“‘Man is born free,’ Rousseau wrote, ‘and everywhere he is in chains.’ This is all wrong: man is born in a state in which he is utterly dependent on others; he gains his freedom and independence as he grows up; and often it is this very condition of free choice and independence, with its inevitable consequence of personal responsibility, that he cannot bear.”
The subversion of the culture through the Long March Through the Institutions has filled many of us with despair. When we look at all that there is to do, we feel small and powerless, and with good reason. How can we renew the culture, when the culture is so far gone?
The answer is simple: The first step in doing anything is recognizing that we cannot do everything. Only then can we rise to the challenge of what we have been called to do.
“[U]ntil this moment he had lived in a state of pure possibility, not knowing what sort of a man he was or what he must do, and supposing therefore that he must be all men and do everything. . . . Thereafter he came to see that he was not destined to do everything but only one or two things. Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him.”