How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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usefulness and common sense. Good traits bind human beings together in a free association. We say a “ free ” association purposely because love, one of the greatest and best of all character traits, is frequently misused to effect tyrannical bonds between parent and child, between lovers, between husband and wife. Like the truth which may be misused as the basis of a lie, so love may be misused in psychic enslavement and strangulation. Always observe what happens after the expression of a character trait if you want to understand it. It is some¬ times necessary to be harsh, perhaps almost brutal, in order to bring a wandering friend to the path of reason. Under these circumstances harshness and brutality become socially valuable traits. Examples of enslavement and tyranny by the misuse of love are exceedingly common. You have but to observe the murderous love of a vain mother who keeps her “ darling baby ” from developing in order to gratify her desire to appear young, or to watch a nagging mother who undermines her child’s independence and courage “ because she loves him so ”—to understand this prostitution of love. The “ Ideal ” Character The ideal man or woman, striving for a fair measure of social significance and a reasonable compensation for his own inferiorities in terms of social service, needs as his most trusted tools, courage, common sense, a highly developed social feeling, honesty, sincerity, a sense of humour, the ability to identify himself with his fellow- men. A sense of social responsibility follows as a matter of course. He does not worship luck, and his philosophy is a philosophy of fighting optimism. He regards members of the other sex as equivalent to members of his own sex. He is modest, sincere, honourable, interested in life. He has time for the education of his children, he enjoys the work he has chosen for himself, and he has developed other avocations that help him to widen his horizons and give him a true zest for living.