ARE WE DETERMINED, OR, ARE WE FREE?
Are We Determined , or, Are We Free?
To survive the human race had to become adept at using force, moreover, the period when this was an urgent and inescapable necessity stretched across the longest chapter in human history, so humanity became habituated to the use of force.
After habits of coercion had been deeply embedded in human culture, human beings conceived that there could be more civilized ways of relating to the other, and the race became aware of morals and ethics.
But these ideals and aspirations remained concepts because the physical and social environments were still so chaotic and unstable, and, the habits of coercion were so strong and had such great efficacy that a mechanism had to be developed permissive of retaining the ethics and morals that were impractical but that human beings aspired to and had a deep yearning for, while continuing to overcome the disorder in the physical environment and create social order and progress.
Thus emerged a dichotomy in human affairs, an ever widening gap between concept and precept, between the way human beings aspired to live and the often brutal and uncivilized actuality of human existence.
That humanity became adept in the use of force ensured that our species would become the dominant species on Planet Earth. This irreducible, inescapable necessity also became the major determinant shaping all the major social institutions. Thus was determined that there would be a superior and a subordinate in human relations, that there would be master and slaves or serfs, that there would be rich and poor, that there would be haves and have not, that there masters and servants, in the distant future.
Human beings because they had to, when they had no choice whatsoever, opted to survive and became habituated to relying on coercion in their relations with the other, and set in train a destiny of war, of social conflict, of poverty, of elitism and nepotism, of incalculable misery and suffering.
The consummate irony and ultimate paradox of human existence is that fate has conspired to make us unaware of our plight.
As we developed the mechanism that allowed us to think well of ourselves, even as we did the things necessary for survival; that provided a facade of civility that obscured and masked the true intrinsic savage nature of human beings; what we were blissfully unaware that what we were doing was constructing a delusion that was becoming more and more powerful, one that we could not divest ourselves of.
We were unleashing a mindset, a world view that was permissive of our species becoming paramount on Planet Earth, but one that condemned the race to never attaining true civility.
There is another dimension of this dichotomy, of this paradox. In the social and political milieu this mindset continues to be dominant, but in the physical environment it has been largely replaced by an empirical, reasoned, rational and logical approach.
Contemplate the irony, the consummate irony of our situation. There is, in the physical environment, a mechanism that supports function. If, for example, we built a house on the premise that one and one equals three, not only would we construct a very crooked edifice, but we would have built something that would be uninhabitable.
In the social and political environment, because the human mind has an unlimited potential for self delusion, we can shape policies based on our interests, on our wants and desires, and these policies are observed to fail miserably, as they must. Yet we can, and do, obscure these palpable and often destructive failures with obfuscation and propaganda, and thus perpetuate irrationalities in the system, to the point where these threaten the very existence of human civilizations.
I feel constrained to state that in making these observations I am not attempting to apportion blame. I am instead objectively describing the intrinsic nature of human beings, of all human beings. I was shocked to learn, when I had the very debilitating experience of learning, that this irrationality pervaded the thinking of my family, that my parents, my children, my siblings exhibited the mindset implicit in the truism, ’beliefs are opportune they conceal interest.’ I had to painfully overcome the delusion that because I loved them that my family would be rational.
To put this in a wider and more understandable context I need to state that to support elitism, those with power learned early to divide and rule. They loosed prejudice in the world. They created loyalty and support for their elite and paramount status by the distribution of the scarce resources in their power to improve the quality of life of those who were loyal and supported them, they gave preferential treatment to members of their family and other they could count on.
But they soon found that this was not enough so they created prejudices in which there was a kernel of truth and used this to divide men from women, parents and children, locals and strangers, and on and on and on. They fostered competition between those of different sexes, groups and national origins, secure in the knowledge that in every competition, they would be able to maintain their elite position.
I refuse to be distracted by the red herring of being of African descent, or by being of Asian descent, or by having Caucasian ancestors. I am a human being confronting urgent problems of survival, poverty and attaining happiness.
I know that solving these problems depends on how accurately and realistically I can describe them. I will never, for a moment, again fall prey to the popular mental approach that to criticize my actions, or the actions of any group that I support or am a member of, is destructive or that this could be construed to be treachery in any form.
I know, beyond doubt, that the change that must be accomplished to rescue my race from the thralldom of its history can only be accomplished by a complete break with primitive cultural traditions to which we became habituated in the ‘state of nature,’ and embracing the modernization ideals.
I know that what we trying to divest ourselves of are ‘the conscious and unconscious premises for thinking and action,’ and that the fact that these are unconscious, that we are unaware of the effect of, the wholly destructive impact of these attitudes is what makes this task so difficult.
There are glaring, inescapable examples of this paradigm that confront humanity every day, yet we cannot perceive them.
When the invasion of Iraq was being planned the irrational, interest driven conception of the number of troops necessary to occupy this country dominated the planning rather than the rational observations of the Army Chief of Staff.
The entire crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger died because President Ronald Reagan wanted to claim an intellectualism he was wholly incapable of by having his State of the Nation Broadcast contain a conversation with a member of the space shuttle crew.
I say again that every negative facet and component of contemporary existence, all the conflict, poverty, misery and suffering that we experience daily is a direct consequence of the fact that human beings rely on coercion in their relations with the other.
I proclaim again that the solution to the problem of creating positive developments, in the economy and the larger society, is that human beings become adept in using positive reinforcements to motivate the other.
I declaim that telling the truth will make us free, that only by relentlessly practicing to describe the existing reality can we break the heavy shackles of determinism, and divest ourselves of the ways of thinking, irrational beliefs, myths, illusions and delusions that have chained us to a primitive existence; that weld us to a past of war, of poverty, of hunger, of unrelieved suffering and misery.
If we tell the truth, the truth will make us free. The practice of this discipline will unleash the creativity within us, it will allow us to realize the potential for civility, for peaceful coexistence, for prosperity - that the fact that we can learn and CHANGE affords us.
COPYRIGHT RETAINED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
William E. Virtue
500 NW 34th St, Apt # 210
Pompano Beach, FL 33064
ph & fax: 954-942-4172
email: vox_pacis@hotmailcom
To survive the human race had to become adept at using force, moreover, the period when this was an urgent and inescapable necessity stretched across the longest chapter in human history, so humanity became habituated to the use of force.
After habits of coercion had been deeply embedded in human culture, human beings conceived that there could be more civilized ways of relating to the other, and the race became aware of morals and ethics.
But these ideals and aspirations remained concepts because the physical and social environments were still so chaotic and unstable, and, the habits of coercion were so strong and had such great efficacy that a mechanism had to be developed permissive of retaining the ethics and morals that were impractical but that human beings aspired to and had a deep yearning for, while continuing to overcome the disorder in the physical environment and create social order and progress.
Thus emerged a dichotomy in human affairs, an ever widening gap between concept and precept, between the way human beings aspired to live and the often brutal and uncivilized actuality of human existence.
That humanity became adept in the use of force ensured that our species would become the dominant species on Planet Earth. This irreducible, inescapable necessity also became the major determinant shaping all the major social institutions. Thus was determined that there would be a superior and a subordinate in human relations, that there would be master and slaves or serfs, that there would be rich and poor, that there would be haves and have not, that there masters and servants, in the distant future.
Human beings because they had to, when they had no choice whatsoever, opted to survive and became habituated to relying on coercion in their relations with the other, and set in train a destiny of war, of social conflict, of poverty, of elitism and nepotism, of incalculable misery and suffering.
The consummate irony and ultimate paradox of human existence is that fate has conspired to make us unaware of our plight.
As we developed the mechanism that allowed us to think well of ourselves, even as we did the things necessary for survival; that provided a facade of civility that obscured and masked the true intrinsic savage nature of human beings; what we were blissfully unaware that what we were doing was constructing a delusion that was becoming more and more powerful, one that we could not divest ourselves of.
We were unleashing a mindset, a world view that was permissive of our species becoming paramount on Planet Earth, but one that condemned the race to never attaining true civility.
There is another dimension of this dichotomy, of this paradox. In the social and political milieu this mindset continues to be dominant, but in the physical environment it has been largely replaced by an empirical, reasoned, rational and logical approach.
Contemplate the irony, the consummate irony of our situation. There is, in the physical environment, a mechanism that supports function. If, for example, we built a house on the premise that one and one equals three, not only would we construct a very crooked edifice, but we would have built something that would be uninhabitable.
In the social and political environment, because the human mind has an unlimited potential for self delusion, we can shape policies based on our interests, on our wants and desires, and these policies are observed to fail miserably, as they must. Yet we can, and do, obscure these palpable and often destructive failures with obfuscation and propaganda, and thus perpetuate irrationalities in the system, to the point where these threaten the very existence of human civilizations.
I feel constrained to state that in making these observations I am not attempting to apportion blame. I am instead objectively describing the intrinsic nature of human beings, of all human beings. I was shocked to learn, when I had the very debilitating experience of learning, that this irrationality pervaded the thinking of my family, that my parents, my children, my siblings exhibited the mindset implicit in the truism, ’beliefs are opportune they conceal interest.’ I had to painfully overcome the delusion that because I loved them that my family would be rational.
To put this in a wider and more understandable context I need to state that to support elitism, those with power learned early to divide and rule. They loosed prejudice in the world. They created loyalty and support for their elite and paramount status by the distribution of the scarce resources in their power to improve the quality of life of those who were loyal and supported them, they gave preferential treatment to members of their family and other they could count on.
But they soon found that this was not enough so they created prejudices in which there was a kernel of truth and used this to divide men from women, parents and children, locals and strangers, and on and on and on. They fostered competition between those of different sexes, groups and national origins, secure in the knowledge that in every competition, they would be able to maintain their elite position.
I refuse to be distracted by the red herring of being of African descent, or by being of Asian descent, or by having Caucasian ancestors. I am a human being confronting urgent problems of survival, poverty and attaining happiness.
I know that solving these problems depends on how accurately and realistically I can describe them. I will never, for a moment, again fall prey to the popular mental approach that to criticize my actions, or the actions of any group that I support or am a member of, is destructive or that this could be construed to be treachery in any form.
I know, beyond doubt, that the change that must be accomplished to rescue my race from the thralldom of its history can only be accomplished by a complete break with primitive cultural traditions to which we became habituated in the ‘state of nature,’ and embracing the modernization ideals.
I know that what we trying to divest ourselves of are ‘the conscious and unconscious premises for thinking and action,’ and that the fact that these are unconscious, that we are unaware of the effect of, the wholly destructive impact of these attitudes is what makes this task so difficult.
There are glaring, inescapable examples of this paradigm that confront humanity every day, yet we cannot perceive them.
When the invasion of Iraq was being planned the irrational, interest driven conception of the number of troops necessary to occupy this country dominated the planning rather than the rational observations of the Army Chief of Staff.
The entire crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger died because President Ronald Reagan wanted to claim an intellectualism he was wholly incapable of by having his State of the Nation Broadcast contain a conversation with a member of the space shuttle crew.
I say again that every negative facet and component of contemporary existence, all the conflict, poverty, misery and suffering that we experience daily is a direct consequence of the fact that human beings rely on coercion in their relations with the other.
I proclaim again that the solution to the problem of creating positive developments, in the economy and the larger society, is that human beings become adept in using positive reinforcements to motivate the other.
I declaim that telling the truth will make us free, that only by relentlessly practicing to describe the existing reality can we break the heavy shackles of determinism, and divest ourselves of the ways of thinking, irrational beliefs, myths, illusions and delusions that have chained us to a primitive existence; that weld us to a past of war, of poverty, of hunger, of unrelieved suffering and misery.
If we tell the truth, the truth will make us free. The practice of this discipline will unleash the creativity within us, it will allow us to realize the potential for civility, for peaceful coexistence, for prosperity - that the fact that we can learn and CHANGE affords us.
COPYRIGHT RETAINED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
William E. Virtue
500 NW 34th St, Apt # 210
Pompano Beach, FL 33064
ph & fax: 954-942-4172
email: vox_pacis@hotmailcom
posted by voiceofpeace at 10:17 AM
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