From the Notebooks

Premise: Security hurts. The more security you seek, the slower, more inefficient, costly, and duller that area of your life becomes.

Check your stove five times: Slower leaving the house.
A bureaucracy makes sure everything works uniformly: Inefficient (and dull).
Military might: Costly.

This doesn't mean security isn't good. It does mean we should not greet it as an unequivocal good. It also means we should seek the right kind of security. Ask: Why didn't the Depression hurt the Amish? It's because they seek the right kind of security, one that accepts simple living, self-sufficiency, and community living and forgoes the urge to acquire great wealth. The desire for great wealth brings with it a risk of great impoverishment. Americans want the ability to strive for wealth, but they want a safety net, too. That's the incongruity. See Crunden, Nock, page 170.