In the spirit of the New Year and in an effort to make @twitter a slightly better place, some thoughts on truth, discipline, and love… 1/
The quotes are all taken from M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled... amazon.com/Road-Less-Trav…
… and have been divided into three topics for three weeks: truth, discipline, and love 2/
… and have been divided into three topics for three weeks: truth, discipline, and love 2/
On truth… 3/
Life is difficult… It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those things that hurt, instruct." 4/
The more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world. 5/
Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are… If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost. 6/
We are not born with maps; we have to make them, and the making requires effort. The more effort we make to appreciate and perceive reality, the larger and more accurate our maps will be. But many do not want to make this effort. 7/
The biggest problem of map-making is not that we have to start from scratch, but that if our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them. 8/
We are daily bombarded with new information as to the nature of reality. If we are to incorporate this information, we must continually revise our maps, and sometimes when enough new information has accumulated, we must make very major revisions. 9/
"Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live," said Seneca two millennia ago, "and what will amaze you even more, throughout life one must learn to die." 10/
The only way that we can be certain that our map of reality is valid is to expose it to the criticism and challenge of other map-makers. 11/
The process of making revisions, particularly major revisions, is painful, sometimes excruciatingly painful. And herein lies the major source of many of the ills of mankind. 12/
Because of the pain inherent in the process of revising our map of reality, we mostly seek to avoid or ward off any challenges to its validity. 13/
The reason people lie is to avoid the pain of challenge and its consequences. 14/
Lying is an attempt to circumvent legitimate suffering. 15/
Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. 16/
There are indeed oppressive forces at work within the world. We have, however, the freedom to choose every step of the way the manner in which we are going to respond to and deal with these forces. 17/
The problem of distinguishing what we are and what we are not responsible for in this life is one of the greatest problems of human existence. 18/
We must always hold truth, as best we can determine it, to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort. 19/
The symptoms and the illness are not the same thing. The illness exists long before the symptoms. 20/
We tend to believe what the people around us believe, and we tend to accept as truth what these people tell us of the nature of the world as we listen to them during our formative years. 21/
The fact of the matter is that everyone has an explicit or implicit set of ideas and beliefs as to the essential nature of the world. 22/
Since everyone has some understanding-some world view, no matter how limited or primitive or inaccurate-everyone has a religion.23/
We suffer from a tendency to define religion too narrowly. We tend to think that religion must include a belief in God or some ritualistic practice or membership in a worshiping group. 24/
Anyone who has known a died-in-the-wool atheist will know that such an individual can be as dogmatic about unbelief as any believer can be about belief. 25/
It is abundantly evident that belief in God is often destructively dogmatic. Is the problem, then, that humans tend to believe in God, or is the problem that humans tend to be dogmatic? 26/
The most basic culture in which we develop is the culture of our family...The most significant aspect of that culture is not what our parents tell us about God and the nature of things but rather what they do-how they behave toward each other... and toward us. 27/
It is not so much what our parents say that determines our world view as it is the unique world they create for us by their behavior. 28/
We live our lives in a real world. To live them well it is necessary that we come to understand the reality of the world as best we can. 29/
The selective withholding of one's opinions must also be practiced from time to time in the world of business or politics. if one is to be welcomed into the councils of power. 30/
There is simply no way around the fact that if one is to be at all effective within an organization he or she must partially become an "organization person" circumspect in the expression of individual opinions, merging at times personal identity with that of the organization. 31/
What rules, then, can one follow if one is dedicated to the truth? First, never speak falsehood. 32/
The more honest one is, the easier it is to continue being honest, just as the more lies one has told, the more necessary it is to lie again. 33/
To be free people we must assume total responsibility for ourselves, but in doing so must possess the capacity to reject responsibility that is not truly ours. 34/
