The following is an essay by L. Ron Hubbard,
founder of
Scientology. The essay offers an
insight to what it
means to
be great.
WHAT
IS
GREATNESS
By
L. Ron Hubbard
The hardest task one can have is to continue to love his fellows
despite all reasons he should not.
And the true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue.
For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant hope.
For those who cannot, there is only sorrow, hatred and
despair.
And these are not the things of which greatness – or sanity
or
happiness are made.
A primary trap is to succumb to invitations to hate.
There are those who appoint one their executioners.
Sometimes,
for the sake of safety of others, it is necessary to act. But
it
is not necessary to also hate them.
To do one’s task without becoming furious at others who seek
to
prevent one is a mark of greatness – and sanity.
And only
then can one be happy.
Seeking to achieve any single desirable quality in life is a noble
thing. The one most difficult – and most necessary
–
to achieve is to love one’s fellows despite all invitations
to do
otherwise.
If there is any saintly quality, it is not to forgive.
“Forgiveness” accepts the badness of the
act. There
is no reason to accept it. Further, one has to label the act
as
bad to forgive it. “Forgiveness” is a
much
lower-level action and is rather censorious.
True greatness merely refuses to change in the face of bad actions
against one – and a truly great person loves his fellows
because
he understands them.
After all, they are all in the same trap. Some are oblivious
of
it, some have gone mad because of it, some act like those who betrayed
them. But all, all are in the same trap – the
generals, the
street sweepers, the presidents, the insane. They act the way they do
because they are all subject to the same cruel pressures of this
universe.
Some of us are subject to those pressures and still go on doing our
jobs. Others have long since succumbed and rave and torture
and
strut like the demented souls they are.
We can at least understand the one fact that greatness does not stem
from savage wars or being known. It stems from being true to
one’s own decency, from going on helping others whatever they
do
or think or say and despite all savage acts against one, to persevere
without changing one’s basic attitude toward Man.
To that degree, true greatness depends on total wisdom. They
act
as they do because they are what they are – trapped beings,
crushed beneath an intolerable burden. And if they have gone
made
for it and command the devastation of whole nations in errors of
explanation, still, one can understand why and can understand as well
the extent of their madness. Why should one change and begin
to
hate just because others have lost themselves and their own destinies
are too cruel for them to face?
Justice, mercy, forgiveness, all are unimportant beside the ability not
to change because of provocation or demands to do so.
One must act, one must preserve order and decency. But one
need
not hate or seek vengeance.
It is true that beings are frail and commit wrongs. Man is
basically good, but Man can act badly.
He only acts badly when his acts, done for order and the safety for
others, are done with hatred. Or when his disciplines are
founded
only upon safety for himself regardless of all others; or worse, when
he acts only out of a taste for cruelty.
To preserve no order at all is an insane act. One need only
look
at the possessions and environment of the insane to realize this.
The able keep good order.
When cruelty in the name of discipline dominates a race, that race has
been taught to hate. And that race is doomed.
The real lesson is to learn to love.
He who would walk scatheless through his days must learn this
–
never use what is done to one as a basis for hatred. Never
desire
revenge.
It requires real strength to love Man. And to love him
despite
all invitations to do otherwise, all provocations and all reasons why
one should not.
Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To
hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to
strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of
greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this
universe.
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