Monday, July 26, 2021

THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES- BASIC VERSION

THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES-BASIC VERSION

This is a purely humanistic version of a post in my blog johnnysonneborn.blogspot.com, “The Most Important Principles.”


[For a full version for students of Unificationism, a stripped-down version of that, or other posts, click “Archive” on the right panel, then select a year, and a list of posts will appear.]

 

Now I am going to write about this text: You may, if you so wish, skip directly to the text by finding”1’

[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.     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 (degree of subjective evaluation).

 

       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. 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 purposes, 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 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.]

   8.1.  At the least in a humanistic perspective, there is an exception to the second part of this principle, which will be shown in Part II.

 


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.

 

 

 

(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. 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. Then 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 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 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.
[J1] 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 rhat 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.  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.

        

10.3.1.2.  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.)

 

 

   10.4  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 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.

 

For the impulse to love to become loving, it must stimulate an emotion. 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

 

1.1.  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 an 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.

 


 [J1]

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