The second chapter of The Destiny of the Species argues that once we understand and accept our future-oriented identity, we must make the conscious decision to take off the blinders and reckon with what this demands of us, namely, a radical posture of questioning the powers that be, rather than simply resigning ourselves to a life defined by the status quo.

“Propaganda,” writes Thomas Merton:

… makes up our mind for us, but in such a way that it leaves us the sense of pride and satisfaction of men who have made up their own minds. And in the last analysis, propaganda achieves this effect because we want it to. This is one of the few real pleasures left to modern man: this illusion that he is thinking for himself when, in fact, someone else is doing his thinking for him.

David Dark (who in addition to being an author teaches high school English) says the following of his students' attitudes toward the loss of control over their own thoughts:

They take personally the apocalyptic significance of films whose protagonists discover themselves in carefully scripted, immersive environments which create the illusion of freedom while using inhabitants to fuel their own death-dealing machinery. They know the joke’s on them when a voice says, “Because we value you, our viewers/customers/clients....” And the bright colors, earnest-sounding voices, and lively music only serve to remind that someone (or something) is trying to create demand and move product…. The sense that they’ve been playing roles in a vast formula of market research, while occasionally consoling themselves with a packaged rebellion, isn’t a realization anyone can sustain for long without becoming depressed. But there is something powerfully invigorating about imagining, especially in the company of young people, what it might mean to take the red pill of reality on a regular basis or to weather the storm to the limits of one’s bubble and to break on through to the other side.

It is the ability to see through what’s see-through, to penetrate the façade and steal a glimpse of the worldly wizard behind the curtain, that Dark and others refer to as “apocalyptic living.” As I will argue in subsequent chapters, our native eyes and tainted perspective can only take us so far, and that ultimately God alone can provide for us the lenses through which we can truly behold the depths and degree of our servitude. For our present purposes, though, it’s enough to note that, despite the world’s pomp and promises, the emperor is wearing no clothes. And many of us know it.

The objection has been raised that man’s need to pursue the destiny of the species reflects a kind of wacky mysticism, but this objection falls flat. In fact, I would go so far as to insist upon the very opposite, namely, that until man embraces his identity as one created for everlasting glory, he will never be truly sane. Being willing to take the red pill, jagged though it may be, is precisely what will unlock the door into a strange new world that, though it will never be fully understood, will nonetheless provide the light by which we may understand everything else.