The “System” Wants You to Believe in “Security”; Run from Any Man That Promises Such

Consider:

It must be obvious, from the start, that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. But the contradiction lies a little deeper than the mere conflict between the desire for security and the fact of change. If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life. Yet it is this very sense of separateness which makes me feel insecure. To be secure means to isolate and fortify the “I,” but it is just the feeling of being an isolated “I” which makes me feel lonely and afraid. In other words, the more security I can get, the more I shall want. To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing.

Want security in your investments? That’s what you crave? That’s your number one goal?

Hint: You will never get there.

Accept that the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing, and you are on your way to making some money. Start here.

Source: Watts, Alan W. (2011-11-16). The Wisdom of Insecurity (Vintage) (pp. 77-78).

Filed under Psychology