66 - Self and Society
It is an inescapable fact of our experience: you live your life from the inside out. You inhabit your own thoughts, your own body, your own struggles and hopes. And from this vantage point, it is natural, inevitable even, to focus first on the self. You must learn to stand before you can walk. You must develop autonomy, competence, and efficiency in your own life before you can truly affect the world around you. This is the lesson of the First Keystone: Strive to be efficient, competent, and autonomous.
But this striving, however noble, must not become a closed loop. Our personal advancement is not the ultimate end. If we stop there, we risk falling into a trap of selfishness merely disguised as self-sufficiency. For this reason, the Third Keystone stands in necessary partnership with the First: Uphold the rights and autonomy of others as you would your own.
The relationship between these two Keystones is delicate. Alone, each is incomplete. Taken together, they form a moral equilibrium—a guiding tension that allows us to both build ourselves and uplift others.
Consider this: what good is your autonomy if it exists in a world where others are trampled in pursuit of your goals? What virtue lies in your competence if it is exercised with no regard for fairness, or worse, at the expense of those with less power, less voice, less privilege?
The answer is clear. Without the Third Keystone, the First Keystone becomes brittle, even dangerous. And yet, without the First, the Third can become impotent—an ideal without action, a sentiment with no force behind it. To uphold the rights of others, you must yourself first be competent and capable of doing that.
It is this balance that Paraclism calls us to. A harmony between inner strength and outward compassion. We are taught not merely to be strong, but to use that strength with empathy. Not merely to be capable, but to ensure that our capabilities serve justice and dignity; not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us.
History offers no shortage of examples of what happens when this balance fails. Empires have risen on the back of individual ambition, only to fall because that ambition devoured the rights of others. Wars have been waged in the name of one people’s self-determination, while denying the humanity of another. Even in the quiet spaces of daily life, we see how easy it is to prioritize our time, our comfort, our opinion—while brushing aside the dignity of those beside us.
Let us not fall into that pattern. Let us embody both the strength of the First Keystone and the conscience of the Third Keystone. In our homes, in our workplaces, in our community—let us act with competence, and then go further. Let us defend the rights of others with the same conviction we apply to our own.
That is how we live in accordance with our faith. That is how we ensure our autonomy is not isolation, but a bridge to shared purpose. And that is how we build a world. Not just for ourselves, but for all.
