In the end, the one important task of thoughtfulness is to invent a spiritual principle, a logos of its own, that can contest the energies (and tyrannies) of the Barbaric Heart. But thoughtfulness’s primary attribute is not its ability to provide a superior Truth or an irrefutable logic. Thoughtfulness’s primary attribute is aesthetic.

what thoughtfulness proposes as an alternative to the self-serving violence of the Barbaric is beauty.

the beauty of human beings freed from the slavery of regimented work, and the beauty of an untrammeled natural world.

we are arguing for a reality that is first aesthetic.

If what we want is the beautiful, why do we feel that our most persuasive arguments will be made by scientists, environmental engineers, regional planners, and sustainability economists?

I mean a resistance to the Barbaric Heart through a daily insistence on the Beautiful within individual lives, within communities, and in our relation to the natural world.