there are 2-views of history:
bottom up vs. top down
The bottom up. This evolutionary view sees humanity as a freakish accident of Mother Nature's primeval scream. Many scholars refer to this hypothetical event as the big bang ( the big sonic boom) when the one huge chunk of celestial mass decided to burst forth in all directions.
This microscopic view of humanity sees people as being unduly subjected to the wayward celestial forces like the early Greeks of antiquity except without the Greek plethora of canonical mythological gods like Mercury for instance to explain away natural phenomenon.
According to this view, we are vulnerably exposed to these invisible forces in the universe both in the natural world and in the mental world: hence, the logic for recourse to psychiatric medication to deal with these invisible forces of depression, fear, and fatigue.
According to this world view, a human being is neither guilty nor innocent. It celebrates "normative behavior" and prescribes corrective social re-engineering the physical and/or mental environmentment of any person deemed not normative. (For example, it condones the practice of reshaping cognitions which is know to contribute to the false memory syndrome.)
Behavior according to this point of view can be "shaped" using a sytem of deterrents (i.e. negative reinforcements) and proper stroking (i.e. positive reinforcements), not to mention periodic recourse to the appropriate dosage of psychiatric medication to "realign the person" normatively. In other words, it believes in the need for "mindcontrol" for those behaviors that are not considered "normative".
This notion is founded on the belief that human behavior is largely determined by social forces exterior to the person: therefore, the solution is to control and shape these social forces negatively impacting on the individual.
It also believes that the media can be used to induce contrived mass hypnosis as we saw fastidiously orchestrated in fascist and communist countries this century.
This very pessemistic notion does not accept that a person has the ability to be free and act freely because according to this view humanity is purely an environmental byproduct no different than from any other species. Man and Woman are animal pure and simple whose mental processes can interfere with their environmental reality. Notions like freedom and truth are simply mental constructs that have no foundation in the environment from which humanity is derived. These notions, though noble, are baseless according to this view of human existence. And of all notions truth is considered to be inconsequential to the environment and therefore, it is of no practical utility. Why? Because what is is. There is only material reality and really nothing else. 
Interestingly, the confrontation between Pontius Pilate who was having his way reigning over the Jewish people and Jesus was one regarding the most basic religious notion of all "Truth".
Pontus Pilate represents the "flattered the self", the self-contained deity that arbitrary determines what is truth. This bottom up view supports Pontius Pilate's mockery of truth.
According to this bottom up view, human experience is purely relative and highly individualistic.
Therefore, the primary dyanmic of human existence becomes avoid pain and seek pleasurable activities in order to forget the meaninglessness of their existence.
This bottom up view asserts that no person can ever possibly assume that s/he can please another let alone have sympathy and compassion for someone else other than oneself. It is not surprising that the ideology of pornography/hedonism subscribes to this self-serving point ofview.
It views all acts of altruism is seen as pretense and hypocrisy.
It asserts that man and woman do not have a "conscience" and the so-called "conscience" is the byproduct of unrealistic idealistic social shaping by Church and/or State that artificially induce an unnecessary and counter-productive sense of guilt into people that had no material reality of its own in the biological environment of the "human species".
It proclaims that such notions as "god" and "conscience" are groundless and consequently, false in material world.
The top down. This view sees Man and Woman as co-creators endowed with the dignity of "being".
As "beings" they have been created a little less than the angels.
They are "persons"and it is their personhood that allows them to distinguish instinctively what is true and what is not truth. It is said that deaf people who read lips instinctively know when politicians on TV are lying.
The expression that states that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all the time refers to this ability to discern truth.
According to this point of view, Man and Woman are "free agents". They have the responsibility to self-determine themselves and to chose their destiny guided by their personal sense of what is right and wrong for them in accordance to an enlightened conscience.
They can chose the path they want to take: the high road or the low road or as Dante did, they can go through the pit of il Inferno, through to il Purgatorio and up the mountain to il Paradiso.
Knowledge of truth leads to the moral imperative of knowing and encouraging "just behavior".
These inner gestaltish capacities (my lingo) are luckily, the natural gyroscopic qualities of children and adolescence. They are also those of people of goodwill: notably like the Good Shepherds and the Wise Men of Christmas.
(For this reason the Gospels are quite right in affirming that we must live in this world like children who believe in the goodness of life in order to be able enter the Kingdom of God and share in His glory.)
Because Man and Woman, the couple, are of primordial importance in this point of view.
They have inalienable rights due to the "sacred character of their persons".
In fact, their interaction, (i.e. their culture) takes on a "sacred dynamic character" as well contributing to the relicquary of the collective metapersonality of community (my lingo) from whence the individual is continually nourished at a subconscious level.
As a Man and a Woman create a sense of community they can really go beyond their self to that of the greater self, the community, for which they are in part responsible for.
This view maintains that ethnic cultures are a rich source of primary nourishment mentally and socially that enables the individual to find and share his/her voice and personal identity with others and thereby contribute to the cultural fabric in his/her own unique way.
This views allows for the possibility of a person to freely adopt and integrate other cultures in order to broaden, deepen, and extend his own personal sense of self for the greater benefit of all. Marco Polo of Venice in the Middle Ages is a good example of this. He brought from China knowledge of the science of gun powder, noodles, ice cream, cocaine, etc.
This view does two very basic things.
On the one hand it prizes culture and understands its crucial role in the psychological and linguistic development of the individual and on the other it believes that culture has the ability to provide Man and Woman with insight (a gestalt term) into the meaning and purpose of life at the collective level. Consequently, finding meaning on the collective level is a big help for the individual towards appropriating a sense of existential meaning and purpose at a personal level.
This view allows for the possibility that culture can be a vital force (stronger than any blind and wayward libido force) capable of helping the individual find his/her inner voice/inner being to better know him/herself: this is the main focus and purpose of buddhist practice.
In Summation
This top down view is a spiritually idealistic point of view rooted in the belief that the major guiding force of the world is that of the Holy Spirit of Truth and Wisdom.
According to this world view, the individual has a moral imperative "to get a life" by embarking on a personal voyage of self discovery through life.
A good training in the humanities at University is suppose to help to do just that for the individual and is why the value of a university ARTS background is in essence priceless.
His or her struggle to become more of a person is one of becoming a person of integrity for which the person is ready to become a martyr as in the poignant case of Saint Thomas Moore's refusal to recognize the legitmacy of King Henry the VIII's second marriage. So great was the value that he placed on his personal integrity that he was willing to allow himself to be scorned by the very ones that he so loved: his very own family.
On the other hand, the bottom up view is based on the need to shape behavior to make the best of a difficult, meaningless situation rejecting right off any pie-in-the-sky-for-the-good-guy/gal and reflecting a more so-why-be-good-when you-can-have-more-fun-being-bad point of view.
This is the "mindless, socially unredeeming material" that TV soaps are often made of. According to this point of view people are more often than not mindless creatures and the game of life is nothing more than resorting to subterfuge and chicanery, so why not lie and cheat if it is expedient to do so. This is being smart according to this point of view.
This approach does not believe in the value of moral integrity, but rather sees it as a lot of hocus-pocus, fairy tale material of which real life is not made of. As a result this point of view condones crime as long as the individual does not let himself get caught as in instances of marital infidelity.
The excuse provided by this point of view is that everyone says one thing, but in reality does another: this kind of immature thinking is perverse as it seeks to legitimize deceit and amoral behavior that undermines one's personal credibility and ignores the negative consequences of ones actions on the social fabric.
When the greater reality on the nature of things is taken into account, this approach reveals itself to be definitively clueless as much as it is irresponsible.
This latter approach was popularized by communist governments during the cold war.
Updated: January 17, 1999
This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page