Download pdf file - Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy

Feringer Notes - CIRCULATION OF THOUGHT - 1954 20 of 65
to acquire personal power in the process of renewing our life. This type of action renews the
community as well, in the long run.
7.We are given life by our community.We first take orders from our parents, and our older
brothers and sisters, and from authorities in the community.To be told is not acting in the first
person singular, it is the second person singular.Only when we begin to doubt do we act in the
first person.
We are, in this sense, acting as stages of grammar; to accept a command, "you" or "thee," is
second person. To doubt is first person, we say then "I", believe.
8.Physical pain is abnormal and we avoid it, but mental suffering is a basic part of life that must
be tolerated.All great inventors and thinkers have suffered the lag between the advancement of
their new beliefs and the acceptance thereof. This is a gestation period for the community, as
necessary as the wintering seed in the ground before spring flowering.ALL TRUE ADVANCES
IN THOUGHT REQUIRE THIS TYPE OF SACRIFICE.
9.Time-span!There is a long time between being a "you" and acquiring the power to say "I."There
is a long time between being a student and a teacher, between listening to authority and being an
authority.In mental life, the future always imposes itself on the present, driving the present in a
basic way. We will not always (or should not always) be what we are at this moment.We should
strive to become a future better person. The present and future are thus always in tension. If one
lives one's life only following the thinking of others,never doubting, one does not create a real
future for himself. One remains spiritually stagnant.
Lecture-9
1/9People, with rare exceptions, don't want to see or tell the truth for whatever the reason,
weakness, or unwillingness to face the pain. We often know, down deep what is wrong with
ourselves, but we don't face up to it. No longer does the confessional seem to serve the purpose
of having us face up to it. THE POINT IS THAT IT TAKES GREAT MORAL COURAGE TO
SEEK AND FACE THE TRUTH AND ACT ON IT WHEN APPROPRIATE.
There are many "enablers" to our blindness, psychoanalysts, palmists, graphologists, ministers,
bar-tenders all help us avoid the truth, or make money off our willingness avoid it.
2.What is the sequence of public acceptance and why is doubtingso painful?1) The doubter is
usually thought a fool, 2) others may say, "He didn't discover it, someone else did" (reminds us of
the adage, "No one is a prophet in his own land," and 3) eventually others believe: "I knew it all
along, there's nothing new in that idea." In other words, one is not taken seriously, or one is
plagiarized, or denied originality.One only rarely gets credit for one'soriginality.
3.One must not mistake "newness" for significance.It is important to say something that is true,
that is important in some context, and to say it for the first time.It may be important to tell one's