Love of truth and faithfulness to reality are not only not the same, they can be violently opposed.

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We sometimes — often? — protect ourselves from a reality by loving the idea of that reality instead of the reality itself.

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The most furious smashers of idols destroy material rivals to their conceptual idols. They are “God fearing” to a degree beyond their comprehension.

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Self-inquisitions:

Do I love the idea of poetry more than I love poems?

Do I love the idea of religion more than religion?

Do I love the idea of alterity more than alterity?

What am I resisting…? but how right am I to resist it?

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I do do not trust any love unmixed with dread.

Love is essentially transcendent, and transcendence is essentially dreadful.

Dreadless love is mere lust. The mildest lusts are the most secure against accidental love. Keep it all inside the mind’s confines.

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Maybe some degree of idolatry is not only inevitable, but also good.