Science Forum

coberst · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:02 am Post subject:

Iâ€™ve Upped My Income; Now Up Yours

I would say that a culture consists of the complex of ideas that a group of people hold dear. One can speak of the culture of a small group or of a very large group.

In the United States our culture is determined to a large extent by how we hold "these truths to be self-evident"; we are held together by ideas perhaps more than other societies. Next religion plays a great role, and in our case it is the mixture of Protestantism, Judaism, and Catholicism. Following this is our infatuation with capitalism; following that is our narcissistic view of our uniqueness and greatness.

Our culture is a general attitude toward our self and toward the world based upon these four ideologies.

To what powers have wo/men given allegiance in order to solve the paradoxes of life? To what or to whom have each of us given our uncritical allegiance? â€œInto what hero-system do I fit the expression of my talentâ€? What or whom has become my fetish-god?

It is possible for the adult to choose which power s/he will serve; however, to do so, when the choice is contrary to one that has resulted from the family and community clan, is an extremely unusual and heroic act. â€œThe great tragedy of our lives is that the major question of our existence is never put by us--it is put by personal and social impulses for us.â€

Very few of us discover our authentic talentâ€”if it is ever found it is generally found accidentally through plain fate by us in our social milieu as we tap...tap...tap our blind way through life.

From a personal point of view our principal task is to somehow find our way out of the fate that we stumbled into and to grow out of our idol worship and fetishism and to expand our horizons, allegiances, and to drop our mere preoccupations. We need to free our self from the opinions of others.

â€œSince aggression is a reaction to frustration, by remaining tightly bound to the success of our social world we increase our aggressiveness, life invariable frustrates us.â€

Disinterested knowledge is the energy bunny. It generates the energy for exploration and for overcoming some of the inhibitions conscious reason places on the unconscious.

Studying disinterested knowledge is like taking off a month every year to visit a strange new land. Curiosity is reinvigorated and new meaning is created.[/b

Knowledge is like a jigsaw puzzle. We have created many puzzles in coping with reality and when we received a new piece (knowledge) that does not fit our present puzzles we forgetaboutit. However, if through disinterested knowledge we have created new puzzles we might find a place for this new fragment of knowledge to fit; thereby this fragment becomes our new knowledge.

Our mind is constantly working for us and when we do not give it a worthwhile project, i.e. a new puzzle, it will just waste away in boredom or worry.

[b]In America one might best see this attitude manifested by this frame of mind â€œIâ€™ve Upped My Income; Now Up Yoursâ€; a manifestation of this attitude may be seen in concrete form by the fact that 45 million citizens are without proper health care.

Do you think that the attitude â€œIâ€™ve Upped My Income, Now Up Yoursâ€ is an American frame of mind?

Quotes from â€œThe Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Manâ€ by Ernest Becker