The Progressive Test

As life pro­gresses, it gets a bit more com­pli­cated, and you have to play the game with a few more lim­i­ta­tions. It cre­ates the per­fect test of faith. Ideas that seemed time­less begin to fray around the edges. In the sup­posed era of social progress, the world around you actu­ally becomes more bar­baric. While we moved from mod­est homes to near man­sions, a prim­i­tivism devel­oped and expanded at all social lev­els. Like the under­ground mon­sters in Jules Verne’s clas­sic The Time Machine, it occa­sion­ally reaches up and grabs one of our own chil­dren. We sit placidly and con­sider the loss the price for our prized place in the mod­ern world.
It is tempt­ing to become cyn­i­cal or to with­draw. Dur­ing this elec­tion cycle, we are not sure whether we should re-elect our politi­cians or imprison them for their crimes against us. We are so busy mak­ing a liv­ing that there is just not the time to take on the addi­tional emo­tional load, so we just let it con­tinue to evolve — or degen­er­ate. Also, how would we change the social atmos­phere with­out becom­ing some­thing worse our­selves? Social change agents inevitably end up being the new oppres­sors. Peace-keeping by social manip­u­la­tion or by brute force is not the same as peace-making — through love and self-sacrifice.
In short, can you main­tain your prin­ci­ples and your integrity, while every­thing around you comes apart at the seams? Bet­ter yet, are you able to con­tinue an inner life detached from com­mon hys­te­rias — the crises de jour that are gen­er­ated for profit? Do you have the nerve to let things out­side of you fail, so that your soul may con­tinue its jour­ney? After all, attach­ing your sense of self-worth to things you can­not con­trol will keep you feel­ing inse­cure and out of con­trol.
Life’s pro­gres­sive test is like hav­ing a won­der­ful dream for human­ity and end­ing up on a cross for it. Any­one can cham­pion a tem­porar­ily suc­cess­ful look­ing project. Peo­ple grav­i­tate toward curi­ous crowds. The big­ger the crowd, the greater the illu­sion of being right. The ulti­mate test is whether you can do what is right all by your lit­tle lonesome.