21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview
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T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S
in their own lateralness [radical de-centring].’
Elaine Scarry — On Beauty and Being Just
(There is a similar thought offered to us by Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics Book V: ‘Distributive justice in accordance with geometric proportion.’)
The universe, it could be said, is never quite symmetrical. It’s an imbalance between matter and anti-matter that allows our material universe to exist. The notes of musical scales don’t quite match up with the lengths of vibrating strings. Many things in nature grow to an approximation of the Golden Ratio, but they never quite achieve its perfect mathematical formulation. Hence, by a rather stretched analogy, we find beauty in human frailty. This, I think, is one of the big clues as to why beauty is so important.
With beauty we have a connection with the wholeness of all things, the wildness of nature and the wildness within ourselves — our own bodies and souls. The wonder and awe that we feel as a result of beauty leads to gratitude and a creative response to the world. Beauty is the inspiration and creating beauty is the essential response — and with this comes celebration, joy and compassion.
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