 14.6. If my theory of this issue’s origin is correct, I personally find their thinking quite acceptable, perhaps even applaudable, in that circumstance. That is Paul’s whole point in Romans 14. If they decide to give up peanut butter as to the Lord who I am to belittle or ridicule them? Paul said the person whose faith allows on to eat peanut butter must not look down on one who does not. “Therefore let us stop passing judgement on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way,” reports Romans 14.13. So what went wrong? If the original missionary family made a sincere decision to give up peanut butter as to the Lord, how did it eventually become a divisive issue among missionaries? #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

ImageAgain, I a speculating. It probably because a divisive issues because one family elevated the particular leading of God for them to the level of a spiritual principle, which they then applied to everyone: “If God had ‘led’ us to give up peanut better on the mission field, surely that is His will for everyone else.” Whether I have speculated correctly on the reasons behind this story or not makes no difference. Even if they are not true in this particular instance, they have been true in scores of others. As Christians we cannot seem to accept the clear biblical teaching in Romans 14 that God allows equally Godly people to have differing opinions on certain matters. We universalize what we think is God’s particular leading in our lives and apply it to everyone else. When we think like that, we are, so to speak, “putting God in a box.” We are insisting that He must surely lead everyone as we believe He had led us. We refuse to allow God the freedom to deal with each of us as individuals. When we think like that, we are legalists. We must not seek to bind the consciences of other believers with the private convictions that arise out of our personal walk with God. Even if you believe God has led you in developing those convictions, you still must not elevate them to the level of spiritual principles for everyone else to follow. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

ImageOnly what God has commanded in his word should be regarded as binding; in all else there may be liberty of actions. If we are going to enjoy the freedom we have in Christ, we must be alter to convictions that fall into the category of differing opinions. We must not seek to bind the consciences of others or allow to them to bind ours. We must stand firm in the freedom we have in Christ.  The destruction of Babylon is a type of the destruction at the Second Coming—it will be a day of wrath and vengeance—Babylon (the World) will fall forever—compare Isaiah 13. About 559-545 Before Christ. “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones, for mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my highness. The noise of the multitude in the mountains like as of a great people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, the Lord of Hosts mustereth the hosts of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of Heaven, yea, the Lord, and the weapons of one’s indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“Therefore shall all hands be faint, every person’s heart shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to pay the land desolate; and one shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of Heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the Sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the Moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the World for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay down the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a human more precious than fine golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore, I will shake the Heavens, and the Earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no human taketh up; and they shall every human turn to one’s own people, and flee every one into one’s own land. Every one that is proud shall be thrust through; yea, and every one that is joined to the wicked shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver and gold, nor shall they delight in it. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“Their bows shall also dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. However, the wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her day shall not be prolonged. For I will destroy her speedily; yea, for I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked shall perish,” reports 2 Nephi 23.1-22. O God, Who hast sounded in our ears Thy divine and saving oracles, enlighten the souls of us sinners to the full understanding of what has been spoken, that we may not only appear to be hearer of spiritual words, but also doers of good works, following after faith unfeigned, blameless life, and irreproachable conduct; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImageBenign LORD, I praise Thee continually for permission to approach They throne of grace, and to spread my wants and desires before Thee. I am not worthy of Thy blessings and mercies for I am far gone from original righteousness; my depraved nature reveals itself in disobedience and rebellion; my early days discovered in me discontent, pride, envy, revenge. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor the multiplied transgressions of later years, my failure to improve time and talents, my abuses of mercies and means, my wasted sabbaths, my perverted seasons of grace, my long neglect of Thy great salvation, my disregard of the Friend of sinners. While I confess my guilt, help me to feel it deeply, with self-abhorrence and self-despair, yet to remember there is hope in Thee, and to see the Lamb that takes away sin. Through Him my I return to Thee, listen to Thee, trust in Thee, delight in Thy law, obey Thee, be upheld by Thee. Preserve my understanding from error, my affections from love of idols, my lips from speaking guile, my conduct from stain of vice, my character from appearance of evil, that I may be harmless, blameless, rebukeless, exemplary, useful, light-giving, prudent, zealous for Thy glory and the good of my fellow-humans. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20Image

 

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Wonders are Many, and None is More Wonderful than Humanity!

CaptureMost people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. The social self is the image we think other people have of us, and the way we ourselves present to other people because of this view. One problem is that, in order to project this image, we may sometimes feel compelled to do or say things we do not really feel. This can turn into a sort of game that keeps us from really communicating with people. So-called satellite relationships may be formed by either partner, and this often causes great pain as well as enriching growth. Satellite relationships means a close secondary relationship outside the marriage which may or may not involve pleasure of the flesh, but which is valued for itself. It seems much preferable to such terms as “extramarital pleasures of the flesh” or “an affair” or “mistress” or “lover.” When two persons in a partnership learn to look upon each other as separate persons, with separate as well as mutual interests and needs, they are likely to discover that outside relationships are one of those needs. And when that outside relationship involves the possibility of intimacy involving pleasures of the flesh, it poses problems for the primary partners. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageLarke, for example, gives her partner Radley, the freedom to date other women, and knows that the dating can lead to pleasures of the flesh.  Intellectually this has her full approval, but her emotional lag behind this logical stance. She is often jealous and hurt, yet also feels confirmed by the fact that Radley always prefers her, returns to her. I often observe in encounter groups, or groups where couples are involved, the beginning development of such satellite relationships. An emotional, volatile wife who is resentful of her husband’s compulsive dedication to his research forms a new relationship with another man in the group. He is playful, which her husband is not. He is feelingful and expressive of emotions, qualities lacking in her husband. The relationship becomes very close. The woman is very open with both her husband and her new-found love about her excitement and satisfaction in the new alliance, and also the confusion and conflict it generates in her. Her husband had a great many good qualities, and she feels disloyal to him, but–. As for her researcher-husband, who has described himself in the group as being without feelings, he discovers a depth of jealousy and anger in himself that frightens him. He is suffering intensely. He and his wife talk and talk, sometimes bitterly, sometimes caringly, at times really understanding one another, at other times experiencing nothing but anger. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageBecause of all of this was so much in the open, the group and I were a part of the situation. We could not help but observe the sharp swings in mood between husband and wife, the alternating closeness and distancing in the satellite relationship. Different members of the group listened understandingly to all three members f the triangle, especially to the pain and anger and conflict experienced by the wife and her husband. As the group experience came to an end, I wondered whether a person-centered approach would be responsible for breaking up a marriage which, with all its flaws, had lasted for many years. It is a heavy question to ponder. Months later a member of the group told me of a letter she had received from the wife. Their marriage, she said, had never been better. They were talking with each other in ways they had never done before, sharing feelings they would previously have hidden. The marriage had more value, to each of them, than in all its previous years. The dynamics of their marriage has drastically changed. Previously the hard-working, achieving husband cared for and looked after the woman he regarded as overemotional and needing restraint. Meanwhile his wife resented his dedication to his work, felt unfulfilled, regarded herself as definitely his inferior. Now it has come much closer to being a partnership of equals. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageThis is a pattern I have observed on numerous occasions. There is no doubt in my mind that when partnerships are exposed to a person-centered approach satellite relationship become more likely. Individuals—both men and women—discover that it is possible to feel love for more than one person at a time. One or both may experience a second love, outside of their primary relationship. This nearly always leads to jealousy, pain, and fear and loss. Yet that crisis can be lived through with a consequent enrichment of the partnership. The core of the problem is jealousy, and the depth of its roots. Jealousy characterizes the relationship in which one seeks more power than love. Many do not believe that jealousy has any place in open marriage. The frequency of jealousy has made me wonder whether it is simply the result of cultural conditioning, in which case it might disappear in a generation or two, or whether it has some basic biological foundation, like the territoriality that we find in animals, birds, and ourselves. There is evidence in the lives of many couples to indicate that feelings of jealousy can be modified and worked through, though not without feelings of hurt. To the extent that jealousy is made up of a sense of possessiveness, any alteration in that feeling makes a profound difference in the politics of the marriage relationship. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageFeelings of jealousy can also be modified and worked through to the degree that each partner becomes truly a free agent, then the relationship only has permanence if the partners are committed to each other, are in good communication with each other, accept themselves as separate persons, and live together as persons, not roles. This is a new and mature kind of relationship toward which many couples are striving. One woman, speaking out of her own personal experience in her marriage and also a counselor, expresses a point of view full of person-centered wisdom: “I think that there is one essential condition for living through the crises and enriching the relationship. It is the ability to believe that you have the right to experience what you are experiencing, and that you do not need the permission of your partner to do it. At the same time, you care enough for your partner to stay with him while he is having his feelings, and listen to them without feeling overresponsible and letting them control your behaviour. What I see frequently happening is that the partner who is involved in another relationship feels controlled, guilty, and angry when he is not received fully by his mate. That increases the feeling of threat and abandonment in the other, who becomes more clinging. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImagePretty soon they are involved in a terrible vicious cycle that is very hard to break. I think the ideal situation is when one can tell the partner: “I need and I owe it to myself to experience this other relationship now. I am hearing your hurt, your jealousy, your fear, your anger; I do not like to receive them, but they are a consequence of the choice I am making, and I love you enough to want to be available to work through them with you. If I decide not to have this other experience it is because I choose to do so, and not because I let you stop me. In that way I will not feel resentful of you, and I will not punish you for my lack of courage in making my choices and being responsible for the consequences.” This is a mature kind of striving for both independence and richness. In general, the characteristics of an impairment of moral integrity are a decrease in sincerity and an increase in egocentricity. It is interesting to note that this connection that in Zen Buddhist writings sincerity is equated with wholeheartedness, pointing to the very conclusion we reach on the basis of clinical observation—namely, that nobody divided within oneself can be wholly sincere. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageSincerity, that is, not-deceiving, means putting forth one’s whole being, technically known as the whole being in action in which nothing is kept in reserve, nothing is expressed under disguise, nothing goes to waste. When a person lives like this, one is said to be a golden-haired lion; one is a symbol of virility, sincerity, wholeheartedness; one is divinely human. Egocentricity is a moral problem in so far as it entails making others subservient to one’s own needs. Instead of their being regarded and treated as human beings in their own right they come to be merely means to an end. They have to be appeased or liked for the sake of allaying one’s own anxiety; they have to be impressed for the sake of lifting one’s own self-respect; they have to be blamed because one cannot assume responsibility for oneself: they have to be defeated because of one’s own need to triumph, and so on. The particular ways in which these impairments manifest themselves vary with the individual. Most of them have already been dealt with in some other connection and need only be reviewed here in a more systematic fashion. I shall not attempt to be exhaustive. That would be difficult, if for no other reason than that we have not yet discussed sadistic trends and must postpone doing so because they are to be regarded as an end state of neurotic development. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageStarting with the most obvious, whatever course a neurosis takes, unconscious pretenses are always a factor. Outstanding are the following: The pretense of love. The variety of feelings and strivings that can be covered by the term love or that are subjectively felt as such is astonishing. It may cover parasitic expectations on the part of a person who feels too weak or too empty to live one’s own life. In a more aggressive form it may cover a desire to exploit the partner, to gain through one success, prestige, and power. It may express a need to conquer someone and to triumph over one, or to merge with a partner and live through one, perhaps in a sadistic way. It may mean a need to be admired, and so secure affirmation for one’s idealized image. For the very reason that love in our civilization is so rarely a genuine affection, maltreatment and betrayal abound. We are left with the impression, then, that love turns into contempt, hate, or indifference. However, love does not swing around so easily. That fact is that the feelings and strivings prompting pseudo love eventually come to the surface. Needless to say, this pretense operates in the parent-child relationship and in friendship as well as in pleasures of the flesh. The pretense of goodness, unselfishness, sympathy, and the like is akin to the pretense of love. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageThe pretense of goodness is characteristic of the complaint type and is reinforced by a particular kind of idealized image as well as by the need to blot out all aggressive impulses. The pretense of interest and knowledge is most conspicuous in those who are alienated from their emotions and believe that life can be mastered by intellect alone. They have to pretend that they know everything and are interested in everything. However, it appears also in a more insidious way in persons who seem to be devoted to a particular calling, and without being aware of it use this interest as a steppingstone to success, power, or material advantage. The pretense of honesty and fairness is most frequently found in the aggressive type, especially when one has marked sadistic trends. One sees through the pretenses of love and goodness in others and believes that because one does not subscribe to the common hypocrisies of feigning generosity, patriotism, piety, or whatever, one is particularly honest. Actually one has one’s own hypocrisies of a different order. One’s lack of current prejudices may be a blind and negativistic protest against any traditional values. One’s ability to say no may be not strength but a wish to frustrate others. One’s frankness may be a wish to deride and humiliate. A desire to exploit may be behind the legitimate self-interest to which one confesses. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageThe pretense of suffering must be discussed in greater detail because of the confused views that circulate around it. Analysts who adhere strictly to Dr. Freud’s theories share with the layman the belief that the neurotic wants to feel abused, wants to worry, has a need for punishment. The data supporting the concept that the neurotic wants to suffer are well known. However, the term wants actually covers a variety of intellectual sins. The authors who propound the theory fail to appreciate that the neurotic suffers much more than one knows and that one usually becomes aware of one’s suffering only when one begins to recover. What is even more relevant, they do not seem to understand that suffering from unresolved conflicts is inevitable and entirely independent of one’s persona wishes. If a neurotic lets oneself go to pieces, one certainly does not bring such harm on oneself because one wants it but because inner necessities compel one to do so. If one is self-effacing and offers the other cheek, one—at least unconsciously—hates doing so and despises oneself for it; but one is in such terror of one’s own aggressiveness that one must go to the opposite extreme and let oneself be abused in some way or other. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageAnother characteristic that has contributed to the notion of a propensity for suffering is the tendency to exaggerate or dramatize any affliction. It is true that suffering may be felt and displayed for ulterior motives. It may be a plea for attention or forgiveness; it may be unconsciously used for purposes of exploitation; it may be an expression of repressed vindictiveness and be employed then as a means to exort sanctions. However, in view of the inner constellation, these are the only ways open to the neurotic to achieve certain ends. It is true also that one often lays one’s suffering to false causes and so gives the impression of wallowing in suffering for no good reason. Thus one may be disconsolate and attribute it to one’s being “guilty,” while in reality one suffers from not being one’s idealized image. Or one may feel lost when separated from a loved one, and though one attributes one’s feeling to one’s deep love, in reality—being torn within oneself—one cannot bear living alone. Finally, one may falsify one’s affects and believe that one suffers when actually one is filled with rage. A woman, for instance, may think she is suffering when her lover has not written at the appointed time, but is really angered because she wants things to happen exactly as she expects them or because she feels humiliated at any seeming lack of attention. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageSuffering, in this case, is unconsciously preferred to recognizing the rage and the neurotic drives responsible for it, and is emphasized because it serves to cover up the duplicity involved in the whole relationship. In none of these instances, however, can it be inferred that the neurotic wants to suffer. What is expressed is an unconscious pretense of suffering. However, the self-actualized has a greater power, and seeks less publicity. It is only if one knows that a mission has to be performed calling for public notice that one is likely to abrogate this rule. Yet, of course, there will be no egoism and no vanity behind the abrogation. Such a prophet is like a bell, calling its hearers to attend the true church within themselves. One’s work is being done within the inner life of hundreds of human beings. One’s altruism is active more often behind the scenes of the World-stage than before its footlights. The masters rarely emerge from their obscurity to positions of influence and prominence but their disciples may and occasionally do. One will be content to plant seed-thoughts, and wait and work patiently, knowing and believing in the inherent power of true ideas to grow in their proper time into mature, fruitful existence. The perfect concentration that reigns within one’s being can have the same effect when deliberately directed upon sensitive and sympathetic minds as the concentration of the burning lens upon dry paper. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageThe devotee can be inspired, exalted, and illumined. Once one has uttered the sacred Word, once one has revealed to humans what they have not been able to know for themselves, one has done one’s work. If it fails to be accepted, if one gains no converts to belief in human’s higher purpose, the blame is not one’s. One cannot give spiritual peace to the spiritually peaceless as a lasting gift, but one can show them that it does exist as a reality and is no mere figment of the imagination. And one makes this demonstration by being just what one is and acting just as one does. The self-actualized starts no cult oneself and founds no church. This is usually done by the disciples who gather together because one would not gather them around. Merely to remember with devotion that such a being is living on Earth is to know, in some mysterious telepathic way, that there is inward sustenance. The last thing one wants to do is to leave a sect behind one. Like Jesus Christ, one wants people to depend on the truth rather than on a person. The words of a person so inspired, so wise, directly act on our minds and evoke our intuition. The self-actualized will help people on one’s own terms, not theirs, and guide them in one’s own way, again not necessarily the expected way. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageCould we but trace some of these higher movements of history, we would have to trace their course back to the secret inspiration of some illuminates who live quietly and serve humankind without advertising the fact. That which the illuminate will give out as doctrine will depend upon the conditions and needs of one’s epoch and place. One will be neither too active nor ultramodernistic. In classical Christianity, faith implies the assumption of humans into redemption by Christ, one’s purification from the stain of original sin contracted in the First Man. Faith remains saving; it saves from estrangement by revealing that estrangement is, after all, not estranging. This estrangment is “sin,” incurred by the very fact that we are created. The correlation of faith and sin remains; the classical language may be used, but voided of its substances. There is no faith without a concrete content, corresponding to the objective knowledge of Revelation in classical theology, but the traditional terms have been given a radical reinterpretation. The formulas in which faith conveys its concrete content are only symbolic attempts to identify the Unconditioned. The real purpose of faith is to grasp the power of being, conquering non-being, to experience our ultimate concern, this purpose expresses itself in symbols and myths which point to the depth of reason and its mystery. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageObjective statements of faith, whether made inside or outside the Christian tradition, are symbols and myths, pointers to the ultimate ground of being, to the absolute meaning of reality. Religion, whether pagan or Christian, is a system of symbolic statements and symbolic rites trying to express an experience of the Unconditioned. Religion is also the state of being grasped by the power of being-itself. As such it is a universal phenomenon lying at the root of atheism, agnosticism, and the loftiest mysticism: faith tends to become the stuff of all life. The case is the same, in this context, with religion: In some cases the religious root is carefully covered, in others it is passionately denied; in some it is deeply hidden and in others superficially. However, it is never completely absent. For everything that is participates in being-itself, and everybody has some awareness of this participation, especially in the moments which one experiences the threat of non-being. The religious situation of our age is implicitly surfacing in science, metaphysics, art, politics, ethics, unchurched mysticism, and eschatological movements. The religious situation is there identified with an unconscious, self-evident faith which lies at a deeper level than the apparent antithesis of belief and unbelief. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageImages increase the danger of inadequate ideas. They have the power to obsess and to hypnotize, as well as to escape critical scrutiny. The image one has of oneself, for example, can override everything else and cause one to act in ways contrary to all reality and good sense. Those who have been rejected or abused as children or have lived with addicted or “cold” parents, have distorted images of themselves and of “reality.” These are constantly present to their minds and force them into the disastrous “lifescape” of thought where they then must live. In groups, shared images lead to fads, group-think, and mob hysteria that, once again, has no regard to fact or reasonableness. Individuals who suffer from a poor image of themselves are caught up in self-rejection and have no defenses against group pressures. They do not see themselves as the objects of God’s love, and they have no place to make a stand. Success, popularity and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often some from the way they are part of a much larger temptation of self-rejection. We have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions to our desolate condition. We accept it as a fact that we deserve to be pushed aside and rejected. We see ourselves that way. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

ImageSelf-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the scared voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence. However, this profound truth will have little or no effect without powerful images of ourselves as God’s beloved. Self-rejection is, ultimately, our soul’s reproach to God’s, deriving from false images of oneself and one’s World. To manipulate images—and thereby people—is the work of the propagandist and the advertiser. Unfortunately, is often done in the name of Christ to achieve some desired result. By contrast, to loosen the grip of fallen imagery and its underlying idea structure is a fundamental part of what mental healthy professionals must do to assist their patients. It is also essential to the Christian ministries of inner healing and evangelism. In the millennial day all people will praise the Lord—He will dwell among them—Compare Isaiah 12. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things; this is known in all the Earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee,” reports 2 Nephi 22.1-6. O Benignant King of ages and Master of all creation, relieve Thy Church approaching Thee through Christ; fulfil for each of us what is good for him; bring us all to perfection, and make us meet for the grace of Thy sanctification, uniting us together in Thy Holy Church, which Thou hast purchased with the precious Blood of Thine Only begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; with Whom, and with Thine All-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, Thou art blessed and glorified forever. Lord Jesus, please grant me the favour of being led by Thee, under the directions of Thy providence and Thy word. Grant me Thy blessings with bitter things, to brighten and quicken me, not to depress and make me lifeless; please grant me, like Gideon of old, way-tokens, by removing things that discourage me; grant me succour beneath the shadow of Thy sympathy when I am tempted. Accept my unceasing thanks that I am not cast off from Thy hand as a darkened star or a rudderless vessel. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageSuffer not my life to extend beyond my usefulness; cast me not under the feet of pride, injustice, riches, Worldly greatness, selfish oppression of humans; please help me to wait patiently, silently upon Thee, not to be enraged or speak unadvisedly. Let Thy mercy follow me while I life, and give me assistance to resign myself to Thy will. Take my heart and hold it in Thy hand; write upon it reverence to Thyself with an inscription that time and eternity cannot erase. To Thy grace and the care of Thy covenant I commit myself, in sickness, and in health, for Thou hast overcome the World, fulfilled the law, finished justifying righteousness, swallowed up death in victory, and taken all power everywhere. Make this covenant with thine own blood in the court of forgiving mercy; attach unto in Thy name in which I believe, for it is sealed by my unworthy mortal hand. The self-actualized announces one’s revelation to one’s contemporaries in the mode that is one’s and theirs. Ina scientific age one will present facts and reason logically. Great Adepts are content to make history rather than figure in it, although their figures have glowed brightly in history like shooting stars and then disappeared. One’s success in communicating truth will depend, on one’s audience’s side, both on the degree of understanding it possesses and feelings it envinces toward one. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

 

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Business Underlies Everything in Our National Life, Including Our Spiritual Life!

ImageSome humans are more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children. To be conscious that you are unaware of the true facts is a great step toward knowledge. What The Real Advantages Are Which American Society Derives From The Government of The Democracy: The political institutions of the Untied States of America appear to me to be one of the forms of government which a democracy may adopt: but I do not regard the American constitution as the best, or as the only one which a democratic people may establish. In showing the advantages which the Americans derive from the government of democracy, I am therefore very far from meaning, or from believing, that similar advantages can be obtained only from the same laws. General Tendency of The Laws Under The Rule of The American Democracy, And Habits of Those Who Apply Them: Defects of a democratic Government easy to be discovered.—Its Advantages only to be discerned by long Observation.—Democracy in America often inexpert, but general Tendency of the Laws advantageous.—In the American Democracy public Officers have no permanent interest distinct from those of the Majority.—Result of this State of things. The defects and the weaknesses of a democratic government may very readily be discovered; they are demonstrated by the most flagrant instances, while it is beneficial influence is less perceptibly exercised. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

ImageA single glance suffices to detect the defects and weaknesses of a democratic government and its evil consequences, but its good qualities can only be discerned by long observation The laws of the American democracy are frequently defective or incomplete; they sometimes attack vested rights, or give a sanction to others which are dangerous to the community; but even if they were good, the frequent changes which they undergo would be an evil. How comes it, then, that the American republics prosper, and maintain their position? In the consideration of laws, a distinction must be carefully observed between the end at which they aim, and the means by which they are directed to that end; between their absolute and their relative excellence. If it be the intention of the legislator to favour the interests of the minority at the expense of the majority, and if the measure one takes are s combined as to accomplish the object one has in view with the least possible expense of time and exertion, the law may be well drawn up, although its purpose be bad; and the more efficacious it is, the greater is the mischief which it causes. Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest possible number; for they emanate from a majority of the citizens, who are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed to their own advantage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

ImageThe worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. The laws of an aristocracy tend, on the contrary, to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the minority, because an aristocracy, by its very nature, constitutes a minority. It may therefore be asserted, as a general proposition, that the purpose of a democracy, in the conduct of its legislation, is useful to a greater number of citizens than that of an aristocracy. This is, however, the sum total of its advantages. Aristocracies are infinitely more expert in the science of legislation than democracies ever can be. They are possessed of a self-control which protects them from the errors of a temporary excitement; and they form lasting designs which they mature with the assistance of favourable opportunities. Aristocratic government proceeds with the dexterity of art; it understands how to make the collective force of all its laws converge at the same time to a given point. Such is not the case with democracies, whose laws are almost always infective or in inopportune. The means of democracy are therefore more imperfect than those of aristocracy, and the measures which it unwittingly adopts are frequently opposed to its own cause; but the object it has in view is more useful. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

ImageLet us now imagine a community so organized by nature, or by its constitution, that it can support the transitory action of bad laws, and that it can await, without destruction, the general tendency of the legislation: we shall then be able to conceive that a democratic government, notwithstanding its defects, will be most fitted to conduce to the prosperity of this community. This is precisely what has occurred in the United States of America; and I repeat, what I have before remarked, that the great Advantage of the Americans consist in their being able to commit faults which they may afterward repair. An analogous observation may be made respecting public officers. It is easy to perceive that the American democracy frequently errs in the choice of the individuals to whom it intrusts  the power of the administration; but it is more difficult to say why the sate prospers under their rule. In the first place it is to be remarked, that if in a democratic state the governors have less honesty and less capacity then elsewhere, the governed on the other hand are more enlightened and more attentive to their interests. As the people in the democracies is more incessantly vigilant in its affairs, and more jealous of its right, it prevents its representative from abandoning that general line of conduct which its own interest prescribes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

ImageIn the second place, it must be remembered that if the democratic magistrate is more apt to misuse one’s power, one possesses it for a shorter period of time. However, there is yet another reason which is still more general and conclusive. It is no doubt of importance to the welfare of nations that they should be governed by people of talents and virtue; but it is perhaps still more important than the interests of those humans should not differ from the interests of the community at large; for if such were the case, virtues of a high order might become useless, and talents might be turned to a bad account. I say that it is important that the interests of the persons in authority should not conflict with or oppose the interests of the community at large; but I do not insist upon their having the same interests as the whole population, because I am not aware that such a state of things ever existed in any country. No political form has hitherto been discovered, which is equally favourable to the prosperity and the development of all the classes into which society is divided. These classes continue to form, as it were, a certain number of distinct nations in the same nation; and experience has shown that it is no less dangerous to place the fate of these classes exclusively in the hands of any one of them, than it is to make one people the arbiter of the destiny of another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

ImageWhen the rich alone govern, the interests of the less affluent is always endangered; and when the less affluent makes the laws, that of the rich incurs very serious risks. The advantage of democracy des not consist, therefore, as has sometimes been asserted, in favouring the prosperity of all, but simply in contributing to the well-being of the greatest possible number. The humans who are intrusted with the direction of public affairs in the Untied States of America, are frequently inferior, both in point of capacity and of morality, to those whom aristocratic institutions would rise to power. However, their interests are identified and confounded with that of the majority of their fellow-citizens. They may frequently be faithless, and frequently mistake; but they will never systematically adopt a line of conduct oppose to the will of the majority; and it is impossible that they should give a dangerous or an exclusive tendency to the government. The mal-administration of a democratic magistrate is a mere isolated fact, which only occurs during the short period for which one is elected. Corruption and incapacity do not act as common interests, which may connect humans permanently with one another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

ImageA corrupt or an incapable magistrate will not concert one’s measures with another magistrate, simply because that individual is as corrupt and as incapable as oneself; and these two humans will never unite their endeavours to promote the corruption and inaptitude of their remote posterity. The ambition and the maneuvers of the one will serve, on the contrary, to unmask the other. The vices of a magistrate, in democratic states, are usually peculiar to one’s own person. However, under aristocratic governments public humans are swayed by the interest of their order, which, if it is sometimes confounded with the interests of the majority, is very frequently distinct from them. This interest is the common and lasting bond which unites them together; it induces them to coalesce, and to combine their efforts in order to attain an end which does not always ensure the greatest happiness of the greatest number; and it serves not only to connect the persons in authority, but to unite them to a considerable portion of the community, as well as by the government of which one is a member. The common purpose which connects the interest of the magistrates in the aristocracies, with that of a portion of their contemporaries, identifies it with that of future generations; their influence belongs to the future as much as to the present. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

ImageThe aristocratic magistrate is urged at the same time toward the same point, by the passions of the community, by one’s own, and I may almost add, by those of one’s posterity. Is it, then, wonderful that one does not resist such repeated impulses? And, indeed, aristocracies are often carried away by the spirit of their order without being corrupted by it; and they unconsciously fashion society to their own ends, and prepare it for their own descendants. The English aristocracy is perhaps the most liberal which ever existed, and no body of humans has ever, uninterruptedly, furnished so many honourable and enlightened individuals to the government of a country. It cannot, however, escape observation, that in the legislation of England the good of the poor has been sacrificed to the advantage of the rich, and the rights of the majority to the privileges of the few. The consequence is, that England, at the present day, combines the extremes of fortune in the bosom of her society; and her hands perils and calamities are almost equal to her power and her renown. In the United States of America, where the public officer have no interests to promote connected with their caste, the general and constant influence of the government is beneficial, although the individuals who conduct it are frequently unskillful and sometimes contemptible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

ImageThere is, indeed, a secret tendency in democratic institutions to render the exertions of the citizens subservient to the prosperity of the community, notwithstanding their private vices and mistakes; while in aristocratic institutions there is a secret propensity, which, notwithstanding the talents and the virtue of those who conduct the government, leads them to contribute to the evils which oppress their fellow-creatures. In aristocratic governments public humans may frequently do injuries which they do not intend; and in democratic states they produce advantages which they never thought of. Ethical norms are given by God. Moral commandments are expressions of a divine will, which is sovereign and without criteria. It cannot be measured in terms of adequacy to human nature. It must be obeyed as it is given through revelation. However, the question then is: Why should anyone obey the commandments of this divine lawgiver? How are they distinguished from the commands given by a human tyrant? He is stronger than I am. He can destroy me. However, is not that destruction more to be feared which would follow the submission of one’s personality center to a strange will? Would not this be just the denial of the moral imperative? #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

ImageThe other way of the theological foundation of the moral imperative is the theonomous one. It avoids the destructiveness of the heteronomous way. However, just for this reason it become ontological. It assets (in agreement with the predominant trend of classical theology) that the law given by God is human’s essential nature, put against one as law. If humans were not estranged from oneself, if one’s essential nature were not distorted in one’s actual existence, no law would stand against one. The law is not strange to humans. It is natural law. It represents one’s true nature from which one is estranged. Every valid ethical commandment is an expression of human’s essential relation to oneself, to others and to the Universe. This alone makes it obligatory and its denial self-destructive. This alone accounts for the unconditional form of the moral imperative, however questionable and conditioned the contents may be. The theonomous solution leads inescapably to ontological problems. If God is not seen as a strange an arbitrary lawgiver, if His authority is not heteronomous but theonomous, ontological presuppositions are accepted. Theonomous ethics include ontology. And they also verify the ontological foundations on which they rest. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

ImageThe ontological statements about the nature of love, power, and justice are verified if they are about to solve the otherwise insoluble problems of the ethics of love, power, and justice. To show that his is the case we must consider the ethical functions of love, power, and justice in the spheres of personal relations, of social institutions and of the holy. In the first sphere, justice is leading, in the second sphere, power, and in the third sphere, love. However, all three principles are effective in each sphere. And the sphere of the holy is a quality in the other spheres, and only in some respects a sphere of its own. So we shall speak first of justice, love, and power in human relations, then of power, justice, and love in social institutions, then of love, power, and justice in relation to the holy. Our treatment of the Fall is superior to many others in trying to meet the philosophers half way. It duly recognizes that philosophical intuition opens insights into sin. It happily borrows from psychology its description of a state before the Fall as dreaming innocence, distinguished from awakeness and from experience. However, the dreaming innocence is not anterior to a subsequent event which would give the acquired knowledge of good and evil. It is the psychological background of all human acts. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

ImageHuman actions mark a passage from the dreaming innocence of one who has not been subjected to the conditions of human existence to the wide-awake experience of humans in existence. In other words, the state before the Fall corresponds, in mythological language, to what philosopher call essence. The choice between good and evil corresponds to existence itself. This leap from essence to existence ins universal fact, but is not a fact distinct from creation. Every human being, by the very fact that one is created, is in existence. As such one is in a state of wide-awake experience; one has the experiential knowledge of good and evil as soon as one is able to act humanly. Original sin is not original in the sense that the first man sinned and that from this we derived the fact that we are born sinners. The notion of a moment in time in which humans and nature were changed from good to evil is absurd, and it has no foundation in experience or revelation. There is a danger of this identification of sin and creation; critics has voiced the justified fear that sin may become a rational necessity. The Fall of man is the transition from uncreated essence, or non-being, to created existence, or being. This happens to every human. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

ImageEvery person is caught in the following tragedy: no exercise of one’s faculties is possible without the experience of estrangement from one’s essence in God, that is, without sin. Now, the trouble with this is that it certain is not the meaning of Revelation. That a theologian should argue against the Fall as a primordial catastrophe of the human race on the basis that it has no foundation in experience is disconcerting, for no supporter of this classical Christian belief has ever claimed that we have experience t. It would be as absurd to base the Fall of the First Man on present-day experience as it would be childish to deny that Fall arguing from the absence of a direct experience of it by humankind today. The original Fall has no foundation in revelation. It is significant that the account is exclusively based on Genesis and on the story of Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Yet it is recognized by exegetes that if Genesis tells a story of the first sin, it does not speak of transmission of that sin. The Old Testament had no notion of original sin as taught by Christianity. It has no notion of the sin of Adam and that of his descendants, imitating their forefathers, have also sinned, but it never suspected that there could be a causal link between Adam’s sin and man’s being born in sin. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

ImageOn the contrary, rabbinical tradition taught, and still teaches the humans are born without sin. It is not on Genesis, but on St. Paul, that the Christian view is founded. “As the fault of one has brought condemnation of all humans, so the righteousness of one brings on all a lifegiving righteousness,” reports Romans 5.18. St. Paul knows the Fall in the light of the Redemption. They are two correlative events. The historicity of Redemption stands facing the historicity of the Fall. One who would deny the latter would by implication negate the former. These words are not obscure: that several are justified through the obedience of Christ, as they have been constituted sinners through the disobedience of Adam; and accordingly, that just as Adam, enfolding us in his ruin, has caused our perdition, likewise Christ brings us back to salvation through his grace. I do not think that a longer proof is needed in such a clear light of truth. Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the individual’s lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning. Their relation to the instincts has been discussed elsewhere. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

ImageThe archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego. These are the shadow, and the anima, the animus. The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the absolute qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego in consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavourable role. The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involved recognizing the dark aspects of the personality are present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period. Closer examination of the morbid characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

ImageEmotion, incidentally, is not an activity of the individual but something that happens to one. Affects occur usually where adaption is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of one’s effects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment. Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one’s own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

ImageOne must be convinced that one throws a very long shadow before one is willing to withdraw one’s emotionally-toned projections from the objects. Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclination whatever to recognize one’s projections. The projection-making factor then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from one’s environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections change the World into the replica of one’s own unknown face. In the last analysis, one dreams a World whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d’incompletude and still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

ImageA forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the World said to me: “But I can never admit to myself that I have wasted the best twenty-five years of my life.” We can all blame Adam for or problems or recognize that Jesus is or Redeemer. It is often tragic to see how blatantly a person bungles one’s own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in oneself, and now one continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course—for consciously one is engaged in bewailing ad cursing a faithless World that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil one’s World. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop one. One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, like being caught in Satan’s web of sins, would belong to the realm of the shadow—that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite gender, in a man’s case to a woman and vice versa. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

ImageThe source of projections is no longer the shadow—which is always of the same gender as the subject—but a contrasexual figure. Here we met the animus of a woman and the anmia of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections. Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized. With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow—so far as its nature is personal. However, when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for humans to recognize the relative evil of their nature, but it is a rare and shattered experience for one to gaze into the face of absolute evil. The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—the knowledge of God will cover the Earth in the Millennium—the Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559-545 before Christ. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

Image“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon  him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall makes him quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. However, with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Image“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the Earth. The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. However, they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make humans go over dry shod. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt,” reports 2 Nephi 21.1-16. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

ImageLord God, of might inconceivable, of glory incomprehensible, of mercy immeasurable, of benignity ineffable; do Thou, O Master, look down upon us in Thy tender love, and show forth, towards us and those who pray with us, Thy rich mercies and compassions. O God, Thou art very great, my lot is to approach Thee with Godly fear and humble confidence, for Thy condescension equals Thy grandeur, and Thy goodness is Thy glory. I am unworthy, but Thou dost welcome; guilty, but Thou art merciful; indigent, but Thy riches are unsearchable. Thou hast sown boundless compassion towards me by not sparing Thy Son, and by giving me freely all things in him; this is the foundation of my hope, the refuge of my safety, the new and living way to Thee, the means of that conviction of sin, brokenness of heart, and self-despair, which will endear to me the gospel. Happy are they who are Christ’s, in Him at peace with Thee, justified from all things, delivered from coming wrath, made heirs of future glory; give me such deadness to the World, such love to the Saviour, such attachment to his house, such devotedness to his service, as proves me a subject of his salvation. My every part of my character and conduct make a serious and amiable impression on others, and impel them to ask the way to the master. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

Image Let to no incident of life, pleasing or painful, injure the prosperity of my soul, but rather increase it. Please send me Thy help, for thine appointments are not meant to make me independent of Thee, and the best means will be vain without super-added blessings. The self-actualized may tell of truth, as one knows it, by refraining from speech and entering the Stillness. However, if one’s interlocutors have not been preciously prepared to understand what lies behind one’s silence, they may not benefit by it. Serving humanity in one’s secret way, drawing benediction for all from this divine source, it would seem to be an unrequited activity; but one is included as recipient and beneficiary. Some come to illuminate, not to instruct. Some who have attained true wisdom make no special attempt to communicate it through speech or writing, or to express it in action. Does this mean the World never benefits from them, as it benefits by the existence and work of even the humblest primary school teacher? It does not. For their contribution, though quite noiseless, is not at all valueless. It is to let the silent influence of their presence among us touch those who can receive it, even though they do so unwittingly. Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love one’s neighbour on an empty stomach. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23Image

HOME SITE 78

4-5 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 3,501 square feet – $589,854

ImageGorgeous two-story home located in the growing Cresleigh Ranch community! This sleek and modern home is an entertainer’s dream! The California Room directly off the Great Room offers an indoor/outdoor living experience while the extended kitchen island is perfect for large gatherings or busy households. A contemporary kitchen with stained recessed cabinetry, quartz counters, and single basin sink! 

ImageThere is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multi-generational living. The formal dining room provides ample space for entertaining and has convenient access to the kitchen via Butler’s Pantry. The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters and opens onto the spacious great room. Upstairs you’ll find the master retreat, two bedrooms, and the loft perfect for a game room or TV lounge. The master retreat is spacious and inviting with a large bedroom and spa like bathroom featuring a free-standing soaking tub, walk-in shower, dual vanities, and two walk-in closets. https://youtu.be/TikCeN8MlLA

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https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Truth Shall March–We Shall Not, I Believe, be Obliged to Alter Our Policy of Watchful Waiting!

ImageI do not divine the World into the weak and the strong, or the success and the failures, those who make it and those who do not. I divine the World into learners and non-learners. We live under a government of humans and morning newspapers. However, one, on God’s side is a majority. The gulf that exists between partners may be due to old hurts. Pierce Thorndyke III and Bianca Dupree-Thorndyke have been married for fifteen years, have worked out many difficulties due to differing religious and cultural backgrounds, and their relationship now seems quite stable. Yet in an interview she reveals that she has held back much of her affection, and is not now freely giving toward him, because of an old resentment. During the early years of marriage, Bianca felt she did 90 percent of the giving, Pierce 10 percent. She has never talked out her resentment, and has carried evidence of this old scar into her present relationship with him. Both of them are now sad that she did not express her feelings much earlier—the partnership might have been much improved. Another effect is that communication becomes more open, more real, with more mutual listening. One can sometimes see the exact moment in which this process is taking place. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

ImageIn a couples group a husband and wife were constantly attacking each other. The group tried to help them to listen more, to express their own feelings, not their judgments. The husband seemed to absorb something of this, and took the risk of stating, rather poignantly, the trap he felt he was in. The moment he ceased speaking, his wife took off in her attack on his motives and his behaviour toward her. The facilitator interrupted her, “Did you hear what your husband was trying to tell you?” “Of course I did.” The facilitator said, “Would you just tell him the essence of what he said, so that he know you heard him?” She fell silent, obviously searching her memory. She began to look very embarrassed. Finally she said to her husband, in the softest voice she had used since the group began, “What did you say?” It was the beginning of more listening. In the climate of a person-centered approach the partners come to recognize the value of separateness. Larke and Radley, a wealthy couple with a seemingly happy marriage, had all the external trappings imaginable. Both were well educated. Eighteen years earlier, Radley, a student at Harvard Law School, meets Larke Tanner at an auction in Nantucket, were they bid on the same antique. Radley Rose chats Larke up and they become friends. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Image When Larke misses her ferry home, the two end up spending the night together. Things went well for them. Eventually the two marry and have two children and settle an opulent suburban home, in Cresleigh Ranch, and own impressive new Ultimate Driving Machine. They did everything together, and over the years, the Roses grow richer. Everyone regarded theirs as a very successful marriage. Inwardly they both found the marriage uninteresting and frustrating. They were disillusioned and angry—at each other, but especially at life. They attended a couples group, and began to realize that they had stopped growing when they married, and more important, that they were not communicating. Finally Radley risked revealing himself and told Larke of the affairs he had been having Empress, Fifi, Jett, Jillian, Nikki Darling, and Tara Belle. Larke was frightened and jealous. She had assumed that there was security in her World, and now that World had collapsed. Her marriage was out of control, and she was very threatened. However, even in her fright there was a dawning realization, “If he can separate, perhaps I can too.” She became much more open in the group, and hence was seen as more lovable. Yet, to see that she was lovable in the eye of the group members was scary to Radley. He in his turn felt threatened and hurt. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

ImageHowever, his courage in being open about his affairs led Larke to be more courageous. Soon they were talking all night, each discovering new and interesting facets of the other. More and more each became aware of their separateness. They now can permit each other to date and pursue other relationships. Larke especially has dropped her “nice” image and become more of a real self, a self in which she feels much more confidence. For Larke and Radley both, a growth-promoting climate has meant a complete alteration in the politics of their marriage. No longer are they controlled by society’s expectations—that they must do everything together, must follow a conventional pattern, must submerge their lives in each other. They are becoming unique and separate persons, pursuing differing paths, and bound together by communication and mutual love, not by some imagined conventional pattern from outside. Another result such a climate is that the woman’s growing independence is recognized as valuable in the relationship. This is another example of the separateness we have just been noting, but it is such an important part of modern partnership that it deserves special mention. Troy Jeffries recently experienced what he called a “blockbuster” in his marriage. He has been preoccupied with his work. Bianca has carried the difficult task of raising their son, not without buried resentment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

ImageAs Bianca’s time became more free with the passing years, she returned to the university for further education, being exposed to several person-centered influences. She decided that she wanted to take a professional position in the town where they had formerly lived. She told Troy, but he simply could not take it seriously. When it did hit home that she meant it and that he would either have to give her up or change jobs himself, it was, as he says, a “blockbuster.” The family discussions were heated, and Bianca fortunately talked out some of her resentment, becoming more willing to make accommodation. However, the family is moving, Troy is changing jobs, and the dynamics of their relationship has altered dramatically. Troy has more respect for his wife; he seems more clearly the role he has played of being married to his job; and the ability of each of them to share their feelings has been markedly increased. Even in regard to their relationship in the pleasures of the flesh, which have never been ideal, there is more communication and hope. Part of the problem is that successful intimacy in pleasures of the flesh has been difficult when Bianca has been harbouring a buried resentment toward her husband. The problem of where to live, when both husband and wife are working and have attractive opportunities in different communities, is an increasing one. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

ImageSolving marital differences demands the utmost of shared feelings, exploration of all the options, and willingness to reach a solution that may not be ideal for either. Such problems are certain to occur more frequently as marriage is seen as an equalitarian partnership, with each spouse being respected as able to make important choices. However, negotiation implies that something negative is happening to both side in order to reach a mutual agreement that also accommodates the demands of both parties. This new trend is often especially threatening to the husband of the developing professional woman. Her increased independence makes him feel unneeded as a provider, his old role. There is always the possibility that she may earn more than he. Where both are in the same or similar professions, competition becomes implicit in their relationship. As a consequence the quality of their pleasures of the flesh, the degree to which each is growing, the extent to which they are developing mutual interests—all of these become far more important than in conventional marriages. Inevitably, in person-centered situation, there is increasing recognition of the importance of feelings, as well as reason, of emotions as well as intellect. A feeling is an emotionally tinged experience, together with its personal meaning. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

ImageThus, a feeling includes the emotion but also the cognitive content of the meaning of that emotion in its experiential context. [They are] experienced inseparably in the moment. Including as it does both emotion and meaning, feeling is the broader term. The stress that recent centuries have placed upon reason, thinking, and rationality is the attempt to divorce the two actually inseparable components of experience, to the detriment of our humanity. This divorce of reason from feeling is one of the first myths to disappear in a person-centered approach. Individuals find themselves communicating with their whole beings, expressing their experiences, not some desiccated intellectual representation of them. This is one of the major reason why a person-centered approach has been so valuable to married couples and those living together in relationships. “Pure” reason and “objective” evaluation are not a basis on which two human beings can effectively live together. It means that they are attempting to exclude half of their experience (and perhaps the most important half) from their communication. Through intensive groups, student-centered classes, books, couples groups, and other sources more and more persons are learning the folly of such pseudo-communicate themselves as they are. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

Image I will not attempt to deal here with the ways in which such real communication can be thwarted by jargon or by an encounter-group ritual. “I want to know what you really feel,” can be as much a pseudo-communication as any other, if it is not based on what the speaker is experiencing at the moment. Our American culture has been so corrupted by the fictional TV News media that anything can be turned into a “gimmick.” There is no doubt that this has often happened in the encounter groups and in the training of parents to be “real.” These false notes do not, however, change the importance of true communication, which is also on the increase. Exposure to a person-centered approach means that there is a thrust toward the experiencing of greater mutual trust, personal growth, and shared interests. The partners tend to develop more trust in each other as they are more real with each other. Being more real, they take more risks in being open, and thus enhance their growth as persons. As they communicate more deeply, they are likely to discover, and to wish to develop, more interest that they do or can share. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

ImageExperience in a person-centered psychological atmosphere has another result. Roles, and role expectations, tend to drop away and are replaced by the person, choosing her own way of behaving.  Here are the expected roles of the male in the partnership. The man is head of the family. He is the sole provider. He is the stronger, the superior individual in the pair (and most women let their husbands believe this because they want a happy marriage and a confident man), though helped by “the little woman.” His life is governed by intellect, not by emotion. He alone may occasionally have need of an “affair.” He takes the lead in pleasures of the flesh. He is the stern disciplinarian of his children. All these roles and expectations collapse in a person-centered experience. The focus becomes the man as an individual person—human, fluctuating, behaving in the light of his immediate feelings and his long-range goals. The expectations for the woman are likewise open to challenge. The wife is submissive to her husband. She finds complete satisfaction in her home and children. She doe all the task of making and keeping a home happy, healthy, clean and fresh. She is the nest-builder. In comparison with her husband she is physically not as strong and usually allows him to act as ultimate authority. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

ImageThe woman of the house plays an important role, she is capable of feelings, but usually what the husband says is the rule of law. She subordinates her interest to those of her spouse. Her pleasures of the flesh are usually subdued. She is not to engage in extramarital pleasures of the flesh. Again, the behaviour that is expected in playing these roles collapses in an encounter group or in person-centered therapy or in women’s consciousness-raising group. The individual woman emerges, with a sharply defined personality that is hers alone, behaving in the way that suits her needs and her choices. The sociological role loses its force in a person-centered experience. The male and female roles are rarely put forward so bluntly in today’s culture. They have already been weakened by social forces. However, we find them implicit in our social structure. Why are men paid more than women for the same job? Why are women permitted to weep when hurt, but not men? These roles are still very much alive and functioning, even though weakened. However, they lose their force completely in a person-centered encounter group. Here we find a man weeping, and a woman with the strength to help him find his way out of sorrow. Here we find a man who feels secure only in his present nest, with an adventurous wife to takes steps to a new life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

ImageWe find all of the usual role expectations being contradicted in the experience of men and women struggling to be their own experiencing. This leads to behaviour that is sometimes in line with role expectations, and sometimes not, but at no time is the behaviour governed by the role the person is expected to play. There is a more realistic appraisal of the needs each can meet in the other. When a man is thinking of his partner as a person, it becomes apparent that it is most unlikely that he can meet all of her needs—social, in pleasures of the flesh, emotional, intellectual. With equal force it strikes the woman that she cannot be everything to this man. When we are thinking not just of today but of years of being together, these statements become especially true. So it become only realistic to recognize that each partner will need to grant the other more living space for outside interests, outside relationships, time alone—all of the elements that enrich life. This in no way contradicts the continuing search for a wider and deeper mutual life. It simply means that, as Pierce and Bianca learned, they do not have to do everything together. Experiencing that greater freedom leads them to a more rewarding life together. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

ImageA general disturbance is symptomatic and relevant here and is known as inertia. Patients suffering from it sometimes accuse themselves of being lazy, but actually they cannot be lazy and enjoy it. They may have a conscious aversion to effort of any kind, and may rationalize it by saying tat it is up to others to carry out the “details”—that is, do the work. The aversion to effort may also appear as a fear that effort would be injurious to them. This fear is understandable in view of the fact that they know they tire easily; and it may be enhanced by the advice of physicians who take the exhaustion at its face value. Neurotic inertia is a paralysis of initiative action. Generally speaking, it is the result of a strong alienation from self and a lack of goal-direction. Long experience of strained and unsatisfactory effort leaves the neurotic with a fairly pervasive listlessness—although periods of hectic activity sometimes intervene. Of the single contributing factors the most influential are the idealized image and sadistic trends. The very fact of having to make a consistent effort may be felt by the neurotic as humiliating evidence that he is not his idealized image, while the prospect of doing something that might be only mediocre is so deterring that he prefers not to do it at all but perform magnificently in fantasy. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

ImageThe gnawing self-contempt that invariably follows from the image robs him of the assurance that he can do anything worth while, thereby burying as in quicks all incentive and joy in activity. Sadistic trends, particularly in their repressed form (inverted sadism), make a person lean over backward from anything resembling aggression, with the result that a more or less complete psychic paralysis may ensure. Since it covers not only action but feelings as well, general inertia is of particular significance. The amount of energy that is wasted in consequence of unresolved neurotic conflicts is unfathomably great. Since neuroses are ultimately a product of the particular civilization, such a thwarting of human gifts and qualities stands as a serious indictment of the culture in question. Living with unresolved conflicts entails not only a diffusion of energies but also a split in matters of a moral nature—that is, in moral principles and all the feelings, attitudes, and behaviour that bear upon one’s relations with others and affect one’s own development. And as in the case of energies division leads to waste, so in moral question it leads to a loss of moral wholeheartedness, or in other words to an impairment of moral integrity. Such impairment is brought about by the contradictory positions assumed as well as by the attempts to conceal their contradictory nature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

ImageIncompatible sets of moral values appear in the basic conflict. Despite all attempts to harmonize them, all of them keep operating. This means, however, that none is or can be taken seriously. The idealized image, for all that it includes elements of true ideals, is essentially a counterfeit, and as difficult for the person oneself or for the untrained observer to distinguish from the real thing as a counterfeit bank note from a valid one. The neurotic, as we have seen, may believe—in good faith—that one follows ideals, may castigate oneself for every apparent lapse, thus giving an impression of over conscientiousness in pursuit of one’s standards; or one may intoxicate oneself with thinking and talking about values and ideals. My assertion that one nevertheless does not take one’s ideals seriously means that they do not have obligating power for one’s life. One applies them when it is easy or useful for one to do so, while at other times one conveniently blots them out. We have seen instances of this in our discussion of blind spots and compartmentalizing—instances that would be inconceivable in the case of persons who took their ideals seriously. Nor if the ideals were genuine could they be thrown overboard as easily as they are—for instance in a person who, again in good faith, claims ardent devotion to a cause, but when exposed to temptation turns a traitor like the mutineers from Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

ImageClosely associated with governing ideas are images that occupy our minds. Images are always concrete or specific, as opposed to the abstractness of ideas, and are heavily laden with feeling. They frequently present themselves with the force of perception and have a powerful emotional and sensuous linkage to governing idea systems. They mediate the power of those idea systems into the real situations of ordinary life. Every idea system is present among us as a life force through a small number of powerful images. In recent American and European history, hair (long, short, skinhead; green, blue, yellow, orange, purple) undershirts (or the absence of burning thereof) flags (and their desecration) rock music, and hipster clothes have provided powerful images and symbols of conflicting idea systems and the attached ways of life. Images sustaining traditional cultural authority—“The Establishment” it was called—have, by contrast, lost power. In many Christian churches today the services have divided into “traditional” and “contemporary,” primarily over imagery and the explosive feelings attached thereto. The guitar and pipe organ are no longer just musical instruments, they are powerful symbols. This is not to say that such divisions are either unimportant or sinful. However, in order to act responsibly in relation to them, one does have to understand what drives such divisions. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

ImageJesus Christ of course understood the great significance of images and has, indeed, become one Himself. Intentionally. He also carefully selected an image that brilliantly conveys Himself and His message; the cross. The cross presents the lostness of a person as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment to God that brings redemption. No doubt it is the all-time most powerful image and symbol of human history. Need we say he knew what he was doing in selecting it? He planned it all and is also the Master of images. For their own benefit, his followers need to keep the image of the cross vividly present in their mind. However, ideas and images are also a primary stronghold of evil in the human self and in society. They determine how we “take” the things and events of ordinary life. They control the meanings we assign to what we deal with, and they can even blind us to what lies plainly before us. Again, this is seen over and over in biblical and in Christian history, and in human life generally. Their power for evil cannot be overestimated and is constantly at play in most human governments and media organizations. Ideas and images are, accordingly, the primary focus of Satan’s effort to defeat God’s purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images, he can take nap or holiday. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

ImageThus Satan undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick, but with an idea. It was with the idea that God could not be trusted and that she must act on her own to secure her own well-being. This is the basic idea back of all temptation: God is presented as depriving us by his commands of what is good, so we think we must take matters into our own hands and act contrary to wat he has said. This image of God leads to our pushing him our of our thoughts, as discussed in previous lectures, and putting ourselves on the throne of the Universe. The condition of the ruined soul and World naturally results. The single most important thing in our mind is our idea of God and the associated images. That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with out actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

ImageIt is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God. The destruction of Assyria is a type of the destruction of the wicked at the Second Coming—few people will be left after the Lord comes again—the remnant of Jacob will return in that day—compare Isaiah 10. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Wo unto them that decree unrighteous degrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn away the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And that will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is their indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like mire of the streets. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Image“Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but in his heart it is to destroy and cut off nations not a few. For he saith: Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath founded the kingdoms f the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so to do to Jerusalem and to her idols? Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith: By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom I have done these things; for I am prudent; and I have moved the borders of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man; and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the Earth; and there was none that moved the wings, or opened the mouth, or peeped. Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up itself as if it were not wood! #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

Image“Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones, leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and shall burn and shall devour his thorns and his briers in one day; and shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in all the land. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

Image“And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as his rod was upon the sea so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages. They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a might one,” reports 2 Nephi 20.1-34. Holy, Most High, Awful, Who dwellest in the holy place, make us holy, and bring us near to Thee, and cleanse us from all defilement, that we may perform the worship of our fathers in Thy fear; for Thou art He that blesses and hallow all things. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

ImageThou Maker and Sustainer of All Things, day and night are tine, Heaven and Earth declare Thy glory; but I, a creature of Thy power and bounty, have sinned against Thee by resisting the dictates of conscience, the demands of Thy law, the calls of Thy gospel; yet I live under the dispensation of a given hope. Deliver me from Worldly dispositions, for I am born from above and bound for glory. May I view and long after holiness as the beauty and dignity of the soul. Let me never slumber, never lose my assurance, never fail to wear armour when passing through the enemy land. Fit me for every scene and circumstances; stay my mind upon Thee and turn my trials to blessings, that they may draw out my gratitude and praise as I see their design and effects. Render my obedience to Thy will holy, natural, and delightful. Rectify all my principles by clear, consistent, and influential views of divine truth. Let me never undervalue or neglect any part of Thy revealed will. May I duly regard the doctrine and practice of the gospel, prizing its commands as well as its promises. Sanctify me in every relation, office, transaction and condition of life, that if I prosper I may not be unduly exalted, if I suffer I may not be over-sorrowful. Please balance my mind in all varying circumstances and help me to cultivate a disposition that renders every duty a spiritual privilege. Thus may I be content, be a glory to Thee and an example to others. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22Image

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Well, if I Called the Wrong Number, Why Did You Answer the Phone?

ImageAll happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The aim of education should be to convert the mind into a living fountain and not a reservoir. That which is filled by merely pumping in, will be emptied by pumping out. A social condition is commonly the result of circumstances, sometimes of laws, oftener still of these two causes united; but wherever it exists, it may justly be considered as the source of almost all the laws, the usages, and the ideas, which regulate the conduct of nations: whatever it does not produce, it modifies. It is, therefore, necessary, if we would become acquainted with the legislation and the manners of a nation, to begin by the study of its social condition.  The striking characteristic of the social condition the Anglo-Americans is its essential democracy. The first Emigrants of New England.—Their Equality.—Aristocratic Laws introduced in the South.—Period of the Revolution.—Change in the Law of Descent.—Effects produced by this Change.—Democracy carried to its utmost Limits in the new States of the West.—Equality of Education. Many important observations suggest themselves upon the social condition of the Anglo-Americans; but there is one which takes precedence of all the rest. The social condition of the Americas is eminently democratic; this was its character at the foundation of the colonies, and is still more strongly marked at the present day. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageGreat equality existed among the emigrants who settled on the shores of New England The germe of aristocracy was never planted in that part of the Union. The only influence which obtained there was that of intellect; the people were used to reverence certain names as the emblems of knowledge and virtue. Some of their fellow-citizens acquired a power over the rest which might truly have been called aristocratic, if it had been capable of invariable transmission from father to son. This was the state of things to the east of the Hudson: to the southwest of that river, and in the direction of the Floridas, the case was different. In most of the states situated to the southwest of the Hudson some great English proprietors had settled, who had imported with them aristocratic principles and the English law of descent. I have explained the reasons why it was impossible ever to establish a powerful aristocracy in America; these reasons existed with less force to the south west of the Hudson. In the south, one man, assisted by enslaved people, could cultivate a great extent of country: it was therefore common to see rich landed proprietors. However, their influence was not altogether aristocratic as that term is understood in Europe, since they possessed no privileges; and the cultivation of their estates being carried on by slaves, they had no tenants depending on them, and consequently no patronage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageStill, the great proprietors south of the Hunsdon constituted a superior class, having ides and tastes of its own, and forming the center of political action. This kind of aristocracy sympathized with the body of the people, whose passions and interests it easily embraced; but it was too weak and too short-lived to excite either love or hatred for itself. This was the class which headed the insurrection in the south, and furnished the best leaders of the American revolution. At the period of which we are now speaking, society was shaken to its center: the people, in whose name the struggled had taken place, conceived the desire of exercising the authority which it had acquired; its democratic tendencies were awakened; and having thrown off the yoke of the mother-country, it aspired to independence of every kind. The influence of individuals gradually ceased to be felt, and custom and law untied together to produce the same result. However, the law of descent was the last step to equality. I am surprised that ancient and modern jurists have attributed to this law a greater influence on human affairs. I understand by the law of descent all the laws whose principal object it is to regulate the distribution of property after the death of its owner. The law of entail is of this number: it certainly prevents the owner from disposing of one’s possession before one’s death; but this is solely with a view of preserving them entire for the heir. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageIt is true that these laws belong to civil affairs: but they ought nevertheless to be placed at the head of all political institutions; for, while political laws are only the symbol of a nation’s condition, they exercise an incredible influence upon its social state. They have, moreover, a sure and uniform manner of operating upon society, affecting, as it were, generations yet unborn. Through their means humans acquire a kind of preternatural power over the future lot of their fellow-creatures. When the legislator has once regulated the law of inheritance, one may rest from one’s labour. The machine once put in motion will go on for ages, and advance, as if self-guided, toward a given point. When framed in a particular manner, this law unites, draws together, and advance, as if self-guided, toward a given point. When framed in a particular manner, this law unites, draws together, and vests property and power in a few hands: its tendency is clearly aristocratic. On opposite principles its action is still more rapid; it divides, distributes, and disperses both property and power. Alarmed by the rapidity of its progress, those who despair of arresting its motion endeavour to obstruct by difficulties and impediments; they vainly seek to counteract its effect by contrary efforts; but it gradually reduces or destroys every obstacle, until by its incessant activity the bulwarks of the influence of wealth are grounded down to the fine and shifting sand which is the basis of democracy. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageWhen the law of inheritance permits, still more when it decrees, the equal division of a father’s property among all his children, its effects are of two kinds: it is important to distinguish them from each other, although they tend to the same end. In virtue of law of partible inheritance, the death of every proprietor brings about a kind of revolution in property: not only do one’s possessions change hands, but their very nature is altered; since they are parceled into shares, which become smaller and smaller at each division. This is the direct, and, as it were, they physical effect of the law. It follows, then, that in countries where equality of inheritance is established by law, property, and especially landed property, must have a tendency to perpetual diminution. The effects, however, of such legislation would only be perceptible after a lapse of time, if the law was abandoned to its own working; for supposing a family to consist of two children (and in a country peopled as France is, the average number is not above three), these children, sharing among them the fortune of both parents, would not be poorer than their father or mother. However, the law of equal division exercises its influence not merely upon the property itself, but it affects the minds of the heirs, and brings their passion into play. These indirect consequences tend powerfully to the destruction of large fortunes, and especially of large domains. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageAmong the nations whose law of descent is founded upon the right of primogeniture, landed estates often pass from generation to generation without undergoing division. The consequence of which is, that family feeling is to a certain degree incorporated with the estate. The family represents the estate, the estate the family; whose name, together with its origin, its glory, its power, and its virtues, is thus perpetuated in an imperishable memorial of the past, and sure pledge of the future. When the equal partition of property is established by law, the intimate connexion is destroyed between the family feeling and the preservation of the paternal estate; the property ceases to represent the family; for, as it must inevitably be divided after one or two generations, it has evidently a constant tendency to diminish, and must in the end be completely dispersed. The sons of the great landed proprietor, if they are few in number, of it fortune befriend them, may indeed entertain the hope of being as wealthy as their father, but not that of possessing the same property as he did; their riches must necessarily be composed of elements different from his. Now, from the moment when you divest the land-owner of that interest in the preservation of his estate which he derives from association, from tradition, and from family pride, you may be certain that sooner or later he will dispose of it; for there is a strong pecuniary interest in favour of selling, as floating capital produces higher interest than real property, and is more readily available to gratify the passions of the moment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageGreat landed estates which have once been divided, never come together again; for the small proprietor draws from his land a better revenue in proportion, than the large owner does from his; and of course he sells it at a higher rate. (I do not mean to say that the small proprietor cultivates his land better, but he cultivates I with more ardour and care; so that he makes up by his labour for his want of skill.) The calculations of gain, therefore, which decided the rich man to sell his domain, will still more powerfully influence him against buying small estates to unite them into a large one. What is called family pride is often founded upon an illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself, as it were, in his great-grandchildren. Where the esprit de famille ceases to act, individual selfishness comes into play. When the idea of family becomes vague, indeterminate, and uncertain, a man thinks of his present convenience; he provides for the establishment of the succeeding generation, and no more. Either a man gives up the idea of perpetuating his family, or at any rate he seeks to accomplish it by other means than that of a landed estate. Thus not only does the law of partible inheritance render it difficult for families to preserve their ancestral domains entire, but it deprives them of the inclination to attempt it, and compels them in some measure to co-operate with the law in their own extinction. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageThe law of equal distribution proceeds by two methods: by acting upon things, it acts upon persons; by influencing persons, it affects things. By these means the law succeeds in striking at the root of landed property, and dispersing rapidly both families and fortunes. (Land being the most stable kind of property, we find, from time to time, rich individuals who are disposed to make great sacrifices in order to obtain it, and who willingly forfeit a considerable part of their income to make sure of the rest. However, these are accidental cases. The preference for landed property is no longer found habitually in any class but among the poor. The small land-owner, who has less information, less imagination, and fewer passion, than the great one, is generally occupied with the desire of increasing his estate; and it often happens that by inheritance, by marriage, or by the chances of trade, he is gradually furnished with the means. Thus, to balance the tendency which leads men to divide their estates, there exists another, which incites them to add to them. This tendency, which is sufficient to prevent estates from being divided ad infinitum, is not strong enough to create great territo rial possessions, certainly not to keep them up in the same family.) Most certainly it is not for us, Frenchmen of the nineteenth century, who daily behold the political and social changes which the law of partition is bringing to pass, to question its influence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageIt is perpetually conspicuous in our country, overthrowing the walls of our dwellings and removing the landmarks of our fields. However, although it has produced great effects in France, must still remains for it to do. Our recollections, opinions, and habits, present powerful obstacles to progress. In the Untied States of America it has nearly completed its work of destruction, and there we can best study its results. The English laws concerning the transmission of property were abolished in almost all the states at the time of the revolution. The law of entail was so modified as not to interrupt the free circulation of the property. The first having passed away, estates began to be parceled out; and the change became more and more rapid with the progress of time. At this moment, after a lapse of little more than sixty years, the aspect of society is totally altered; the families of the great landed proprietors are almost all commingled with the general mass. In the state of New York, which formerly contained many of these, there are but two who still keep their heads above the stream; and they must shortly disappear. The sons of these opulent citizens have become merchants, lawyers, or physicians. Most of them have lapsed into obscurity. The last trace of hereditary tanks and distinctions is destroyed—the law of partition has reduced all to one level. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageI do not mean that there is any deficiency of wealthy individuals in the United States of America; I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property. However, wealth circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and experience shows that it is rare to find two succeeding generations in the full enjoyment of it. This picture, which may perhaps be thought overcharged, still gives a very imperfect idea of what is taking place in the new states of the west and southwest. At the end of the last century a few bold adventurers began to penetrate into the valleys of the Mississippi, and the mass of the population very soon began to move in that direction: communities unheard of till then were seen to emerge from their wilds: states, whose names were not in existence a few years before, claimed their place in the American Union; and in the western settlements we may behold democracy arrived at its utmost extreme. In these states, founded off hand, and as it were by chance, the inhabitants are but of yesterday. Scarcely known to one another, the nearest neighbours are unaware of each other’s history. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageIn this part of the American continent, therefore, the population has not experienced the influence of great names and great wealthy, not even that of natural aristocracy of knowledge and virtue. None are there to wield that respectable power which men willingly grant to the remembrance of a life spent in doing good before their eyes. The new states of the west are already inhabited; but society has no existence among them. It is not only the fortunes of men which are equal in America; even their acquirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity. I do not believe there is a country in the World where, in proportion to the population, there are so few uninstructed, and at the same time so few learned individuals. Primary instruction is within the reach of everybody; superior instruction is scarcely to be obtained by any. This is not surprising; it is in fact the necessary consequence of what we have advanced above. Almost all the Americans are in easy circumstances, and can therefore obtain the first elements of human knowledge. In America there are comparatively few who are rich enough to live without a profession. Every profession requires an apprenticeship, which limits the time of instruction to the early years of life. At fifteen they enter upon their calling, and thus their education ends at the age wen ours begins. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageWhatever is done afterward, is with a view to some special and lucrative object; a science is taken up as a matter of business, and the only branch of it which is attended to is such as admits of an immediate practical application. What is meant by the remark, that “at fifteen they enter upon a career, and thus their education is very often finished at the epoch when ours commences,” is not clearly perceived. Our professional men enter upon their course of preparation for their respective professions, wholly between eighteen and twenty-one years of age. Apprentices to trades are bound out, ordinarily, at fourteen, but what general education they receive is after that period. Previously, they have acquired the mere elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, it is supposed there is nothing peculiar to America, in the age at which apprenticeship commences. In England, they commence at the same age, and it is believed that the same thing occurs throughout Europe. It is feared that the author has not expressed himself with his usual clearness and precision. In American most of the rich men were formerly poor: most of those who now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the consequences of which is, that when they might have had a taste for study they had no time for it, and when the time is at their disposal they have no longer the inclination. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageThere is no class, then, in America in which the taste for intellectual pleasures is transmitted with hereditary fortune and leisure, and by which the labours of the intellect are held in honour. Accordingly there is an equal want of the desire and the power of application to these objects. A middling standard is fixed in America for human knowledge. All approach as near to it as they can; some as they rise, others as they descend. Of course, an immense multitude of persons are to be found who entertain the same number of ideas on religion, history, science, political economy, legislation, and government. The gifts of intellect proceed directly from God, and man cannot prevent their unequal distribution. However, in consequence of the state of things which we have here represented, it happens, that although the capacities of men are widely different, as the Creator has doubtless intended they should be, they are submitted to the same method of treatment. In American the aristocratic element has always been feeble from its birth; and if at the present day it is not actually destroyed, it is at any rate so completely disabled that we can scarcely assign to it any degree of influence in the course of affairs. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThe democratic principle, no the contrary, has gained so much strength by time, by events, and by legislation, as to have become no only predominant but all-powerful. There is no family or corporate authority, and it is rare to find even the influence of individual character enjoy any durability. American, then, exhibits in her social state a most extraordinary phenomenon. Men are there seen on a greater equality in point of fortune and intellect, or in other words, more equal in their strength, than in any other country of the World, or, in any age of which history has preserved the remembrance. The political consequences of such a social condition as this are easily deducible. It is impossible to believe that equality will not eventually find its way into the political World as it does everywhere else. To conceive of men remaining forever unequal upon one single point, yet equal on all others, is impossible; they must come in the end to be equal upon all. Now I know of only two methods of establishing equality in the political World: Every citizen must be put in possession of one’s rights, or rights must be granted to no one. For nations which have arrived at the same stage of social existence as the Anglo-Americans, it is therefore very difficult to discover a medium between the sovereignty of all and the absolute power of one person: and it would be vain to deny that social condition which I have been describing is equally liable to each of these consequences. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageThere is, in fact, manly and lawful passion for equality, which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honoured. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. Not that those nations whose social conditions is democratic naturally despise liberty; on the contrary, they have an instinctive love of it. However, liberty is not the chief and constant object of their desires; equality is their idol: they make rapid and sudden efforts to obtain liberty, and if they miss their aim, resign themselves to their disappointment; but noting can satisfy them excent equality, and rather than lose it they resolve to perish. On the other hand, in a sate where the citizens are nearly on an equality, it becomes difficult for them to preserve their independence against the aggressions of power. No one among them being strong enough to engage singly in the struggle with advantage, nothing but a general combination can protect their liberty: and such a union is not always to be found. From the same social position, then, nations may derive one or the other two great political results; these results are extremely different from each other, but they may both proceed from the same cause. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageThe Angelo-Americans, are the first who, having been exposed to this formidable alternative, have been happy enough to escape the dominion of absolute power. They have been allowed by their circumstances, their origin, their intelligence, and especially by their moral feeling, to establish and maintain the sovereignty of the people. Isaiah speaks messianically—the people in darkness will see a great light—unto us as a child is born—he will be the Prince of Peace and will reign on David’s throne—compare Isaiah 9. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously afflict by the way of the Red Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and increased the joy—they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broke the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of government and peace there is no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will Perform this. The Lord sent his word unto Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart: the bricks are fallen down, but we will build when hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; the Syrians before and the Philistine behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts. Therefore will the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day. The ancient, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows; for every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forests, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; no person shall spare one’s brother. And one shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; and one shall eat on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every person the flesh of one’s own arm—Manasseth, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” 2 Nephi 19.1-21. O Life-Giving Master, and Bestower of good things, Who hast given unto people the blessed Hope of everlasting life, our Lord Jesus Christ; grant us to perform this Divine service unto Thee in holiness, that we may enjoy the blessedness to come; and being evermore guarded by Thy power, and guided into the light of truth, may continually render unto Thee all glory and thanksgiving. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageGracious God, my heart praises Thee for the wonder of Thy love in Jesus; He is Heaven’s darling, but is for me the incarnate, despised, rejected, crucified sin-bearer; in him Thy grace has almost out-graced itself, in him Thy love to rebels has reached its height; O to love Thee with a love like this! My heart is locked, let Thy love be the master key to pen it; O Father, I adore Thee for Thy great love in the gift of Jesus, O Jesus, I bless Thee for resigning Thy life for me, O Holy Spirit, I thank Thee for revealing to me this mystery; Great God, let Thy Son see in me the travail of His soul! Please bring me away from my false trusts to rest in Him, and Him only. Let me no be so callous to his merit as not to love him, so indifferent to His blood as not to desire cleansing. Lord Jesus, Master, Redeemer, Saviour, come and take entire possession of me; this is Thy right by purchase. In the arms of love enfold and subdue my willful spirit. Take, sanctify, use my every faculty. I am not ashamed of my hope, nor has my confidence led me into confusion. I trusted in Thee regarding my innumerable sins, and Thou hast cast them behind my back. When evils encompassed me, I trusted in Thee, and Thou broughtest me out into a wealthy place. I trusted in Thee in an hour of distress, and Thou didst not fail me, though faith trembled. O God of the eternal choice, O God of the restored possession purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore Thy Glory, honour, majesty, power, dominion forever. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

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The Health of Nations is More Important than the Wealth of Nations!

Capture25The people’s judgment is not always true; the most may err a grossly as the few. The primary purpose of goal setting is to pull change in the direction you have chosen—one which fits your expertise and overall plan. Governance is more than just the structure and administration of a nation’s government. It is the rules and rulers, the law, and the bureaucracy embedded in the system of that government, it is about the relationship between the state and the individual. The various theories of justice, including the polity, law, structure, communication, and administration of governance are rooted in democracy as a governance system that emphasizes the “rule by the people” and citizenship, participation, and communication. A republic is a governance system in which the constitution is seen as an essential document organizing the collective will and rule of law. Governance systems of anarchy promote the idea that humankind should have the individual liberty to act in accordance to their own will and absent of constraint. Communism and theocracy are both governance ideas which emphasize a government that is “absolute” in rule and regulation in order to maintain a stronger communal liberty. Equality in the United States of American is supposed to be so great in both fortune and intellect that the strength of democracy will spread throughout the World. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Image Within this democratic republic are core theories of justice, such as contractarianism and egalitarianism. This view holds that a social contract is assembled by the collective will of the people, along with guiding principles of equality and joint responsibility. Integration of differing theories of justice intersect and work in agreement toward a stronger and fairer governance structure of democratic republic, and this self-governance is the goal of justice. However, at times, the law can be guilty of the very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! All people have a right of defending, even by force, one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property. However, much like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate, but to win one’s friendship and understanding.” Systems of justice within governance must reflect the goal of equality of basic conditions for everyone. One cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools. The tools may allow us temporarily to beat one at one’s own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageTo consider the consequences of unresolved conflicts is to enter a seemingly limitless territory and one that has been little explored. We could, perhaps, approach it by embarking on a discussion of certain symptomatic disorders like depression, alcoholism, epilepsy, or schizophrenia, hoping thereby to gain a better understanding of particular disturbances. I prefer, however, to examine it from a more general vantage point and to pose the question: What do unresolved conflicts do to our energies, our integrity, and our happiness? I adopt this approach because it is my conviction that we cannot grasp the significance of any symptomatic disorder without an understanding of its fundamental human basis. The tendency in modern psychiatry to reach for a handy theoretical formulation to account for existing syndromes is not unnatural in view of the need of the clinician whose job it is to deal with them. However, to do so is as little feasible, let alone scientific, as for a construction engineer to build the top floors of a building before laying the foundation. Some of the elements that enter into our question have already been mentioned and need only be elaborated here. Others are implicit in our previous discussions; still other will have to be added. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageOur aim is to leave the reader not with some vague notion that unresolved conflicts are injurious but to convey a fairly clear and comprehensive picture of the havoc they inflict on the personality. Living with unresolved conflicts involves primarily a devastating waste of human energies, occasioned not only be the conflicts themselves but by all the devious attempts to remove them. When a person is basically divided one can never put one’s energies wholeheartedly into anything but wants always to pursue two or more incompatible goals. This means that one will either scatter one’s energies or actively frustrate one’s efforts. The former is true of persons whose idealized image, like Peer Gynt’s, lures them into believing that they can excel in everything. A woman, in this case, want to be an ideal mother, a perfect cook and hostess, dress well, play a prominent social and political role, be a devoted wife, have affairs outside marriage and do productive work of her own to boot. Needless to say, this cannot be done; she will be bound to fail in all these pursuits, and her energies—no matter how potentially gifted she is—will be wasted. Of more general relevance is the frustration of a single pursuit where incompatible motivations block each other. A man may want to be a good friend but be so domineering and demanding that his potentialities in this direction are never realized. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageAnother wants his children to get on in the World, but his drive for personal power and his insistent rightness interfere. Someone want to write a book but get a splitting headache or is seized with a deadly fatigue whenever he cannot immediately formulate what he wants to say. In this instance it is again the idealized image that is responsible: since he is the mastermind, why should not brilliant thoughts flow from his pen like rabbits from a magician’s hat? And when they do not, he bursts with rage at himself. Someone else may have an idea of real value that he wants to present at a meeting. However, one wishes not only to express it in a way that will be impressive and put others in the shade; one also wants to be liked and to avoid antagonizing, and at the same time anticipates ridicule because of this externalization of one’s self-contempt. The result is that he cannot think at all and the pertinent thought he might have produced never reaches fruition. Still another could be a good organizer but by reason of one’s sadistic trends antagonizes everyone around one. If we look at ourselves and those about us, it is hardly necessary to give further examples because all of us can find plenty of them. There is an apparent exception to this lack of clear direction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageSometimes neurotic persons show a curious single-mindedness of purpose: men many sacrifice everything including their own dignity to their ambition; women may want nothing of life but love; parents may devote their entire interest to their children. Such persons give the impression of wholeheartedness. However, as we have shown, they are actually pursuing a mirage which appears to offer a solution of their conflicts. The apparent wholeheartedness is one of desperation rather than of integration. It is not the conflicting needs and impulses alone that consume and dissipate energies. Other factors in the protective structure have the same effect. There is the eclipse of whole areas of the personality due to the suppression of parts of the basic conflict. The parts eclipsed are still sufficiently active to interfere, but they cannot be put to constructive use. The process thus constitutes a loss of energy that might otherwise be used for self-assertion, for co-operation, or for establishing good human relationships. There is, to mention only one other factor, the alienation from self that robs a person of one’s motor force. One can still be a good worker, one may even be able to make a considerable effort when put under external pressure, but he collapses when left to his own resources. This does not only mean that he cannot do anything constructive or enjoyable with his free time; it means nothing less than that all his creative forces may go to waste. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageFor the most part, a variety of factors combine to create large areas of diffuse inhibition. In order to understand and eventually remove a single inhibition, we usually have to come back to it again and again, tackling it from all the angles we have discussed. Waste or misdirection of energy can stem from three major disturbances, all symptomatic of unresolved conflicts. One of these is a general indecisiveness. It may be prevalent in everything, from trifles to matters of greatest personal importance. There may be an endless wavering whether to eat this dish or that, whether to buy this or that suitcase, whether to go to the movies or listen to the radio. It may be impossible to decide on a career or on any step within a career; to decide between two women; to decide whether or not to get a divorce; whether to die or to live. A decision that must be made and that would be irrevocable is a real ordeal and may leave a person panic-stricken and exhausted. Though their indecisiveness may be marked, people are often unaware of it because they unconsciously exert every effort to avoid decision. They procrastinate; they allow themselves to be swayed by chance or else leave the decision to someone else. They may also becloud issues to a degree that leaves no basis upon which to make a decision. The aimlessness that follows from all this is likewise not usually apparent to the person oneself. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageThe many unconscious devices employed to cover up pervasive indecision account for the comparative rarity with which analysts hear complaints about what is actually a common disorder. Another typical manifestation of divided energies is a general ineffectualness. I do not have in mind here an inaptitude in a particular field, which might be due to lack of training or interest in the subject. Nor is it a question of untapped energies such as William James describes in a most interesting paper pointing to the fact that a reservoir of energy becomes available when one does not succumb to the first sigh of fatigue, or under pressure of external circumstances. In effectualness in this context is that which results from a person’s incapacity to exert one’s best efforts by reason of one’s inner crosscurrents. It is as if one were driving a care with the brakes on; inevitably the car is slowed down. Sometimes this is literally applicable. Everything a person attempts may be done much more slowly than either one’s abilities or the inherent difficult of the task would warrant. Not that one makes insufficient effort; on the contrary, one must put in an inordinate amount of effort into anything one does. It may take one hours, for instance, to write a simple reports r master a simple mechanical device. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageWhat exactly impedes one suffering from ineffectualness of course varies. One may unconsciously rebel against what one feels as coercion; one may be driven to perfect every minute detail; one may be furious at oneself—as in an example above—for not acquitting oneself superbly at the first attempt. The ineffectualness does not only manifest itself in slowness; I may also appear in awkwardness or forgetfulness. If one secretly feels it is unfair, gifted as one is, a domestic worker or a housewife will not do one’s work well because it is beneath one to do such menial work. And one’s ineffectualness will usually not be confined to this particular activity but will pervade all one’s endeavours. From the subjective standpoint this means working under strain, with the inevitable consequences of becoming easily exhausted and needing much sleep. Any kind of work under these conditions is bound to take more out of a person, just as if a car is drive with locked brakes, it will suffer. The inner strain—and the ineffectualness as well—is present not only in work but also to a very marked degree in dealing with people. If someone wants to be friendly but at the same time resent the idea because one feels it to be ingratiating, one will be stilted; if one wants to ask for something but also feels one should command it, one will be ungracious; if one wants to assert oneself but also to comply, one will be hesitant. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageSimilarly, if one wants to make contact people but anticipate rejection, one will be sky; if one wants to have pleasures of the flesh but also wants to frustrate the partner, one will be frigid—and so on. The more pervasive he countercurrents, the greater the strain of living. Some persons are aware of such inner strain; more often they become aware of it only if under special conditions it is increased; sometimes it strikes them only by contrast with the few occasion when they can relax, feel at ease, and be spontaneous. For the resulting fatigue they usually hold other factors responsible—a weak constitution, an overdose of work, a lack of sleep. Any of these, it is true, may play a role, but a much less significant one than is ordinarily believed. In contrast, a self-actualized person’s state will not be easily discernible to others, unless they happen to be the few who are themselves sufficiently advanced and sufficiently sensitive to appreciate it. Yet it is one’s duty to announce the glorious news of its discovery, to publish the titanic fact of its existence. However, one will do so in one’s own way, according to one’s own charactertistics and circumstances. One will not need to announce it in a speech, or print in it a book; one will not publish the fact in daily newspapers or shout it from the housetops. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageOne’s whole life will be the best announcement, the grandest publication. Without oneself being a priest, one performs the true priestly office. The strange and sweet spell flung forever over sensitive, ripe, and ready minds by the self-actualized, when one uses one’s wisdom and goodness, is like a caduceus to enchant them into becoming seekers after truth. One is a prophet without a church, a teacher without a school, a reformer without an institution. The adept can do much more through the prestige of true ideas set down in writing than through the mechanical efforts of any formal organization, more by helping individuals than by creating a collective body which would one day exploit them. One is the abstract, far-off ideal, but embodied visibly for our benefit and put near us for our inspiration. Can one person transfer spiritual grace to another? If by grace if meant here can one give a glimpse of God to another, the answer is Yes!—if the other is worthy, sensitive, and above al karmically ready. Ne can if the other person is capable of absorbing the stimulus radiated to one. In the case of those who are ready for it or who have affinity with one, a master may be able to bring about a temporary illuminating glimpse through one’s inner contact with the other person by the power of one’s spiritual force. This force can be expressed through the Master’s spoken words or in silent meditation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageTraditional subjective faith results from a divine light which is freely accepted. It formally constitutes the saving element of faith. However, this subjective faith cannot be analysed alone, for it never exists without an object. This object, as we have said, comes from the Church: we are told what the Church believes and, enlightened by God, we believe it too. In scholastic terms, subjective and objective faith are likened to form and matter; and as philosophers know, there is neither form without matter, nor matter without form. The Reformation, with its dislike of scholasticism, avoided these terms; but it maintained their purpose: subjective faith was essentially correlative to objective belief. Where a distinction existed, one sees a separation. Admittedly, faith always has a concrete content. The content matters infinitely for the life of the believer, but does not matter for the formal definition of faith. We thus face a strange paradox: what matters infinitely for the believer does not concern the nature of one’s faith. How can this be, if faith is infinite concern? Subjective faith could stand by itself, without a concrete content. There is nothing in faith but faith itself: what is called absolute faith is the accepting of the acceptance without somebody or something that accepts. Those who are always hoping to receive full enlightenment from a master, exaggerate the service one can render. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageThe most that a master can give is a glimpse, and that not to everyone. Those who penetrate into the holy of holies bless the World when they bring forth the treasures they find therein. What they achieve and accomplish mentally in the period of prayer, they will later express automatically in action during the days that follow. Theirs is the balanced life which is true sanity, so lacking in modern existence. Neither the Unconditioned nor something unconditional is meant as a being, not even the highest being, not even God. Yet faith cannot exist without a person believing something, without a subject and an object. Unless one is bidden from the higher power (and one is sure of the source) to become an apostle, one will not take on the task of making available to others in such a public fashion, truths which most are not ready enough to recognize, which would create bewilderment or scorn in their minds. Nor, again, will one communicate privately without the inner command and thus become a leader to others. The awareness that one existed on this planet made its grievous and troubled life more bearable, gave a little meaning to what seemed otherwise quite chaotic. For one’s own higher development reminded, nay assured, us that there was some sort of an evolution going on, that there was a goal and a purpose behind it all.  Thus, merely to know that this being was alive, even though we might never again meet one and could never hope to become intimate with one, sustained our faith in Life itself and helped us to live. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThe prayers of such a being are not lightly uttered nor egotistically born. Therefore they are always heard and generally answered. One can communicate to others something of one’s mystical enlightenment through words and something of one’s mystical serenity through silence. One carries with one a perpetual blessing, although it is seldom possible for those who identify themselves with their fleshly bodies to receive this unheralded gift with their conscious minds. Faith is the true reading of human’s existential estrangement as a relating estrangement, as a healing wound. This means that one has given faith a preliminary content distinct from its concrete content. Thus faith appears on three levels: as subjective it is ultimate concern; as content of this concern, it is reunion in estrangement, forgiveness in guilt, ground of being in separation from this ground; as objective, related to a concrete content, it is still a third phenomenon. The Fall of Man is the existential condition that inspired human’s desire for salvation—the quest for Christ. The Christian document of original sin is a theological explanation of estrangement. As such it belongs to Christology: Christ, by hypothesis, will bring salvation from this basic anguish of existence. It belongs a fortiori to a theology of faith. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageIf faith implies awareness of estrangement and courage to endorse and bear estrangement, it also implies knows of “original sin” and rests on the experience of the fall of man. What the legend of the Fall tells humankind in general, faith discovers in each person: that existence is tragic this tragic element, if accepted, becomes a way to holiness and peace. In such a perspective, faith experiences the Fall. Christ will be as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense—seek the Lord, not peeing wizards—turn to the law and to the testimony for guidance—compare Isaiah 8. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Moreover, the word of the Lord said to me: Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a human’s pen, concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zecharish the son of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: Call his name, Maher-salal-has-baz. For behold, the child shall not have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, before the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king Assyria. The Lord spake also unto me again, saying: Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; Now therefore, behold the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his banks. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Image“And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear all ye of far countries; grid yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: Say ye not, A confederacy, to all whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let hum be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I am the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter—should not a people seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead? To the law and to the testimony; and if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the Earth and behold trouble, and darkness, dimness of anguish, and shall be driven to darkness,” reports 2 Nephi 18.1-22. We sinners do beseech Thee, please hear us. That it may please Thee to defend and exalt Thy Church; we beseech Thee, Lord Jesus, to please hear us. That is may please Thee to grant to Thy Church the tranquility of peace; that it may please Thee to put down the enemies of God’s Holy Church; that it may please Thee to defend us from dangerous enemies; that it may please Thee to preserve the people, and our pastor and chief, and the flock committed to him; that it may please Thee to preserve the Queen in perpetual prosperity; that it may please Thee to preserve all orders of the Church, the clergy and laity, and the whole people; that it may please Thee to make us persevere in good works. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

ImageFurthermore, that it may please Thee to give us celestial armour against the devil; that Thy mercy and pity may keep us safe; that Thou wouldest give us the will and the power to repent in earnest; that it may please Thee to give us pardon of all sins; that it may please Thee to give us right faith, firm hope in Thy goodness, and perfect live, and constant fear of Thee; that it may please Thee to remove evil thoughts from us; that it may please Thee to pour in our souls the grace of the Holy Spirit; that it may please Thee to give us perpetual light; that it may please Thee to give us a happy end; that it may please Thee to bring us to everlasting joys; that it may please Thee to hear us; Son of God; O Lamb of God, please give us pardon. O Lamb of God, please hear us. Please give perfection to beginners, give intelligence to the little ones, give us assistance to those who are running their course. Please give compunction to the negligent, give fervour of spirit to the lukewarm, give to the perfect a good consummation. O Lover of the loveless, it is Thy will that I should love Thee with heart, soul, mind, strength, and neighbour as myself. However, I am not sufficient for these things. There is by nature no pure love in my soul; every affection in me is turned from Thee; I am bound, as slave to lust, I cannot love Thee, lovely as Thou art, until Thou dost set me free. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageBy grace I am Thy freeperson and would serve Thee, for I believe Thou art my God in Jesus, and that through Him I am redeemed, and my sins are forgiven. With this freedom I would always obey Thee, but I cannot walk in liberty, anymore than I could first attain it, of myself. May Thy Spirit draw me nearer to Thee and Thy ways, please. Thou art the end of all mean, for if they lead me not to Thee, I go away empty. Please order all my ways by Thy holy word and please make Thy commandments the joy of my heart, that by them I may have happy converse with Thee. May I grow in Thy love and manifest it to humankind. Spirit of love, make me like the loving Jesus; please give me His benevolent temper, His beneficent actions, that I may shine before people to Thy glory. The more Thou doest in love in me and by me, please humble me the more; keep me meek, lowely, and always ready to give Thee honour. May hope spring eternal in the human heart; people never is, but always to be blessed. To err is human, to forgive is divine. If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love’s sake only. God’s gifts put humans best gifts to shame. Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of Being and ideal Grace. The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one; yet the light of the bright World dies with the dying Sun. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

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Respect for God Demands that the Face, the Hands and the Feet be Washed One a Day!

ImageA thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. However, let us speak about the colonized. I see clearly what colonization has destroyed: the wonderful Native American civilizations—neither Deterding nor Royal Dutch nor Standard Oil will ever console me for the Aztecs and the Incas. I see clearly the civilizations, condemned to perish at a future date, into which it has introduced a principle of ruin: the South Sea islands, Nigeria, Nyasaland. I see less clearly the contributions it has made. Security? Culture? The rule of law? In the meantime, I look around and wherever there are colonizers and colonized face to face, I see force, brutality, cruelty, sadism, conflict, and in a parody of education, the hasty manufacture of a few thousand subordinate functionaries, “boys,” artisans, office clerks, and interpreters necessary for the smooth operation of business. I spoke of contact. Between colonizer and colonized there is room only for forced labour, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, assault by physical force, compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self-complacency, swinishness, brainless elites, degraded masses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

ImageWith colonization, there is no human contact, but relations of domination and submission which turn the colonizing being into a classroom monitor, an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and the indigenous person into an instrument of production. My turn to state an equation: colonization = “thingification.” I hear the storm. They talk to me about progress, about “achievements,” diseases cured, improved standards of living. I am talking about societies drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands confiscated, religions smashed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed, extraordinary possibilities wiped out. They throw facts at my head, statistics, mileages of roads, canals, and railroad tracks. I am talking about throughs of people sacrificed to the Congo-Ocean. I am talking about those who, as I write this, are digging the habour of Abidjan by hand. I am talking about millions of people torn from their gods, their land, their habits, their life—from life, from the dance, from wisdom. I am talking about millions of people in whom fear has been cunningly instilled, who have taught to have an inferiority complex, to tremble, kneel, despair, and behave like flunkeys. They dazzle me with the tonnage of cotton or cocoa that has been exported, the acreage that has been planted with olive trees or grapevines. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

Image I am talking about natural economics that have been disrupted—harmonious and viable economies adapted to the indigenous population—about food crops destroyed, malnutrition permanently introduced, agricultural development oriented solely toward the benefit of the metropolitan countries, about the looting of products, the looting of raw materials. They pride themselves on abuses eliminated. I too talk about abuses, but what I say is that on the old ones–very real—they superimposed others—very detestable. They talk to me about local tyrants brought to reason; but I note that in general the old tyrants get on very well with the new ones, and that there has been established between them, to the detriment of the people, a circuit of mutual services and complicity. They talk to me about civilization, I talk about proletarianization and mystification. For my very part, I make a systematic defense of the non-European civilizations. Every day that passes, every denial of justice, every beating by the police, every demand of the workers that is drowned in blood, every death from COVID-19, every scandal that is hushed up, every punitive expedition, every police van, every gendarme and every militiaman, brings home to us the value of our old societies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

ImageThey were communal societies, never societies of the many for the few. They were societies that were not only ante-capitalist, as has been said, but also anti-capitalist. They were demonstrative societies, always. They were cooperative societies, fraternal societies. I make a systematic defense of the societies destroyed by imperialism. They were the fact, they did not pretend to be the idea; despite their faults, they were neither to be hated nor condemned. They were content to be. In them, neither the word failure not the word avatar had any meaning. They kept hope intact. Whereas those are the only words that can, in all honesty, be applied to the European enterprises outside Europe. My only consolation is that periods of colonization pass, that nations sleep only for a time, and the peoples remain. For my part, I search in vain for the place where I could have expressed such views: where I ever underestimated the importance of Europe in the history of human thought; where I ever preached a return to any kind; where I ever claimed that there could be a return.  The truth is that I have said something very different: to wit that the great historical tragedy of Africa has been not so much that it was too late in making contact with the rest of the World, as the manner in which that contact was brought about. Europe began to propagate at a time when it had fallen into the hands of the most unscrupulous financiers and captains of industry. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

ImageIt was our misfortune to encounter that particular Industrialization on our path, and Industrialization is responsible before the human community for the highest heap of corpses in history. In another connection, in judging colonization, I have added that Europe has gotten on very well indeed with all the local feudal lords who agreed to serve, woven a villainous complicity with them, rendered their tyranny more effective and more efficient, and that it has actually tended to prolong artificially the survival of local past in their most pernicious aspects. I have said—and this is something very different—that colonialist Europe has grafted modern abuse onto ancient injustice, hateful racism onto old inequality. That if I am attacked on the grounds of intent, I maintain that colonialist Europe is dishonest in trying to justify its colonizing activity a posteriori by the obvious material progress that has been achieved in certain fields under the colonial regime—since sudden change is always possible, in history as elsewhere; since no one knows at what stage of material development these same countries would have been if Europe had not intervened; since the technical outfitting of Africa and Asia, their administrative reorganization, in a word, their “Europeanization,” was (as is proved by the example of Japan) in no way tied to the European occupation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

ImageThis is because Europeanization of the non-European continents could have been accomplished otherwise than under the heel of European occupation. Since the Europeanization of the non-European continents could have been accomplished otherwise than under the heel of Europe; since this movement of Europeanization was in progress; since it was even slowed down; since in any case it was distorted by the European take over. The proof is that at present it is the indigenous peoples of Africa and Asia who are demanding schools, and colonialist Europe which refuses them; that it is the African who is asking for ports and roads, and colonialist Europe which is insufficiently on this score; that it is the colonized person who wants to move forward, and the colonizer who holds things back. Another fear born of the protective structure is a fear of exposure. Its sources lies in the many pretenses that go into the development and maintenance of the structure itself. These will be described in connection with the impairment of moral integrity brought about by unresolved conflicts. For our present purpose we need only point out that a neurotic person wants to appear, both to oneself and others, different from what one really is—more harmonious, more rational more generous, or powerful, or ruthless. It would be hard to say whether one is more afraid of being exposed to oneself or to others. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

ImageConsciously, it is others one is most concerned about, and the more one externalizes one’s fear the more anxious one is that others should not find one out. If only others can be kept in the dark, one may say in that case that what one thinks of oneself does not matter; one’s own discovery of one’s failings can take in one’s stride. That is not so, but it is the way one feels consciously and indicates the degree to which externalization is present. Fear of being exposed may either appear as a nebulous feeling that one is a bluff or may be attached to some particular quality only remotely associated with what one is really bothered about. A person may be afraid that one is not as intelligent, as competent, as well educated, as attractive as one is believed to be, so shifting the fear to qualities that do not reflect on one’s character. Thus a patient recalled that in his early adolescence he was haunted by the fear that his being at the head of his class was due entirely to bluffing. Each time he changed schools he was sure that this time he would be found out, and the fear persisted even when again he captured the top rank. His feeling puzzled him, but he was unable to put his finger on the cause of it. He could not gain an insight into his problem because he was on the wrong track: his fear of exposure did not at all concern his intelligence but had merely been shifted to that sphere. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

ImageIn reality it concerned his unconscious pretense of being a good fellow who did not care about grades, whereas the fact was that he was obsessed by a destructive need to triumph over others. This illustration leads to a pertinent generalization. Fear of being a bluff is always related to some objective factor, but it is usually not the one the person oneself thinks it is. Symptomatically, its outstanding expression is blushing or a fear of blushing. Since it is an unconscious pretense that the patient fears will be disclosed, the analyst will make a serious mistake if, noting the patient’s fear of being found out, he searches for some experience that he thinks the latter is ashamed of and is hiding. However, the patient may not be holding back anything of the ort. What happens then is that one becomes more and more fearful that there must be something particularly bad in one which one is unconsciously loath to reveal. Such a situation is conductive to self-condemnatry scrutiny but not to constructive work. One will perhaps go into further detail about episodes of pleasures of the flesh or destructive impulses. However, the fear of exposure will remain so long as the analyst fails to recognize that the patient is caught in a conflict and that one oneself is working on only one aspect of it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

ImageFear of exposure can be provoked by any situation which—to the neurotic—means being out to a test. This would include starting a new job, making new friends, entering a new school, examinations, social gatherings, or any kind of performance that might make one conscious even if it is no more than taking part in a discussion. Frequently what is consciously conceived as a fear of failure actually has to do with exposure, and hence is not allayed by success. The person will merely feel that one “got by” this time, but what about the next? And if one should fail, one will only be the more convinced that he has always been a bluff and that this time one was caught. One consequence of such a feeling is shyness, particularly in any new situation. Another is wariness in the face of being liked or appreciated. The person will think, consciously or unconsciously: “They like me now, but if they really knew me, they would feel otherwise.” Naturally this fear plays a role in analysis, whose explicit purpose is to “find out.” Every new fear requires a new set of defenses. Those erected against fear of exposure fall into opposite categories and hinge on the whole character structure. On the other hand, there is a tendency to avoid test situations of any kind; and if they cannot be avoided, to be reserved, self-controlled, and wear an impenetrable mask. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

ImageOn the other than, there is an unconscious attempt to become so perfect a bluff that exposure need not be feared. The latter attitude is not defensive alone: magnificent bluffing is also used by individuals of the aggressive type who live vicariously, as a means of impressing those whom they wish to exploit; any attempt to question them, then, will be met by a wily counterattack. I refer here to openly sadistic persons. We shall see later how this trait fits in with the entire structure. We shall understand the fear of exposure when we have answered two questions: What is a person afraid to disclose? and, What is it that one fears in case one should be exposed? The first we have already answered. In other to answer the second we must deal with still another fear emanating from the protective structure, the fear of disregard, humiliation, and ridicule. While the ricketiness of the structure is responsible for the fear of disturbed equilibrium, and the unconscious fraudulence involved breeds fear of exposure, the fear of humiliation comes from an injured self-esteem. We have touched on this matter in other connections. Both the creation of an idealized image and the process of externalization are attempts at repairing damaged self-respect, but as we have seen, both only injure it still further. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

ImageIf we take a bird’s eye view of what happens to self-esteem in the course of a neurotic development, we come upon two pairs of seesaw processes. While the level of realistic self-esteem falls, up comes an unrealistic pride-pride in being so good, so aggressive, so unique, so omnipotent or omniscient. On the other seesaw we find a dwarfing of the neurotic’s actual self counterweighted by the raising of others to the stature of giants. Through the eclipse of large areas of the self by repression and inhibition as well as by idealization and externalization, the individual loses sight of oneself; one feels, if one does not actually become, like a shadow without weight or substance. And meanwhile one’s need of others and one’s fear of them make them not only more formidable to one but more necessary. Hence one’s center of gravity comes to rest more in others than in oneself and one concedes to them prerogatives that are rightly one’s own. Its effect is to give their evaluation of oneself undue important, while one’s own self-evaluation loses significance. This lends to the opinion of others an overwhelming power. The above sets of process taken together account for the neurotic’s extreme vulnerability to disregard, humiliation and ridicule. And these processes are so much a part of every neurosis that hypersensitivity in this respect is most common. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

ImageIf we are cognizant of the manifold sources of the fear of disregard we can see that to remove or even diminish it is no simple task. It can recede only to the extent that the entire neurosis recedes. In general, the consequence of this fear is to set the neurotic apart from others and make one hostile to them. However, more important is its power to clip the wings of those afflicted with it so any strong degree. They do not dare to expect anything of others or to set high goals for themselves. They do not dare to approach people who seem superior to them in any way; they do not dare to express an opinion even though they may have a real contribution to make; they do not dare to exercise creative abilities even when they have them; they do not dare to make themselves attractive, to try to impress, to seek a better position, and so on and so on. When tempted to reach out in any of these directions the ghastly prospect of ridicule holds them back and they take refuge in reserve and dignity. More imperceptible than the fears we have described in one that may be regarded as a condensation of all of them as well as of other fears that arise in a neurotic development. This is the fear of changing anything in oneself. Patients react to the idea of changing by adopting either of two extreme attitudes. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

ImageThe two attitudes range from they either leave the whole subject nebulous, feeling that a change will occur by some sort of miracle at some hazy future time, or they attempt to change too rapidly, with too little understanding. In the first instance they harbour a mental reservation that catching a glimpse of a problem or admitting a frailty should be enough; the idea that in order to fulfill themselves they must actually change their attitudes and drives comes as a shock to them and makes them uneasy. They cannot help seeing the validity of the proposition, but unconsciously they reject it all the same. The reverse position amounts to an unconscious pretense of changing. It is in part wishful thinking, growing out of the patient’s intolerance of any imperfection in oneself; but it is also determined by one’s unconscious feeling of omnipotence—the mere wish to have a difficulty disappear should be enough to dispel it. Behind the fear of changing are qualms about changing for the worse—that is, losing one’s idealized image, turning into the rejected self, becoming like everybody else, or being left by analysis an empty shell; terror of the unknown, of having to relinquish safety devices and satisfactions hitherto gained, particularly those of chasing after phantoms that promise solution; and finally a fear of being unable to change—a fear that will be better understood when we come to discuss the neurotic’s hopelessness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

ImageAll these fears spring from unresolved conflicts. However, because we must expose ourselves to them if we want eventually to find integration, they also stand as a hindrance to our facing ourselves. They are the purgatory, as it were, through which we must wander before we can attain salvation. The faith of both the New and the Old Testament is selective, subtracting people from the kingdom of this World and adding them to that of Heaven. It leaves people in the World but takes care to make one not of the World where one lives as a stranger and pilgrim inhabiting no permanent city. It united one to the holy community of the World. In this Church there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, but only if one has abandoned a World where Jews and Gentiles are foes, and male and female try to dominate each other. Faith implies separation: a person from one’s brother, a daughter from her mother. However, we also focus on a different type of faith. A faith where instead of erecting the holy community out of the World, it sees the whole World as already being the holy community. Nobody escapes it. All, even unawares, belong to it. Is this still the Christian faith? Ephraim and Syria wage war against Judah—Christ will be born of a virgin—Compare Isaiah 7. About 559-545 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

Image“And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah: Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field: and say unto him: Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying: Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, yea, the son of Tabeal. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus, Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe surely ye shall not be established. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

Image“Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying: Ask thee a sigh of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above. But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary people, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kinds. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day that they Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the holes of the rock, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord have with a razor that is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

Image“And it shall come to pass in that day, a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep; and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk they shall give he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. And it shall come to pass in that day, every place shall be, where there were a thousand wines at a thousand silverlings, which shall be for briers and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall people come thither, because all the land shall become briers and thorns. And all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and the treading of lesser cattle,” reports 2 Nephi 17.1-25. Almighty Lord our God, direct our steps into the way of peace, and strengthen out hearts to obey They commands: may the Day-spring visit us from on high, and give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; that they may adore Thee for Thy sweetness, Who are the blessed Lord God of Israel. Father of Jesus, dawn returns but without thy light within no outward light can profit; give me the saving lamp of thy Spirit that I may see thee, the God of my salvation, the delight of my soul, rejoicing over me in love. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

ImageI commend my heart to Thy watchful care, for I know its treachery and power; guard its every portal from the wily enemy, give me quick discernment of His deadly arts, help me to recognize His bold disguise as an Angel of light, and bid Him begone. May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love! May loiterers be quickened to greater diligence by my example! May Worldlings be won to delight in acquaintance with thee! May the timid and irresolute be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus! Cause me to be a mirror of Thy grace, to show others the joy of Thy service, may my lips be well-tuned cymbals sounding Thy praise, let a halo of Heavenly-mindedness sparkle around me and a lamp of kindness Sunbeam my path. Teach me the happy art of attending to things temporal with a mind intent on things eternal. Send me forth to have compassion on the ignorant and miserable. Help me to walk as Jesus walked, my only Saviour and perfect model, His mind my inward guest, His meekness my covering garb. Let my happy place be amongst the poor in spirit, my delight the gentle ranks of the meek. Let me always esteem others better than myself, and find in true humility an heirdom to two Worlds. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18Image

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Welcome to #BrightonStation! In today’s blog post we want to reacquaint you all with our community at #CresleighRanch. Pictured here is Home Site 78, a Residence 4 home that is available for move in! 🏡 Read more about it on today’s post. Link in bio. 👉 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/home-site-78/

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A Fear of a Different Order is Generated—the Fear that Something May Jeopardize these Treasures!

ImageSometimes it takes falling into an open well to discover what we need. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. In its crucial features the ideal speech situation is strictly formal. To arrive at it we abstract from all social circumstances and institutions, as well as particular technical economic, political and cultural circumstances. The ideal speech situation abstracts out any interests speakers might have other than an interest in discursive consensus, and assumes for the speakers that all their experience and feeling is communicable. It also abstracts from the speaking situation those real material factors that require us to cut discussion short (such as having to eat, sleep, and so forth) and to acquire the means for doing so. Only this complete formality of the ideal speech situation permits it to have a universal character. Given the correctness of the theory of communication in which it is embedded, the ideal speech situation implicitly underlies any act of speaking which aims at understanding, as a quasi-transcendental condition for that speaking. This universality provides a theory of justice with a grounding that makes it less arbitrary than some other starting points. It also can provide a critical theory of justice with its needed capacity to distance itself from any and all actual social circumstances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageThere is a price for this universalizing distance, however. Because the ideal speech situation is formal and abstract, it cannot itself serve as a standard or goal of justice. The ideal speech situation offers the vision of social relations free from domination, the ideal of pure democracy and social reciprocity. It offers this as a mere vision, however; it is no more than an unreal projection that interests thought. It is too abstract to serve as a means of evaluating particular social circumstances. Nor can principles of the evaluation of a society be derived from the ideal speech situation directly. As we have already seen, it is illegitimate to derive substantive normative principles from a purely formal beginning. To use the ideal speech situation for developing a conception of justice applicable to the evaluation of actual societies, we must introduce material premises derived from actual social circumstances. Habermas suggests a method for the introduction of such material content into the ideal speech situation. Utilization of the ideal speech situation, on the other hand, entails incorporating specific knowledge of the particular society one seeks to evaluate. The participants in the discussion know at least the following things about their society: They know the basic natural constraints of their location, such as climate, topography, the character and general amount of land and material resources to which they have access, and so on. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImagePeople involved in the discussion also have basic demographic knowledge such as how much relative space they have and how much food can be produced relative to the given and projected population. They know the sort of problems their technology can solve and the general level of productive capacity they have at their disposal. All the above say in concrete terms that the persons here know approximately at what point their society lies on the scale between social scarcity and social abundance. As I interpret this model, moreover, the members of the discussion also know much about the culture and traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative tradition and a set of shared symbols and stores. They know their language, the games they play, their educational practices, and so on. In principle, if they were in a situation of equality and reciprocity in this model of reasoning about justice, the only things abstracted from real society are those conditions of domination which prevent people in real society from pressing interests that all would agree to as legitimate. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageThis model of reasoning must be purely hypothetical, of course, since in reality material conditions and relations of domination are inextricably linked. Imagining persons with these material constraints as standing in the ideal speech situation—even though no such persons could exist—provides a means of locating the sources of domination. Given discussion unconstrained by domination, the model has individuals choose first principles of social organization that best serve what they judge as their collective needs and legitimate individual interests, given the material constraints under which they operate. They choose, that is, the basic rules of interaction, authority relations, and forms of decision making within and among institutions. Among the principles and rules chosen, of course, are those relating to the distribution of the benefits of social cooperation. Such principles of distribution, however, would be dependent on prior determination of institutional forms, conditions and relations of production and authority relations, as well as on the level of material abundance of which the society is capable. For without the prior knowledge of the forms of social organization, we do not know what sort of social benefits are to be distributed, nor what sort of social positions and interest groups there are to decide among in distributing. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageThe conception and principles of justice which emerge in this way from the application for the formal conditions of the ideal speech situation to the material situation of a particular society are thus quite particular. Unlike most theories of justice, this model of reasoning about justice does not call for the construction of an idea of the just society in general. Rather, the model allows for, even requires, a multitude of conceptions of justice, each derived from the particular conditions of the society and applicable only to them. The model thus satisfies the condition developed in the previous section, that a theory of justice recognize the historical specific of conceptions of justice. It grants that it is not in fact possible to articulate a substantive conception of justice that applies to the evaluation of all or many societies. This form of reasoning about justice in effect measures a society against itself rather tan measuring the society directly against an ahistorical set of principles. The conception of justice resulting from application of the ideal speech situation to particular social conditions, expresses the interests of all insofar as they are compatible. It thus shows that latent possibilities of the society given its historical and material conditions with the systemic sources of its conflicts of interest removed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageThis process of reasoning about justice serves two purposes. Its main function is to identify sources of domination in the social arrangements of a particular society. The thought experiment discovers relations of domination in the process of setting up its starting point of reasoning. For every social relation whose justice one wishes to examine one asks whether there are aspects of it that tend to create asymmetries in the situation of discussion. The hypothetical models abstracts from them, but not from the material conditions and constraints. The second function served by the model is to project a vision of an alternative organization of that society which is free from domination. Therefore, utilization of the ideal speech situation in a model of reasoning about justice that applies it to the particular material and cultural situation of given society satisfies both the requirements for a theory of justice which have been raised in this essay. First, since the ideal speech situation focuses on relations of interaction and its application reveals the sources of domination, a theory of justice that uses it focuses primarily on forms of social organization. Secondly, the method of applying the ideal speech situation to particular material and cultural conditions points to a theory of justice that contains an a priori universal aspect without producing a conception of justice which claims transhistorical application. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageTranshistorical is the quality of holding throughout human history, not merely within the frame of reference of a particular form of society at a particular stage of historical development; it is eternal. In searching for the deeper meaning of any neurotic problem we can easily lose our bearings in a maze of intricacies. Since we cannot hope to understand neurosis without facing its complexity, this is not unnatural. It is helpful, though, to stand aside from time to time in order to regain our perspective. We have followed the development of the protective structure step by step. We have seen how one defense after another is built up until a comparatively static organization is established. And the element that impresses us most deeply in all this is the infinite labour that has gone into the process, a labour so tremendous that we are led again to wonder what it is that drives a person along so arduous a path and one so fraught with cost to oneself. We ask ourselves what are the forces that make the structure so rigid and so difficult to change. Is the motive power of the whole process simply the fear of the disruptive potency of the basic conflict? An analogy may clear a way to the answer. Like any analogy it is not a precise parallel and so can only be applied in the broadest terms. Let us assume that a man with a shady past has found his way into a community by false present. He will, of course, live in dread of his former state’s being disclosed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageIn the course of tie his situation advances; he makes friends, secures a job, founds a family. Cherishing his new position, he is best with a new fear, the fear of losing these goods. His pride in his respectability alienates him from his unsavory past. He gives large sums to charity and even to his old associates in order to wipe out his old life. Meanwhile the changes that have been taking place in his personality proceed to involve him in new conflicts, with the results that in the end his having commenced his present life on false premises becomes merely an undercurrent in his disturbance. So in the organization the neurotic has established, the basic conflict remains but is transmuted. Tempered in some respect, it is enhanced in others. Due, however, to the vicious circle inherent in the process, the ensuing conflict become more urgent. What sharpens them most is the fact that every fresh defensive position further impairs one’s relations with oneself and others—the soil, as we have seen, out of which conflicts grow. Moreover, as new elements, however wrapped in illusion—love or success, an achieved detachment or an established image—come to play an important part in one’s life, a fear of a different order is generated, the fear that something may jeopardize these treasures. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageAnd all the while, one’s increased alienation from oneself deprives one more and more of the capacity to work on oneself and so get rid of one’s difficulties. Inertia sets in, taking the place of a directed growth. The protective structure, for all its rigidity, is highly brittle and itself gives rise to new fears. One of these is a fear that its equilibrium will be disturbed. While the structure lends a sense of balance, it is a balance that is easily upset. The person oneself is not consciously aware of this threat, but one cannot help feeling it in a variety of ways. Experience has taught one that one can be thrown out of gear for no apparent reason, that one becomes infuriated, elated, depressed, fatigued, inhibited when one least desires it. The sum total of such experiences gives one a feeling of uncertainty, a feeling that one cannot rely on oneself. It is as if one were skating on thin ice. One’s imbalance may also be expressed in gait or posture, or in lack of skill in anything requiring physical balance. The most concrete expression of this fear is a fear of insanity. When that is present in a marked degree it can be the paramount symptom that drives a person to seek psychiatric help. In such instance the fear is also determined by repressed impulses to do all sorts of “crazy” things, mostly of a destructive nature, without feeling responsible for them. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageThe fear of insanity, however, is not to be construed as an indication that the person may actually go insane. Usually it is transitory and emerges only under conditions of acute distress. Its most poignant provocations are a sudden threat to the idealized image, or a mounting tension—most commonly due to unconscious rage—that puts excessive self-control in jeopardy. A woman, for example, who believed herself to be both even-tempered and courageous had an onset of panic when, in a difficult situation, she was struck with a feeling of helplessness, apprehension, and violent anger. Her idealized image, which had held her together as with a band of steel, suddenly burst and left her with a fear of going to pieces. We have already spoken of the panic hat may seize a detached person when one is pulled from one’s shelter and brought into close proximity to others—when, for instance, one has to join the army or live with relatives. This terror, too, may be expressed as a fear of insanity; and in this instance psychotic episodes may actually occur. In analysis a like fear will emerge when a patient who has gone to great lengths to create an artificial harmony suddenly recognizes that one is divided. That fear of insanity is most frequently precipitated by unconscious rage is demonstrated in analysis, when, this fear having subsided, its residues take the form of an apprehension that one may insult, beat or even kill people under conditions where self-control is impossible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageThe commission of an act of violence in sleep or under the influence of drink, anesthesia, or excitement involving pleasures of the flesh will then be feared. The rage itself may be conscious or it may appear in consciousness as an obsessive impulse toward violence, unconnected with any affect. On the other hand, it may be entirely unconscious; in that case all the person feels are sudden spells of vague panic, accompanied perhaps by perspiration, dizziness, or a fear of fainting—signifying an underlying fear that the violent impulses might get out of control. Where the unconscious rage is externalized, the person may have a terror of thunderstorms, ghosts, burglars, snakes, and so on—that is, of any potentially destructive force outside oneself. However, after all, fear of insanity is comparatively rare. It is simply the most conspicuous expression of the fear of losing equilibrium. Ordinarily that fear operates in more hidden ways. It appears then in vague, indefinite forms and can be precipitated by any change in life’s routine. Persons subject to it may feel profoundly disturbed at the prospect of making a journey or of moving or changing jobs or employing a new maid or whatever. Wherever possible they try to avoid such changes. Its threat to stability may be a factor in deterring patients from being analyzed, particularly if they have found a way of living that permits them to function fairly well. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageWhen they discuss they advisability of analysis they will be concerned about questions that at first glance seem reasonable enough: Will analysis uproot their marriage? Will it temporarily incapacitate them for work? Will it make them irritable? Will it interfere with their religion? As we shall see, such questions are in part determined by the patient’s hopelessness; one does not think it worth while to take any risks. However, there is also a real apprehension behind one’s concern: one needs to be reassured that analysis will not upset one’s equilibrium. In such cases we can safely assume that the equilibrium is particularly shaky and that the analysis will be a difficult one. Can the analyst give the patient the assurance one wants? No, one cannot. Every analysis is bound to create temporary upsets. What the analyst can do, however, is to go to the root of such questions, to explain to the patient what one really is afraid of, and tell one that while analysis will upset one’s present balance it will give one an opportunity to attain an equilibrium more solidly grounded. Faith is not distinctly Christian phenomenon. All philosophers have tried to reach the bottom of human’s self-awareness. They have attempted to overcome the distinction between subject and object. That all this has been done since philosophy began is not surprising: for this effort is none other than that of making ourselves like God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageUnity with God is a natural desire which is at least implicit in the heart of humans. Humans may or may not be able to give a name to God. At any rate, they tend to God as the goal of their fulfilment. They seek him in the dark along the winding roads of their anxieties, through the ups and downs of their fevers. And there is a sense in which they words that Pascal places on the lips of the Lord are true: “You would not seek for me, had you not already found me.” Other descriptions of faith, like Paul Tillich’s, when it describes human’s seeking and inclining towards God, is extremely valuable. Yet as we have seen, human’s search for God remains essentially ambiguous. The coincidence of guilt and forgiveness may be understood in two ways: either guilt I subsumed in forgiveness, or guilt already is forgiveness. An option between these two interpretations completely changes the meaning of guilt. Or, take faith as the acceptance of being accepted. If we are accepted, we are accepted, whether we accept it or not. What does our acceptance add to our being accepted? Strictly nothing. The conscious element of faith (our acceptance) is tacked on to a more basic element (our being accepted). If Paul Tillich thinks he is being radical in seeing this acceptance as faith, his radicalism can be outdone: faith is our being accepted. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageEverything is accepted; all is love; all is forgiveness. It is better, for our own peace, to know this experientially; but at bottom it makes no difference. We are accepted in any case. Faith is no longer a free act of human’s entire personality. It is the stuff of all human life. Tillich comes dangerously near to saying this when he underlines the universality of faith: “Every religious and cultural group and, to a certain extent, every individual is the bearer of a special experience and content of faith.” “There is no human being without an ultimate concern and, in this sense, without faith.” If every person cannot help having faith, what is unique in the Christian faith? Between classical theology, Catholic or Protestant, and Tillich something has intervened. What has happened is that Tillich has ontologized the concept of faith. Catholicism, followed by the Reformation, sees faith as a freely accepted act. Humans can reject faith. It is also an act of God: God enlightens the soul; and the soul, accepting or rejecting this light, believes or disbelieves. With Tillich, faith underlies everything. Doubt itself stems from underlying faith. Only faith can attempt to refute faith. “Our ultimate concern can destroy us as it can heal us…But we never can be without it.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageSome people are distinguished from others, not in that they freely accept God’s light and believe, but rather in that they suddenly, ecstatically, realize what is common to all, though hidden, namely, that estrangement is also reunion, that life has an ultimate meaning. Personally, with this understand, I take worship of the Lord serious, and I also try to give my best time to prayer—which for me is never the time just before going to bed. One’s last waking moments should never be given to powerful intercessory prayer (except, perhaps, for students who have a final exam in the morning). Here Jesus’ habit is instructive: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed,” reports Mark 1.35. The early birds get the prime time. The real question for you is, when is your best time? For some it may be at lunch or before dinner. A certain person could not find the right posture for prayer. One tried praying on one’s knees, but that was not comfortable; besides, it wrinkled one’s slacks. One tried praying standing, but soon one’s legs got tired. One tried praying seated, but that did not seem reverent. Then one day as one was walking though a field, one fell headfirst into an open well. And did one ever pray! #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageSeriously, one’s prayer posture can make a difference. While the Scriptures mention numerous postures for prayer, none is prescribed. What is important is that your posture enhance reverent attention. Sometimes I kneel, sometimes I walk about the house, often I sit at my desk with list in hand. There are times when I lift my hands, and other time I have been on my face. Heart attitude is the key factor. As to preparation for prayer, honest practicality is of greatest importance. Sometimes a person needs a shower and to get other grooming hygiene matters taken care of. If you are into coffee like I am, a good cup of coffee is a divine cordial. Again, it is not the physical details that are of prime importance but the condition and stance of the heart. Whatever helps you focus on the Lord. Often the best prayers are short and passionate. Luther himself said: “Look to it that you do not try to do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides, a good prayer must not be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.” A legalistic commitment to duration can kill one’s prayer life because it takes a lot of energy and you make look at it as a big, exhausting obstacle. So the best thing to do is just to get into and be honest and pour out your heart. It may surprise you where you go. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

ImageIf you go long enough without a bath even the fleas will let you alone. Isaiah see the Lord—Isaiah’s sins are forgiven—he is called to prophesy—he prophesies of the rejection by the Jews of Christ’s teachings—a remnant will return—Compare Isaiah 6. About 559-545 Before Christ. “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I: Wo is unto me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Host. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said: Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said; Here am I; send me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“And he said: Go and tell this people—Hear ye indeed, but they understood not; and see ye indeed, but they perceived not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes—lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed. Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities he wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate; and the Lord have removed people far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. However, yet there shall be a tenth, and they shall return, and shall be eaten, as a teil tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof,” reports 2 Nephi 16.1-13. O God Who art rich in mercy to all, O Father of glory, Who madest Thy Son to be a Light to the Gentiles, to proclaim redemption to the captives and sight to the blind; do Thou, Who by Christ art bounteous in compassion, grant them remission of sins, and a portion among the Saints through faith. Lord of immortality, before whom Angels bow and Archangels veil their faces, enable me to serve Thee with reverence and Godly fear. Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts, help me to worship Thee in spirit and in truth. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageThou who art righteous, please let me not harbour sin in my heart, or indulge a Worldly temper, or seek satisfaction in things that perish. I hasten towards an hour when Earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain, when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor, successful or disappointed, admired or despised. However, it will be of eternal moment that I have mourned for sin, hungered and thirsted after righteousness, loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity, gloried in His cross. May these objects engross my chief solicitude! Produce in me those principles and dispositions that make Thy service perfect freedom. Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame, so tat with firmness and courage I may confess the redeemer before humans, go forth with one bearing one’s reproach, be zealous with one’s knowledge, be filled with one’s wisdom, walk with one’s circumspection, ask counsel of one in all things, repair to the Scriptures for one’s orders, stay mind on one’s peace, knowing that nothing can befall me without one’s permission, appointment and administration. The notion of infinity implies that it cannot be extended, and whoever understands this will not look in this World for anything which contradicts the implication. The tremendous monumentality of the World-Idea, the staggering breadth of its scope and variety are a mere hint of the divine wisdom behind both. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

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ImageThe essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different—to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possess. Philosophers generally stipulate that a conception of justice should be held independently of particular social or historical circumstances, or practices, as a necessary condition for objectivity. In the effort to achieve this universality and objectivity, most modern philosophical accounts seek correct normative principles of social life by adopting a strategy of deriving such principles from a hypothetical starting point. Whether called the state of nature, the original position, the moral point of view, the ideal observer, and so on, this hypothetical starting point purportedly escapes the specificity of actual historical circumstances. The starting point aims to remove all natural and social contingency from human life, leaving only its formal and universal elements. Then political theorists can claim to derive the correct conception of the just social order from this universal and formal starting point. As we have seen, however, each account smuggles into the starting point substantive premises derived more or less directly from the theorist’s social circumstances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageThe theory of the just social order which emerges, then, merely reflects in idealized and systematized form the actual structure of the society in which the theorist dwells. Thus, many writers argue that classic liberalism makes substantive assumptions about human nature (for example, that human beings are essentially acquisitive) which reflect the particular needs of an emergent bourgeois and capitalist social order. This presents us with a dilemma. If one cannot derive a substantive conception of justice from a formal starting point alone, then it appears inevitable that substantive theories must have substantive premises derived from particular social circumstances. Theories do not err in introducing substantive premises into the starting point, since this is logically necessary if they are to arrive at substantive conclusions. Rather, the error lies in presenting these substantive premises as ahistorical and thus claiming that the substantive conception applies across different social and historical circumstances. Most contemporary social theorists conclude from this that the philosophical ideal of a rationally grounded conception of justice independent of particular social circumstances is an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme, and a dangerous one at that. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageMany Marxists, for example, argue that the search for correct, rationally grounded, universal principles of justice is illusory. Each social formation has its own normative principles which arise from and serve to reproduce the particular social relations of that society. Juridical forms, and the principles of justice that govern them, are specific to modes of production. There is, moreover, no transhistocial conception of justice by which these social practices can be judged unjust. There can be no “justice in itself” independent of the particular economic forms and social relations which engender and embody particular economic forms and social relations which engender and embody particular conceptions and principles of justice. It follows that any claim to have a universal and objective theory of justice is necessarily ideological; it makes as disinterested truth what really expresses the interests and values of the dominant class. Similarly, many contemporary non-Marxist social scientists regard with scepticism the possibility of arriving at a normative conception of justice that is not a mere reflection of norms actually operative in a society. For much contemporary social science norms exist only as facts: One can give an account of the norms people actually adhere to and follow in a society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageOne can show their social origins and give a functional account of how they contribute to the maintenance of social integration. No basis exists, however, for saying that some norms are right while others are not. Given the logical problem outlined above, the traditional philosophical search for a rationally grounded theory of justice appears to be illusory. Yet this conclusion leads to undesirable consequences. The thesis of the impossibility of a rationally grounded conception of justice that is more than a mere reflection of actual social circumstances implies the impossibility of rational social criticism. To criticize a set of social circumstances, and to judge them unjust, one should be able to take a sufficient distance from them that they no longer appear normal or inevitable. This seems to imply that one needs some means of transhistocial evaluation. Herbert Marcuse, was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He argued that the traditional appeal to normative universals like truth, beauty, freedom and justice serves just its critical function. The projection of universalistic ideas of what ought to be opens up possibilities for thinking, which otherwise would be conditioned by what actually exists. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageThe absence of such philosophical ideals creates the one-dimensional thinking characteristic of contemporary culture. Yet the appeal to universals is necessarily abstract. In the classical philosophical tradition while the motive for the development of an ideal conception of justice may have been critical, the outcome more often than not has been ineffectual. Reflection on the philosophic ideal of just society has most often served as a means of turning one’s back on the real social circumstances and retreating into rarified contemplation. A theory of justice is thus presented with a dilemma. It must provide a means of distancing social criticism from the concrete social conditions under evaluation. The tradition of philosophical criticism has found such a means of distancing only in a priori formal ideal. For a conception of justice to have any substance, however, it must be anchored in the particular social circumstances in which it exists and which it purports to evaluate, and hence be limited in application only to them. So the project of a properly critical theory of justice appears to be contradictory. It must develop a conception of justice independent of particular social circumstances, and yet at the same time derive from particular circumstances and be applicable only to them. I suggest that utilization of the ideal speech situation in what Habermas calls the “model of the suppression of generalizable interests” does just this. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageRationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning. The common idea that it s primarily used to justify oneself or to bring one’s motives and actions into accord with accepted ideologies is only valid up to a point; the implication there would be that persons living in the same civilization all rationalize along the same lines, whereas actually there is a wide range of individual differences in what is rationalized as well as in the methods employed. That this should be so is only natural if we view rationalization as one way of supporting neurotic attempts to create artificial harmony. In each of the planks of the defensive scaffolding built around the basic conflict, the process can be seen at work. The predominant attitude is strengthened by reasoning—factors that would bring the conflict into sight are either minimized or so remodeled as to fit in with it. How this self-deceptive reasoning assists the streamlining of the personality shows up when one contrasts the complaint type with the aggressive. The former ascribes one’s desire to be helpful to one’s sympathetic feelings, even though strong tendencies to dominate are present; and if these are too conspicuous one rationalizes them as solicitousness. The latter, when one is helpful, firmly denies any feeling of sympathy and lays one’s action entirely to expediency. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageThe idealized image always requires a good deal of rationalization for support: discrepancies between the actual self and the image must be reasoned out of existence. In externalizing, it is brought to bear to prove the relevance of outside circumstances or to show that the traits unacceptable to the individual oneself are merely a “natural” reaction to the behaviour of others. The tendency towards excessive selfcontrol can be so strong that I at one tie counted it among the original neurotic trends. Its function is to serve as a dam against being flooded by contradictory emotions. Though in the beginning it is often an act of conscious will power, in time it usually becomes more or less automatic. Persons who exert such control will not allow themselves to be carried away, whether by enthusiasm, excitement in pleasures of the flesh, self-pity, or rage. In analysis they have the greatest difficulty in associating freely; they will not permit alcohol to lift their spirits and frequently prefer to endure pain rather than undergo anesthesia. In short, they seek to check all spontaneity. This trait is most strongly developed in individuals whose conflicts are fairly out in the open, those who have not taken either of the steps that ordinarily help to submerge the conflicts; clear predominance has not been given to one of the conflicting sets of attitudes, nor has sufficient detachment been developed to put the conflicts out of operations. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageSuch persons are held together merely by their idealized image; and apparently its binding power is insufficient when unaided by one or the other of the primary attempts at establishing inner unity. The image is particularly inadequate when it takes the form of a composite of contradictory elements. The exertion of will power then, consciously or unconsciously, is needed to keep the conflicting impulses under control. Since the most disruptive impulses are those of violence prompted by rage, the greatest degree of energy is directed toward the control of rage. Here a vicious circle is set in motion; the rage, by reason of being suppressed, attains explosive strength, which in turn requires still more self-control is brought to one’s attention one will defend it by pointing to the virtue and necessity of self-control for any civilized individual. What one overlooks is the compulsive nature of one’s control. One cannot help exerting it in he most rigid way and is seized by panic if for any reason it fails to function. The panic may appear as a fear of insanity, which clearly indicates that the function of the control is to ward off the danger of being split apart. Arbitrary rightness has the twofold function of eliminating doubt from within and influence from without. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageDoubt and indecision are invariable concomitants of unresolved conflicts and can reach an intensity powerful enough to paralyze all action. In such a paralyzing state of doubt, a person is naturally susceptible to influence. When we have genuine convictions we will not be readily swayed; but if all out lives we stand at a crossroad, undecided whether to go in this direction or that, outside agencies can easily be the determining factors, if only temporarily. Moreover, indecision applies not only to possible courses of action but also includes doubts about one-self, one’s rights, one’s worth. All these uncertainties detract from our ability to cope with life. Apparently, however, they are not equally intolerable to everyone. The more a person sees life as a merciless battle, the more will one regard doubt as a dangerous weakness. The more isolated one is and insistent upon independence, the more will susceptibility to foreign influence be a source of irritation. All my observation points to the fact that a combination of predominant aggressive trends and detachment is the most fertile soil for the development of rigid rightness; and the nearer to the surface the aggression, the more militant the rightness. It constitutes an attempt to settle conflicts once and for all by declaring arbitrarily and stick and rigidly that one is invariably right. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageIn a system so governed by rationality, emotions are traitors from within and must be checked by unswerving control. Peace may be attained but it is the peace of the grave. As would be expected, such persona loathe the idea of analysis because it threatens to disarrange the tidy picture. Almost polar to rigid rightness, but likewise an effective defense against it the recognition of conflicts, is elusiveness. Patients inclined toward this kind of defense often resemble those characters in fairy tales who when pursued turn into fish (The Little Mermaid); if not safe in this guise, they turn into deer (Bambi); if the hunter catches up with them, they fly away as birds (Icarus). You can never pin them down to any statement; like Mitt Romney, they always deny having said it or assure you they did not mean it that way. Much like Bernie Sanders, they have a bewildering capacity to becloud issues. These people are also very similar to Hilary Clinton, in the sense that it is often impossible for them to give a concrete report of any incident; should they try to do so the listener is uncertain in the end just what really did happen. The same confusion reigns in their lives. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar (who is similar to Fallon on Dynasty) they are vicious one moment, sympathetic the next; at times overconsiderate, ruthlessly inconsiderate at others; domineering in some respects, self-effacing in others. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImagePeople who suffer from arbitrary rightness also reach out for a dominating partner, like we have seen Andrew Cuomo do with his relationship with the federal government, only to change to a “doormat,” then back to the former variety. After treating someone badly, they will be overcome by remorse, attempt to make amends, then feel like a “sucker” and turn to being abusive all over again. Nothing is quite real to them. The analyst may well find oneself confused, and, discouraged, feel there is no substance to work with. There one is mistaken. These are simply patients who have not succeeded in adopting the customary unifying procedures: they have not only failed to repress parts of their conflict, but they have established no definite idealized image. In a way they may be said to demonstrate the value of these attempts. For no matter how troublesome the consequences, persons who have so proceeded are better organized and not nearly so lost as the elusive type. On the other hand, the analyst would be equally mistaken were one to count on an easy job by virtue of the fact that the conflicts are visible and need not therefore be dragged out of hiding. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageNevertheless one will find oneself up against the patient’s aversion to any transparency, and this will tend to defeat one unless one oneself understands that this is the patient’s way of warding off any real insight. A final defense against the recognition of conflicts is cynicism, the denying and deriding of moral values. A deep-seated uncertainty in respect to moral values is bound to be present in every neurosis, no matter how strict and rigidly the person adheres to the particular aspects of one’s standards that are acceptable to one. While the genesis of cynicism varies, its function invariably is to deny the existence of moral values, thereby relieving the neurotic of the necessity of making clear to oneself what it is one actually believes in. Cynicism can be conscious, and then become a principle in the Machiavellian tradition and be so defended. All that counts is appearance. You can do as you please as long as you do not get caught. Everyone is a hypocrite who is not fundamentally stupid. This kind of patient may be as sensitive to the analyst’s using the term moral, regardless of the context, as those of Dr. Freud’s time were to the mention of pleasures of the flesh. However, cynicism may also remain unconscious and be concealed by lip service to the prevalent ideologies. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageUnaware though one may be of the hold one’s cynicism has upon one, the way one lives and the way one talks about one’s life will reveal that one acts upon its principles. Or one may involve oneself unwittingly in contradictions, like the patient who was sure one believed in honesty and decency yet was envious of anyone who indulged in crooked maneuvers and resented the fact that one oneself never “got away” with that kind of thing. In therapy it is important to being the patient’s cynicism to full awareness at the proper time and help one to understand it. It may also be necessary to explain why it is desirable for one to establish one’s own set of moral values. The foregoing, then, are the defenses built around the nucleus of the basic conflict. For simplicity I shall refer to the whole system of defenses as the protective structure. A combination of defenses is developed in every neurosis; often all of them are present, though in varying degrees of activity. To change governing ideas, whether the individual or the group, is one of the most difficult and painful things in human life. Genuine “conversation” is a wrenching experience. It rarely happens to the individual or group expect in the form of divine intervention, revolution, or something very like a mental breakdown. It can cause deep and permanent damage to the most intimate of relationships, as Jesus forewarned. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

Image“Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? No, I will you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law,” reports Luke 12.51-53. In fact, we are now undergoing an ever more profound change than in the sixties, though it is less noisy, with the emergence of mass “spirituality” at the end of the twentieth century. This change is the equivalent of a “soul Earthquake” that leaves nothing unshaken and many individuals hurt or destroyed. From one essential perspective, of course, Jesus himself confronted and undermined an idea system and its culture, which in turn killed him. He proved himself greater than any idea system or culture, however, and lives on. He is continuing the process of a Worldwide idea shift that is crucial to his perpetual revolution, in which we each are assigned a part. The Lord’s vineyard (Israel) will become desolate, and His people will be scattered-woes will come upon them in their apostate and scattered state—the Lord will lift an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 5. About 559-545 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Image“And then will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wild grapes. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard—I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, and behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry. Wo unto them that join house to house, till there can be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth! #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Image“In mine ears, said the Lord of Hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephan. Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, and wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, either consider the operation of one’s hands. Therefore, my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honourable people are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and one that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean person shall be brought down, and the mighty person shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. However, the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manners, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. We unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope; that say: Let one make speed, hasten one’s work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“We unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Wo unto the wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! Wo unto the mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from one! Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, their root shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Thereofre, is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the Earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them. None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent, and their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the Heavens thereof,” reports 2 Nephi 15.1-30. I intreat Thee, O Lord, holy Father, everlasting God, command the way of Thy truth and of the knowledge of Thee to be shown to Thy servants who wander in doubt and uncertainty amid the darkness of this World; that the eyes of their souls may be opened, and they may acknowledge Thee, the One God, the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit, and enjoy the fruit of this confession, both here and in the World to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. One seeks no power over others, no claim to rulership over their lives, no disciples of one’s own, no train of followers clinging to one’s coat-tails. Yet one will not refrain from helping where such help is imperative, nor from giving counsel where the young, the inexperienced, the bewildered seekers have desperate need of it. However, the moment after one will appear to have forgotten what one has done, so gracious is one’s delicacy, so strong one’s desires to leave others quite free and unobligated. I pray Heaven to bestow the best blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise people rule under this roof. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Image O Lord, whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible, other things that they may neither hinder, nor discourage me, nor prove obstacles to the progress of Thy cause; stand between me and all strife, that no evil befall, no sin corrupt my gifts, zeal, attainments; may I follow duty and not any foolish device of my own; permit me not to labour at work which thou wilt not bless, that I may serve Thee without disgrace or debt; let me dwell in Thy most secret place under Thy shadow, where is safe impenetrable protection from the arrow that flieth by day, the pestilence that walketh in darkness, the strife of tongues, the malice of ill-will, the hurt of unkind talk, the snares of company, the perils of youth, the temptations of middle life, the mournings of old ages, the fear of death. I am entirely dependent upon Thee for support, counsel, consolation. Uphold me by Thy free Spirit, and may I not think it enough to be preserved from falling, but may I always go forward, always abounding in the work Thou givest me to do. Strengthen me by Thy Spirit in my inner self for every purpose of my Christian life. All my jewels I give to the shadow of the safety that is in Thee—my name anew in Christ, my body, soul talents, character, my success, wife, children, friends, work, my present, my future, my end. Take them, they are thine, and I am thine, now and forever. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

 

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Brunch, anyone? We keep it light and breezy at #BrightonStation. 🤗 The Residence 1 floor plan has a spacious kitchen in an open floor plan to connect the heart of the home with the great room. 💙
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Make the move to #RanchoCordova’s newest home community. Lot 84 has this same floor plan and is ready for immediate move-in! We are now offering a $30,000 incentive to move in, with up to $5,000 extra when using a preferred lender! Video walkthroughs and virtual tours on our website. 🙌 Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/move-in-ready-home-site-84/
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The Better Part of Valour is Descretion—And Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest!

EN5MisFU0AIvjUkBear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honour it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children. Jurgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. One of Habermas’s most central concerns has been to lay the philosophical foundation for an expanded conception of rationality that applies to normative claims as well as facts. The positivist spirit appropriately spurned traditional effects to ground normative reason in a theological or metaphysical basis. In so doing, however, the positivist spirit we inherit abandoned entirely the project of providing the rational ground to normative discourse. Thus since norms have been judged to lack an objective basis comparable to that given to scientific reason, moral and political discourse has been reduced either to technical reason or the expressions of preference. In several words Habermas discusses the implications this dominance of technical reason over political life has for the continuance of contemporary forms of domination. He suggests that emancipatory interests can be expressed only if appeals to normative ideals regain a public discourse. Thus the concern to give a rational foundation to normative discourse is not merely theoretical, but practical as well. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageHabermas claims we can find the foundations of all rationality, both normative and non-normative, in the conditions of the possibility of communication which underlie and are presupposed by any speech act. He provides a theory of what he calls “universal pragmatics” to elaborate these conditions. I shall not summarize that theory here, but only touch enough of its outlines to indicate the place of the ideal speech situation in it. Any act of speaking which aims to be understood, according to Habermas, implicitly involves four validity claims. The speaker makes a claim to comprehensibility, that the speech itself makes sense in terms of the grammar and syntax of the speakers; truth, that the asserted relation to the World made by the speech is true; truthfulness, that the speaker himself or herself speaks sincerely and does not deceive or hide his or her motives, feeling, interests, and so forth; rightness, that in speaking the speaker acts in accordance with intersubjectively recognized norms apply in the situation. In situations of ongoing interaction when persons understand each other and act on projects together in harmony, these four validity claims remain entirely implicit. Any one of them, however, open to challenge, at which point they become explicit. A challenge obliges the speaker to make good on the claims. One can make good on claims to comprehensibility and truthfulness by appropriate actions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageOne makes good on claims to truth and rightness, on the other hand, only by entering another level of discourse which calls the claims explicitly into question and in which reasoned justification must be offered for them. The possibility of entering such argumentative discourse, Habermas claims, lies behind any act of speaking insofar as it aims to be understood. It is a condition for the possibility of such speaking. Discourse takes pace within the normative context Habermas describes as the ideal speech situation. This describes the formal conditions of a community of speakers engaged in discourse in which they have removed themselves from the immediacy of action in order to test a claim. The ideal speech situation expresses those conditions of interaction necessary for participants in such a discussion to reach a rationally motivated consensus. In a rationally motivated consensus, the participants assent to a conclusion solely on the grounds that t is most reasonable. Habermas states three conditions which must be met in the ideal speech situations: All those standing in the speaking situation have the same opportunity to speak and to criticize the speeches of others, and there are no limits on the content of speeches; all participants must have the same opportunity to express their attitudes, feelings, intentions, interests and motives; all have the equal opportunity, that is, to require recognition of their individuality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageFurthermore, all the participants have the equal right to give commands to the others and to require others to justify themselves in terms of mutually recognized norms and rules of interaction. Since the ideal speech situation abstracts from all contents of social interaction other than speech, and from all interests other than that of arriving at consensus in discussion, it is necessarily unrealizable. As emptied of all material content and reference to material needs, it is a pure, formal ideal. As such a formal ideal, however, it actually underlies communication as a universal condition. Insofar as any act of speaking aims at being understood and accepted, it anticipates the ideal speech situation as the condition for achieving understanding and acceptance. We would never try to achieve understanding unless we implicitly grasped the conditions required for achieving it. Thus even though the ideal speech situation is unrealizable, it has a real influence on interaction, as the motive of our attempts to achieve understanding. In this way Habermas intends to ground normative reason in the conditions of actual speaking lie. Communication itself depends on the implicit understanding of a situation of interaction guided by norms that participants in discourse appeal to and abide by in order to guarantee the objectivity and freedom of their consensus. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageThese norms that define the ideal speech situation, according to Habermas, embody the universal ideals of truth, freedom and justice. The ideal speech situation represents the idea of justice as a structure of institutionalized relations that are free from domination. The attainment of a rationally motivated consensus requires that the organization of interaction contains relations of equality, mutual recognition of the individuality of each, and reciprocity. Structures of domination create conflicts of interest that prevent commitment to consensus. These structures also prevent individuals from knowing their real interests, or expressing them even if they know them. To the degree that such structural asymmetries exist, an interaction situation declines from the ideal of justice. I have suggested, then, that the ideal speech situation can direct a theory of justice to focus its questioning on forms of social organization and relations of domination. It is important to note, however, that the ideal speech situation can direct a theory of justice to focus its questioning on forms of social organization and relations of domination. It is important to note, however, that the ideal speech situation does not itself constitute a standard or set of principles by which actual social arrangements ought to be evaluated. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageThe ideal speech situation expresses the ideal of justice in a purely formal way that abstracts from all particular social and historical content. A very widely employed strategy of the discreditable person is to handle one’s risks by dividing the World into a large group to whom one tells nothing, and a small group to whom one tells all and upon whose help one then relies; one co-opts for one’s masquerade just those individuals who would ordinarily constitute the greater danger. In the case of close relationships one already has at the time of acquiring the stigma one may immediately “bring the relationships up to date,” by means of a quiet confidential talk; thereafter one may be rejected, but one retains one’s standing as someone who relates honourable. Interestingly, this kind of information management is often recommended by medical practitioners, especially when they have to be the first to inform the individual of one’s stigma. Thus, medical officials who discover a cause of COVID-19 may suggest that that new secret be kept among the doctors, the patient, and one’s immediate family, perhaps offering this discretion in order to ensure continued cooperation from the patient. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageIn the case of post-stigma relationship that have gone past the point where the individual should have told, one can stage a confessional scene with as much emotional fuss as the unfairness of one’s past silence requires, and then throw oneself on the other’s mercy as someone doubly exposed, exposed first in one’s differentness and secondly in one’s honesty and untrustworthiness. There are fine records of these touching scenes, and a need to understand the huge amount of forget-and-forgiveness they can call forth. No doubt a factor in the rate of success of these confessions is the tendency for the concealer to feel out the concealed-form to make sure beforehand that the revelation will be received without complete rupture of the relationship. Note that the stigmatized individual is almost foredoomed to these scenes; new relationships are often ones that can easily be discouraged before they take hold, making immediate honesty necessarily costly and hence often avoided. As already implied, a person who is in a position to extort is also often in a position to help the blameworthy individual maintain one’s secret; moreover one is likely to have many motives for doing so. Thus, managers of resort establishments often enforce a privacy policy that protects the martial truants who sometimes stay or play in these places. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageSometimes people who are procuring or pandering the facilitation or provision of a man or woman of the evening in the arrangement of pleasures of the flesh with customers are sometime solicitous: The people rented rooms in respectable hotels, on the first floor above the lobby, so that their customers could use the stairways without being seen by the concierge. As are their colleagues: If their clients are prominent people the girls will not readily identity them or name them in conversation even with each other. Similarly one reads of the role of a hairdresser employed by the girls in a “first-class” house of pleasures of the flesh in exchange for money: Indeed, he was ore than an artist; he was a sincere friend every girl in the house, and “Charlie” heard confidences that were seldom given to others, and gave much common-sense advice. Moreover, in his own home on Michigan Avenue he received the mail of girls who were keeping their profession secret from families and friends, and his house served as a place where the girls could meet relatives who came unexpectedly to Chicago. “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

Image“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift one has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,” reports Revelations 4.7-10. Sometimes it happens that we receive the power to say “yes” to ourselves, that peace enters into us and makes us whole, that self-hate and self-content disappear, and that our self is reunited with itself. Then we can say that grace has come upon us. This is the experience of faith: to accept estrangement to the point where it becomes union. It is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name if which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek anything. Simply accept that fact that you are accepted. If that happens to us we experience grace. Faith thus appears to be the accepted of being accepted, and it is analysed as such. In other words, it is the acceptance of estrangement, the acceptance of sin. Sin and grace, or sin and faith, belong together like estrangement and union. Faith is the awareness that they are one. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageThen estrangement is reunion: despair is hope; anxiety is peace. Humans have the certainty of total forgiveness in the situation of total guilt. This reversal of values is beautifully illustrated in the sermon, “Is There Any Word from the Lord?” Faith is the word from the Lord which breaks through the human situation and transforms it. It does not add something to our situation, yet it adds a dimension to the dimension in which we ordinarily live. Faith is from above, since it is from the Lord, or at least it seems so to the mythical imagination. In reality the word from the Lord is the word which speaks out of the depth of our situation. It is, one could say, the deepest meaning of the situation. This faith changes nothing in the circumstances and the structure of life. Yet it reverses our attitude. The word from the Lord, the voice out of the depth of our situation, ends the anxiety of the possible and gives the courage to affirm the real with its many questionable elements. At this stage right and wrong may be questionable elements. At this stage right and wrong may be interchanged: If you realize that in relation to God humans are always wrong, your wrong may turn out to be right. Faith is the ecstatic discovery that despair is meaningful; it is the certainty that doubt too is belief. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageJustice was defined as the form in which power of being actualizes itself in the encounter of power with power. Justice is immanent in power, since there is no power of being without its adequate form. However, whenever power of being encounters power of being, compulsion cannot be avoided. The question then is: What is the relation o justice to the compulsory element of power? The answer must be: it is not compulsion which is unjust, but a compulsion which destroys the object of compulsion instead of working towards its fulfilment. If the totalitarian State dehumanizes those for the sake of whom it enforces its laws, their power of being as persons is dissolved and their intrinsic claim is denied. It is not compulsion which violates justice, but a compulsion which disregards the intrinsic claim of being to be acknowledged as what it is within the context of all beings. It may well be that a compulsion which prevents the punishment of a law-breaker destroys one’s power of being and violates one’s claim to be reduced in one’s power of being according to proportional justice. This is the truth in Hegel’s formula that the criminal has a right to punishment. A power structure in which compulsion works against the intrinsic justice of its elements is not strengthened but weakened. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageThe unacknowledged, justified claims, although suppressed, do not disappear. They are effective against the whole in which they are suppressed and they may ultimately destroy a power structure which is neither able to accept them as participants, nor able to throw them out as strange bodies. The intrinsic claim in everything that is cannot be violated without violating the violator. This is equally true of biological, psychological, and sociological structures of power. The mental power of human beings, for instance, can express itself in three forms. It can suppress elements which belong to it, as special desires or hopes or idea. In this case the suppressed elements remain and turn the mind against itself, driving it towards disintegration. Or the mental power of a human being can receive resisting elements which belong to it, elevating them into unity with the whole. Or the mental power can throw them our radically as foreign bodies whose claim to belong to the whole is successfully rejected. In the second and the third case the human mind exercises justice in opposite directions towards the resisting elements. In the first cast it violates the intrinsic claim of a being and endangers itself. This psychological example is also valid for biological and sociological structures of power. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageAs in power, justice is immanent in love. A love of any type, and love as a whole if it does not include justice, is chaotic self-surrender, destroying one who loves as well as one who accepts such love. Love is the drive for reunion of the separated. It presupposed that there is something to be reunited, something relatively independent that stand upon itself. Sometimes the love of complete self-surrender has been praised and called the fulfilment of love. However, the question is: What kind of self-surrender is it and what is it that is surrenders? If a self whose power of being is weakened or vanishing surrenders, one’s surrender is worth nothing. One is a self which has not received from oneself the justice to which one is entitled, according to one’s intrinsic claim for justice. The surrender of such an emaciated self is not genuine love because it extinguishes and does not unite what is estranged. The love of this kind is the desire to annihilate one’s responsible and creative self for the sake of participation in another self which by the assumed act of love is made responsible for himself or herself and oneself. The chaotic self-surrender does not give justice to oneself. It is justice to oneself to affirm one’s own power of being and to accept the claim for justice which is implied in this power. Without this justice there is no reuniting love, because there is nothing to unite. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThis leads to the question of justice towards oneself, a question which is analogous to the questions of self-love and self-control. In both cases we spoke of a metaphorical use of the term. We must do so also in the case of justice towards oneself. There is no independent self which could decide about the claim for justice by another self with which it happens to be identical. However, there is a definite sense in which the sense that the deciding center is just towards the elements of which it is the center. Justice towards oneself in this sense decides, for instance, that puritan form of self-control is unjust because it excludes elements of the self which have a just claim to be admitted to the general balance of strivings. Repression is injustice against oneself, and it has the consequence of all injustice: it is self-destructive because of the resistance of the elements which are excluded. This, however, does not mean that the chaotic admittance of all strivings to the central decision is a demand of the justice toward oneself. It may be highly unjust, in so far as it makes a balanced center impossible and dissolves the self into a process of disconnected impulses. This is the danger of the romantic or open type of self-control. It can become as unjust towards oneself as the puritan or closed type of self-control. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageTo be just towards oneself means to actualize as many potentialities as possible without losing oneself in disruption and chaos. This is a warning not to be unjust towards oneself in the relation of love. For this is always also an injustice towards one who accepts the injustice which we exercise towards ourselves. One is prevented from being just because one is forced to abuse by being abused. Love does not do more than justice demands, but love is the ultimate principle of justice. Love reunites; justice preserves what is to be united. It is the form in which and through which love performs its work. Justice in its ultimate meaning is creative justice, and creative justice is the form of reuniting love. Next you need some quiet. I am well aware that quiet is a relative term in today’s World where there is virtually no silence. Many of us never experience silence during our waking hours. We wake up to the most annoying sound in the World—a leaf blower or two, then our clock radio, shave or put makeup on to the news, drive through grid iron, noisy traffic, enter a noisy, busy office, return home listening to the radio for rush-hour reports, “relax” in front of the TV, and drift off to sleep as the house pulsates with the family stereo speakers slappin’ to some obscene pop music. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageWhat is more, the occasional silence we do encounter can be distracting because it heightens other distracting noises. With the deep quietness of a monastery, a cough repeated at predictable intervals can destroy every possibility of collected thought. Silence is sometimes louder than the noise you are trying to ignore! So one need to choose the situation that works best for one. It may be dominated by road noise, but if that is the atmosphere one need to concentrate, use it. Along with this you must find a place where you will not be disturbed. Early in my ministry, my office was in a one-bedroom apartment. My part-time sectary was on the other side of a thin wall. I could hear everything! If that was not enough, the whole apartment shook when the train came by. My solutions were many, and all off the premises—the beautiful old and always open and empty sanctuary of a neighbouring church, the park, the wonderful anonymity of my car parked at a busy shopping center. Even today, though I now have a quiet office, I often go to similar places for my devotions. The apostle Paul, who of course understood and taught about these things, warned us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the Word forces of this mobidness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the Heavenly places,” reports Ephesians 6.12. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

ImageThese higher-level powers and forces are spiritual agencies that work with—constantly try to implement and support—the idea systems of evil. These systems are their main tool for dominating humanity. By contrast, we who have been rescued “from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1.13) are to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2.5). This is an essential way of describing the substance, the underlying reality, of Christian spiritual formation. We are, in Paul’s familiar language, transformed precisely be the “renewing of our mind,” reports Romans 12.2. Zion and her daughters will be redeemed and cleansed in the millennial day—Compare Isaiah 4. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the Earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, they that are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem—when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shinning of a flame fire by night; for upon all the glory of Zion shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and a covert from storm and from rain,” reports 2 Nephi 14.1-6. Almighty and everlasting God, Who repellest not even the faithless Jews from Thy Mercy; hear our prayers, which we offer unto Thee for that blinded people; that by acknowledging the Light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their own darkness; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal Father, it is amazing love, that thou hast sent Thy Son to suffer instead in my stead, that Thou hast added the Spirit to teach, comfort, guide, that Thou hast allowed the ministry of Angels to wall me round; all Heaven subserves the welfare of a poor worm. Permit Thy unseen servants to be ever active on my behalf, and to rejoice when grace expands in me. Suffer them never to rest until my conflict is over, and I stand victorious on salvation’s shore. Grant that my proneness to evil, deadness to good, resistance to Thy Spirit’s motions, may never provoke Thee to abandon me. Suffer them never to rest until my conflict is over, and I stand victorious on salvation’s shore. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImagePlease Grant that my proneness to evil, deadness to good, resistance to Thy Spirit’s motions, may never provoke Thee to abandon me. May my hard heart awake Thy pity, not Thy wrath, and if the enemy gets an advantage through my corruption, let it be seen that Heaven is mightier than hell, that those for me are greater than those against me. Arise to my help in richness of covenant blessings, keep me feeding in the pastures of Thy strengthening word, searching Scripture to find Thee there. If my waywardness is visited with a scourge, enable me to receive correction meekly, to bless the reproving hand, to discern the motive of rebuke, to respond promptly, and do the first work. Let all Thy fatherly dealings make me a partaker of Thy holiness. Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees, and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion. May my every cross be sanctified, every loss be gain, every denial be a spiritual advantage, every dark a light of the Holy Spirit, every night of trial a song. Almighty and everlasting God, Who desirest not the death, but always the life of sinners; mercifully receive our prayer, and deliver the Heathen from idolatry, and gather them into Thy holy Church, to the praise and glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please Grant, O God, that all the inhabitants of the World may come to be sons and daughters of Abraham, and to hold the dignity of Israelites, through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA |

Now Selling!

IMG_-10hus4.jpgNOW SELLING! Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.

ImageLocated off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/