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

What are we being asked to do?

As I’ve suggested above, it is very difficult for us to do nothing. We have an overwhelming drive to ‘fix’ things — to learn, or to educate, to solve problems by technical means, to devise bureaucracies in order to administer virtue and address the needs of the world. We are being told however that essentially, the Kingdom of Heaven is already here. Furthermore, there is not very much for us to do, except to step aside. It might be added here that despite the very real problems in the world, there is no need for us to strive, even although things may look desperate. It does not mean that we will not be deeply affected by circumstances, but the solution is always outside of us, even when we are the means of achieving it. The responsibility, if you like, is strangely lifted from us, even whilst in the human economy — a more limited world view — the burden of responsibility needs to remain. This quote from Hegel summarises this thought for us: ‘The Good, the absolutely Good, is eternally accomplishing itself in the world; and the result is that it need not wait upon us but is already in full actuality accomplished.’

Also, reflected in our closing chapters, is the idea of making all these things personal. This means saying, ‘I am pleasure’, ‘I am love’ and so on. Remember Ghandi’s famous quote: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. When we consider these statements in the first person present tense, how do we feel about them? As expressed in the previous chapter, if I am not grace, there is no grace.

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