Near Enemies of the Truth
Why it matters
The near enemy of wisdom is the certainty that you already have it — and half the slogans on this path are near enemies wearing its clothes.
A near enemy is a quality that so closely resembles a virtue that it is easily mistaken for one, while being its corruption. The near enemy of equanimity is indifference. The near enemy of compassion is pity.
Wallis takes the slogans everyone repeats — you create your own reality, be your best self, follow your bliss, everything happens for the best — and shows how each one works: it offers relief from something intolerable, and quietly forecloses the inquiry that would actually produce wisdom. Each chapter ends by pointing at the deeper truth the slogan was flattening.