How to Become a Great Man or Woman
For starters, read about the great men and women
Merely by thinking about certain sorts of people at all . . . we become objectively, measurably, more like them, in how we behave, think and feel. Iain McGilchrist
Ask a college professor this question:
“Did Moses write the Torah or did the Torah write Moses?” She’ll reply, “The Torah wrote Moses.”
She’d objectively reject the idea that Moses wrote the Torah on grounds that modern scholarship universally rejects that traditional belief. It’s a respectable position.
She’d gleefully embrace your phrasing, “The Torah wrote Moses.” That’s not respectable.
The principle embodied in that ironic phase is this: There are no great men and women. There are only men and women who are projected by the structures of their culture into greatness.
The implication of that principle is this: The great men and women didn’t tap into something beyond themselves, into transcendence or the permanent things, to attain greatness. They were merely projections of their time and place. . . . and, therefore, are irrelevant to us today
