Now I am going to write about this
text: You may, if you so wish, skip directly to the text by finding”1’
This is a stripped version of a post in my blog
johnnysonneborn.blogspot.com, “The Most Important Principles.”
[I will soon be posting several recently-written short
pieces.]
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THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES
The text is written from a humanist perspective so that it could be used
in all cultures, with a presenter tweaking according to the culture.
Part 1 begins with an assumption. On the foundation of the assumption, general
principles are given, putatively elucidating how the human mind thinks.
Part 2 will set forth principles relevant to our
common life riddled with pain.
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PART 1
ASSUMPTION
1.
1. Every human being
has the fundamental irrepressible impulse to give love to the greatest scope
imagined. (This may be called “heart”.)
1.1.
Unlike other species, a human being’s imagination becomes
unlimited upon the person reaching adolescence.
HUMAN MATURATION
2. Each human
develops toward spiritual and physical maturity by the force inherent in the creation
principle. This has also been called “innate intelligence”. Within the
creation principle, there are sub-principles, as follows.
3. Development
occurs through three stages: forming, growing, and completing.
Jesus teaches an explication of these in Mark 4:26b-29.
3,1. Emotional growth occurs when love is given
and received, enabling giving of love to a greater social scope, longer
duration, and/or depth.
3.1.1 Action, above, is
intended to benefit its recipient. Since the recipient’s fundamental impulse is
to give love, it follows that the loving action should enable the recipient to
love more greatly.
.
RELATIONSHIPS AND NETWORK
4. The existence of any entity can be described as one
or more four position foundations, which are networks of subject-object
relationships.
5. A subject-object relationship
exists in a project and is established/formed as follows: a would-be subject
partner advertises as such in a new project; another entity declares interest
in becoming an object partner and gives self-information, thus standing
symbolically in the object position; the subject partner expresses a desire for
the other to be a substantial object partner and states the processes and rules
for the project; the other expresses the desire to join the project as described.
Subject-object projects exist between human beings and within a human being,
and we may describe such interrelationships in the microworld.
5 .1. An
object partner is not passive. The partner offers information and may offer
suggestions. As offerer, the partner is in the subject position. Giving and
responding, alternation of position, is continuous. Yet, the subject partner ultimately determines
action, having` taken responsibility for the project and with a greater
awareness of the greater project within which the project is itself a
sub-project.
5.2.
There are types of subject-object partnerships. In one type, the subject
partner has delegated to the object partner responsibility for part of the
project (with the object partner thus poised to stand as the subject in a
smaller project). The subject partner is then bound to unite with and support
whatever the object partner says or does.
5.2.1 In another type, functioning according to
the principle of dual purpose, the subject-partner is designated to pursue
investment toward widening or deepening the project’s impact (purpose/interest of the
whole); the object-partner, being responsible for maintaining the project and
developing it (purpose/interest of the Individual), may warn the investing
partner that the risk involved in that investing appears intolerable, yet
cannot override it I think that the relationships in this horizontal form
are ultimately ones of increase and decrease, with those in the
other form ultimately ones of internal and external.
6. At least, when a project exists as a
sub-project, it may be located in a diamond figure quadruple base, as follows.
At the diamond’s apex stands the greater project; the narrower project’s
subject partner and object partner stand at the diamond’s sides; the fact of their
union fills the remaining point. With this, the occupant of any point may be
seen in relation to that of any of the other three points.
6.1
When a project is aiming for a specific effect, the purpose of the
effect, which is the project, stands at the apex of a temporary quadruple base,
with the result at the bottom: then the subject partner or object partner takes
the project into consideration when choosing actions. When projects, described
as quadruple bases, exist in a hierarchy of ever greater projects, activity
exists in a spiral.
7. In projects of persons (having
minds) a subject partner is always expressing love, and an object partner
returning beauty.
ETHICS
8. The fundamental ethical
principle guiding thinking beings is that of dual interests: an action chosen toward fulfilling an
interest of the self (object) should be taken only if it is hoped that this
will enable the person better to contribute towards the interest of the whole
project, represented by the subject, who
proposed it, while actions taken for the fulfillment of the interest of
the whole should always respect the dignity of individuals affected by it and
facilitate the attainment of their self-interests. [This duality may be the
creation principle itself: building upon an existing foundation – developing
while maintaining a foundation.]
9. God’s three blessings to each human
being, told in Judaism’s creation myth, embody complexification and indicate
that a perfectly mature human being takes the subject position toward any
entity in the natural world or to any angel.
THE IDEAL
CONCLUSION. We can
imagine a reality in which all persons live/act according to these principles –
a world of lovingness and joyfulness. However, reality as we experience it is
one of sorrow as well as happiness and can be analyzed as featuring pain,
Impatience, fear, anger, and conflict.
PART 2
I will begin with a
suggested origination of our common pain-filled reality. The reader interested
only in the principles derived from this reality can search for ”10” for the
principles.
The origin of painful reality.
It is not
unreasonable to think that the ancestors of all human beings living even before
the arrival of civilization (other ancestral lines having died out) were twins,
having evolved from a previous species in an opportune environment “Garden of Eden” During childhood the boy and girl separated
from the maternal species and formed a project whose goal was the full
maturation of each in a new species. They exchanged love and beauty, helped
each other, and exercised their creativity in exploring the environment. As
they physically matured, they were able to give love to each other at
increasing depths, and so were growing spiritually/emotionally as well. The
girl, intuitively preparing for motherhood, was more protective of foundations they had developed. The boy,
intuitively preparing for developing the foundations, was more adventuresome.
On a fateful day in their adolescence, the girl, alone, thought of an
activity that seemed as if it would be pleasurable. She considered it
positively and soon began engaging in it. Soon her innate intelligence,
manifesting in her conscience, impelled her to pause and examine it in relation
to the project, the interest of the whole. There were two reasons for this:
according to the creation principle, it was one of the kind of activities that
were meant to be shared; it was meant to be performed when she had become more
mature emotionally and able to imagine the thoughts and feelings of her twin.
This caused her to reflect; however, at that age of growth, her intellect was
not sufficiently developed to be sure if this self-interest activity was
appropriate for the project. Therefore, the girl, immature in intellect and not get
stable emotionally and already beginning to feel love for the activity,
abandoned her faith in the internal guidance and its warning, and tentatively
and then greedily continued in the activity. Eventually, her love for the
activity overrode the power of her innate intelligence, and she became unable
to stop until exhausted.
Now alone emotionally as well as physically, the girl felt dread. Having
abandoned the project she shared with her twin, feeling pain from her
conscience and, being alone and separated from any interest of the whole, she
also felt fear.
As the girl now had come to know clearly, what she had only dimly sensed –
the outcome of the activity – she proposed to the boy sharing the activity. in
an attempt to reenter their project, but what would be, in fact, a new project,
in which she would stand as the subject partner. He, seeing her in the confused
state and having abandoned their project, was weakened and, after not so much
hesitation that was prompted by his principled force and conscience, readily
entered into a reciprocal relationship and then formed a common base with
her The ensuing giving and receiving
action then propelled them into sexual intercourse.
Their new project was not the maturation of each, but the satisfaction of
each centered on each one’s selfish desire.
The boy and girl, each refusing to accept responsibility for
their selfish actions, could not relate in full harmony. When they finally did
beget children, their internal confusion and their disharmony affected even
their reproductive process as well as the nature of their parenting.
Human beings, conceived
and growing up in such circumstances, descendants of the couple whose choice to
follow the selfish will overrode the force inherent in the creation
principle, having inherited dread, guilt, and fear, have been continuingly
tempted to act in violation of the principle of dual interests, even
though many display altruistic behavior as early as the second year of
life.
RESPONSIBILITY
10. in our painful reality, the
innately urged responsibility of each of us to grow to emotional and physical
maturity is difficult, if not impossible to fulfill, for the following reasons.
10.1. In early childhood, each of us acquires from
our caretaker(s) the inclination to overvalue the purpose of the self, and so
shy from acting towards the whole interest: this inclination exists along with
the natural inclination for altruistic behavior.
10.2. Each of us exists as an object partner in
one or more projects. We entered a project at the invitation of the would-be
subject partner, who assured us that developmental action would also benefit
us, either immediately or in due time, In accordance with the principle of dual
interests. Each of us also exists with
unnatural fearfulness, also acquired from the caretaker. This is not a natural
fear appropriate to our being a human, such as the fear of a newborn upon
feeling the strength of the force of gravity and sensing distance from a solid,
nor instructed or experienced fear such as of touching something too hot.
Accordingly, we experience fear when developmental action is about to be
undertaken, fear that we will be depleted without due compensation. In the normal development of a project, this
fear is overcome by our well-grounded faith in the subject partner. However,
when, impelled by our fundamental impulse to give love more greatly, action is
contemplated to give love to another person stimulating the receiver to pass on
the love, fear is heightened. Love offered to another is an investment
entailing risk. If our offer is received, we and the receiver unite as an
expanded project more able also to benefit ourselves. However, we know that the
receiver may (for reasons that I will soon mention) refuse to, in turn, love
more greatly, so that unity will not occur, and we are left with depletion of
our resources. Overcoming our fearfulness is faith in the project's plan,
ultimately in the subject partner, and belief that the subject partner
participates in projects ultimately stemming from person{s} of solid
goodness. This means that we require courage to have faith in our subject
partner, and, If the fear is too great, we are strongly tempted to act instead
for our own benefit, either to hoard resources or to aggressively seek
acquisition, in both cases fearing future insufficiency – exercising our
freedom to leave the project and embark on our own. It is because we know our
own temptability that we know that the intended receiver of our offer of love
will be tempted to refuse it and may succumb.
10.3. Further, if our offer of love is rejected,
our will to love is strengthened, but there has been no return of beauty
encouraging giving to a greater scope. Instead, of feeling joy, we, deprived of
the object of love, will feel sorrow, the intensity depending upon the depth of
our lovingness.
10.3.1. Fortunately, running beneath a potential
rejecter’s inclination to overvalue an object of self interest and his or her
fearfulness is his or her fundamental impulse to love more greatly. Considering
this should lessen our own fearfulness, and we may gratefully appreciate it.
10.3.2. There seems to be an exception to the second
part of the principle of dual interests. The subject may engage in an activity
that cannot guarantee interests of the object: for instance, enrolling in the
Armed Forces, with the possibility of untimely death.
10.3.2.2. Given the above possibility, it might be best
simply to practice self-denial – refraining from calculating possible results
of our subject’s proposed initiatives – within an implicit affirmation of our subject’s
goodwill and caring. (In the Hebrew Scriptures, Abram’s response to his god
exemplifies this.)
10.3.3. (In some religions, interests of the self are
not only humanistic, limited by the onset of the death of the body, but also
spiritual to continue in the spiritual self’s existence in the spiritual realm.
This may be used to justify actions for the whole that may likely lead to
tragic suffering of others.)
10.4.
An additional cause of not acting upon a desire to further the interests
of the whole is uncontrolled addiction. Common addictions include addiction to the effect of
alcoholic beverages, of narcotics, and of satisfaction of sexual desire. In
general, while any pleasurable activity may be intrinsically good, one should
avoid overindulging in any, lest strong attachment to the expected pleasure
make it difficult to act for the purpose of the whole. We may consider fearful
attachment to a food source, to the well-being of one’s family excluding
activity for the sake of the community, of one’s community excluding the sake
of the nation, and one’s nation excluding the sake of the world also to be
forms of addiction.
10.4,1. Ritual sacrifice is a method for harnessing
addiction. Symbolically or actually, the next object or action to which we are
attached is placed where we cannot access it. Then, when contemplating any such
object or action, we remember that we had sacrificed the next one, putting it
away, and so are extremely reluctant to indulge. The more valuable the object or activity, the
more the sacrifice is effective. The
purpose of harnessing addiction is that individual-interest attachment to the
object or action is hindering action for the whole interest The sufficiently costly sacrifice,
therefore, is offered to the whole interest, the project. While the addiction remains, it is now as if
it had never been. Thus, the obstruction which we, as the object partner with
uncontrolled addiction, had presented to our subject partner has been removed,
and our subject partner may welcome us, as the object partner with controlled
addiction, back into the project. (In Unificationism, such a process is called
in English, misguidedly, Restoration through Indemnity.) In
Alcoholics Anonymous, the “higher power” to which desirable alcoholic beverages
are sacrificed actuaily is the interest of the whole, namely, to get on with
life.
10.4.2. Internally, if we are addicted to some thought,
such as a fantasy, or to some desire (e.g., for greater social power), putting
it aside may require attaching a painful action to it.
10.4.3.
Any powerful selfish desire may become addictive.
This is notably, even universally, true
of selfish sexual desire. Sexual
desire always arises from the impulse to give love to the greatest scope
imagined. We may imagine a future transformed reality with love and happiness. We
may even imagine that there is something greater, transcending what we can
imagine, beckoning us on. Then, how can sexual love best contribute to the
coming of such a reality? This would be in the production of an heir as a step
in the scenario leading to an ideal global civilization, which is the greatest
interest of the whole. Therefore, a sexual desire not accompanied by the
intention of such production is inherently selfish and, being powerful, becomes
addictive.
10. 4.3.1.
There is a two-fold reason why appropriate, unselfish desire is so
difficult to maintain. Unlike primates, such as the chimpanzees who can become
pregnant only several years apart, human beings can become pregnant every 10 or
11 months; upon becoming pregnant and delivering a baby, a human female must
devote several years to rearing the child, and for this she will not only
optimally have the support of her mate, but also have attained emotional
maturity. Thus, there is a multi-year gap between the age of acquiring the
physiological ability to reproduce, along with its appropriately developing
hormones, and the age for optimal reproduction. To deny for such a long period
the natural urge to reproduce, which would lead to a certain happiness, the
interest of the self, requires faith in a greater benefit in a far future, the
interest of the whole. To sustain such faith requires the utmost courage.
10.5.
Suppose we give in to the temptation just to not seek to love more
greatly, fearing possible or even probable pain, but stay in our comfort zone?
To do so would be to imprison within our mind the impulse to give true love.
All our actions would be alienated from our deepest nature. Rather, to continue
seeking opportunity to give greater love will give us a new sense of
freedom.
10.5.1. Even this heroic determination,
however, would not itself establish the internal freedom that we seek. The love
that we give must be pure.
10.5.2. For the impulse to result in giving love, it
must become an emotion for loving. The emotion, guided by the operation of the
intellect, becomes the will to act in a specific way; then active love will
occur if a person has sufficient power. All too readily, however, the impulse
picks up not just the emotion of loving, but one or more other emotions seeking
expression. It may pick up the desire to hurt someone in order to release
stored up feelings of resentment and revenge; in such a case, a kiss may be a bite
in disguise. The impulse to love may pick up the desire to be hurt as
punishment for actions considered guilty. It may take up sexual desire
inappropriate to the intended object of love. It may be affected or diverted by
an irrational desire-- a desire intellectually known to be impossible of
satisfaction--, which may result from extreme dissatisfaction or may be imbibed
from a parent. To be internally free, we must forgive any who have caused us
pain and forgive ourselves. In the case of irrational desire we will need to
find a cure in a therapy.
SOCIETY
11. A project of any societal scope
(e.g., marriage, a plan to share enjoyable activity, a plan to benefit the
neighborhood) purports that – as in every project –actions for the whole
interest will result in benefits for the actor to some extent, and is an
investment, with risk.
1.1.1. The family has been the basic unit of any
society. Societal relationships at any
level may be seen as family relationships writ large.
1.1.1.2. It is in the family that one learns loving,
disrespecting, hating, and standards for behavior.
1.1.2. The expansion of a society, even one
that was not yet civilized, but definitely a civilized society that is able to
continue to thrive, has usually been dependent upon the example of a person
demonstrating the viability of a greater societal investment, a greater
sacrifice involving a new technology – often a series of such persons. If the
example is remembered and societally practiced, and it becomes a tradition,
then, sooner or later, it is likely that a political entity based upon the
tradition will be established. The
exemplary person has had greater faith; and the greater his or her nobleness,
the sooner the societal practice will occur. (In Unificationism’s
interpretation of Genesis 4, the roles of the brothers – presumably, each with
their families and living with their parents – are seen as elder and younger,
and this is a true typology in a patriarchal culture in
which the elder participates comfortably in the father’s possessions, while
the younger, with nothing to lose, is more likely to innovate. Nevertheless,
what the younger is doing in the story is to sacrifice the availability of the
animals as food before their maturity, while the elder sacrifices the
availability only of immature plants. Attachment is stronger to that which is
more valuable.)
[ A history of such expansion may be found implicit in the Hebrew
Scriptures culminating in the story of Solomon’s kingdom, a cautionary tale,
written by persons well after the destruction of the kingdom, it shows the
perils of deviating from the tradition.
Accepted history shows attempts to revive the tradition and move forward
with it. The Gospels of the Christian tradition may be seen to trace ultimately
unsuccessful attempts to establish a political entity enshrining an example and
the tradition that ensues from it.]
ACTION FOR SOCIETY
12. To act toward the
development of a society, or toward a reformation/transformation
of a society, we may either be the innovative person or seek and find and
assist one.
13. Societies, however, have needed
not only development but also purification, which should, or perhaps must,
precede the development. The purification that a society needs is the purging
of injustice.
14. Therefore, any of us who belong
to an oppressor class have the additional responsibility to seek to end the
oppression in which we are complicit, not only by repenting for it, not only in
order to cleanse our feelings of guilt, but also to facilitate opportunity for
forgiveness among the oppressed. The
facilitating actions are called reparations.
REPARATION
15. Any person can forgive another who hurt him or her, and this cleanses
the feelings of hurt and resentment, and also works towards harmony. However,
simple forgiveness is not benevolent: the offender is left with feelings of
guilt. Towards the removal of these, actions by the offender to repair historic
and current pain are called for. Yet, historic and current pain will likely be
too great to be fully repaired by the offender’s actions. If this is the case, what
may move the heart of the offended is for the offender to offer reparations to
the point of barely tolerable cost. This may also be accepted by the offender’s
conscience. Then, a fully harmonious relationship between the two can be
established.
16. Forgiveness with recognition of
painful reparations may establish emotional harmony – reconciliation if the
parties had been in harmony before the offense –; however, the social situation
may be one in which the offender can continue to impose upon the offended.
Therefore, the offending person or class – acting towards the purpose of the
whole, the full cooperation in a project for the facilitation of greater loving
– should set reparations and/or other means towards the offended’s full
external freedom and for equality, for only then can the internal freedom of
each – the freedom to give pure love in the realistic expectation that it will
be received-- be attained. Only then will there be peace, substantial harmony,
and full happiness.
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