INTRODUCTION
Nowhere in the
Constitution of the United States is it declared that AMBITION is a necessary
part of being American.
Nowhere does it state that to be a 'good guy'* you must eat hot dogs and be
enthused by baseball.
Yet, there are those who would subvert the principles of the Good Life by
substituting the precepts of men for the Truth.
KNOWLEDGE TO SAVE A NATION
Probably the best kept
secret is the myth concerning ambition. What
you are about to read will shock you to the very core of your being. This
revelation can have one of two effects upon you: The shock will become joy and
then a catalyst for a marvelous new attitude leading to a change; or, anger
and hatred against these words will produce a peculiar compulsion to forget or
misconstrue the meaning of this message out of all proportion to its meaning.
But say it I must, for it
is the knowledge that will save a nation!
It is imperative to
understand the nature of a problem before we can find a solution. But part of the trouble is that the reason
for our national and personal hang-up is so disgusting that most of us will not
face reality because the ego of every man, woman and child in the nation will
be indicted. Whether or not it becomes an incrimination or a saving grace is
entirely up to you, the reader.
The President's Commission
was not far from the real cause of the trouble.
It doesn't take much sense to see that people are burning up with hate,
hypocrisy and prejudice. Granted prejudice is the cause of disorder, but what
is the root of prejudice?
Our ego finds it difficult
to accept the facts. People in general are
insulted when you tell them of their failings. A classic way of escaping
knowledge of their faults is to observe the greater faults of others. Judging
is not only a national entertainment, but big business too. Judgment is the
"court of last resort" when "love" and pleasantries of
distraction fails to improve our image.
A failing image demands
elevation, inferiority struggles vainly to be superior, and the guilty seek to
appear guiltless. In this regard the cost of existence goes up as we come down.
The cheapest drunk that a person can get is to get "high" on
resentment. Resentment (prejudice) is a compulsion, and the very best you can
do is mask and justify it. Every guilty
person feels right when he is mad.
Ever tried to argue with
an angry man? All guilty people need anger to feed their judgment of another.
Every member of society is
under a compulsion to be prejudiced and hateful, we haven't got time for lengthy
psychoanalysis, which, incidentally, doesn't work anyway. Since hostility has become an important
commodity, we are obliged to justify it and call it normal to allow us the
continued privilege of feeling high and mighty. The trouble is, under itself-righteous
spell we hurt others; then we are upset again so as not to see what we have done
while upset.
Hostility, small or great,
is the evidence of a deep-seated error. As long as that secret error exists, so
will the growing need for hostility and judgment against another.
You cannot make people
right by legislation. The hypocrisy of pretense is far more upsetting than
cruelty itself. Each of us is under a
compulsion to hate. If you can observe
this in yourself, you might begin to have compassion for the compulsive hate of
another. In the beginning you will be powerless against your own reply of prejudice
because that personal need to judge and hate is "satisfied" by such
behavior. You cannot have true
compassion for your brother while you both have the same needs, which require
you to get "drunk" over each other’s' faults. But, when then is that fault.
