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talkpoliticsIn the ancient world some folks speculated that all life proceeded from a single dyad. Study of life forms leads the investigator to notice distinct similarities from one form to another. The pattern leads to the idea that all life is related. A similar process an lead us to the idea that all conspiracies can be traced to a common parent. Which conspiracy seems to be the mother of them all?
As a child growing up in a totalitarian society, I was struck by the casual attitude that people had toward vicious brutality. When adults frothed at the mouth with rabid anger, they were not treated as suffering from dementia. Instead, they were upheld as examples of civic virtue for emulation by the next generation. They were feted as great advocates of the common weal. People who knew better had to keep their thoughts to themselves for fear of becoming the victims of brutality.
Later in life, I put the whole process under a microscope to look for a pattern. What makes these brutes the way they are? What separates them from people who know better? What is the yeast that infests their mental space?
One of the clear distinctions I noticed was a truncation in intellectual development. These brutes had become convinced that their intellectual development was complete. They embodied an arrested development that isolated them from the path toward knowledge. It was as if their minds resided in cages and could neither grow out of it nor escape its confinement. They had become trapped in a prison of primitive precepts.
I recently encountered a corollary of this type of mindset in a discussion about Jewish literature. When I pointed out that a deity mentioned in one text was not the same deity as in other texts, the other person was incredulous. How could there be multiple deities in Jewish tradition? It did not make sense. Isn't it simpler to see only one deity? Certainly, it is simpler to see the Earth as stationary when that is all that you know, but a moving Earth explains phenomena more simply than a static paradigm. Multiple deities simplifies some of the contradictions in the Jewish tradition.
What word can we apply to this mother of all conspiracy?
As a child growing up in a totalitarian society, I was struck by the casual attitude that people had toward vicious brutality. When adults frothed at the mouth with rabid anger, they were not treated as suffering from dementia. Instead, they were upheld as examples of civic virtue for emulation by the next generation. They were feted as great advocates of the common weal. People who knew better had to keep their thoughts to themselves for fear of becoming the victims of brutality.
Later in life, I put the whole process under a microscope to look for a pattern. What makes these brutes the way they are? What separates them from people who know better? What is the yeast that infests their mental space?
One of the clear distinctions I noticed was a truncation in intellectual development. These brutes had become convinced that their intellectual development was complete. They embodied an arrested development that isolated them from the path toward knowledge. It was as if their minds resided in cages and could neither grow out of it nor escape its confinement. They had become trapped in a prison of primitive precepts.
I recently encountered a corollary of this type of mindset in a discussion about Jewish literature. When I pointed out that a deity mentioned in one text was not the same deity as in other texts, the other person was incredulous. How could there be multiple deities in Jewish tradition? It did not make sense. Isn't it simpler to see only one deity? Certainly, it is simpler to see the Earth as stationary when that is all that you know, but a moving Earth explains phenomena more simply than a static paradigm. Multiple deities simplifies some of the contradictions in the Jewish tradition.
What word can we apply to this mother of all conspiracy?
(no subject)
Date: 15/11/11 17:01 (UTC)You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 17:20 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 17:20 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 17:27 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 17:34 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 17:45 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 18:09 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 18:12 (UTC)Re: You assume too much.
Date: 15/11/11 18:15 (UTC)Post-apocalyptic Under L sez:
Date: 15/11/11 18:46 (UTC)Re: Post-apocalyptic Under L sez:
Date: 15/11/11 19:16 (UTC)Wrong Caesar:
Date: 15/11/11 19:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/11/11 20:39 (UTC)A better word...
Date: 15/11/11 21:04 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/11/11 20:45 (UTC)Irrelevant...
Date: 15/11/11 21:04 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15/11/11 21:35 (UTC)I prefer...
Date: 16/11/11 17:03 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/11/11 01:13 (UTC)Simple. Acting civilized is not natural to us. Civilized behavior is actually a fairly recent invention to come along in the history of homo sapiens and it never totally caught on. For the vast majority of our 100,000-200,000 year existence, we've been brutish, savage, and bloodthirsty. It was how we survived. In fact, when a civilized person is driven over the edge, that thin veneer of civilization can drop off. For example, endanger a parent's child and watch the fight or flight response take over...emphasis on the fight.
We're also a pack hunter species. We not only used to all kill our own dinner and eat it raw, we also establish others among us to be the alpha. When the alpha commands someone to do something cruel, there's a good chance that we'll revert to our instincts and obey him or her, cf. Milgram Experiment.
Civilized behavior comes about only through conditioning. It is by no means innate to human beings, Sophia.
I would argue...
Date: 16/11/11 17:01 (UTC)Gods in the Bible.
Date: 17/11/11 04:30 (UTC)Abraham chose (or was chosen by) one god in the local pantheon to be his god. This is Henotheism.
YHVH had a wife until the Temple decided women shouldn't have altars to Ashera in their homes during the revision from acknowledging other gods to claiming there was only one god. The divorce was bitter and frankly YHVH was a complete douche about it. Not that (As)Hera in her various aspects is the easiest hearth goddess to get along with.
Of course the differences in the behaviour of Abraham's god at different times is more a question for psychiatrists than theologians.
Re: Gods in the Bible.
Date: 17/11/11 16:58 (UTC)As for psychiatrists and theologians, they share similar methods. A psychiatrist is a priest with a license to practice medicine.