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

agree or you don’t. It’s probably easier to show that we have an innate sense of the sacred by seeing how people react to the reverse — to things that might be considered as desecration. If some things are considered to be sacriligeous or profane, then its not too big a step to suggest that we likewise have some sense of the sacred — the sacredness of life, motherhood, the protection of children and vulnerable adults, and such like.

Beauty is the ultimate value — the value from which all other values spring. The first gift of the cosmos is beauty. It’s from the beauty of nature that we derive our notions of fairness and equity. This is the motivation for our compassion. Compassion in turn expresses itself in seeking justice and freedom where these are needed. The universe gave us beauty first and we pass on that gift by making and being beauty for others. This is what I am calling grace. We can respond to nature with reverence and awe. It is she who has first gifted us and from her all our gifts flow. The intrinsic value of others allows us to respond to their beauty with spontaneous creativity. It inspires us to give pleasure to others. To be pleasure for them.

If we are not convinced of people’s intrinsic value, it might nevertheless be possible to get some answer by again considering the opposite. If we were not to value ourselves at all as individuals, life would be pretty desperate! Clearly, we operate on a pragmatic level as if we do have value and can reasonably infer that since it is unlikely that few if any of us are unique or special then value can also be extended to other people on an equal basis.

165