The Need Always To Lie And Always

The Loss Of The Religious Understanding Of The Human Condition—that Man Is A Fallen Creature For Whom Virtue Is Necessary But Never Fully Attainable—is A Loss, Not A Gain, In True Sophistication. The Secular Substitute—the Belief In The Perfection Of Life On Earth By The Endless Extension Of A Choice Of Pleasures—is Not Merely Callow By Comparison But Much Less Realistic In Its Understanding Of Human Nature.

Nonjudgmentalism Is Not Really Nonjudgmental. It Is The Judgment That . . . Everything Is The Same, Nothing Is Better. This Is As Barbaric And Untruthful A Doctrine As Has Yet Emerged From The Fertile Mind Of Man.

There Is Something Deeply Attractive, At Least To Quite A Lot Of People, About Squalor, Misery, And Vice. They Are Regarded As More Authentic, And Certainly More Exciting, Than Cleanliness, Happiness, And Virtue.

The Need Always To Lie And Always To Avoid The Truth Stripped Everyone Of What Custine Called 'the Two Greatest Gifts Of God-the Soul And The Speech Which Communicates It.' People Became Hypocritical, Cunning, Mistrustful, Cynical, Silent, Cruel, And Indifferent To The Fate Of Others As A Result Of The Destruction Of Their Own Souls.

Considering The Importance Of Resentment In Our Lives, And The Damage It Does, It Receives Scant Attention From Psychiatrists And Psychologists. Resentment Is A Great Rationalizer: It Presents Us With Selected Versions Of Our Own Past, So That We Do Not Recognize Our Own Mistakes And Avoid The Necessity To Make Painful Choices.