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Objective In living, there is an assortment of motives that keep people going. Some would suggest instinct is all that�s needed to keep them breathing and wanting. But the soul needs more of the ideal than the real. The human spirit can make no sense of mere existence. Why exist if one can not live? The human spirit insists upon living over existence. Texture and color, the feelings, and dreams of the world are truly what motivate. Without them, one might as well be lost to history. To find the rules for living, it helps to understand it as an art composed of activities. The art of living can, in fact, be broken down into five behaviors. First, there is assimilation. This is the taking in of sensory stimuli. Second, there is the interpretation of those stimuli. Then, there is the physical response. This may take the form of reflex or it might come back as instinctual. Response might also be rational and the physical motorization becomes purposeful. Another element is affinity. It�s hard to say where this originates. Are affinities �messages from the other side� or are they instinctive tendencies genetically hardwired into people? It�s not important. But affinities exist. They set possibilities of experience. The last element is reason. Reason considers the human predicament and decides what is realistic. While affinities drive the system, reason sets the rules. Affinities are the essence of human motivation. Explorations of experience�s frontiers keep people breathing. It is up to individuals to lead an aesthetic life. This is one that fulfills their full human potential. One does this by exploring all things natural and created as dictated by affinities. Upon exploration, they celebrate the seen and felt through the pleasure of its creative interpretation and expression. One must remember, however, that because perception and interpretation are imperfect, life�s parameters must be held tentative. Society The idea that human interpretation is imperfect is important when considering the human community. The goodness of a society can be measured by its adherence to a few qualities. The most important is that human imperfection must be acknowledged. A good society should never require or assume perfection. A community should never insist that its population fulfill its idea of the optimum lifestyle. Neither should authority and judges assume that the law for which they struggle is absolute. Society must retain an adaptive capacity for ever-changing human needs. Society should also retain an anti-pragmatic disposition. Its design should allow an individual�s action to serve as a means to an end as well as an end in itself. While few can do this all the time, how closely this is achieved can be an effective measure of a society�s success. Insisting that the value of the means determines the true value of the end also promises action that is correct. Correctness and the pride associated with its doing can be a strong source of motivation. Yet, because humans are imperfect, one�s �correct� actions don�t always produce the desired result. This is why the process itself must serve as an end on its own. Regardless of the outcome the process can yield happiness. If individuals are granted an anti-pragmatic environment they will tend to be happier people. It�s also important for a community to recognize the importance of both collective unity as well as autonomy. The collectivization of human activity is very important. Through specialization, artists and engineers can achieve a higher degree of sophistication. But it�s also important to respect the rights and ambitions of the individual. Those who seek personal ambition should also be accommodated. The individual capacity for productivity and creativity holds as much value and importance as the responsibilities that person has toward the community as a whole. To compromise one for the other leads to disaster. The goodness of a society can also be measured by its capacity to avoid conflict. External and internal conflict can be reduced through the use of a few practices. |
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| First, never should a person have to ask for that which they can�t be denied. The good society can be measured by how well it provides essential needs to its people. If people never have to want for necessities then they will never have to seek recourse on the basis of a threat to life. People should also never have to feel that they can not deny the requests of others. If social infrastructure meets human needs, then never shall anyone be asked for things they don�t feel free to deny.
There are qualities that can be applied to a necessities mandate. Basic needs should be distributed equally among all the citizenry. Future generations must also be included in this distribution. Renewable as well as non-renewable resources must be secured for future as well as current generations. Institutions are the best candidate for the job of resource distribution. They are conservative by nature and basic human needs rarely change. It�s important to realize that sometimes needs do change. Feedback mechanisms within the institutional design can allow for adaptation to these changes. A dynamic capacity should be built in. This feedback construct could be economic. With the free market system, competition drives merchants to fulfill changes. But, an ideal could be attended should affinitarian driven institutionalisms make these adaptations. They would be motivated toward modification altruistically and as an expression of one�s integrity. Another practice that can reduce conflict is to hold a contingency for resolution. Often, dissolution over specific resources can be solved by a contingency of three deterrents. The first is compromise. A compromise can be made over a resource in question. Perhaps this takes the form of time share, where schedules are produced that allows one then the other to use the resource. The second deterrent is innovation. Perhaps a construction can be developed to fulfill the needs of all conflicting parties. If compromise and innovation fail in resolution, the third and final deterrent may be required. Denial is to withhold the resource in question from one or all parties. In disallowing all but one of the parties the resource, a first come first serve criteria rules. A more profound and absolute resolution can be found with mutually assured denial. (MAD) With this type, all parties are denied the resource until the conflict is resolved. It is important to secure freedom of movement for everyone. Those who wish to leave a community should be able to. The success of a community can then be accurately assessed by the character of its constituency. This is also an effective way to resolve conflict. Resources for deviant emigration must be retained for all members of the community. It is also important to provide a clear definition of what�s required of individuals as members of the community. Many come into conflict because guidelines have not been provided. What these requirements might be is up to the laws and rules set down by that specific group. It would benefit from a detailed contingency for handling conflict. This way, when judgment is served, there are few surprises. Individual It would be hard to anticipate what would be required of individuals who play parts in complex groups. Requisites would be particular to each community. But there are a few that would probably apply to all. One could, in turn, conclude that these are a few qualities that make a good person no matter where you go. First, a good person uses reason to assess the human predicament and to act in a way that is most likely correct. Reason is a funny thing. It never tells one the truth of the matter. What�s false or untrue is all it reveals. Through a process of elimination of untruths, a concept that is most likely accurate can be achieved. This can allow one to define what constitutes virtuous acts. It helps one to define the means to act given one�s circumstance. What does one do to achieve a desired end? Reasonable doubt sets limits given priorities. It�s impossible to do everything in life. Life�s span can only be filled with the best of one�s opportunities. Another thing good people can do is realize altruism. This is instinctive love. It is the kind that is played out without any regard for self interest. It is realized when one races into a burning building to save a house cat. It is done for the sake of its doing. A good person also employs virtue and practices the precepts. This is done for and by reason, altruism, and affinity. Spiritual Life There are three aspects to the human mind. The first is reflex. With this, one assimilates stimuli and reacts instinctively without reason. The second is the cognitive self. It assimilates stimuli, interprets it through reason, and reacts to it through motorization. The third is soul. This is the part of oneself that can be imagined to step out and away from the other two. It looks back and can observe activities of instinct and reason within the context of one�s life. Its existence can be assured through the depth and substantiality it is felt. To lead an enlightened spiritual life, one should attain the third person perspective. Combining acts of objectivity and humility can accomplish this. Objectivity is realizing that preconceptions are not absolute. This includes assumptions regarding good and evil. Their polarity and interdependency prescribe transcendence that conceives evil as essentially leading to the good. This is contradictory to perceiving the evil as entirely indecorous. Being open-minded also helps one to consider the perspective humility asserts. Humility involves seeing oneself as part of the greater whole. Through reason and visualization one can accurately imagine stepping out of oneself and viewing themselves in their environment. This is the third person looking back at the first and second persons. It sees them in the context of a more substantial and relevant world. Shifting to the abiding part is the first step in spiritual realization. This must be accompanied by the practice of altruism. Instinctive love is to be able to put another ahead of oneself. Pure altruism makes no appeal to compensation or self reward. Its credentials rest in acts of compassion and friendship. Unlike pure love, with these, a part of the self is seen in the other. One knows how they would like to be treated imagining themselves in the other�s circumstance. It is easy to see some of oneself in another person. But to see it in an animal, plant, rock, or even planet is poetic. Poetic anthropomorphism, the extension of feelings of love to the surrounding environment, can be an important tool to spiritual actualization. The practice of self based love can give way to the pure type over time. True love is found and it feeds the soul. Without it, even the most beautiful things become gilded and lost to meaninglessness. Objectivity, humility, and love combine to yield egocentric transcendence. A shift to the abiding part coupled with feelings of love for the whole lead to a denial of self interest as a primary source of motivation. Self-centered values become trivial and yield to a sense of community. Fear of death becomes subject and is neutralized. Commitment to the greater good allows one to arrest guilt caused by prior personal flaws. One becomes environmentally conscious and less egocentric. It is easy to understand the true purpose of selfishness especially from the soul�s perspective. In biological systems, independent parts often lack the capacity of self-regulation. Species will quickly over stress their environment when left unchecked. Overpopulation combined with a finite food supply may lead to the eventual destruction of the species. Nature relies on other entities or species to maintain a balance between the parts. This has led some to surmise that genes are selfish. This is not true. But selfishness has served the objective of checks and balances in human communities. People who are inclined to take more than their fair share are quickly held in check by the selfish interests of others. Egocentric transcendence, with its acute regard for the condition of the environment, denies the need for external control. The enlightened become self regulating. They are inclined to take only their fair share so that the system maintains its integrity and is not impoverished. Only in dealings with the unenlightened, does self interest serve a purpose. The sage must execute a role of self interest, much like an actor on stage, if control is to be asserted over the deprived. It is important not to let egocentric transcendence destroy the ego�s world entirely. There are those who believe that the complete denial of ego is the key to heaven on Earth. This presumption is incorrect. The first and second selves exist as part of the abiding part�s reality. The ego�s world is just as relevant as the soul�s. One must realize the importance of both if one is to live completely. Priorities must be set so that both aspects and the relationship between them are preserved. To sacrifice one for the other prescribes failure. In successful spiritual liberation, Plato�s idealistic reality comes into sharper focus without compromise to Aristotle�s epistemology. Reconciliation must take place between ego and the greater whole if happiness is to be attained. |
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