It is embarrassing when the mind finds itself helpless in the midst of unwanted emotions or unrelenting physical anxiousness. It reveals how little it controls, although this doesn’t mean that it cannot control anything. On the contrary, it can control everything. The point is that as ordinary men are, conditioned as they have been, there is usually no development in the direction of control. The reason there is no such development is because of the illusion that they already have it without ever having had to try to attain it. A typical modern man has been cushioned within the artificial confines of an exceedingly comfortable environment, utterly sheltered from the raw realities that otherwise fall upon those who unfortunately find themselves within much more hostile conditions. Such a man is placed on a conveyer belt from a very young age and he believes as it moves him from one institution to the next that he advances by his own merit, even though in reality the conveyer belt is doing all the work. He mistakenly assumes he has by his own merit developed a long list of skills, cultivated a deep degree of talent, and has self-made himself into the fine creature he is today — until the randomness of reality sets him straight.