13.2.06 

SELFISHNESS, LINGUISTICS & AA


This is bitsy and has many gaps. But I would really like to know your thoughts.


Selfishness

The 16th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes came up with the theory of ‘the natural condition of mankind’, which has been pretty well accepted today.

He first takes us to a beginning state where everyone is in an equal position with the same education, environment and physical attributes.

He claims that there are two basic natural conditions of people. The first premise is that everything we do is based on selfishness. Even our most altruistic acts will come back to selfish psychological need to feel good about helping someone or doing the ‘right’ thing. The second stems from the first. Because we are selfish we know that others are selfish. This creates an insatiable fear of others. We need to protect our selves from others. We do this by trying to gain power -be it land, money, position- to buffer ourselves from others. This fear of others creates an unquenchable need for power. Therefore there will always be a need for dominance and conflict with people.

AA

Alcoholics anonymous have helped of millions of people around the world many kinds of addictions. It is based on a 12 step program. The first three steps state that: 1) I have a problem 2) I am the problem 3) I must give up everything I know and give over my problem to a higher power.

Linguistics

Linguists believe that language is what separates us from all the other creatures in this planet. Some even believe that of we did not have language we could not think. We would have no concept of structure, no mechanism to order and sort our emotions and no way to consider past and future. Revolutionary linguist and American Foreign policy commentator, Noam Chomsky believes that all languages of the world are basically the same; there is very little difference in the structure of language. They are based on a code of nouns, verbs, tenses etc.

Conclusion

Language has a structure and it is not objective. It is a structure of dominance and competition. When an object is labeled within a language it has become defined and limited. The name of the object excludes all other objects. It subjectifies the object. It limits the object. It has power of the object. Theology provides a good example for this. Because the concept of God is so hard to pin down, words are used to describe God and God’s characteristics. Often these words over take what the author was attempting to communicate and become more important that the object itself. Definitions of God become more than God and at the same time limit concepts of God.


Like an alcoholic, this world is addicted. It is addicted to consumption and consumerism. We must understand that it is our fault and we can’t fix it by using the systems we have now. They don’t work. We need to forget everything we know and think we know. Hobbes’s theory on the state of man still holds on to one thing, our system of communication, our language process. Perhaps if there was a new form of communication, which would in turn, create a new way of thinking and new types of relationships- Then the initial premise that mankind is selfish and fearful could be denied.

Relationships not based upon exclusivisim and power, but on something else, something that won’t destroy each other and our world. I have no idea what the new structure would look like or how it would work. But it could be a start.

10:51 pm | |

8.2.06 

CLIMBING AN ENDLESS LADDER


You start of with the premise that you want to somehow make a difference in this world. You know there is something seriously wrong and you want to fix it.

Practicality tells you that in order to do something you need to change the system from the inside. Work in an industry that you can really make a difference. Here is how it will probably work out:

-Get an education

-Get some work experience in the area that you are heading in

-Buy a suit

-Write a professional CV.

-Say the right things at the interview

-Get given an entry level position

-Work your way up slowly, expecting the next position to give you more freedom and a chance to express yourself. It doesn’t. just more responsibility and complications.

-Become a manager with people under you, who you need to look after, and a board above you who you need to keep happy.

-Have annual holidays and travel to watered down cultural extravaganzas.

-Move to different companies doing basically the same thing because you are type cast and too old with two many responsibilities to do any more training.

-Have kids and pay for all their expenses.

-Retire.

-Loose your loved one.

-Loose control of your bowels.

-Loose your mind.

-Die.


I am training to be a journalist. Not because I think it is a great career choice, but because I think it will help me get closer to making a difference in this world. It won’t. If I continue like this I will end up living the list above. There is a hegemonic ideology in this society that we make a difference by plugging into the system and then finding a little space and working it out from there. It does not work like that. The idea of ‘Paying your dues’ before you make a change is flawed.

The people that have really chiseled a place for themselves in history and aided
Humanity, are people who have not tried to climb a ladder and ease themselves in. They have seen a need and a gap and done something about it, regardless of experience, education and their place in the queue. They have offended because they have worked outside of the system. They have refused to wear a suit; they have rejected pretentious words and societal expectations. Role models such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Nelsen Mandela should inspire us not only because they helped the helpless but because they defied the system and were not respecters of position.

Mother Teresa began her work by picking a sick, homeless man up from the streets of Calcutta taking him up to her room and taking care of him when a society stated that you cannot touch those who are ‘unclean’. There was no process; there was no getting comfortable and in the right position before being able to help. There was a need and a desire. That was it. If we are not doing it now, we will never do it.

4:46 pm | |

2.2.06 

JESUS A COMMY?

Communism has become a dirty word because of American propaganda and unappealing communist regimes around the world. We must remember that these parties do not represent communism, they are perceptions. There is a considerable variety of views among self-identified communists.

Communism refers to a conjectured future classless, stateless social organization based upon common ownership of the means of production. From each according to their ability to each according to their need. As much distaste there is for this ideology of community living and sharing, It appeals to me a lot. And I dare say it appealed to Jesus and the Apostles. wikipedia.org states:

“The notion of communism has a long history in Western thought, long predating Marx and Engels. Already in ancient Greece the idea of communism was connected to a myth about the "golden age" of humanity, when society lived in full harmony, before private property developed. Some have argued that Plato's The Republic and works by other ancient political theorists advocated communism in the form of communal living, and that various early Christian sects (and in particular the early Church, as recorded in Acts of the Apostles, and indigenous tribes in the pre-Columbian Americas practiced communism in the form of communal living and common ownership Other attempts to establish communistic societies were made by the Essenes and by the Judean desert sect.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#Early_Communism)

What I find partiqularly interesting about this is that the Essenes are regarded as pioneer communists. This is enlightening becsue there is more evidience and discussion with theologists, archelogists and historians that Jesus was an Essene.

According to Josephus, the historian, they had customs and observances such as collective ownership, elected a leader to attend to the interests of them all whose orders they obeyed, were forbidden from swearing oaths and sacrificing animals, controlled their temper and served as channels of peace, had no slaves but served each other and, as a result of communal ownership, did not engage in trading. Both Josephus and Philo have lengthy accounts of their communal meetings, meals and religious celebrations. From what has been deduced, the food of the Essenes was not allowed to be altered (by being cooked, for instance); and they may have been strict vegetarians, eating mostly bread, wild roots and fruits. After a total of three years probation, newly joining members would take an oath that included the commitment to practise piety towards the Deity and righteousness towards humanity, to maintain a pure life-style, to abstain from criminal and immoral activities, to transmit their rules uncorrupted and to preserve the books of the Essenes and the names of the Angels. Their theology included belief in the immortality of the soul and that they would receive their souls back after death.

According to Martin A. Larson, the now misunderstood Essenes were Jewish Pythagoreans who lived as monks. As vegetarians, celibates, and self-reliant communists, they preached a coming war with the Sons of Darkness. As the Sons of Light, this reflected a separate influence from Zoroastrianism via their parent ideology of Pythagoreanism. John the Baptist is widely regarded to be a prime example of an Essene who had left the communal life, and it is thought they aspired to emulate their own founding Teacher of Righteousness who was probably crucified. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes)

***The pic is of the ancient home of the Essenes

4:09 pm | |