Some statements of truth

I will do for Matthias Desmet’s book The Psychology of Totalitarianism what I am always wishing someone would do for my books, particularly The Cosmic Internet. A few quotations from a little book I read in two days with that sense of delighted recognition one gets so few times in a long lifetime of reading.

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“Truth-telling is a way of speaking that breaks through an established, if implicit, social consensus. Whoever speaks the truth breaks open the solidified story in which the group seeks refuge, ease, and security. This makes speaking the truth a dangerous endeavor. It strikes fear in the group, and results in anger and aggression.” (p. 13)

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“That’s how most people eventually become certain. Very certain. Yet of the most opposing things. Some people were convinced that we were dealing with a killer virus, others that it was nothing more than the seasonal flu, and still others believed that the virus did not even exist and that we were dealing with a worldwide conspiracy. And there were also a few who continued to tolerate uncertainty and kept asking themselves: How can we adequately understand what is going on in our society?” (p. 6)

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“The ultimate achievement of science is that it finally surrenders, that it comes to the realization that it cannot be the guiding principle for man. It is not human reason that is at the heart of matter, but man as an individual who makes ethical and moral choices, man in relation to fellow man, man in relation to the unnamable, which, at the heart of things, speaks to him.” (p. 16)

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“Mechanistic ideology always lives on credit! In the future, once perfect knowledge has been achieved and perfect technology has been mastered, it will translocate the man-machine into paradise. Yet for now, it mainly makes people sick and depressed.” (p. 46)

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“With respect to the leaders, mass-formation gives rise to two opposing attitudes: Either one trusts the leaders blindly (and disappears into the mass), or one completely distrusts them and sees them as people who knowingly carry out an evil plan (i.e. conspirators). In a certain sense, both extreme perspectives are based on a similar misunderstanding: They fallaciously endow the leaders with a virtually absolute knowledge (and power); the first group does so in a positive sense, the second group in a negative sense.” (p. 105)

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“The Enlightenment man, too, was brought up in a myth, a story that tells something about his origin, that makes him take a certain perspective on life and links his negative and positive emotions and affects to specific situations.” (p. 172)

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“The end point of science is not reached with a perfectly rational understanding and control of reality; instead, it lies in the final acceptance that there are limits to human rationality, that knowledge does not belong to man, but has to be situated in the wider system of which man forms a part.” (pp. 177-8)

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“The ultimate knowledge lies outside of man. It vibrates in all things. And man is able to receive it, by tuning his vibrations, like a string, to the frequency of things. And the more man is able to set aside prejudices and beliefs, the more purely he will vibrate with the things around him and receive new knowledge.” (p. 184)

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“Literally: To the degree that we can connect with what is outside ourselves, we are able to transcend our own boundaries and our own world of experience gets expanded to an existence that extends endlessly in time and space. Through resonance with the greater plan, we participate in the timelessness of the universe, like a reed rustling in the eternal air of life.” (p. 186)

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And finally, this, which is the first time I have ever been moved to quote form an “Acknowledgements” page:

“We cannot describe in words where words come from. But we do know where words go – they are always on their way to Another. Man is a narrow passage through which words pass on their journey from source to Other.” (p. 189)

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It was a great refreshment, reading this book. I doubt that Matthias Desmet makes a practice of talking to his guys upstairs (at least, if he does, I doubt he does so knowingly). He has a scientifically trained mind, which I do not have. Yet his life has brought him to conclusions quite compatible with what the guys have been telling us for more than 20 years..

I can think of no experience more delightful and encouraging than to read an honest man’s careful and skillful attempt to lay out the plain truth, as best he can, knowing that truth may be offered freely, but can by transmitted only to those able to receive it.