The Road of Life
The article: Mental Prisons
Chapter 9
The terrestrial human being lives by a mixed morality
But why do terrestrial human beings then live in such great unhappiness, war and suffering as they do?
Why do they not unhesitatingly choose that way of living that unfailingly gives them a happy experience of life?
Since this choice is exclusively a question of knowledge, the individual cannot choose the correct way of living as long as he does not know which of these two ways of living is the right one leading to happiness.
Since the "animal" way of living is the oldest and lives in the being as habitual consciousness while the real "human" way of living is something relatively new, something that is still only to an insignificant extent ingrained in the being as habitual consciousness, it is reasonable that this new way of living in reality is only tentatively used, stimulated by the churches, the precepts and the ideals of the humane world religions.
The new or perfect "human" way of living is thus something that has to be acquired, something that is in embryo.
The terrestrial human being is a student of this new way of living while he on the other hand is an experienced master of the use of the "animal" way of living.
It is a matter of course that, under these circumstances, there can be no peace in the world.
The real "lasting peace" for which the terrestrial human being hungers cannot be a perfect reality as long as those beings who can create it are still only new apprentices in the development of the way of living on which peace is exclusively based.
It is therefore temporarily quite natural that terrestrial people are to a corresponding degree still ruled by prejudice based on the "animal" mentality, such as ideals glorifying war, "holy wrath" and "righteous indignation", or to a great extent only think in terms of a moral principle that is merely a mixture of selfish Viking ideals and business ideals labelled "Christianity" or the name of any of the other great world religions.
Modern civilisation or world culture today is thus only a refined manifestation of this mixed morality based on technology and science and authorised by judicial laws from the same mental level.