Welcome to The Larger Picture.

Today, we're exploring The Illusion.

And I'd like to begin with a rather ordinary story. A story that, in one way or another, might belong to almost anyone.

Imagine a child. Let's call him Daniel. Daniel grows up in an ordinary family. He goes to school. Makes friends. Learns what he's good at. And, rather quickly, discovers that certain things bring approval.

Good marks. Good behaviour. Being helpful.Being clever. Being successful.

There's nothing particularly sinister aboutthis. Children need encouragement. But gradually, Daniel begins noticing something. People seem pleased with him when he performs well. And disappointed when he doesn't.

So he learns to associate achievement with being valued. Not because anyone explicitly tells him that his worth dependsupon success. But because that's the conclusion he draws.

Years pass. Daniel becomes a young man. He chooses a profession. Finds employment. Begins earning money. And eventually, when someone asks who he is, he answers by describing what he does.

He's an engineer. Or a teacher. Or an electrician. Whatever the occupation happens to be.

And perhaps that's perfectly reasonable.But a description of his activity has begun functioning as a definition of his identity.

Now, this is where Nikolai Berdyaev attracts our attention.

Berdyaev believed that human beings have a tendency to transform living reality into something external, fixed, andmeasurable. He called this process objectification.

We take something living, something complex, something that cannot be entirely contained within a definition—andturn it into an object of thought. Something we can classify. Evaluate. Possess. Or control.

And then we begin treating that classification as though it were the thing itself.

Daniel is no longer simply a person who happens to work as an engineer. He becomes an engineer who must constantlyprove that he's a successful one....