It seems to me that the door is open.

The previous post was very important to me personally, because it made it clear to me that my inability to contribute to the age of works is really not my fault, but the consequence of the time and place of my birth.

Grace always means to believe in the power of time to shape things according to the divine plan. But to trust one's fellow man to do his part in a common work is the basis of the age of works only. In the age of watch that basis is the ability of one's fellow man, that he's a model of the virtues that he has chosen to represent. And in the age of wonders it is his understanding, that he knows what to heed considering the needs of the time.

Back in the 1950s not even the sky was the limit. No matter what you did, you would be part of a great transformation. The same could be said about our time, only that waking up in a Terminator movie or WALL-E is not something to look forward to. The trust in one's fellow man to make use of the potential of artificial intelligence in his part of a common work is naturally lacking. We have come to the end of the foundation of our cooperation.

Fear of the concentration of power that accompanies our level of technology turns into ill will and envy and irritation begin to rule the world - the world that I was born into.

And people of good will sit in it like ducks waiting to be shot. Well, shots are still being fired, but I think that we can start moving again, because of two developments which have gone sufficiently far to provide us with some clarity.

1. The unconditional charity that is extended these days to all the world has actually helped, for it brought about two good things:

1. it has reduced ill will against the charitable and
2. it has made it sufficiently clear that every belief has to rely on its own disciples.

The importance of the latter lesson is that it has broken a false sense of moral duty that was suffocating personal good will. Now that the authorities have discredited themselves, the belief in one's own judgment is restored and affiliations can grow naturally again.

The temptation of which Revelation 3:10 speaks still awaits those of us, who are not part of the charitable. Never should anybody prevent the charity of another as long as it is his sacrifice. If it is foolish, it is also the smoothest path to that realisation. And every person has to be treated according to what we have learned about him and ourselves.

2. The more we go into crisis, the more our spiritual and physical health comes into focus. Instead of pondering our rights, we'll ponder our chances, and the question of how much guilt it takes in order to be deprived of one's rights is replaced by the question of how much ignorance it takes in order to miss one's connection.

Hence morality becomes a question of self-improvement, not out of a personal whim, but out of necessity, which makes it an objective requirement.

It is only a question of time until these insights will dawn on people and the first reaction will be a deeper descent into envy and irritation. But man is not all base and apart from that envy and irritation don't go a long way in terms of self-improvement. So the broader or higher minded of us can soon pioneer a new way of living with justifiable confidence.