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

continuation of the development of their Reason, which began at the veryappearance of three-brained beings on their planet."And so when the beings of some group or other, owing to the formation inthem, while still in their preparatory age, of fresh data for this 'falseconviction,' accidentally come into possession of something regarded at thetime as desirable—which at once invests them with authority—and discover,also accidentally, some idea that has existed many times in past epochs, theypass it off and broadcast it as having been thought of by themselves Then thebeings of other groups, through the absence in them, due to wrong education,of any data proper to all three-brained beings of responsible age that engenderin their presence an 'instinctive sensing of reality' and a 'broad outlook,'believe that this 'something desirable' is appearing on their planet for the veryfirst time, and also that once this idea is applied in practice it will be reallyvery good And they forthwith begin to imitate the first group in everything,both the good and the bad, even if it is completely contrary to all that existsand is well fixed in their ordinary life, merely in order to possess what 'fortoday' is considered desirable."I then even remembered that I had once before seriously reflected on thissubject during my fifth sojourn on the surface of your planet, when the city ofBabylon was considered the 'center of culture' of your favorites, and when, onaccount of some similar question, I had to make a 'logical analysis' of thisstrange feature of the psyche of these peculiar three-brained beings."Then, as now, I reasoned as follows:"This way of thinking could perhaps be justified by taking intoconsideration that, owing to the abnormal conditions of ordinary existenceestablished in past epochs, no exact information reaches these three-brainedbeings about events