1. Shadow side
of competence: ready to treat all problems as solvable by bringing
individual and communal life into conformity with the divine ideal;
frenetic activity, doing things with little or no inward centering or
reflection.
2.
Incompetence: Indecisive; lacking courage; of wavering or mixed
motivation; ignorant or unclear as to what is right and fitting;
overly concerned about what others will think; reactive versus
proactive; insufficiently realistic as to the circumstances in which
one must act; un-cognizant of the moral shortcomings of the status
quo; unable to convey to others a sense for what is right and fitting.
3. Imbalance:
Loss of finitude: Perfectionist; over serious; radically utopian
with little or no sense of the concrete obstacles to implementation;
falling to distinguish one’s finite will and plan (or that of one’s
group) from divine ideality itself; unready to recognize one’s own
mistakes, to change or to start anew.; un-cognizant of what lies
outside one’s frame of reference.
4. Imbalance:
Loss of infinitude: Legalistic: preoccupied with detail at the
expense of moral substance; obsessed with the letter of obligation at
the expense of the right spirit; uncritical repetitious of the
precepts of the tradition without thought or fresh re-appropriation.
5. Egoism:
Morally hypocritical or pretentious; doing what on the surface is
right and appropriate but primarily (or strictly) for the sake of some
ulterior egoistic motive or material advantages; identified with the
welfare of some at the expense of others; ready to treat others as
mere means for one’s ends; overly defensive about oneself or one’s
reputation; nursing of the resentment or of desire for revenge;
unconcerned for other’s need to see for themselves what is right.
