Bric-A-Brac Philosophy III

 

 

Kierkegaard’s proposition against the rationalist Hegel: “Life should be looked at backwards and lived forwards.” Life should not be lived backwards in nostalgia or looked at forwards based on a historicism or any kind of construction which is what Marx did.

The difference between the traditionalist fanaticized consciousness and the progress oriented fanaticized consciousness is like the difference between “Trying to catch the wind” and “Trying to plow the sea.”

It is good to be a hero —- It is bad to be a villain — It is horrible to be a cipher – A ineffective zero or a “Hubris and Fear Demon.”

Overly strong group adherence enhances the tendency towards polarization and vitiates the ability to self-correct.

“Some males become habituated to the notion that there is always a maternal object image who will bail them out no matter what they do. The same males with their self-concept as ‘Lord Protectors’ believe that it is not inappropriate for them to use capricious psychological and/or physical violence.”

In the world of images and appearances, those who are called “bad” and those who are called “good” are reversed from what they are considered to be in the world of reality.

In a culture of Narcissism, principles which are the backbone of individuals and of the society in which they live corrupt into projects of sincerity. Projects of sincerity which are rooted in self-interest and in which there is an impoverishment in social interest and in transcendent values and consequently are lacking in depth.

Studies in Evil

I believe that I have the right notes to write an essay on what I would call “The Root of Evil” or to use modernist language; “The Root of Human Corruption.” The starting point will be the Apostle Paul’s enigmatic statement that “Money is the Root of Evil.” The notion that Money is the root of evil is only one side of the coin; of course money is the root of progress also. I can also relate this to several notions from the Book of Ecclesiastes: “This only have I found; God made man upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.” … quoted from Ecclesiastes 7: 29.
The idea that God made man upright correlates with modernists ideas and the idea that men have gone in search of many schemes is I believe an important clue to understanding human corruption.
I believe that I can also bring the relation between Ecclesiastes and Taoism into focus, as I said that I would do. I like to keep my promises.
Iconoclastic activity is seen as a way of tearing down the right things with the right timing (Ref. Ecclesiastes Chapter 3) , but taboo-breaking is a from of ersatz activity or an inferior substitute. taboo-breaking can be seen as merely a means of obtaining the existential needs for “excitation and stimulation” an analytic tool articulated by the Psychologist Erich Fromm.

 

Here are two terms used by Soren Kierkegaard that I have been wrestling with Mastered Irony and actualizing actually. I am still working on Mastered Irony, but this is my understanding of Actualizing Actually: Being what you are called to be. This refers to the self that is grounded in Temporality and Language. Temporality that is grounded in self-hood and language. (The Anthropologist Ashley Montague stated that; “We live in our language” and Language that is grounded in Self-hood and temporality.

 

I would think that evil is a corruption of the good and that evil or in modernist
language; human corruption can be seen as being expressed in the fanaticized consciousness. The term fanaticized consciousness, as it is used by Gabriel Marcel is the modern term for what has been referred to as idolatry in religious history. The fanaticized consciousness is brought into existence and maintained by some object or idea. Some one can speak against the fanaticized consciousness and be accused falsely of being against sex, peace, liberty etc. because the fanaticized consciousness can be seen as being at the very heart of things and ideas that are basically good or neutral, but are used as mechanisms of self-aggrandizement by power obsessing people. Those who are severely narcissistic cannot see the destructive consequences of their activities. So the intention of these types of people may not be altogether evil, but the consequences are.
I believe that the appropriate response to what could be referred to as evil forces working through the power of idolatry is through C.S. Lewis’s natural law from his book: “mere Christianity.” 1. Prudence 2. Temperance 3. Justice as Fairness 4. Fortitude. But, of course, it only produces personal and social harmony when everyone in your life space is in accordance with it. When others who are after manipulative and exploitative power make you their target, then you must respond in some way: submission to corruption, over-responding and becoming malignant yourself or in some way perfectly responding what ever that means.

Idolatry

In the Old Testament, the people had little idols or statues or fetishes as they were called and if I remember correctly They were warned that they would become like the idols themselves becoming blind, deaf, and dumb like the idols, if they substituted them for the living God. (I cannot remember where in the Bible that admonish is located, maybe someone can help me). The people were told not to go after things that do not profit: The Fetishes. Today we live in a culture of narcissism and have a marketing orientation to life and it is an orientation that is non-productive; not conducive to well being and concord. The credit card crisis is a good case in point. The ability of people to get deeply into high interest debt is a serious problem nowadays. The documentaries:” I.O.U.S.A” and “Maxed-out”shows this problem clearly; people are becoming debt slaves; struggling just to service high interest debt. The debt crisis is not the only problem, The Philosopher Gabriel Marcel in his book: “Man Against Mass Society” uses the phrase; the “Fanaticized Consciousness” which is what I believe an accurate description to show what I am talking about. In order words; our obsessiveness is internalized and the object of our obsessiveness could be anything; it could be and is some kind of distorted idea of progress itself.

The difference between fanatical tradition ideas and fanatical progress ideas is like the difference between trying to catch the wind and trying to plow the sea.

The Sky is Falling

When I was in High School, which was a long time ago, I first read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem: “Renascence” and for some reason, the poem stroke a cord with me. I later read some of Soren Kierkegaard’s books and his Philosophy, in particular the short book: “Kierkegaard’s Philosophy — Self-Deception and Cowardice in the Present Age” and it seems clear enough to me that there is a correspondence between the poem and the basic philosophy of Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard used the notion of the one dimensional and the more fully developed two dimensional person. The poem begins with her experience of being aware of only physicality, of three long mountains and a wood etc. and in the next stanza she says “Over these things I could not see: These were the things that bounded me.” I figure that we here who use the ooze have the one thing in common in spite of our various differences: We are interested in more than mere physicality. We are interested in the spiritual dimension to life. The aspiration to spirituality as well as being physical individual beings should be the base line to to any religious or ideological frames of orientation to life.
The Personalist Philosophers speak of human beings as being individual/persons, but in our time there is a strong and what I believe is a dangerous trend toward seeing the human beings as depersonalized individuals.
The poem “Renascence” ends with these words:
“The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat–the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.

Ethics and Values

 

Value involves a match between whatever is valued and the person doing the valuing and the strength of the valuing is also a factor and has a dynamic relation with dis-valuing. Consider the six value constellations: Theoretical Values, Pragmatic Values, Esthetic Values, Sociality Values, Power Values, and Transcendent Values. Being obsessive on one or another value cluster would cause a lack of concern, or impoverishment in most if not all of the other clusters and the opposite is true also.
I would think that an important principle of Ethics is: Integrity (water tightness against corrupt narcissistic tendencies by unbalanced people). Those who are overcharged with power constellation values cannot understand or appropriately deal with your universal caring principle and would merely use people with such overcharged sociality constellation values as naive and tractable exploitation fodder to service their narcissistic needs.
Integrity against the sadio-masochistic tendencies that are so prevalent in our times is what is called for rather than the attempt to simply be nice to everyone. 

 

Using one of Erich Fromm’s existential needs as an analytic tool, I will try to explain what I mean. I have not studied formal axiology so you should take that into consideration. Fromm’s existential needs pair: Transcendence and Sense of Effectiveness is what I am considering. Every human being has a built in need to go beyond being a human being as an individual to being a human being as an Individual/Person and being a person refers to the uniqueness quality of a human being. There is a tendency in our time towards de-personalization whereby the human as individual; a minimal self whose purpose in life is merely to survive and to obtain pleasure and avoid discomfort to the greatest extent possible. Transcendence is the mechanism by which becoming fully human in that sense is accomplished or attempted. Transcendence is coupled with Sense of Effectiveness and that is where the power values come in. Transcendence can be productive or non-productive. When transcendence is non-productive impoverishment is often a result and the struggle against impoverishment generates and enhances the struggle for personal and collective power.

I read some in the “A Unified Theory of Ethics” and I plan to read some more soon. It seems to me that this is the rationalist side of an idea in which there is an existentialist side expressed in the writings of Martin Buber who showed that the I-Thou kind of relatedness is superior to the I-It kind of relatedness.
The author talked about the human conscience; the censor and the superego, if I remember my basic psychology correctly. Where does the conscience come from? Isn’t it interjected from the maturing child’s life space? Some people believe that the censor plays the devil with their hedonistic obtaining pleasure and avoiding discomfort life plans.
As I understand the Unified Theory, it means that when the real self and the person’s ideal self are in accord, the person is being true to himself or herself and is living authentically. The ideal self is what the person believes that he should be. So if the person’s actual self meaning his behavior is out of line with what he believes that he should be, then it is incumbent on him or her to self-correct.
The ability of the person to self-correct would be influenced by other things, especially Cattell’s Q2 personality factor with the group-adherence ——- self-sufficiency dimension.

I had gotten the six value constellations from an old psychology book years ago, but this a slightly difference version from a nursing textbook:
1. Theoretical values — The theoretical person values truth and tends to be empirical, critical, and rational.
2. Economic Values — The economic person is interested is what is practical and useful.
3. Aesthetic Values — The aesthetic person values beauty, form, and harmony.
4. Social Values — The social person values human beings in terms of love and is kind, sympathetic, and unselfish
5. Political Values — The political person values power.
6. Religious Values — The religious person values unity.
“Although each person’s value orientation is a unique blend of these six types of values, one of the types usually predominates.” From “Fundamentals of Nursing”
The point I wanted to make is that each person with his or her predominate value orientation and unique blend should be taken into account in the Theory. And when there is impoverishment in one or more of the six and the political value is predominate, problems are likely be become accentuated. And vice versa those who tend to super-size their political or power orientation are likely to at the same time cause to impoverishment in their social values, theoretical values, etc.

Attack Upon Christendom

Attack Upon Christendom is the title of one of Soren Kierkegaard’s books. I was just thinking about the inability of many people to distinguish between what could be referred to as cultural Christianity and Religious Christianity or Christendom and Christianity. I am sure that there are people who merely hitch a ride on religion for manipulative and exploitative purposes. For instance, the new atheists hold up Pat Robertson as an example of the prototypical Christian; a cold and heartless man who they say uses slave labor in South African diamond mines. Another example is the very attractive woman in California who is an ex pornographic model and who claims to be broadcasting from the University of California and has mastered several ancient languages etc. Actually she broadcasts from an old building that is called “The University Building” that has nothing to do with the University of California and it is doubtful that she is skilled in any ancient languages. It seems to me that she is running a not very sophisticated con game and getting away with it. I am sure that there are millions of people in our country that take Christianity seriously and are productive, biophilious, and act with good will. It is tragic that they must suffer because of the unscrupulous and parasitic individuals who are out for themselves.

 

The former U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright used the term “the Arrogance of Power” to describe things that occur in history. It would take a person with a rare blend of character and competence to avoid at least to some extent throwing their weight around after becoming empowered in some way. This is true of secular as well as Religious leadership. It is true on the small scale as well as the large scale i.e. national leadership.

 

From “Ground of Being” Theology: Hubris is the distortion of greatness and Concupiscence is the distortion of love.————————————– The person who is in a condition of hubris and in a passionate state of mind is a dangerous person.

 

I have recently been watching the documentary: “The Nazis: A Warning From History” Someone in the documentary pointed out that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between something that is good with shades of darkness and something that is dark-bad with shades of goodness.

Bric-A-Brac Philosophy II

 

The pornography industry is a great exploitation engine and sex is the perfect screening mechanism for all kinds of malignant activities. …….. I am making this post at the risk of being shunted off as a prude or a nerd.

 

A malignant aggressor by using it’s art of deception and self-deception may very well believe itself to be spreading flower pollen when in actually it is a malignant tumor metastasize itself at the expense of it’s host.

A malignant aggressor should be distinguished from a non-malignant aggressor; either a self-defense aggressor or a pseudo-aggressor.

Those who cannot tolerate being responsible for their own lives, attempt to escape from freedom at the expense of those who desire to live in freedom and to be responsible for their own lives. Those who cannot tolerate the modern tendency toward interpersonal indifference, attempt to escape from estrangement through masochism which is corrupt submissiveness.

In a loose grid society, competitiveness becomes the way of life and the spirit of co-operation suffers This creates the tendency in some people to seek out tight gird relatedness either in a cult or in sadio-masochistic relationships.

Sadism is a strategic life project, but indignation comes and goes in it’s own times and seasons.

Those who participated in the “Holy Rollers” fad were held in disrepute, but in more recent times, those who participate in the “Luv Rollers” fad are not. Holy Rollers rolled in the dirt and Luv rollers roll and wallow in the mud.

‎”Imagination is better than knowledge” ….. Albert Einstein …… When Einstein was growing up he imagined how it would be if he could ride a beam of light.