Recommendations of Reason

If one will examine the significant, progressive move ments of history, it will be found that they had their origin in a lonely perfectionism - that is, in the student approach. To illustrate: Christ understood the distinction between the law of violence and the law of love. He stated the law of love in its purity. It was He who lived a life worthy of emulation; it was He who employed the best of teaching tools, demonstration. Thus it was He who had the greatest influence: (1) He thoroughly understood the principle of love, and could competently explain it to those who selected Him as their Teacher, and (2) He lived without compromise or hypocrisy according to His principle. Move on seventeen centuries to another student. Adam Smith understood the division-of-Iabor and specialization theories so thoroughly that he was able excellently to explain them in a book, The Wealth of Nations, which had, next to the Bible, perhaps the greatest single influence on western civilization.

Recommendations of Reason Action? Intuition seems to commend that I try to tell others what to do and how to think. Reason supplies a contrary answer. It suggests that pursuit of my own per sonal understanding is the only practical action for me to take. Neither personal nor institutionalized evils exist 58 among men who comprehend them to be evils. If I advance in my understanding of the true and the false, the under standing that I acquire will be sought. Reason recom mends that I get the horse before the cart; that first I must learn; that influencing others will take care of itself. Rea son says that influence in the creative areas can have no being prior to learning; that learning has no end. Some agree with this line of reasoning and the con clusions herein set forth. They will assert them to be self evident, but will argue that this suggested student approach - this process of self-improvement - is too slow to meet the challenge of these times. I am in no position to deny this. But, in my opinion, there can be no short cut. The only way to the Infinite, to Ultimate Truth - that is, to understanding - is through one's own person. When we gain an appreciation of this principle, we will be on our way to as little violence and to as much liberty as can be in store for us.

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