This I Beheld
"...The understanding which love produces can be used for power of the push-button type; such automatic and efficient power has social value only when its use is confined to the service which love seeks to perform in the world. The capacity for responsibility which power creates can be used to arouse sentimental love and dogmatic adherence to principle; feelings taken for granted in this way have social meaning only when they unite people who are cooperating already in the exploitation of genuine opportunities.
"...The understanding which love produces can be used for power of the push-button type; such automatic and efficient power has social value only when its use is confined to the service which love seeks to perform in the world. The capacity for responsibility which power creates can be used to arouse sentimental love and dogmatic adherence to principle; feelings taken for granted in this way have social meaning only when they unite people who are cooperating already in the exploitation of genuine opportunities.
Aggressive power is derived from love which turns selfish and loses its sense of service; knowledge then becomes a tool of irresponsible willfulness. Passive love, on the other hand, is derived from power which turns toward vanity and loses its capacity for seeking genuine opportunity; ability then becomes a play-thing of ignorant self-consciousness..."
-
from..."This I Beheld"
A Psychological Analysis of the Growth of the Masculine Ideal in Civilization, with Application to Selected Writings of Homer, Shakespeare, and Joseph Conrad [1961, unfinished]
by Paul Rosenfels
from..."This I Beheld"
A Psychological Analysis of the Growth of the Masculine Ideal in Civilization, with Application to Selected Writings of Homer, Shakespeare, and Joseph Conrad [1961, unfinished]
by Paul Rosenfels
