The only thing extravagant is you evading reason. Probably seeing her families business in Russia looted and confiscated by the state was enough of a reference.
Here is your citation...
evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com
"A mystic code of morality demanding self-sacrifice cannot be promulgated or propagated without a supreme ruler that becomes the collector of the sacrificing. Traditionally, there have been two such collectors: either God or society. The collector had to be inaccessible to mankind at large, and his authority had to be revealed only through an elite of special intermediaries, variously called "high priests", "commissars," "Gauleiters," etc. Mr. Skinner follows the same pattern, but he has a new collector and supreme ruler to hoist: the culture.
What kind of world would that be? Here, Mr. Skinner seems to make a "Freudian slip": he is surprisingly explicit. ". . . it should be possible to design a world in which behavior likely to be punished seldom or never occurs. We try to design such a world for those who cannot solve the problem of punishment for themselves, such as babies, retardates, or psychotics, and if it could be done for everyone, much time and energy would be saved." (P. 66.)
". . . There is no reason," he declares, "why progress toward a world in which people may be automatically good should be impeded. " (P. 67.) No reason at all - provided you are willing to view yourself as a baby, a retardate or a psychotic." |
