{Materialism}[23rd April 1979]

[Redbook2:149][19790423:2150a]{Materialism}[23rd April 1979]

19790423.2150

[continued]

I have never yet met a living political socialist who did not set the threshold of practical socialism immediately above his own level – in other words, one who was genuinely prepared, without retaining security, to give away all that he had and reduce himself to the material level of the mass, or at least to the level at which the mass would be if complete redistribution brought about material equality. There is only one, very rare, kind of man who can do that, deliberately, for his ideals, and that is one who is so sure of his spiritual self that he has no need of material security: one of the Masters of spiritual experience. (Geniuses in other fields, such as science – Einstein is the classic example – will sometimes allow themselves to sink as far as their personal environment will permit; but that environment includes their work, whose external nature and material requirements will not allow such men the necessary positive action to reduce themselves beyond its boundaries.)

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