oneofshibumi

I have a hypothesis that answers the question: What can rational people do to reverse the tide of in-fighting of the People of different political persuasions and work politically toward a more rational/critical, sane United States? I believe the level of discourse in the United States has been influenced to produce a hostile environment to speak our ideas. The outcome a mesmerized, distract populace, allowing one group to take political control of the United States and the World.

I would like readers to post their opinion. All critiques are welcomed. I will only be available to answer posts 2 or 3 times a week.
The document length: 12 pages.

Summary: The Elites, throughout history have controlled the People through an alienating language. History has shown, societies that use the language of logic and reason to resolve their problems and satisfy their needs, fair better than societies that do not. The development of the social sciences occurred slower than with the physical sciences. The physical sciences took off at the start of the last century and the social sciences blossomed until the 1960s. Then, an Elite private group in the 1970s, observing the American society growing into a participatory Democracy, decided to take control of humanity transferring the power from the nation-state to the corporations. The American Corporate-Oligarchy transfers power and money from the Government (The People) to itself. The Corporate-Oligarchy facilitates these transfers by flooding the public with language that diminishes critical-thinking and communication skills. Two tools provided by the social sciences that alleviate the symptoms of the Corporate-alienation. The two social science tools allows practitioners to reduce the alienating poison from themselves, others, and communicate other social science tools like the Chomsky�s filtering system, Paul and Elder�s Critical Thinking, Fergusen�s Investment theory and Rosenberg�s Non-Violent Communication.


1) HOW DID THE ANCIENT-ELITE TAKE CONTROL OF SOCIETY AT THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION?
I believe the Elite discovered or naturally developed a certain type of language of domination. The language of the Temple-State, the Greeks called it sophism and in the present I have heard it called Bible-talk, but this particular language produces alienation between among the people. Practice makes perfect. The Temple-State language was refined over five thousands years and created a certain social structured based on domination. The Temple-State was prevalent in Europe during the middle ages, reaching its scientific zenith with Bacon. Slowly the language of reason and logic (social sciences and physical science) began to replace Bible-talk and society began to view the universe and the world differently. Humanity passed from childhood to adolescences with discovery of the scientific method. The Temple-State had to share power with the Royal-elite, later known as the nation-state. Over the last 500 years, religion has been losing its power on humanity. The populations U.S. and Canada have become more humanistic in the last century. I believe the developments in the Social Sciences during the 60s assisted the social revolution of the same period. It is my belief the 60s signal beginning of humanity�s ascension to adulthood. The social revolution occurred in Japan, Europe and in many other countries. The People wanted to take control of their lives. The People of the world no longer wanted domination by preachers, dictators or politicians (the Elite). After 5,000-years, humanity no longer needed the Elite to tell them how to manager their affairs, or tell them how to organize themselves or what to think. The concept of People Power developed, resulting in the People voicing their own opinions that differed from the Corporate-Elite. The People wanted to control their destiny, similar to the son who wants to leave home, because he has reached the age of independence.

2) HOW DID THE CORPORATE-OLIGARCHY COME TO POWER?
David Rockefeller realized that his Elite and him would have to develop new modern social tools to fix (the meaning you use with dogs) humanities natural desire for freedom. Rockefeller formed an association of the richest corporations from the United States, Europe and Japan called the Trilateral Commission. The association�s mission was to coordinate corporations, world wide and convince all of humanity that Corporations should control the world, not nation-states, and definitely NOT the People of the United States. The problem the association had was how to slow, stunt, or reverse humanity�s development toward freedom. The Corporations were fearful of the Participatory Politics that materialized in the 60s and those disobedient resource-rich, post-colonies (oil). And perhaps he recalled Mussolini.

A) Mussolini�s ON THE CORPORATE STATE was a resolution drafted by the Head of the Italian Government and read by him on November 13th 1933, before the Assembly of the National Council of Corporations, on the eve of his important speech. �The National council of Corporations: �defines Corporations as the instrument which, under the aegis of the State, carries out the complete organic and totalitarian regulation of production with a view to the expansion of the wealth, political power and well-being of the Italian people;.� (The Corporate State by Benito Mussolini; Valecchi Publishing; copyright 1938 [SC]; p. 7.) Mussolini believed that if a society were structured to benefit corporations and organized along the lines of power distribution within a corporation, the wealth would �trickle down� and everyone would live happily ever after. Sounds similar to the Reagan-Bush and now Bush economical, military and social agenda.

B) �The vulnerability of democratic government in the United States (thus) comes not primarily from external threats, though such threats are real, nor from internal subversion from the left or the right, although both possibilities could exist, but rather from the internal dynamics of democracy itself in a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society.�
The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (New York University Press, 1975).

I feel apprehensive when I read about an organization composed of the richest and most powerful corporations in Europe, Japan and the U.S. forming a private club. I feel frightened by an powerful organization determines that the greatest threat to (Corporations control over) America is �the internal dynamics of democracy itself in a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society.�

C) �The public and leaders of most countries continue to live in a mental universe which no longer exists�a world of separate nations�and have great difficulties thinking in terms of global perspectives and interdependence.�

Quote C, in my opinion, shows the Trilateral Commission understood the eventual implications of social sciences in history, mythology, sociology, ethnicity and other post-structural studies on the Corporate-Elite control of the people. The Elite understood what the Popes, Kings at the end understood, people power or participatory politics or true Democracy results in an population mature enough to handle their own affairs without the elite.

D) �The liberal premise of a separation between the political and economic realm is obsolete: issues related to economics are at the heart of modern politics.�
Toward a Renovated International System
(Trilateral Task Force Report: 1977)

I believe quote D indicates the Trilateral Commission intention to form a Corporate-Oligarchy to hijack the Government and unite with it, forming a private government. Only corporate players need apply.

D) �David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men (Trilateral Commission) who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital. Rockefeller was born to it, and he has made the most of it. But what some critics see as a vast international conspiracy, he considers a circumstance of life and just another day�s work.
Bill Moyers: The World of David Rockefeller
Bill Moyers� Journal, 7 February, 1980 WNET/Thirteen, 356 West 58th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019

3) HOW WOULD THE CORPORATE-OLIGARCHY TAKE CONTROL OF AMERICA?
Take control of the government and create electorate base among the Dominant group. Create a core of obedient followers to keep the rest of the People in line. Change the law to reflect and support Corporate-Strategies: deregulation, health-care, education, unions, corporate media, privatize, NAFTA, etc. Basically,

A) Reagan comes to power in 1980, after Carter lost the election after the fail rescued attempt of the Iran embassy hostages. The fanatical �terrorist� hand over the hostages the day Reagan, becomes president, and without asking. Iran-Contra shows how the government agents (Oliver North) and foreign drug dealers would bring Cocaine into the U.S. to make cash for Nicaragua and Iran. Iran needed American parts for their American planes. One outcome of this new Corporate-Oligarchy policy was Blacks could be demonized. Literally tons of crack cocaine came into Los Angeles. A fascist nation-state usually has the appearance of a police-state.

Christianity fundamentalism declined for two decades in American society, the natural result of living in a society that used the radio and later T.V. to educate, present a variety of views. Then, starting in the 80s, the Corporate-Oligarchy funded radical religious groups (Falwell, Baker, Saddam, and Bin Laden, etc.) so �religious fundamentalists (could) consolidate and expand their power,� under the planning and control of Corporate-Oligarchy. The purchase of radio and TV stations was financed and strategically controlled by certain corporations.
http://www.prospect.org/print/V9/40/paget-k.html

B) In 1992, I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal about theories of American Electorate-Outcome Predictions. Clinton was predicted to lose the 1992 election. He won and only one theory predicted correctly the victory.

The traditional theory of American electorate-outcome (retrospective-voting or kick the rascals-out) stated the electorate voted for the candidate who was position closest to the mathematically mean of all the voters. In other words, the candidate who represents the middle of all the issues important to the people should win the election. In the 1980s, to explain why the Republican Party were winning elections, even though they were passing legislation economically detrimental to their constituents, the press informed Americans of a new theory of electorate-outcome, �rational choice,� by Richard McKelvey and Peter Ordeshook, reached essentially the same conclusion by a somewhat different route. By relying on easily available �cues,� they argue, voters can learn all they need to know to enforce majority (median) control (McKelvey and Ordeshook, 1986).

Investment theory predicted voter outcome more accurately than the rational choice theory or the retrospective theory. The Wall Street Journal, which informed readers that �the 1992 election proves that the investment theory of political parties is correct,� actually meant American Presidents were chosen by the Corporate-Oligarchy, not the will of The People. (Wall Street Journal, 1992).

Short version of Fergusen�s Theory:
Political parties dominated by large investors (Corporations) trying to assemble the votes they need by making very limited appeals to particular segments of the potential electorate (the People). If it pays some other bloc of major investors (other Corporations) to advertise and mobilize, these appeals can be vigorously contested, but�on all issues affecting the vital interests that major investors have in common, no party competition will take place. Instead, all that will occur will be a proliferation of marginal appeals to voters�and if all major investors happen to share an interest in ignoring issues vital to the electorate, such as social welfare, hours of work, or collective bargaining, so much the worse for the electorate. Unless significant portions of the electorate are prepared to try to become major investors in their own right, through a substantial expenditure of time and (limited) income, there is nothing any group of voters can do to offset this collective investor dominance. (chapter 1, p. 28)
Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems, by Thomas Fergusen. (1995). The University of Chicago Press.

Bottom-line, Corporations control who will be selected from the pool of Corporation-party candidates. Candidates receive Corporate-Resource if they agree to push forth domestic and foreign policy favorable to Corporate-interest.


4) How does the Corporate-Media differ from the Alternative Media?
We know all know the concept of democracy, a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the means of information are open and free. The Corporate-Oligarchy has a different concept of democracy. The Corporate-oligarchy concept of democracy is that the public must be barred from managing their own affairs and the means of information must be kept narrowly and strictly controlled.

The Corporations use what Chomsky calls a filtering system to remove unfavorable Corporate-Information (news) and almost always delivers the Corporation-Oligarchy perspective. Reality becomes distorted for the average American. The common good has become Corporate-Oligarchy�s wish list. The news arrives to the viewing public through a Corporate-perspective, distorting the viewers� reality.
I explained the filtering system (Ideological Management) last year on this website:
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...cal+Management

5) What does the Corporate-alienating messages sound like?

The Corporate-Media, through mass-suggestion, produce alienating messages bombard the American People to reduce critical thinking by using a language that produces alienation and reduces emotional awareness within the population. The Corporate-Media use of moralistic judgments, bias comparisons, denial of responsibility, and domination speech-acts produces emotional numbness and needs confusion. The rise of Reason and Logic required the creation of rules of critical thinking and debate. These rules included a high level of respect among the debaters. The Church attacked the new reality created by the new scientific language, with a Hellfire passion. The Aristocrats learned reason and logic. Physical Science had competed against alienation language of the Church. White�s �A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.� A good historical source:
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/whitewtc.html

Definitions:
MORALISTIC JUDGMENTS
A) Moralistic judgments imply wrongness or badness on the part of people who don�t act in harmony with our values. Such judgments are reflected in language such as, �The problem with you is that you�re too selfish.� �She�s lazy.� �Homosexuals are destroying family values,� Anita Bryant. �It�s inappropriate.� Blame, insults, put-downs, labels, criticism, comparisons, and diagnoses are all forms of judgment.

It is important here not to confuse VALUE JUDGMENTS and MORALISTIC JUDGMENTS All of us make value judgments as to the qualities we value in life; for example, we might value honesty, freedom, or peace. Value judgments reflect our beliefs of how life can best be served. We make MORALISTIC JUDGMENTS of people and behaviors that fail to support our value judgments, e.g. �Violence is bad. People who kill others are evil.� Had we been raised speaking a language that facilitated the expression of critical thinking, we would have learned to articulate our needs and values directly, rather than to insinuate wrongness when they have not been met. For example, instead, �I value the resolution of human conflicts through other means.�

The relationship between language and violence is the subject of psychology professor O.J. Harvey�s research at the University of Colorado. He took random samples of pieces of literature from many countries over the world and tabulated the frequency of words that classified and judge people. His study shows a high correlation between the frequent use of such worlds and incidences of violence. It does not surprise me to hear that there is considerably less violence in cultures where people think in terms of human needs than in cultures where people label one another as �good� or �bad� and believe that the �bad� ones deserve to be punished. In 75 percent of the television programs shown during hours when American children are most likely to be watching, the hero either kills people or beats them up. This violence typically constitutes the �climax� of the show. Viewers, having been taught that bad guys deserve to be punished, take pleasure in watching this violence. Remember Rome and the Christians?


B) MAKING COMPARISONS
Another form of judgments is the use comparisons. In his book, How to Make Yourself Miserable, Dan Greenberg demonstrates through humor the insidious power that comparative thinking can exert over us. He suggests that if readers have sincere desire to make life miserable for themselves, they might learn to compare themselves to other people. For those unfamiliar with this practice, he provides a few exercises. The first one displays full-length pictures of a man and a woman who embody ideal physical beauty by contemporary media standards. Readers are instructed to take their own body measurements compare them to those superimposed on the picture of the attractive specimens, and dwell on the differences.

C) DENIAL OF RESPONSIBILITY
Another kind of alienating communication is the denial of responsibility. Alienating communication clouds our awareness that we are each responsible for our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. The use of the common expression �have to� as in �There are some things you have to do, whether you like it or not� illustrates how personal responsibility for our actions is obscured in such speech. The phrase �makes one feel� as in �You make me feel guilty� is another example of how language facilitates the denial of personal responsibility for our own feelings and thoughts.

In her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, which documents the war crimes trial of Nazi officer Adolph Eichmann, Hannah Arendt quotes Eichmann saying that he and his fellow officers had their own name for the responsibility-denying language they used. They called it �Amtssprache,� loosely translated into English as why they took a certain action, the response might be, �I had to.� If asked why they �had to,� the answer would be, �Superiors� orders.� �Company policy.� �It was the law.�

D) DOMINATION SPEECH-ACTS
Communicating our desires as demands is another form of language that blocks compassion. A demand explicitly or implicitly threatens listeners with blame or punishment if they fail to comply. It is a common form of communication in our culture, especially among those who hold positions of authority.

I am as guilty as anyone else of using domination language. We are all infected. Some of us have more severe symptoms than others. The Corporations, on some level, realized they could delay the Adulthood of humanity by flooding the public social-space with this alienation language.

6) The Corporate-Strategy
The Corporate-Oligarchy Strategy of divide and conquered (have them fight among themselves for the scraps) has been imposed on the U.S. population. The middle class and the poor have lost ground since the 1980s. Religious and Right Wing pundits invaded radio and then T.V. in the U.S. The mass media has become more and more conservative every year, measured by the quantity of alienating language. Women, ethnic groups, unions, education and government were demonized. Religion and White men were made victims of quotas, their income dropping as the profits were funneled to the Corporations. After 20-years of using this winning Corporate-strategy a new playing feel has emerged. The Corporate-Democrats are finding that their base has moved what the Corporate-media calls the left. The Democrats Parties first choice Dick Gephardt, and second choice Joe Lieberman have failed to attract any grassroots support. The Democrats are scared. The Republicans had planned to keep Bush Jr. in power for 8 years. Even though the religious right has been trying to organize and mobilize �the saved,� their comments after September 11, 2001 that blamed the Liberals, the Gays, Bilingual Teachers, the left, etc. showed the Religious God, to be a God of hate. The Religious Right and Conservative base has not answered the call to go evangelize Republican and convert their brethren to the Corporate message. They don�t understand how many feel shamed by the President lies. They take their Bible seriously. The American people are looking for candidates who will represent their interests.

When a candidate wins favor with the Corporate-Oligarchy, lucrative funds and resources are provided. Six categories of funds are available for the candidates. To assure a framing-condition that favors a continual political drift toward right-wing politics, you assure that 1/3 more of the possible donors are not available to the Democratic wing of the Corporate-Oligarchy. The six classes of donors are found below. The semi-permeable categories can have corporations that can be classified in more than one category.

A. Corporate Internationalists�Nations should control the flow of people across borders, but not the flow of goods, capital, and profit. Sometimes called the �Rockefeller Republicans.� Globalists.

B. Business Nationalists�Multinational corporations erode national sovereignty; nations should enforce borders for people, but also for goods, capital, and profit through trade restrictions. Enlists grassroots allies among Regressive Populists. Anti-Globalists.

C. Economic Libertarians�The state disrupts the perfect harmony of the free market system. Modern democracy is essentially congruent with capitalism.

D. National Security Militarists�Support US military supremacy and unilateral use of force to protect US national security interests around the world; a major component of Cold War anti-communism.

E. Neoconservatives�The egalitarian social liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s undermined the national consensus. Intellectual oligarchies and political institutions preserve democracy from mob rule.

F. Christian Nationalists�Biblically�defined immorality and sin breed chaos and anarchy. America�s greatness as God�s chosen land has been undermined by liberal secular humanists, feminists, and homosexuals. Purists want litmus tests for issues of abortion, tolerance of gays and lesbians, and prayer in schools; includes some non�Christian cultural conservatives. They also overlap somewhat with Christian theocracy.

Groups E and F, respectively the Neoconservatives and Christian Nationalists, contain the bulk of the Republicans� popular support. Democrats cannot qualify for this category. Using religious volunteers to function as transmitters of, the Corporate messages by mouth. The result of uncritical consumption of these Corporate messages produces or maintains certain habits of thinking. I believe these Corporate messages inhibits the American public from reaching humanity�s adulthood. You can identify an infected carrier of these Corporate messages by certain intellectual behaviors exhibited. For example: Intellectual arrogance, intellectual unfairness, intellectual laziness, intellectual disregard for justice, intellectual distrust of reason, intellectual cowardice, intellectual self-centeredness, intellectual conformity, and intellectual hypocrisy. Sound like anyone you know?

The inevitable outcome is a pool of Presidential candidates that at best do not shift further toward the Corporation-Oligarchy (right-wing), but the usual result, every election the candidates become more and more right-wing. Funding for the left comes from the middle-class, the disadvantaged, and the intellectual class. Very few corporations contribute.

7) What can we do to reverse this trend and bring America back to a participatory Democracy?

History records show only one type of mental processing that has ever defeated the alienation language produced by the Temple-State. The intellectual product resulting from the use of Logic and Reason, with their off-spring Science and the Social Sciences can lead humanity to the light. In the 1970s the social sciences were defunded, to stop study in the areas of reality that are off limits. The social sciences could defeat the Corporate-Strategy used by the New American Corporate-Oligarchy. Social Science Scholars needed to be muzzled. The Social Sciences would reveal their plan of world domination. The use of critical thinking for the common good is the best way to help America and the world. The Corporate response: Call everyone who uses the Social Science a communist. Most people on the left use critical thinking. The Social Sciences have provided humanity with the tools to describe, explain and predict the Corporate-Oligarchy behavior.

Why has the Left been unsuccessful in dissemination of their message to the general public? I believe the unprecedented growth of the Corporate-Oligarchy has absorbed all our attention. The Social Sciences have many new tools for bringing peace, to the world. In the same way that humanity used science to bring light to the universe, we must use the social sciences to create solutions REAL solutions, not these failed policies. Cut taxes for the rich, cut benefits for the rest of us. The Corporate-media labels social science concepts, as leftist. Most of the social science intellectuals study, psychology, philosophy, history, Biblical Studies, media criticism, Ethnic studies, Women Studies, Consumer Advocates, Ecology, Journalism, etc. Years ago we were heretics. Today we are Leftists.

8) What intellectual skills do ALL AMERICANS need to stay intellectually healthy?
Americans (and the rest of the world) need to possess: Intellectual humility, intellectual sense of justice, intellectual perseverance, intellectual fair-mindness, intellectual confidence in reason, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, and intellectual integrity. All mental qualities that make people harder to manipulate, by religion or the elite. Critical thinking will be the key for the left to enlighten people to the new Corporate-Oligarchy. We have a lot of people to wake up.
Critical Thinking: Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2001) Critical Thinking: Tools for Change of your Learning and your Life. Prentice Hall.
http://www.prenhall.com/success

9) What Social Science tool cures Corporate-Alienation
We need an Adult language that allows each of us to observer reality, to recognize our true feelings, to verbalize our needs, and allow us to communicate clearly. The model I speak of is called Non-Violent Communication (NVC) or Compassion Communication. The system contains 4 components.


A) OBSERVATIONS
The first component of NVC entails the separation of observation from evaluation. When we combine observation with evaluation, others are apt to hear criticism and resist what we are saying. NVC is a process language that discourages static generalizations. Instead observations are to be made specific to time and context, e.g. �Hank Smith has not scored a goal in 20 games� rather than �Hank Smith is a poor soccer player.�

Model Sentences: The concrete actions I am observing (seeing, hearing, remembering, imagining) that are contributing (or not contributing) to my well-being: "When I (see, hear)..."
The concrete actions you are observing (seeing, hearing, remembering, imagining) that are contributing (or not contributing) to your well-being: "When you (see, hear)..."

B) FEELINGS
The second component necessary for expressing ourselves is feelings. By developing a vocabulary of feelings that allows us to clearly and specifically name or identify our emotions, we can connect more easily with one another. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable by expressing our feelings can help resolve conflicts. NVC distinguishes the expression of actual feelings from words and statements that describe thoughts, assessments, and interpretations.

Model Sentences: How I am feeling in relation to these actions: "I feel..."
How you are feeling in relation to these actions: "do you feel..."

C) NEEDS
The third component of NVC is the acknowledgment of the needs behind our feelings. What others say and do may be the stimulus, but never the cause, of our feelings. When someone communicates negatively, we have four options as to how to receive the message. (1) blame ourselves, (2) blame others, (3) sense our own feelings and needs, (4) sense the feelings and needs hidden in the other person�s negative message.

Judgments, criticisms, diagnoses, and interpretations of others are all alienated expressions of our own needs and values. When others hear criticism, they tend to invest their energy in self-defense or counterattack. The more directly we can connect our feelings to our needs, the easier it is for others to respond compassionately.

In the world where we are often harshly judged for identifying and revealing our needs, doing so can be very frightening, especially for women who are socialized to ignore their own needs while caring for others.

In the course of developing emotional responsibility, most of us experience three stages: (1) �emotional slavery��believing ourselves responsible for the feelings of others, (2) �the obnoxious stage��in which we refuse to admit to caring what anyone else feels or needs, and (3) �emotional liberation��in which we accept full responsibility for our own feelings but not the feelings of others, while being aware that we can never meet our own needs at the expense of others.

Model Sentence: The life energy in the form of needs, values, desires, expectations or thoughts that are creating my feelings: "because I am (needing)..."
The life energy in the form of needs, values, desires, expectations or thoughts that are creating your feelings: "because you are (needing)..."

D) REQUESTS
The fourth component of NVC addresses the question of what we would like to request of each other to enrich each of our lives. We try to avoid vague, abstract, or ambiguous phrasing, and remember to use positive action language by stating what we are requesting rather than what we are not.

When we speak, the clearer we are about what we are wanting back, the more likely we are to get it. Since the message we send is not always the message that�s received, we need to learn how to find out if our message has been accurately heard. Especially when we are expressing ourselves in a group, we need to be clear about the nature of the response we are wanting back. Otherwise we may be initiating unproductive conversations that waste considerable group time.

Requests are received as demands when listeners believe that they will be blamed or punished if they do not comply. We can help others trust that we are requesting, not demanding, by indicating our desire for them to comply only if they can do so willingly. The objective of NVC is not to change people and their behavior in order to get our way; it is to establish relationships based on honesty and empathy that will eventually fulfill everyone�s needs.

10. The concrete actions I would like taken: "and I would like you to...."
Empathically receiving that which would enrich your life without hearing any demand.
The concrete actions you would like taken: "and would you like me to...?"

An EXAMPLE of the Non-Violent Communication by an American in Palestinian Rufgee Camp:

I was presenting Non-Violent Communication in a mosque at Deheisha Refugee Camp in Bethlehem to about 170 Palestinian Moslem men. Attitudes toward Americans at that time were not favorable. As I was speaking, I suddenly noticed a wave of muffled commotion fluttering through the audience. �They�re whispering that you are American!� my translator alerted me, just as a gentleman in the audience leapt to his feet. Facing me squarely, he hollered at the top of his lungs, �Murderer!� Immediately a dozen other voices joined him in chorus: �Assassin!� �Child-killer!� �Murderer!�

Fortunately, I was able to focus my attention on what the man was feeling and needing. In this case, I had some cues. On the way into the refugee camp, I had seen several empty tear gas canisters that had been shot into the camp the night before. Clearly marked on each canister were the words �Made in U.S.A.� I knew that the refugees harbored a lot of anger toward the U.S. for supplying tear gas and other weapons to Israel.

I addressed the man who had called me a murderer:

I: Are you angry because you would like my government to use its resources differently? (I didn�t know whether my guess was correct, but what is critical is my sincere effort to connect with his feeling and need.)

He: Damn right I�m angry! You think we need tear gas? We need sewers, not your tear gas! We need housing! We need to have our own country!

I: So you�re furious and would appreciate some support in improving your living conditions and gaining political independence?�

He: Do you know what it�s like to live here for twenty-seven years the way I have with my family�children and all? Have you got the faintest idea what that�s been like for us?

I: Sounds like you�re feeling very desperate and you�re wondering whether I or anybody else can really understand what it�s like to be living under these conditions.

He: You want to understand? Tell me, do you how children? Do they go to school? Do they have playgrounds? My son is sick! He plays in open sewage! His classroom has no books! Have you seen a school that has no books?

I: I hear how painful it is for you to raise your children here; you�d like me to know that what you want is what all parents want for their children�a good education, opportunity to play and grow in a healthy environment�

He: That�s right, the basics! Human rights�isn�t that what you Americans call it? Why don�t you more of you come here and see what kind of human rights you�re bringing here!

I: You�d like more Americans to be aware of the enormity of the suffering here and to look more deeply at the consequences of our political actions?

Our dialogue continued, with him expressing his pain for nearly twenty more minutes, and I listening for the feeling and need behind each statement. I didn�t agree or disagree. I received his words, not as attacks, but as gifts from a fellow human willing to share his soul and deep vulnerabilities with me.

Once the gentleman felt understood, he was able to hear me as I explained my purpose for being at the camp. An hour later, the same man who had called me a murderer was inviting me to his home for a Ramadan dinner.

I highly recommend the use of Adult-language or Non-violent Communication (NVC) or Compassion language.
http://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/

CONCLUSION:
We rush toward the apocalypse, for the majority of humanity. I see America as the modern Rome, in the last 20 years before the fall before the Christians took power. In that case, since the Temple-State was foreign to Rome they never achieved power through Roman law. The Temple-State used both Roman Christians from the interior and an exterior attacked provided for by Constantine. The homegrown Christian Fundamentalist in America will not have disadvantage of being on foreign ground. History shows us religion leads to the Dark Ages. The Social Sciences holds the torch to eliminate the darkness. The technology from scholars like Fergusen, Foucault, Chomsky, and Rosenberg can give us the mental tools to free ourselves.

The People have try to become major investors in their own right, through substantial expenditure of time and (limited) income, there is nothing any group of voters can do, to offset this Corporate-Investor Dominance.

To successfully communicate our ideas, our vision to others, we must use the tools provided by the Social Sciences. Only then will the left communicate their ideas affectively. If we have a much better grasp of the facts, why are we not Waking Up more people? I believe we are using the old language from the Temple-State or the Corporate-message. Non-Violent Communication and Critical Thinking should become the tools of choice for the left. We have less than a year before the battle becomes pitch between Corporate-Oligarchy with unlimited power and the left with the Social Sciences. History has shown, always bet on reason and logic.

Ruy Lopez

My comments consist of two parts: a) what is the direction of the longest trend identifiable--i.e. from the development of the temple state 5000 years ago to the present? and b) what to do about the present day episode where the forces of "alienation" have the upperhand?

Just a brief notation before continuing. I am not well read on political and economic sciences literature, meaning I'm not familiar with the eminent personalities mentioned nor their works. So please understand why I won't react to academic terminology razzle dazzle.

Direction of the Longest Trend

I'll make the assumption that our temple state history starts around 4500 BCE with the Sumerians, Hittites and Assyrians. I'll also assume a definition of a temple state as one that is fairly self-contained politically and economically where power is shared(unequally) between a monarch(king) and a high priest. The king attends to affairs of state i.e.justice, the economy and general administration while the High Priest(witch doctor in Africa or Shaman in other) takes care of matters of purity that is setting things right with the Almighty.

With the above definition, it can be argued that the temple state has never really left us yet but has only been transformed. But clearly the influence of the high priest or his present day successors has been altered. Many countries have presidents and prime ministers, kings and strongmen ruling with cardinals, ayatollahs, primates, supreme imams and Billy Grahams alongside. Current religious leaders do not have the same power as the ancient Jewish High Priest but they rule society just as well. It was an ayatollah that deposed the Iranian Shah and a Catholic Cardinal that rallied the revolution against Ferdinand Marcos.

Yes, the temple state is still around but greatly changed. History is moving in the direction of the defeat of the temple state. I have no doubt rationality, critical thinking and the scientific method will win in the end. The road is long and bumpy. It snakes up and down, left and right but we will get there. So why be concerned?

The Present Dominance of Temple State Thinking

The advantage held by the corporate oligarchs, their political patrician allies, and in the case of the US, the bible belt leaders can be said to be quite temporary. The present US case, for example, is considerably better(rational) than the absolutist reign of ancient kings and shamans. The pendulum tends to swing from one end to the other relatively speaking. Before 1958, Mc Carthy was dominant. The 60s and 70s belonged to the more critical thinkers. After GWB, I think the pendulum would start to swing the other way again.

Notice that the mood or psychology swings in the last 20th century are but a minor chapter in the development of our civilization from the more ignorant easily manipulated public to the more enlightened reliant public of the future. Technology is in favor of enlightenment. I do not consider temple state society as "bad or evil". Those are bad words that should not be used. It just doesn't suit me.

How the Neocons Corp. Oligarchs and Benny Hinns Might Fall in the Near Future

Those eager to see more rational thinking should prepare their manuals on "Non-Violent or Compassionate Communication" and cultivate the leaders they would need because they may have less than a decade to wait.

One way to overthrow an undesirable regime or state of affairs is to allow the same to overextend itself. Do not frustrate their excesses. The present US dominance by far rightwingers and corporate oligarchs has already been undermined by themselves, fortunately or unfortunately.

--historical data indicates that, in the US, when wealth gets overly concentrated towards the minuscle elite, an economic depression follows to correct the tilt of the ship of state.

--do not stop the two GWB tax cuts and the repeal of dividend tax which favor the rich.

--there is no more feasible cure to the excessive debt in all US sectors but debt condonation or repudiation (probably the latter).

A prolonged state of economic stagnation marked by a depression can easily be blamed on the GOP and Corporate oligarchs. Get your propaganda machine ready.

You asked what sane people can do. There you are. What did I say wrong Oneofshibumi?

oneofshibumi

1) RUY: The king attends to affairs of state i.e.justice, the economy and general administration while the High Priest (witch doctor in Africa or Shaman in other) takes care of matters of purity that is setting things right with the Almighty.

Response: The Temple-State concept differs in that the King directed, but did not handle the economy that responsibility belonged to the High Priests. The High Priest managed the masses, similar to what we see in Iran for example. When most people talk of religious leader they think of the religious leaders in the present view. The temple-state organized labor, administered justice, and distributed goods by means of bureaucracies centered in the temple buildings and palace compound. The temple announced national pride, served as monument to the achievements of the past, put people in touch with the world of the gods, provided daily pageantry, dispensed prescriptions for the healing of all ills, and called for civic processions, feasts, and festivals on the grandest scales possible. As civic center, the temple also supported priests, artists, artisans, granary experts, couriers, accountants, scribes, teachers, and intellectuals. For the people, this social arrangement resulted in a tightly knit, partriarchal system of religion and politics that placed great value on stable families, public honor, social propriety, and personal loyalty to the king and the cult of the temple deity who ruled over the land.

Now this type of society contains a certain type of world-view; producing certain types of mental processes. The Temple-State produces a society where, evaluation and judgment is confused with observation. The type of Speech-Acts found in the Temple-State society include: moralistic judgments, making comparisons, denial of responsibility, and demands. Some examples of the speech-acts:

Moralistic Judgments: �The problem with you is that you�re too selfish.� �She�s lazy�

Making Comparisons: �I�m not pious enough.� �She�s too fat.� �I�m not smart.�

Denial of Responsibility: vague, impersonal forces��I cleaned my room because I had to.� The actions of others��I hit my child because he ran into the street.� Gender roles, social roles, or age roles��I hate going to work, but I do it because I am a husband and a father.�

And Demands: The concept that certain actions merit reward while other merit punishment. This thinking is expressed by the word �deserve� as in �He deserves to be punished for what he did.� It assumes �badness� on the part of people who behave in certain ways, and call for punishment to make them repent and change that behavior. I believe it is in everyone�s interest that people change, not in order to avoid punishment, but because they see the change as benefiting themselves.

Greek culture, on the other hand, learned Plato�s Speech-Act, and began to separate an observation from an evaluation or judgment. The society prospered tremendously with the new Greek world-view. The Greeks had figured out the concept of observation. Instead of saying, �You are too generous,� the Greeks would say, �When I see you give all you lunch money to others I think you are being too generous.� The change from the Temple-State�s speech-acts to the Greek�s speech-acts produced a different type of thinking. The small change in speech started the rise of reason and logic, allowing humanity to distinguish emotions from observations. This development also allowed for the development of the concept of �needs,� to develop beyond a physical concept.

2) RUY: Yes, the temple state is still around but greatly changed. History is moving in the direction of the defeat of the temple state. I have no doubt rationality, critical thinking and the scientific method will win in the end. The road is long and bumpy. It snakes up and down, left and right but we will get there. So why be concerned?

RESPONSE: Only if the public hears of �rationality, critical thinking and the scientific method.� I believe much of the information from the Social Sciences (or the scientific study of human behavior and institutions), on the on hand, ventures into almost every place where religion once held sway: into politics, psychology, and sociology, for example. In fact social science has secularized much of the sort of learning and common wisdom that earlier American society reserved for religious explanation. And social science generally, though not always, aspires to a scientific, not religious, model explanation. After the Middle Ages, power transferred from the Church to Kings and later from Kings to Governments. Now, power has transferred from the Governments to the corporations (Corporate-Oligarchy).

I would argue that the rise of American religion in the last 70 years has had the support of the Corporations. Now the Corporations need to depend on the Religious Right to support their political agenda.

American Corporate-Biofoods (Monsanto), took the European Union to court because they have a law requiring that all food genetically manipulated must be labeled. Both the political Left and Right of Europe do not want modified food. The democratic nation-states must bow to the will of the corporations.

3) RUY: Notice that the mood or psychology swings in the last 20th century are but a minor chapter in the development of our civilization from the more ignorant easily manipulated public to the more enlightened reliant public of the future. Technology is in favor of enlightenment. I do not consider temple state society as "bad or evil". Those are bad words that should not be used. It just doesn't suit me.

RESPONSE: We are in agreement. The words bad or evil represent generalizations. A more critical description would be, �The Corporate-Elite flood the public-culture with language from the Temple-State creates a world view similar to the one from 4000 years ago.� The public-culture of moralistic judgments, making comparisons, denying responsibility, and making demands reduces critical thinking. In the same way that a person comes into a room with a megaphone and begins speaking their world-view, blocks others in the room from discussing their own views. Controlling the information through TV, radio and newspapers transmitting Speech-Acts that make people poor critical thinkers represents poisoning a population with mind-�drugs�. Such actions are against the Common Good.

Ruy, you have said nothing wrong. We are just clarifying different perspectives.

Daniel

Farren

*bump*

A lot of work went into the OP.

Ruy Lopez

Ruy, you have said nothing wrong. We are just clarifying different perspectives.

You're being generous. Although I remember reading elsewhere your detailed explanation of the temple state, that was a long time ago. It has since got confused in my mind; but now it is clear. Like in ancient Israel, the High Priest has to be the best tax collector and Secretary of the Treasury. People give money to him/temple more or less willingly compared to the king or even Caesar--people need forgiveness of sins.

This part of your posts really summarizes your point:

A more critical description would be, �The Corporate-Elite flood the public-culture with language from the Temple-State creates a world view similar to the one from 4000 years ago.� The public-culture of moralistic judgments, making comparisons, denying responsibility, and making demands reduces critical thinking. In the same way that a person comes into a room with a megaphone and begins speaking their world-view, blocks others in the room from discussing their own views. Controlling the information through TV, radio and newspapers transmitting Speech-Acts that make people poor critical thinkers represents poisoning a population with mind-�drugs�. Such actions are against the Common Good.

And this is the explanation of the suggested solution at an intellectual level to be accompanied by communication tools you have also suggested:

Americans (and the rest of the world) need to possess: Intellectual humility, intellectual sense of justice, intellectual perseverance, intellectual fair-mindness, intellectual confidence in reason, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, and intellectual integrity. All mental qualities that make people harder to manipulate, by religion or the elite. Critical thinking will be the key for the left to enlighten people to the new Corporate-Oligarchy.

It is quite difficult to disagree with the two abovementioned passages. There are conceptually fine, in fact near perfect. But to the way of thinking I'm used to, these are incomplete and won't get anything done. Not that I'm trying to diminish your work but that you would need other disciplines to complement it.

Examine the array of the opposing forces. Factors favoring enlightenment could be described as follows (these are from the top of my head only--thus no references):

1) Primary and secondary school system which teaches natural and soft sciences.

2)The universities where discussion and debate, in addition to fields of specialization, form people's opinions.

3)Publications and TV programs like Discovery Channel and National Geographic

4)The internet and other communication technologies. (The Philippine lower middle, middle and upper middle classes were able to launch a public uprising last Jan. 2000 within two hours after Senate jurors frustrated the impeachment trial of a buffoon of a President--using only the cell phone. )

There may be others but these are quite powerful though uncoordinated. They could account for long-term victory.

The other side has political, legislative, economic, police, military and other powers of intimidation. They can try to move against the school system, the universities and the other two avenues that prize critical thinking.

Most of all, they have control of the media through corporate routes. I haven't thought about this problem, that is, how to neutralize or weaken this hold in case you wish to attack it. Maybe you have entertained this idea yourself.

But what I see, as described in my previous post, is the approach of a period of weakness on the part of the corporate and political elite. They are in position to be blamed for what I'm near certain, would be an economic and political debacle.

The US, the bailliwick of corporate oligarchs, political neocons and bible preachers, is a world power that is in decline politically and economically. What Reaganites started in the 80s, what Rubin and Clinton did to the dollar and economy and the Bushites to world political and US economic affairs all contribute to the decline. There is really nothing anyone can do except to bow out slowly and gracefully. In other words, they all tried to take long investment positions in a bear market; imperial decline is a form of a bear market.

Opponents of the temple state probably need to organize to provide an alternative, an alternative way of thinking to fill in the void.

oneofshibumi

Farren: �There may be others but these are quite powerful though uncoordinated. They could account for long-term victory.�

With the exception of the internet, I do not believe the progressive forces in the U.S. have reached the level of organization to use �officially� the education system. The transmission of the Critical-Thinking and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) would have to pass person-to-person, E-mails, convince already existing organizations to add the idea to their agenda, etc.

NVC teaches people how to communicate their needs, increasing tremendously the probability of satisfaction of the need. The technique allows the user to penetrate the defensive, close-minded behaviors now found in the U.S. I found NVC only a month to go, after researching communication techniques. The NVC process supports coincides with my ethics and my world-view. The NVC has a website that explains the way how individual can learn the NVC language.
http://www.cnvc.org/notrnr.htm

I highly recommend everyone learn the NVC language. The home page can be found here:
http://www.cnvc.org/main.htm

When I think of the historic Jesus and how in such a repressive society he attracted so many followers. I would argue his attraction had less to say on his words, than on the way he expressed them. I believe used a method similar to NVC, but his followers only captured the words and not the underlining idea.

We now know through psychology that humans have observations (sight, hear, touch, etc.), emotions and needs. Psychology states when people become conscious of their emotions and needs have healthier mentally lives. Also, requesting our needs leads to satisfaction of those needs more times than not, human nature.

The Corporate-Oligarchy has flood the public-space with messages that inhibit people from recognizing emotions, identifying needs and making requests to satisfy these needs. Once a person becomes accustomed to the NVC language they realize the humanism (spirit, soul, etc.) in everyone. They also become critical thinkers by using the NVC language. Adding the critical thinking after the NVC would complement each other. Learning the NVC language is the key for everything else. An example of a NVC used in the work place.

An elderly co-worker bursts out from behind a newspaper, �What we need to do in this country is to bring back the stigma of illegitimacy!�

The man�s habitual reaction to this kind of statement would have been to say nothing, to judge the other severely but silently, and eventually process his own feelings safely away from the scene. This time he remembered he had the option of listening for the feelings and needs behind the words that had shocked him.

Man: (first checking out his guess as to what the co-worker was observing) Are you reading something about teenage pregnancies in the paper?

Co-worker: Yes, it�s unbelievable how many of them are doing it!

Man: (now listening for the co-worker�s feeling, and what unmet need might be giving rise to this feeling) Are you feeling alarmed because you�d like kids to have stable families?

Co-worker: Of course! Do you know, my father would have killed me if I had done anything like that!

Man: So you�re remembering how it was for the girls in your generation who got pregnant?

Co-worker: Sure thing! We knew what would happen to us if we got pregnant. We were scared about it all the time, not like these girls nowadays.

Man: Are you annoyed that there is no fear of punishment for the girls who get pregnant these days?

Co-worker: Well, at least fear and punishment worked! It says here that there are girls sleeping around with different men just so they can get pregnant! That�s right! They have babies and the rest of us in society pay for it!

The Man heard two different feelings in this statement: astonishment that girls would deliberately get pregnant, and annoyance that taxpayers end up paying for children born in this way. She chose which feeling to empathize with.

Man: Are you astonished to realize that people are getting pregnant these days without any consideration for reputation, consequences, financial stability� all the things you used to consider?

Co-worker: (Feeling heard around her astonishment, she now moved to her other feeling, that of annoyance. As often happens when there is a mixture of feelings present, the speaker will return to those that have not received empathic attention. It is not necessary for the listener to reflect back a complex mixture of feelings all at once; the flow of compassion will continue as each feeling comes up again in its turn) Yeah, and guess who ends up paying for it?

Man: Sounds like you�re exasperated because you�d like your tax money to be used for other purposes. Is that so?

Co-worker: Certainly is! Do you know that my son and his wife want a second child and they can�t have one�even though they have two jobs�because it costs so much?

Man: I guess you�re sad about that? You�d probably love to have a second grandchild�

Co-worker: Yes, and it�s not just for me that it would make a difference.

Man: �and for your son to have the family he wants� (Even though the woman guessed only partially correctly, she did not interrupt the flow of empathy, allowing co-worker to continue and realize another concern.)

Co-worker: Yes, I think it�s sad to be a single child too.

Man: Oh, I see; you�d like for Katie to have a little brother?

Co-worker: That would be nice.

At this point, the woman sensed a release in her co-worker. A moment of silence elapsed. The woman felt surprised to discover that, while she still wanted to express her own views, the urgency and tension had dissipated because she no longer felt �adversarial.� She understood the feelings and needs behind her co-worker�s statements and no longer felt that the two of them were �worlds apart.�

Man: You know, when you first said that we should bring back the stigma of illegitimacy (O), I got really scared (F), because it really matters to me that all of us here share a deep caring for people needing help (N). Some of the people coming here for food are teenaged parents (O), and I want to make sure they feel welcome (N). Would you mind telling me how you feel when you see Dashal or Amy and her boyfriend walking in? (R)

The woman expressed herself in NVC, using all four parts of the model: observation (O), feeling (F), need (N), request (R).

The dialogue continued with several more exchanges until the woman got the reassurance she needed that her co-worker did indeed offer caring and respectful help to unmarried teen clients. Even more importantly, what the Man gained was a new experience in expressing disagreement in a way that met his needs for honesty and mutual respect.

In the meantime, the co-worker left satisfied that her concerns around teen pregnancy had been fully heard. Both parties felt understood and their relationship benefited from their having shared their understanding and differences without hostility. In the absence of NVC, their relationship might have begun to deteriorate from this moment, and the work they both wanted to do in common�taking care and helping people�might have suffered.

The co-worker would be open-minded overtime to listen to new ideas or arguments. And not fall into a useless argument. NVC can be practiced by the religious and secular.

I believe the historical Jesus could help a person in expressing emotions and needs. Creating a community of solidarity, his message would travel like wild-fire, yet not be easily duplicated. The co-worker above may have left with the impression that the Man agreed with her views because he didn�t offer any counter-argument.

Daniel

Farren

Daniel,

being buddhist/taoist influenced, this sounds like a step in the right direction to me. I think what you're describing is one of many ways to reach a certain point.

You seem to be saying that certain social sciences are useful tools by which a wise person can dispel many of the mental constructs that have been programmed into them. This is the reason I relate your thinking to buddhism.

I think as long as humans have had a communicating culture, long before the temple state, we have been accumulating "illusions", mental constructs that serve some purpose but eliminate a huge amount of the subtlety of our perceptions.

The mechanations of priests I think have been in equal parts inspired by the desire for control and the desire for goodness in the world. I don't think that every member of the priestly class is bent on controlling the minds of others for the sake of control.

I've known enough sincere and devout Christians and Muslims, including clerics, to be convinced that a fair number are sincere in their desire to help others, however misplaced the means. The failing of this side of religion I think lies in the desire to define "good" and "bad" to the extent that it becomes absolute and invariant.

Many well-meaning religious people are at heart Platonists, unable to accept that there are no absolutes in the real universe. So they construct absolutes, or uncritically accept the absolutes of others, and like the tree that wouldn't bend make society more brittle.

In saying this I don't excuse the horrific excesses of the Catholic Church in the past, or the vile brand of "tough love" propogated by many fundamentalists today, which basically amounts to believing you have a God given endorsement to hate. What I'm really trying to say is that this isn't the inherent nature of the beast of religion, but a vulnerability that manifests itself at different times in history.

The corporation on the other hand is an altogether scarier affair. Corporate oligarchs, as you rightly point out, attempt to constrain the flow of human consciousness within a narrow belt of commercially viable concepts. Simply lying around on the beach isn't going to profit anyone, so a system of values has to be set up where we're not satisfied until we have the beach house, the jet skis, the volleyball equipment and, of course, the perfect body. All of which require active engagement with and obescience to the corporation.

Towards this end the corporation even creates a kind of Platonic morality, keeping us ashamed of our bodies, our financial affairs, our homes so that we will continue to seek succour from Mammon. But unlike religion, few of the individuals at the helm even have a misguided care for their fellow human beings. The very process by which they must claw their way to the top creates a particular kind of psyche.

This is especially well illustrated by the stark contrast between the instant millionaires of the last two odd decades in computing, who made their money so fast and so unexpectedly that many if them stand in stark contrast to the established rich. Last time I heard Wozniak, co-founder of Apple was teaching disadvantaged Eastern European children to program. The author of Lotus 123 founded an organisation which among other things has provided legal aid to the very crackers that made his product the most pirated software of its time.

Sadly it was a brief interlude, as the individuals who chose to focus fiercely on business and compete in the vicious jungle of modern business were the more voracious kind, like Bill Gates.

I do feel, similarly to Ruy, that systems of control are never absolute. They have a natural cycle and sooner or later they break due to rigidity, or metamorphasise to such an extent that they are not so much the new version of the old system as a new system altogether. The changeovers are interesting times, too, like Hakim Beyers Temporary Autonomous Zones, but in a more comprehensive, broad sense.

Lao Tze Tsu (if he lived and was not simply a convenient fiction for many ideas to be attributed to) said thousands of years ago that the wise ruler does very little at all, but lets history take its course.

The device of using language that you mention is interesting. I've been extensively exposed to Neuro Linguistic Programming, which similarly seeks to change the individual by changing the language. Sadly many of its chief advocates focus on using it as a means of manipulation and control, which sours the concept for me.

I do think that these devices (social sciences) have immense utility in assisting those of us who come from cultures immured in spoken rather than felt meaning. I've never really paid enough heed to my instincts and feelings because of being so verbally (symbolically) oriented and as a result have missed so much of the subtle communication of those around me.

Although I can hardly say I'm a practicing buddhist, what continues to attract me to their system of thought is that is a philosophy based on working from the inside out. First, learning to love yourself (but not being vain, which comes from hating others), then learning to love others as much, so that their needs become as critical to you as your own.

Not starting with a set of moral principles, but allowing morality to emerge from the exercising of love. This is the key difference, I think, with the religions of the book. The preceding paragraph might sound all too familiar to Christians, but they also serve a set of absolute principles that distort love and even sometimes turn it into hatred, because as soon as you transform human feeling into static principles, you lose an infinite part of it.

Ruy Lopez

From Oneofshibumi;

With the exception of the internet, I do not believe the progressive forces in the U.S. have reached the level of organization to use �officially� the education system. The transmission of the Critical-Thinking and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) would have to pass person-to-person, E-mails, convince already existing organizations to add the idea to their agenda, etc.

It's probably not necessary for NVC or its equivalent to get "official" status in the educational system. Is there anything in the Social Sciences that resemble NVC that is part of the US educational system?

Anyway I was referring to the increasing share of math, hard and soft sciences in school curricula at the expense of the Arts. These disciplines in primary and secondary schools plus the atmosphere of a 4-year stint in a university can guarantee sustained long-term growth of critical thinking among the population.

If you wish to speed up the process by introducing very specialized programs like CT and NVC techniques, that would be good. Just make sure you make a profit doing it because if it does not produce a profit, very few other people will do it.

Farren--Although I can hardly say I'm a practicing buddhist, what continues to attract me to their system of thought is that is a philosophy based on working from the inside out. First, learning to love yourself (but not being vain, which comes from hating others), then learning to love others as much, so that their needs become as critical to you as your own.

Buddhist, eh. Now I see why you can also make fine philosophical posts. I can't.

There is an additional idea here. A school system that actually promotes rational thinking more and more in time is more effective than higher profile specialized programs. School systems seem so natural to life's needs and rhythm that they do not attract a counterforce or opposition. A very rapid gain invites determined counteraction. I noticed that bible programs have been featuring pseudo geologists, physicists and other scientists to counter Discovery Channel.

Bill

Oh, I totally disagree! The comparisons to Rome are apt, but you have identified the wrong century for comparison.

I've long seen the brothers Kennedy (John and Robert) as modern analogs to the brothers Gracchus. Tiberius was killed in 133 BCE while standing for re-election as the leader of Rome. His brother Gaius was elected in 123 BCE and re-elected in 122, after which he was found dead after losing the election for 121 BCE. The political goings-on during the time of the Gracchi (as this era is referred to by some historians) bear a strong resemblance to the political goings-on of the past few decades. It was seven decades from the time of the Gracchi to the election of 54 BCE, which put Julius Caesar and the First Triumverate in charge of Rome, inaugerating the true Empire of Rome. While we seem to be growing ever closer to our own American Empire, we are most certainly not yet there. I feel that our present state of affairs here in the United States bears a much closer resemblance to the period of around 100-70 BCE. Of course, there is not a moment-by-moment comparison; only a general pattern of events, so these comparisons must necessarily be "loose."

But we are most certainly centuries away from the fall of an empire which has not yet truly arisen. And we must ask ourselves: from where will come the barbarians to storm our gates? There is not now, and by a century from now, there will not be able to be, any place on Earth which is not a part of the coming empire. Thus, it is only by internal strife that this coming empire will eventually fall. The barbarian invasion hastened the fall of Rome. There will not be any barbarians to hasten the fall of our coming empire. Instead, it will take the long and dreadful path of degradation, which Rome avoided. A rebirth of religiousness is part and parcel of the decline of every civilization. The same forces which make some of us yearn for "the good old days" of the past necessarily re-awaken the religious ferver which we believe caused those old days to be "good." The populace wills itself to believe under the impression that all they need to do to achieve wealth and glory is to believe it hard enough.

This is the phenomena which Oswald Spengler calls the "second religiousness," which always acompanies the rise to Empire. As the Empire grows into a government of personality cults (which was how Julius Caesar and his adopted son, Octavian, operated), the "second religiousness" takes control of the masses and drives them into a state of "emperor worship" (in some way, shape, or form; in Rome, the emperors were considered to be literally gods). These two phenomina play off of and reinforce each other.

Religiousness feeds off of ignorance. Thus, religion must necessarily promote ignorance in order to gain success. We see this in modern times with the quest to turn all of the public schools over to the churches to run. This is reversing a trend from a century ago when the public schools tried to run the church schools out of town. In Rome, there were no public schools, and as wealth became easy to obtain, the habits of scholarship were neglected. That is what led to the rise of ignorance in Rome. In modern times, the imposition of ignorance will be deliberate and forced, as opposed to an accidental side-effect of abundance. Either way, though, religion will rise again.

I think you have your causes and effects backwards, as ignorance leads to religion, and religion thrives off of ignorance; but this is really more of a chicken-and-egg dispute, isn't it? A recent article from [New York Magazine pointed out that the left fails because the left can always see that its opponants have a point to make, and thus the left is always more ready to compromise, on humanitarian grounds if for no other reason. Meanwhile, the right beats the drums for war (culturally and literally).

Given that the right is mobilizing for war, and the left is emulating Nevil Chamberlain (the Prime Minister of Britain before the start of World War II; famous for trying to compromise with Hitler), there isn't any real doubt about the outcome over the long term.

If the left is to succeed, it must make its primary point: the right is being essentially selfish; and the selfishness is that of a few wealthy leaders of the right who stand to get increasingly wealthy and to end up dominating the world with their wealth (much as Julius Caesar dominated Rome with the great wealth he gained by conquoring Gaul). People want hujmanitarianism and altruism in their governing principles, and they will vote for those principles when they are given a clear choice between that and the selfishness of the other side.

But the left has not made an issue of this; at least, not up until now. The "Corporate-Oligarchy" referred to in the title of this thread is just the institutionalized selfishness of the politically right-wing wealthy families, many of which are also behind the very right-wing Christian groups which will be used to manipulate the masses to vote for giving all of their wealth to those very corporations. Is it surprising that Christianity preaches a poverty of material possessions in order to gain spiritual wealth? No, its an old, old story, that played out in the last days of Rome as well as it is going to play out now, if it isn't stopped.

==========

I believe that this process can be stopped. The longest of long-term trends for human development is about to take another step forwards. The first period of human development we know much about is the hunter-gatherer phase, which lasted from the time that humans arose as a species until about 15,000 years ago (more or less; depending upon where on Earth you are talking about; in America, it is more like 8,000 years ago; in parts of Europe, the argument can be made for 20-25,000 years ago).

The great change was the so-called "Agricultural Revolution," which moved men onto farms instead of hunting and gathering. The next great change is to move men off the farms. That change is variously called the "Industrial Revolution," but I prefer the term "Technology Revolution." The effects of the Technology Revolution are dramatic on the human psche. Just read books like Future Shock and The Third Wave. But it is clear that humanity stands on the threashold of moving into the third great stage of its development.

We did not have identifiable civilizations before the Agricultural Revolution made land ownership the key element of survival. And we may not need civilizations in the old sense after we move off the farm and share in technical knowledge (because knowledge is something whose value is not lost by giving it away to others). We need a whole new form of human organization to replace the old processes of civilization that we can now see collapsing around ourselves. It is definitely time to make this change.

All we need to do is to get the people behind us!

== Bill

oneofshibumi

Farren,
I also have a Taoist outlook, or perhaps more accurately, I have an organic outlook. I realize that humanity many times becomes more comprehensible if we categorize people by social groups. Unfortunately, the language we use may give the false impression that the words represent rigid boundaries, instead of flexible boundaries. Many Christians use words with rigid meanings, I refer to those that now control the loudspeakers in the U.S. In many other countries, Christianity has a different flavor. Let us remember, a language of control or of violence is manifested more frequently in Sun God religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) than in other religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc.).

Humans communicate through a symbolic language. Both science and religion are illusions, the difference is science�s languaged illusion represents reality much better than religion�s illusion. In the same manner, I believe social science language describes human reality much better than religion�s language.

I agree with your description of the Corporations. The highest law, the law all corporations follow is always increase the bottom line. I believe that humanity�s drive for freedom will eventually overcome any system of control. The question is, �How much suffering must humanity suffer before the change occurs?�

I have purchased a book on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) several years ago. I did not find the technique very useful. They had a bunch of small, specific strategies. The Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is simplistic, in nature. In contrast, it takes time to make the process automatic. Habits of the mind are hard to break. In effectiveness, NVC leaves NLP in the dust. If NLP is double digit accounting, NVC is a super-computer.

Daniel