The Evil Inner God of Self-Calming

“… these favorites of yours (humankind), particularly the contemporary ones, become ideally expert in not allowing this inner impulse of theirs, called Remorse-of-Conscience, to linger long in their common presences.

 

 

“No sooner do they begin to sense the beginning, or even only, so to say, the ‘prick’ of the arising of the functioning in them of such a being-impulse, than they immediately, as it is said ‘squash’ it, whereupon this impulse, not quite formed in them, at once calms down.

 

 

“For this ‘squashing’ of the beginning of any Remorse-of-Conscience in themselves, they have even invented some very efficient special means, which now exist there under the names of ‘alcoholism,’ ‘cocainism,’ ‘morphinism,’ ‘nicotinism,’ ‘onanism,’ ‘monkism,’ ‘Athenianism,’ and others with names also ending in ‘ism.’”

 

 

– G. I. Gurdjieff.  (p. 382) Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson