Here it may be remarked that the cult of unity on the political level is only an idolatrous ersatz for the genuine religion of unity on the personal and spiritual levels. Totalitarian regimes justify their existence by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the state is God on earth, unification under the heel of the divine state is salvation , and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, are right and ma be used without scruple. This political monism leads in practice to excessive privilege and power for the few and oppression for the many, to discontent at home and war abroad. But excessive privilege and power are standing temptations to pride, greed, vanity, and cruelty; oppression results in fear and envy, war breeds hatred, misery, and despair. All such negative emotions are fatal to the spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can come to the intuitive knowledge of god. HENCE, the attempt to impose more unity upon societies than their individual members are ready for makes it psychologically almost impossible for those individuals to realize their unity with the divine Ground, and with one another. -Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy, I, XI)
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:30:48 +0000
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