Archive for the ‘ Sociology ’ Category

The Organization Destroys People

This is what it is for; that is its purpose in life – to create death.

One of Freud’s main contributions was the discovery of the death drive. From the excellent article in Wikipedia:

In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the death drive (“Todestrieb”) is the drive towards death, self-destruction and the return to the inorganic: ‘the hypothesis of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the inanimate state’[1]. It was originally proposed by Sigmund Freud in 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, where in his first published reference to the term he wrote of the ‘opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts’[2]. The death drive opposes Eros, the tendency toward survival, propagation, sex, and other creative, life-producing drives. The death drive is sometimes referred to as “Thanatos” in post-Freudian thought, complementing “Eros”, although this term was not used in Freud’s own work, being rather introduced by one of Freud’s followers, Wilhelm Stekel.[3]

We have overlooked this theory, preferring to think about nice things. But people are both good and evil – and always will be. We cannot be re-programmed (as NLP believes) to eliminate our dark side – for the simple reason that we are not computers – which, after all, are simply machines.

In our time, the Organization has come to represent the Death Drive – whose goal is to destroy people – and any human potential. I consider this perfectly obvious – having spent all my working life in them. But most people refuse to see this – and instead take great care to not exist – which eliminates their ability to see anything – which makes them nice people.

On other words, we have returned to being a traditional society, ruled by the rich and the powerful. As before, those who are ruled not only want to be ruled – but identify with their rulers completely. The process by which people become rich and powerful has changed, and they have developed new ways of displaying their power – but other than that, nothing has changed.

A quick historical review is in order here. An integral part of the Renaissance was Humanism – the re-discovery from the Classical World of the potential of of humans, and of their empowerment. This became part of the Reformation (although heavily distorted by religious passions) and then of the Scientific Revolution – and of course, above all, of the Enlightenment.

The Industrial Revolution was a different matter entirely, and resulted in today’s ascendancy of Business (with at capital B) as the power that rules the world – which is returning us to the Middle Ages. The Organization I refer to in the title, is just another word for Business, applied to everything else – the Pentagon, the Media, the Academic Establishment – and even our penal institutions.

The Pentagon deserves a few words of its own. Its objective is clearly to destroy people – which to Americans seemed an innocent enough matter – since the people being destroyed are not themselves. This overlooks the fact that attitudes are important – and the murderous attitude is basically the same whatever its target. The Pentagon was not only murdering Iraqis – but also the morality of Americans – and also, of course, their economy.

I am reading an interesting book now: Small Change: why business won’t save the world. The author, who has worked for philanthropic organizations such as the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, and Oxfam, makes a simple point – Business cannot make a better world. I quote (from page xi):

Can we compete ourselves to a more cooperative future, or consume our way to conserved the planet’s scarce resources, or grow our way out of deep-rooted poverty and oppression, for fight our way to peace?

Businessmen insist in saying “Yes” – and no one can argue with them. We cannot say the obvious: that they are basically anti-human – that they are not the solution, but the problem itself.

2011
01/07
CATEGORY
Business
Psychology
Sociology
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The Curse of the Mind

Of all our problems, this is the worst. All our other problems stem from our over-active nervous system – which somehow created our mind – a world we have little control over. When we were primitive hunter-gathers, our minds and the complex societies it enabled were an enormous advantage. But now both (our minds and our global society) are threatening our stay on the earth.

This is not just because we are overloading the world physically – we are overloading our psyches also. We now consider ourselves to be an enemy – and something that must be destroyed. We are no longer in danger from saber-toothed tigers – we are in danger from ourselves.

And this situation is not getting better, it is getting worse – mainly because we have no awareness that it is happening. We have vague feelings of alarm, and see boogeymen in every corner – but the real problem is our overactive imaginations. We have good reason to worry: the record of man’s inhumanity to man in the last few hundred years has reached epic proportions. And we see correctly that humans have done this to us – and we therefore do the logical thing (all insanity is logical, as seen from the inside) – and we turn against ourselves – or to rearrange the words slightly – against our selves - individually and collectively.

This was put in focus for me by listening to a powerful new book City of Thieves, review in the NY Times. When the German Nazis and the Russian Soviets mixed it up, the result was the worst situation imaginable. I only wished it had a better title.

If I were writing this again, I would call it The Curse of the Overdeveloped Mind. Latinos have underdeveloped minds (to go with their underdeveloped culture) and gringos have overdeveloped minds. This seems to be a bigger danger.

 

2011
01/04
CATEGORY
Economy
History
Psychology
Sociology
Technology
The Self
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Success on a Grand Scale Always Leads to Failure

This is the oldest lesson successful empires have to learn – but they never learn it. Americans try get around it by claiming they are not an empire – but the inexorable logic works anyway. America, for example, had its moment of glory in WWII, but its decline since then has not ceased. Why is this?

This is a basic defect of human nature in the mass – when we stop being human – when we feel we are becoming something better – when we feel more powerful, and cannot resist this power.

I am no different. I have this urge to learn programming again. I was a programmer once because I could see software was taking over. But the user interface was crude at the time, and that was what I was interested in. Now I feel if I could learn the latest techniques of doing this, I would become important again. I have to remind myself that I am not important, and at my age never will be.

Once we become this Übermensch (to use Nietzsche’s term) we are incapable of being good to ourselves – especially as a nation. Instead of making ourselves happier and stronger, we make ourselves weaker and unhappy – which, strangely enough is what we seem to want. We think we will be punished if we are self-possessed and happy – which is exactly what every good parent wants.

The Germans were the perfect case of this – the prototype of how not to behave, and of bad parenting.

It is important to notice the timing here. First, a society turns against its members and makes it clear they are not wanted. The people then do what they are supposed to do – they cease to exist. Once this is accomplished, complete destruction of the society can complete its task – because there is no one to interrupt it.  People in this state are like automatons – and the last thing they want to know is what they are doing – it is simply too awful. Instead, they glory in their destructiveness.

For some strange reason, no one has noticed this dynamic – how easily people give up their selves when ordered by their society to do so. When they see this as an external threat, they will fight to the death to retain it. But an internal threat, gradual and subtle, something that took place over a century of time, has been irresistible for most. A minority are aware, but they are ignored.

2010
12/29
CATEGORY
History
Psychology
Sociology
The Self
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What the Civil War Demonstrated

It showed the weaknesses of the American character: that we are intolerant, hateful, and war-loving. I use the present tense here, because American history since then has shown that we are incapable of learning from our mistakes. Instead of being on guard against these weaknesses, we overlook them and insist we are just the opposite.

I am watching Ken Burns’ Civil War, which I got from Netflix. This DVD is entitled The Cause, 1861. He could have spent much more time on this, and should have. He touches on the inability of the country to deal with the issue of slavery from its inception, but does not describe the violence and intolerance that built up in the years before the war – which was simply awesome, quite on par with the scenes of mass violence that have happened elsewhere in the world.

I do not know if he deals with the effects of industrialization on the war, as some historians have. The South saw themselves as defenders of a better way of life – which just happened to include slavery. In a way, they were right: they were defending the Agrarian Ideal championed by Thomas Jefferson – which was being overwhelmed by a mechanized way of life. It was a hopeless struggle.

Countries like Costa Rica, who idealize America, still cannot comprehend the dark side of our character – and are completely baffled by our behavior.

2010
12/29
CATEGORY
History
Sociology
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Get a New New Self – and Get Rid of Your Old One

This is an integral part of The American Way of Life – to be continually changing yourself. And these are not superficial changes; they are changes that involve everything: where you live, what kind of job you have, and what kind of friends you have. All these are temporary, and in the process of being continually acquired and destroyed. Those who cannot do this quickly enough are quickly left behind.

These unfortunates are a large part of the population; those who cannot move fast enough, and who cannot keep up with the times. The young have a built-in advantage: they have little interest in the old and rapidly acquire the new. But they have a problem: they have no personality of their own: a personal core that does not change.

On the other hand, the fortunates live a blessed life: they have the most fashionable personalities, mix with the most fashionable people, and own the most fashionable houses, cars, and spouses.

But they also have a problem: they often end up killing themselves – either all at once, or a little at a time.

2010
12/25
CATEGORY
Economy
Sociology
The Self
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The Beliefs That Rule America

I got these ideas from Morris Berman, in his latest book A Question of Values. He, in turn got them from many other people. Morris is an interesting guy, and he now lives in Mexico, which is more compatible with his way of life. He self-published this book, courtesy of Amazon – perhaps because he could make more money this way. He now has a name and doesn’t need a publisher.

Americans pride themselves on being practical people, not given to fancy theories. But this is only a self-created illusion. They are really ruled by a basic set of ideas – like any other society. Berman lists these.

1. The belief in a ruling elite.

America’s attitude towards these guys is extremely interesting: they both hate them and love them. They hate the bad guys who take advantage of them, but love the good guys who make them more powerful, and protect them from their enemies. In reality, these are the same guys – but they absolutely refuse to see this. And they absolutely refuse to see that this is an Marxist idea (the Capitalists vs the Workers – or the idea of class conflict). American conservatives have boldly taken the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist theorist, and made them their own – without giving him any credit, of course.

The basic idea is simple: a small group of nefarious people rule America, and they must be overthrown. The favorite whipping-boys now are the banks, who have been demonized throughout American history – beginning with Thomas Jefferson. Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, realistically observed that a national bank would absolutely necessary to finance internal development. Americans in general believe both – but refuse to see this.

2. American Exceptionalism.

This has been a core American belief, ever since the Pilgrims thought of themselves as a City on a Hill, or God’s Chosen People. Many social groups improved on this belief, and thought of themselves as the elect of the elect – such as the Mormons – the church of my family. Recently, this position has become untenable, since Americans now insist on complete conformity – and will not tolerate any special American groups – such as the Hispanic-Americans.

This is related to another part of American culture: Americanism as a civil religion. This goes back to the American Transcendentalists, including Emerson and Thoreau. Being an American was not just important – it was everything.

3. The Unlimited Frontier.

Here again, this goes back to the founding of America – and another Founding Father, James Madison. Like the other fathers of our country, he was worried about the impact of individual greed on the stability of the Republic. The solution was obvious: a continually expanding frontier, that Americans could always take over – and exploit. The Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican War accomplished this admirably.

The occupation of the Philippines later continued this trend. And even in Iraq, one of America’s objectives was to make Iraq safe for American business. What happened instead was colonialism, which America has never been good at.

Instead we have shifted our attention to the technological frontier – which we can expand without limit – we believe. In reality, we have to compete with the rest of the world to develop this frontier – which we have not done too well.

4. Extreme individualism.

This is so common we can hardly notice it. But every political candidate, from right to left, endorses it with fervor – and Americans buy into it automatically. The only people to not buy this – lock, stock and barrel – are the liberals – who are so weak they can be disregarded.

2010
12/20
CATEGORY
Early American
Political comment
Sociology
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String Theory is Something Else

I am reading, or rather listening too, Brian Greene’s book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Just now, as I went to look it up on Amazon, I noticed there is another book out The Elegant Universe-Summarization & Simplification. Evidently the first book was so successful it encouraged another. Also the NY Times Magazine has an article in him: Greene, With Curiosity – with a new book, one Columbia University physicist looks to space for answers.

I hardly know what to make of this article, it is so superficial – but it does have one good quote:

All of this speculation seems so devoid of practical application. Why not just use your time to try to improve life on earth by coming up with a new source of fuel?

Which is vital,but I think that these ideas are just as vital in a different sense, because it’s these kinds of pursuits that ultimately allow us to understand how we fit into the cosmic scheme.

My reaction to this book is simply that it opened my mind to a new universe. I am not sure if I like it or not, it is so different I sometimes feel nauseous hearing about it - but that is immaterial. Something big and something new is going on, and I want to be part of it. I can’t begin to explain his explanation, but some things are obvious.
First of all, the era of the single creative genius, such as a Newton or Einstein, working by himself, is over. And that is not all, the era of a well-defined field of endeavor is over. Nothing is well-defined any more. And this is a good thing.

I am reading another book The Question of Value: thinking through Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Freud, which, among other things, goes into this problem. These thinkers believed that solitary, linear lines of reasoning with clear-cut answers were pernicious, and should be avoided.

String theory illustrates this perfectly. To put it bluntly, it is a mess, but it is a creative mess. A bunch of extremely intelligent physicists are having the time of their life developing it – and even in interesting non-brilliant types such as me in it.

Einstein, in his later life, remarked that his days as a second-class patent examiner, when he did his best work, were the most interesting part of his life. Great ideas were thick around him, and it was this atmosphere that make his work possible.

People want to be where things are happening – to be part of the action, the real action, not the usual fake stuff.

2010
12/19
CATEGORY
Science
Sociology
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The Helpless Child, the Vicious Adult

This is a personality combination that on the surface of it, seems impossible. How could one person be both? The answer is that two radically different personalities can easily enough reside in one body – and the overt behavior of the combination is ruled by one or the other, depending on the circumstances. Indeed, we are all many personalities, depending on the situation we are in. As small children we quickly learn the behavior appropriate for different circumstances – and they stay with us for the rest of our life.

The behavior in question is typical of late 19th Century Northern European culture, and reached its most shocking expression with the Nazis. But it is still very much alive – in  a less acute, but very pervasive form – in America today.

I see it in myself, whenever I am the least bit introspective. I could of inherited this directly from my parents, or picked it up as an adult in the workplace – or almost anywhere, it is so pervasive – so much so, that it is hard for us to perceive it. And of course, we have little motivation to do so, since it is so unpleasant. It is the dark side of our culture.

2010
12/18
CATEGORY
Psychology
Sociology
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Planned Large-Scale Social Change is Impossible

The reason for this is simple: we don’t know enough about how society works. We don’t even know enough about personal change – the smallest-scale social change possible. To be honest, we don’t know very much about anything – and we delude ourselves if we do. Acceptance of our ignorance would be the first step towards wisdom, personally or collectively – but we cannot make that first step, because as modern people we prospered by ignoring most of what it meant to be human.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying social progress is impossible. To the contrary, we should experiment with small changes, watch carefully to observe how they work – and keep on doing this. Usually, we will get results far different from what we planned – but that is to be expected, and unavoidable.

Playing God, thinking that we know everything, especially about people, is only a form of insanity – but an insanity that is all to common. The same kind of insanity we are now perfecting in Afghanistan. We are told we are winning there – something the Afghanis, who after all understand their country much better than we do, consider an outrageous lie. But let me return to the subject: the delusion that we can force large-scale social change to happen anywhere – including, of course at home.

This was the confident expectation of Marxism – the most thoroughly discredited social theory of all time. It failed because it didn’t have a clue of how society worked – and instead marked the end of the modern world. Capitalism has exactly the same fault – social ignorance – and will mark the end of the post-modern world.

Some will insist that to be creditable I must have a solution to this problem. I am happy to oblige them. What we have to do is simple: it is simply to be good to ourselves, as people. But this is impossible. Instead we are doing the opposite: being bad to ourselves in every way – and acting more like machines than people. This is a very sophisticated machine, to be sure, but it has no understanding of people – and instead wants them out of the way.

2010
12/17
CATEGORY
History
Political comment
Sociology
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The Emotional Impact of Scientific Discovery

This is something scientists have ignored, and even historians. It falls in the grey area between the two disciplines – and a cultural gap that has seldom been recognized. Our post-modern world, which has rejected science (but doesn’t want to admit it), is especially determined to ignore it. As far as they are concerned, science has no emotional impact at all – even while they do their best to eliminate it.

But let us return to the past, and consider what impacts science has had on society then. Its initial impact is hard to determine because this was when science first appeared. Science was the product of the extremely complicated changes involved in the transition from Medieval society to Modern society. This involved all kinds of trauma – including, of course, emotional trauma.

It all started with the Renaissance in Italy – which has been well studied. But then the action quickly moved to Northern Europe – with the beginning of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland – which quickly spread to England and Holland. The Reformation did not penetrate to Southern Europe, which never became part of the Modern World. The situation in France was ambiguous, because Catholicism remained strong.

In the North, science flourished and was part of the important social changes that occurred there. Changes that we now have trouble understanding – but I am determined to understand. Fortunately, a Google search brought up Lectures on Early Modern History, which I will be reading.

For the purposes of this posting I will only say that the emotional impact of science was enormous – and note in passing, since I now live in Latin America, the advantages of the Modern World are not available down here. I just returned from my dentist, and was able to notice this in action. In the Modern World a shipboard motto was “A place for everything, and everything in is place.” My dentist and his assistant spent some time trying to find something, pawing through stacks of stuff, while I waited patiently. I noticed the same thing at my bicycle mechanics – nothing is organized, to find something he has to dig through piles of junk. This is true of Latin American in general – an inability to be organized. I keep reminding myself that this is why living is so cheap down here – because Latin America cannot compete in the world economy. Their educational system should be able to compensate for this, and teach modern skills – but this would be too much of an emotional shock, so it doesn’t.

What science revealed was a new reality – what I call Objective Reality, where time and space extend indefinitely on all sides – and where events can occur sequentially. In this world, the location of everything can be specified by the three dimensions of time and by the one dimension of space. In cities, this means a street name and a building number. But Latinos resist this fiercely and insist on relative directions – a long list of directions, beginning with some landmark. The objective world does not feel right to them.

This brings us up to date with the Modern World – but of course the world never stands still – especially in the world of science. I am now listening to an excellent book The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. I have never heard a scientist who could explain science better – it seems to be a passion of his. His ultimate objective is to explain String Theory – but to explain that he has to explain Relativity and Quantum Mechanics first.

His explanation of Relativity is the best I have heard. I thought I knew it before, because I took the trouble to read several books on it – but he really got into the emotional impact of what happened – and dramatized it. The bottom line is that Relativity changed our concepts of space and time – this was something of a stretch, but still possible for us to understand.

He is starting Quantum Mechanics now – and he starts off with an amazing statement: Quantum Mechanics cannot be understood. It is so strange (so weird, even) our human minds cannot intuitively understand it. I compare it to the Programming world – people have to go through a kind of self-induced brain surgery to become familiar with and really expert at it.

I expect String Theory to be much the same. There has been a huge emotional reaction to it – which leads me to suspect there must be some truth to it.

2010
12/11
CATEGORY
History
Science
Sociology
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