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WeHaveLostOurWayRe:Surprise surprise! (Score:2) That's what I mean when I say that we've lost our way. I do, with respect, disagree with you on one thing: "smart" isn't going to solve this problem. Wisdom is up to the task, however. The misunderstandings about wisdom happen not because it is so difficult that few could hope to grasp it, but rather, because it is so simple that nearly everyone overlooks it. The way I see it, there are but a few root causes of the mess we're in: The original American spirit of rugged individualism, independence, and freedom was based on pride. The trouble with pride is that it always focuses on the self, and the self is mutable and impermanent compared to the timeless principles on which these virtues could also be based. That means that pride is a shifting sand, while a more solid foundation is also available. Because of that, pride has a number of weaknesses that render inevitable its eventual undermining. The worst of these are convenience and its decay into dependence. For all of their foibles, governments understand one thing very well: if you want to own someone, get them to depend on you and your support by doing for them what they should do for themselves. Sell it in terms of convenience or duty. You see this in the USA with states that are afraid to defy the federal government because doing so would mean the loss of federal funding. States have the ability to levy their own taxes for exactly the purpose of raising the funds they need, yet many have come to depend on the federal money to where their budgets don't work without it. You see this on an individual level with the amount of upheavel that would happen if Social Security were suddenly cancelled. In a more subtle form, you see it when you are taught, from the time you are a child, that it is up to the "experts" to determine your intelligence, aptitudes, future success, well-being, and in summary, your self-worth. You see it when suddenly, the early education of children becomes an important government priority and thus, the state takes on a responsibility that rightfully belongs to parents. All of this in spite of the rather open declaration by various 19th century industrial tycoons that regulating the poor and preventing them from becoming educated enough to seriously question the status quo was the purpose of public education. Really, it's amazing; today's authoritarians are masters of subtlety by comparison. This, of course, was later extended to include the growing middle class. There is no greater reference for this than John Taylor Gatto's free online book [johntaylorgatto.com]. You see it as well when there is a pill for every ill, an emphasis on instant gratification, and shallow thinking rife with logical fallacies and propaganda techniques as mainstream news. Then there is religion. The morality of Judaeo-Christian beliefs was once a unifying force for this country. Many of the problems with this are now well-known and easily grasped. One problem is not so obvious. The mainstream forms of Christianity are more properly called Churchianity. Their followers do not love one another. They don't forgive the wrong that others do. They don't feel compassion prior to feeling condemnation, or instead of feeling condemnation. They have a list of "do's and dont's" and not individual understanding of self-evident truth. The result of all of this is that what was once a unifying force has now become divisive. Just look at the political concept of the "Religious Right" to see what I mean. Because none of this resembles loving other people, having compassion for them, and standing up for what is right instead of returning evil for evil, there is little real courage anymore. It has become another system of control and thus, of mindlessness. It has become a substitute for independently seeing truth for yourself and for knowing how to put truth to the test. It should have been a supplement to those things only. So we have a situation where people are superficial and feel like victims, like leaves in the wind. They live in a haphazard, undisciplined fashion that needlessly leaves them vulnerable to chance. Preventable problems assail them and they take this to be evidence of their victimhood (see how negativity reinforces itself). To this position of weakness, an authority to show the way is rather appealing, though for all of the wrong reasons. From this arises the idea that security is more important than freedom. It's a response to cowardice, but what other than cowards can people be when they have no inner strength, no sense of purpose, no unyielding principles? Only to such people can there be any temptation in the promise of "we'll keep you safe if you just surrender a few liberties." The origin of all of this, the method by which people have lost their way, is that they have become externally motivated. They fight to engineer outcomes and they worship control, especially their own. They have buttons that others can push, thus their emotional well-being is at the mercy of others. They derive their sense of self-worth from external accomplishments and circumstances, and so they can be manipulated and pressured into doing what they otherwise would not consider. They are products of their environments, the sum total of their experiences. They really believe that the actions of others must determine their own. They typically accept this as normal because it is common and because they can see no other way. If we are to call things what they are, then this is slavery. Internally motivated people are not like this at all. They have no need to manipulate or to control others, thus they cannot be manipulated -- they simply do not participate in this system. Their identity is not a mirror of the external world or the environment around them. They are internally motivated because they have a clear understanding of what is right and good and their actions come from this understanding. They do the right thing because doing the right thing is its own reward and there is thus no need to control outcomes or to insert ulterior motives. They can see the wrong that others do without a need to retaliate or to feel superior. This has the interesting effect of causing the wrong that others do to backfire, for it depends on a reaction and crumbles when there is no need to react. To people like this, who are discerning, a lie is an incredibly easy thing to detect. So is a power grab. So is a well-meaning individual who is about to do a lot of harm in spite of his intentions. They don't have the sorts of weaknesses that must be present before there can be any sort of tyranny or unhealthy temptation. At one point, Americans were much closer to this state, only it was largely based on leaving others alone and being left alone, not on compassion and understanding towards others. Thus, it did not last. Will we continue to have these phony debates that we carry on as though the authoritarian/statist position were ever a valid one? Will we repeat this mistake and wonder why our ideals are as impermanent as our mortality? These are some interesting times. |