Pressfield writes of the Ego vs. the Self. I am intrigued with this:
"The Ego hates the prophet and the visionary because they propel the race upward. The Ego hated Socrates and Jesus, Luther and Galileo, Lincoln and JFK and Martin Luther King.
The Ego hates artists because they are the pathfinders and bearers of the future, because each one dares, in James Joyce's phrase, to "forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."
Such evolution is life-threatening to the Ego. It reacts accordingly. It summons its cunning, marshals its troops.
The Ego produces Resistance and attacks the awakening artist."
May Ego not attack you!