becoming more human by becoming more godlike 387protagonists in their scripts. We cannot respect one another without
disrespecting them.
Th e practice of the virtues of divinization modifi es the meaning and
content of the virtues of connection. It turns respect into compassion
or fellow feeling (untainted by the self- defensive ploys of a high- handed
benevolence), forbearance into self- sacrifi ce, and fairness into mercy. It
also changes the experience— central to the virtues of purifi cation— of
losing the self the better to regain it. Th e ascent of the self, through
simplicity, attentiveness, and enthusiasm, now undergoes a decisive
re orientation. Instead of keeping out of trouble to achieve composure,
the self looks for trouble to fi nd, affi rm, and express its own infi nity.
Th e course of life: decentering
Each of us is born in a par tic u lar time and place, of parents we did not
choose and with ge ne tic endowments that will be forever ours. Th e cir-
cumstances of our birth and upbringing favor certain stations in soci-
ety and place others largely beyond our reach. Th e decisive majority of
the human race continues to labor under crushing material constraint,
in poverty, drudgery, and infi rmity. We all remain at the mercy of for-
tune and misfortune in our attachments and initiatives as well as in our
physical survival and vitality. What space there was for self- construction
is further diminished by the regimes of society, of thought, and of char-
acter. We can be annihilated in an instant, and we know (although the
religions of salvation deny it) that annihilation awaits us, but not before
even the luckiest and greatest among us have been subject to long belit-
tlement and humiliation.
Our dreamlike existence passes while we are largely occupied in
dealing with these constraints. Th ey appear to us as if welded together
and threaten to give to a human life the form of a fate, imposed upon
the will. All the while we are tormented by insatiable desire, from our
physical cravings to our longing for one another (poisoned by our am-
bivalence) and to our yearning for the absolute (frustrated and disori-
ented by the lack of worthy objects). We are denied (except in meta-
physical or theological fantasy) any insight into the ground of reality
and of existence, which appear given over to necessity and to chance.