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Elective English–I

Notes In spite of being powerless within this mechanistic universe, as metaphorically emphasized by
the fact that we die after just a few short years of existence, this thinking and feeling creature
is nevertheless “free.” He is free to ponder, to understand, to pass judgment, and imagine
things that theoretically could exist. All these things are denied to the rest of the universe, to
the forces that bind the sentient individual, and this makes the sentient “superior” to the
creating and enslaving forces.
”In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief
years, to examine, to criticize, to know, and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the
world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the
resistless forces that control his outward life.”

Even primitive people understand that they are subject to forces more powerful than themselves.
Those of our ancestors who acknowledged the power of stronger men and prostrated themselves
in their worship, were more likely to be spared, and therefore tended to survive. The powers
of Nature were dealt with similarly, because of the savages imperfect understanding of the
differences between Nature and Man; hence, our ancestors prostrated themselves before the
imagined Gods who represented Natural forces and offered sacrifices of valued things as if
these would evoke compassion.
”The savage, like ourselves, feels the oppression of his impotence before the powers of Nature;
but having in himself nothing that he respects more than Power, he is willing to prostrate
himself before his gods, without inquiring whether they are worthy of his worship. Pathetic
and very terrible is the long history of cruelty and torture, of degradation and human sacrifice,
endured in the hope of placating the jealous gods: surely, the trembling believer thinks, when
what is most precious has been freely given, their lust for blood must be appeased, and more
will not be required.”
The savage relates to Nature the way a slave relates to his master. A slave dare not complain
to his master about the unfair infliction of pain. Similarly, the savage dare not complain about
the unfairness of his Gods.
”The religion of Moloch as such creeds may be generically called is in essence the cringing
submission of the slave, who dare not, even in his heart, allow the thought that his master
deserves no adulation. Since the independence of ideals is not yet acknowledged, Power may
be freely worshipped, and receive an unlimited respect, despite its wanton infliction of pain.”
The thinking person bravely acknowledges the imperfectness of the world. Unlike the savage,
for whom survival is paramount and which constrains his thinking, we thinking people refuse
to surrender our wish for the world to be better. We boldly worship “truth” and “beauty” and
other concepts which are luxuries for the savage. The savage is enslaved by his excessive
concern with the Powers of Nature, which for him are too complex to challenge. We have
become “free” by refusing to worship fear driven Power, like a slave worships his master, and
to worship instead an imagined world of goodness, fairness and perfection. Even when the
world does not bring forth goodness in our lives, we can at least imagine it, and seek solace
from the imagined state. Although we know that we are mortal, we can at least imagine
immortality, and be comforted by the thought. No matter how buffeted our lives may be by
uncaring natural forces, we can still imagine a tranquil state, and use its vision to survive the
real world with equanimity (cf. Ch. 19).

”... Let us admit that, in the world we know, there are many things that would be better
otherwise, and that the ideals to which we do and must adhere are not realized in the realm
of matter. Let us preserve our respect for truth, for beauty, for the ideal of perfection which
life does not permit us to attain, though none of these things meet with the approval of the
unconscious universe. If Power is bad, as it seems to be, let us reject it from our hearts. In this

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