I am struck more & more that paradoxical thinking is one antidote to the chronic anxiety of our times; in part because to think paradoxically, in aid of functioning as non-anxiously as possible in face of reactivity.

The quote from Henri de Lubac a couple of posts ago bears this out.  Being “right” carries with it urgency for defending the truth (our point of view being over identified as the truth) against all questioning.  Responsibility for the truth drives up our anxiety and we “succumb” to our formulation.  Succumbing (a sort of addiction) leads to mischief as our thinking loses suppleness hardening into ideology, valuing the abstract over the concrete, humanity over the individual.