"If we take our vulnerable shell to be our true identity, if we think our mask is our true face, we will protect it with fabrications even at the cost of violating our own truth. This seems to be the collective endeavor of society: the more busily we dedicate ourselves to it, the more certainly it becomes a collective illusion, until in the end we have the enormous, obsessive, uncontrollable dynamic of fabrications designed to protect mere fictitious identities - "selves", that is to say, regarded as objects. Selves that can stand back and see themselves having fun (an illusion which reassures them they are real)."
- Thomas Merton, 'Raids on the Unspeakable', pg15
2Cents
ReplyDeletewe all live in a yellow submarine
America the beautiful is not very beautiful -
America has squandered its wealth on wars
invaded countries killed hundreds of peoples
proclaim corporations are people and the money
supply QE3 prints zero value dollar, bankers have destroyed the housing market -all under the eye of government approval - the problem is everyone
is apart of this corruption - a day of justice will come
but little is thought about it because the collective
illusion - the propaganda being sold to the public
America is the beautiful , land of the free - the average
person is a slave to the corporations that promotes
a life style that is necessary for happiness, that can be ill afforded but most think how wonderful ill just borrow the money - is this not illusion - yapper a day of collective guilt will arrive affluence will be no more - look to the history of the world this is the downfall of all
great nations ----
Blessings
YOu're right, bob, the collective illusion has a very powerful pull on us - so that we no longer know who we are, and cannot see things as they really are and live accordingly.
Delete