Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

appearance—undesirable, of course, only according to their subjectiveconceptions—and to conceal the nullity of their own inner significance ."The customs prevailing there at present increase year by year theopposition between the personality and the Reason of those beings."But the principal evil lies in this, that at the present time the entire'oskianotsnel' of the rising generation, or the education of children, is reducedto the adoption of these innumerable practices that exist among them andengender only immorality Hence it is that on the one hand, the datacrystallized in them during tens of centuries for aiding the formation of abeing 'in the image of God' and not simply of an 'animal,' as they would say,are decrystallized year by year and, on the other hand, their psyche isbecoming almost such as our dear teacher describes by the words" 'There is everything in him except himself.'"And indeed, my boy, owing to the complete absence of good patriarchalcustoms and to their notorious 'education,' the contemporary beings of thatcontinent have already become completely transformed into what are called'automatons' or living mechanical puppets."At the present time, they can become animated and manifest themselvesoutwardly only when one happens to press the 'buttons' corresponding toimpressions already present in them and mechanically perceived during theirpreparatory age."And unless these 'buttons' are pressed, the beings there are nothing more,as again our highly esteemed Mullah Nasr Eddin says, than 'assorted pieces ofmeat. '"It should be noted here, my boy, that one of the principal causes of thisstate of the beings of contemporary civilization is also that same 'onanism' oftheirs This disease, which in recent times is almost epidemic, is aconsequence of their