The belief that somehow we are in control of our lives as long we agree with how they are going along is the profoundest of illusions, just as is the belief that things go haywire because we are no longer controlling our lives. We are addicted to the illusion that our particular way of being a culture is the natural victory of history, to the illusion that our material sophistication lends us a psychological, even spiritual, sophistication not enjoyed by less innovative cultures, and to the idea that we do and can and must be in control of this thing we call “our life.”
