21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

the wild beauty of the world about us. Such is the power of art, however, that it can endow even the trivialities and the mechanisms of our world with a pseudomystical fascination. Supposedly this enables our world to avoid the epithet of being caught in an imitative Classicism or in a faded Romanticism. The result is to challenge any traditional norms of beauty by reversion to the wild simply through undisciplined turbulence, at times with an elaborate presentation of the trivial, or even what is referred to as a personal statement.’

Thomas Berry — The Great Work

As well as being reflective of wild nature and the beauty found therein, Art may also serve the function of bringing harmony, and indeed love. Take this quote from Nicholas Gogol:

‘Art is the introduction of order and harmony into the soul, not trouble and disorder…If an artist does not accomplish the miracle of transforming the soul into an attitude of love and forgiveness, then his art is only ephemeral passion.’

Simon Parke (The Beautiful Life) says:

‘Art, religion and philosophy should create a longing for home. The artist/priest/philosopher should bring this longing painfully to the surface.’

A longing for home, a longing for pleasure, are key features of our economy of descendancy, the place of the soul. Alexander Lowen contrasts this with our culture’s longing for power:

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