THE ULTIMATE CATASTROPHE


the dangers of emotional extremism




A Study in Thought

sa047



by





Marius Heuff

Chapter 1

Content

A small vignette.
The figure-skater.
Tears of relief and gratitude.
The sensations of beauty and happiness.
The value of long-term goals.
The fusion between goal and achievement.
No trace of a cheap triumph.
A sense of indebtedness to the people
Emotional resonance.
True achievement does not have to lead to an egocentric victory.
Sentimentality; an emotional over-reaction.
The need to understand our own behaviour.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin our discussion about the depressive aspects of the extremes in human behaviour, by recalling a small vignette that happened just recently, and is still vividly etched in my mind. Just the other night, my wife and I watched the finish of the women's Olympic figure-skating competition. The East European girl had won and was standing on the platform, ready to accept the gold medal.

What does it matter what her name was, or, which country she represented, because she became, at least, for me, at that moment, a superb symbol of human achievement, and, the tears, that were streaming down her cheeks as she looked with a steady gaze at the unfolding flag of her country, moved me more than anything had moved me in years.

I was not quite sure, why her tears and her smile moved me so much, because I am not particularly interested in figure-skating, and I hardly remembered having seen her before. But, I realised, suddenly, that the emotions of this young, attractive and athletic girl, standing there on this Olympic platform, after a long and tense competition in a strange country, represented the feelings of gratitude and quiet happiness; after a struggle of many years to achieve something worthwhile.

Of course, she had worked hard for this, for many years, and yet, in stead of a victorious and self-conscious smile of pride and glory, this girl was crying and smiling at the same time, trying to hold back her tears. Certainly, I do not know, why she was crying, and the exact reasons are not that important. What was important to me, was the realisation, that these simple tears and her half-smiling, staring gaze were more moving and genuine than most of the dramas, comedies, family-shows and other vehicles for entertainment, which fill the television screens in our times. In our society, these emotions are often portrayed in somewhat dubious forms of art, because most art-forms are heavily tainted with commercial considerations and a variety of "hard-sell" advertising techniques.

Certainly, here and there, we see a glimpse of genuine and moving artistry, but, so many of the contemporary programs on television, or in the movie-theaters, are blatant attempts to arouse our emotions for the sake of making us shell-out some of our earnings. As always, the efforts of producers and editors are geared towards the question; will it sell? Will we be able to make a profit? Will our sponsors like it, and pay the high fees for their advertisements?

I am sick and disgusted with the rape of our communications media. Sometimes, I would like to throw the radio and television out the door and isolate myself completely from this commercial bias, but, then, I realise, that I am part of my society, and, that I would not contribute anything, if I would just shut myself off from my environment.

And, last night, I was happy that I watched for a moment, when this young girl from a far-away country cried silently. I think, that the cameraman also felt a twinge of emotion, because the camera dwelled nearly all the time on her face. "Here", I thought, " you, commercial enterprises, you all can go to hell, because, regardless, how much money you spend trying to get a few people emotionally aroused and make them pay for your products, you will never be able to match the simple beauty of this girl with her tears streaming over her cheeks as she listened to a national anthem I had never heard before".

The music was unimportant, and, even, her thoughts at that moment were unimportant, but, what was important, to me, was the realisation, that a completely non-staged situation, (a girl who probably never even thought, for one moment, about acting or communicating emotions to other people), could convey, so powerfully, an emotion of beauty and hope for the future. I was glad to have witnessed this fleeting moment as a matter of chance.

Let us scrap all the commercially oriented stage-productions of drama and situation-comedies, and, let us look again at the people around us and see the immense variety of human behaviour. Certainly, a lot of it is mediocre, uninspired, timid, average and boring. Some of it is outright disgusting and infuriating, but, some of it is beautiful and powerful, in particular, when we see a human being achieve a lofty goal after enormously hard work and persistent dedication. It is beautiful to see an artist, or an athlete, realise, that it is a glorious moment, but, also, a moment of quiet gratitude for the fact, that it is "all over", and, that those, who have been counting so much on his or her succes, have not been let-down.

I think I know, roughly, what went through the mind of this East European girl, and, I hope, that the sensation of beauty was felt by millions of other people, who must have seen those tears trickling down her cheeks. I hope, that, they too, felt moved and uplifted by the experience, in spite of the fact, that very few people will have understood the meaning of this experience in the same conceptual terms as I have outlined here. Most of us will have forgotten her within a few days, but, let us not forget the experience we felt, and, let us think about the meaning and sensation of this experience of "beauty".

Let us recall some of the ideas we have sketched before about the sensation of beauty and happiness, and, we will see, why genuine art has to be close to life and has to be based on a genuine experience of beauty. Unless an artist is true to his own emotions, he or she will be unable to portray, convincingly, any human emotion in his art, and, if an artist only thinks about the question, whether or not people will like what he or she is doing, one might as well retire from the field of art and become a business-entrepreneur.

We have elaborated, elsewhere, the idea, that, the sensations of beauty and happiness arise, whenever there is a fusion between the situation "as is" and "as we would like it to be". Logically, if we achieve, finally, a long-range objective, after a good deal of hard work, we will experience a sensation that we have "arrived". We "consummate" our goal, and, in this final moment of fusion between goal and accomplishment, (when we realise, that we have finally achieved the dream for which we have worked so hard, for so many years), we experience a great emotional surge. This emotional surge is the direct physiological cause for the secretion of tears.

The longer and harder we have worked to achieve a particular objective, the higher our emotional investment has become, and, the stronger the emotional surge will be, whenever we experience a clearly defined fusion between objective and achievement. Often, an achievement is not nearly as concrete or precisely delineated as receiving an Olympic gold-medal, and the fusion may, then, not be as clear-cut or well-defined, either.

On the other hand, many of us will experience a clear-cut fusion between goal and achievement, somewhere, in the privacy of our own lives, and, we may experience a strong emotional surge without the publicity of television cameras and an audience in the hundreds of millions of people. The emotion may be just as strong, even, if the significance for other people may be limited, whenever we celebrate, quietly, a private but hard-won goal.

While the strength of the emotional surge depends, entirely, on the degree of fusion between our goal and our achievement, as well as on the effort we have put into it, the persuasiveness of such an emotional surge for others depends, to a large extent, upon the recognition of the importance of the goal. If someone has a powerful emotional surge, because one has finally learned to ride a bicycle, this emotional surge will not make news-headlines, nor, will it be witnessed by many other people, since the goal is not recognised as an outstanding achievement under ordinary circumstances.

However, if a young girl is finally crowned in full public view as the best figure-skater in the world, the achievement, as well as the goal, are, not only, recognised by millions of people as completely valid, but a great deal of admiration for the skill and grace of good figure-skating results in an emotional identification with the person, who finally obtains this highest honour and achievement.

Yet, this is not sufficient to explain, why the tears of this East European girl had such a profoundly moving influence upon me. In the few short moments I watched her skate her final program, I must have liked the way she skated, as well as the way she looked, and, I must have identified subconsciously with her. I must have come to the conclusion that she deserved to win. In addition, I must have realised, how much hard work had gone into her skating performance, even, before she had been declared the winner, and, when I saw her standing there, without a trace of cheap triumph, I must have realised, how much this whole venture must have meant, not only to her, but her coach, her friends and family, her team-mates, her club, as well as the city and country she came from.

At the time she stood there, on this platform, her whole country must have felt proud, that one of its own youngsters had captured a gold-medal in figure-skating. She was not only a symbol for me, but she was a symbol of achievement, dedication and hard work for millions of other people who had watched her over the years and had supported her unceasing efforts. Yet, she seemed to convey, as young as she was, a deep sense of indebtedness to the people of her country, and, I am sure that part of her emotional surge was due to a feeling of happiness that she had been able to bring a gold-medal home to her people.

In part, the power of the emotional persuasiveness, or resonance, of her appearance, was due to the fact, that the meaning of individual achievement had been transformed into an achievement of the peoples of an entire nation, but, as I mentioned before, the main reason for feeling a sense of beauty on my part, was her soft sense of gratitude, in stead of a strident, egocentric sense of personal victory.

This, however, brings us to the point, that the interpretation of the onlooker, who happens to witness a particular event, becomes all-important in the decision, whether or not a certain experience is moving. While there are numerous specific circumstances that determine or influence the interpretation of a specific experience, we may also look for many common denominators. If we know a little better, what arouses us, either to a sensation of beauty or happiness, or a feeling of disgust and anger, or, perhaps, a quiet sense of pride and curiosity, we may be able to understand the reactions of ourselves, and others, much better.

Sure, any spectator who knows figure-skating well and had identified with her long before I ever saw her, will probably share the emotions of this girl who had just received a gold-medal, but, even those, who, like myself, just caught a glimpse of the whole event, and, who were not particularly familiar with the skaters, could get involved in a very short period of time. This indicates the powerful persuasiveness of her skating and her personality, but, it also indicates a peculiar sensitivity on my part at the time I watched this event.

This brings us to the question of emotional resonance. While we have some ideas, now, why this girl was crying at the time of her gold-medal presentation, we still have to understand the reasons, why, witnessing those tears stream down her cheeks, made such an impression upon me, that I decided to use it as an introduction to this essay. Perhaps, in part, the explanation can be found in the very rapid process of identification that took place during the few minutes I watched her skate. Perhaps, there was an intuitive appreciation for the freshness and attractiveness of her face, which lacked any obvious traces of make-up. Perhaps, it was a reaction against the artificial and misleading emotionality of so many programs on television with their ever-present commercial over-tones.

Perhaps, it reminded me about my own European country of birth, which was not the same as the country she came from. Perhaps, it was an intuitive reaction against the nationalistic bias of so many reporters and fans, but, I am well aware of the fact, that chauvinistic nationalism is just as widespread and intense in other countries.

But, the main reason was, perhaps, my surprise to see those tears, because, only then, did I realise, suddenly, that she was not basking in a well-deserved triumph. She became, then, all of a sudden a symbol for something I strongly believe in; nl, that true achievement does not have to lead to a display of egocentric victory, but, that it can lead to a deep understanding and a sense of humility and awareness of the fact, that, all, or, at least, most of our finest achievements are only possible, if we all cooperate and dedicate our efforts, wholeheartedly and unconditionally, to a common goal.

Yet, this last consideration may well be a very personal reason that is not shared, at least, not consciously, by many other people, and, it may well be, that most people would not verbalise their reasons in the same way as I have done. On the other hand, it is possible, that many people will feel the same way, after they read an analysis of my reactions and emotions.

Often, we are not aware, with any degree of precision, of the many awarenesses and psychological mechanisms that take place within us, but, after we read someone else's analysis or description, we may suddenly recognise, that it put something into words which we vaguely felt or experienced before.

But, there is another factor. We all fluctuate, to some extent, in the sensitivity to emotional stimuli. If we are emotionally unstable or labile, we may experience strong emotional currents or surges, and, even rather trivial experiences or stimuli may bring tears to our eyes. This instability is often called "sentimentality", but, we have to distinguish between people who go through an emotionally unsettling period and may, then, experience frequently emotional surges that bring tears to their eyes, and, those people, who live in a rather narrow, egocentric and emotionally unrestrained atmosphere, who cry at the drop of a hat as a result of somewhat trivial stimuli, but, who would remain completely cold and incomprehending, if they saw a tragedy take place beyond the rather narrow horizon of their emotional and intellectual sphere of concerns.

I certainly do not consider myself emotionally labile, and, many years go by in which I do not recall having experienced a tearful episode. Even, when I watched this East European girl cry on the Olympic platform, I did not have a sufficiently strong emotional surge to bring tears to my eyes. However, over the next few days, I noticed, that the imagery remained vivid in my mind, and, I found myself frequently thinking about this episode, and, slowly, the many reasons and mechanisms became clear to me.

These are the reasons, why I decided to incorporate this vignette as an introduction to an essay that will deal, primarily, with the opposite site of the spectrum of human emotions and experiences. We will concentrate upon the far more significant experiences, (significant, in terms of social chaos and disaster), which are associated with the psychological mechanisms of depression, despair and the tendency to commit suicide.

Let us review, briefly, the overall spectrum of the human personality, with its range of emotions and the super-imposed faculty of rationality. Only, if we are able to see, clearly, how the experiences of beauty and depression relate to each other, will we be able to discuss them intelligently. After all, the purpose of this excercise in thinking is to help us understand ourselves, and each other, a little better.

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Chapter 2

Content

The free-floating cell.
The basic discrimination between benefit and harm.
Aggression; "moving towards"; "ad-grado".
Negative and positive stimuli.
The sense of vision.
The search for a possibility to exist.
The short-cut of animal existence.
The inevitability of death in the end.
Human behaviour-patterns.
The closer we behave to an emotional extreme, the less our behaviour is under the control of rational evaluations.
Behavioural flexibility, and the ability to finely tune our responses.
The functions of the "free will".
A fusion of contemporary sense impressions with the memories of the past, as well as the expectations for the immediate future.
Evolution; a second shock for Christianity, after the discovery, that the earth was not the center of the Universe.

The concepts about the structure and function of the human personality go back to those earliest developments in the evolution of life, where we see, how the single, free floating cell developed, already, the capability to distinguish between a harmful and a beneficial stimulus. With the development of the capabilities of locomotion, or propulsion, the ability to distinguish between a harmful or potentially harmful stimulus, and, a stimulus that provides food, energy or some other beneficial feature, became even more important, because, now, the organism could actively seek-out a set of favourable circumstances, and, it could avoid, or, at least, try to avoid, those areas of its environment, where the conditions were not so favourable.

The surrounding area or "space" of the natural environment in which an organism lived, became "sensed", or interpreted, in terms of harmful or beneficial, "evil" or "good", and, this basic classification of stimuli arising from the environment go back to the physiological capabilities of the single cell. The same basic classification still plays a role in such a complex piece of behavioural machinery as the human being. One of the most fundamental, most intuitive, and, often, poorly verbalised distinctions we make in the contacts with our environment, is a classification of incoming sense impressions into the broad categories of being potentially beneficial or potentially harmful.

Naturally, we will try to prolong contact with factors or conditions that are potentially rewarding to us, and, we have a tendency to move towards such a set of circumstances. A "movement towards" reads, literally, translated into Latin, as "ad-grado", and, we still use the anglicized term of this Latin word as "aggression" or aggressiveness.

True, in our contemporary use of the word aggression, we do not use this word in all forms of behaviour, where we move towards a beneficial stimulus. If we hear someone sing a beautiful song, we may stop, listen and come a little closer in order to hear better, but no-one would call this a form of "aggression". Yet, it is helpful to keep in mind the original meaning of the word. The meaning of a word often clarifies, how people have perceived reality over a prolonged period of time, especially, if we have some idea, how a word came into being, and, how it slowly changed its meaning as it went through a series of cultural developments in successive generations.

When dealing with a set of adverse circumstances, we can react in two completely different ways. If we have a choice, we certainly would avoid, or flee, from circumstances that appear to be harmful, and, the intensity of this avoidance response is directly proportional to our interpretation of the sense impressions we are receiving. Yet, we may not be able to avoid contact with, or flee from, an unpleasant or harmful situation, and, we can, then, only resist the harmful conditions as best as we can. This is the defensive or resistive stance, and, we have discussed, on many occasions, how our response to a challenge is a smooth blend between a reaction of resistance, or defensiveness, and a behaviour of yielding, or avoidance.

Similarly, the response to stimuli that are interpreted as potentially beneficial, or rewarding, range from an all-out hunt to kill a prey, to an attack upon a competitor or enemy; from a movement towards a group of people we hope to plunder, to a mild curiosity or cautious exploratory attitude, whenever the signs of potential benefit are weak or mixed with contradictory signals.

When we look at the overall range of human behaviour, we see, that it is very useful to categorise behavioural responses according to the degree of perceived significance of these environmental stimuli or circumstances. Let us make it clear, that the word "environment" is not used, here, in its narrow ecological sense, but, it refers, literally, to the area or space that surrounds a living organism, and, it includes, therefore, all the stimuli that arise in the space surrounding an organism. Other living organisms and their signals, behavioural actions, attitudes or intentions form then a part of this "environment".

If the stimuli are threatening or harmful, we may call them, somewhat arbitrarily, "negative", and, if they are beneficial or promising, we call them "positive". We see, indeed, how a living organism seems to focus its attention, (not so much by an act of the voluntary will, but, through the functions of its physiological mechanisms and anatomical design), almost exclusively upon stimuli with some meaning for the existence of this organism. Existentially significant stimuli are sensed, evaluated and classified, and, to some extent, recorded for future reference, while stimuli that are not significant go largely unnoticed.

We may go one step further, and, we note, that, the way an organism is "built", including its general and special sense-organs, shows, how these specialised sensing mechanisms are geared towards the detection of stimuli that are meaningful, or, may become meaningful. For example, the sense of vision has selected a narrow range of the electro-magnetic spectrum to which it has become sensitive. This allows us to locate the presence of objects or the occurrence of events at some distance away, as a result of the ability to register the discrete patterns of electro-magnetic wave-fronts arising from these objects and events.

To be sensitive to a much larger spectrum of electro-magnetic radiation would be confusing, because it would blur a picture that has become a remarkably sharp and detailed portrait of whatever is present in the environment of a living organism. If we would be sensitive to electro-magnetic wave-fronts with a much larger wave-length, we notice, that, indeed, the sharpness and clarity of our visual picture would suffer. At the same time, a sensitivity to much shorter electro-magnetic wave-fronts would lead to a loss of definition of many objects because of the fact, that these short wave-length forms of electro-magnetic radiation are able to penetrate many particles or objects.

In addition, there may be physiological reasons, why the design of visual sensitivity has been limited to a narrow spectrum of electro-magnetic radiation during the evolutionary search for special sensory capabilities. Perhaps, the mechanisms of chemical break-down and photo-sensitivity of the sensory rods and cones in the retina dictated the range of sensitivities we now have, but, I am under the impression, that the most important factor shaping the functional range of visual perception, is related to the clarity of the physical imagery. This clarity of the physical imagery is obtained by limiting the sense of vision to a narrow band of electro-magnetic wave-lengths.

Let us come back to our main theme, where we have stated, that the entire physiological and anatomical organisation of a complex multi-cellular organism is geared towards providing this particular community of cells, the multi-cellular organism, with the best possible chances of survival. We have seen, before, how the living cell found a possibility of existence over an extended period of pre-cellular evolution, which took place over a time-span of a billion years, or so, and included an unimaginable number of "natural experiments" with biochemical possibilities of existence.

The criteria for survival, or finding a possibility to exist, were always the same. Fragile, unstable and transient chemical reactions and compounds found a measure of stability, and were able to exist for a longer period of time, whenever they happened to co-exist with complementary chemical reactions, and, eventually, the conglomerate of biochemical reactions found a way to survive the ever-changing circumstances by becoming sequestered as a blob of protoplasm surrounded by a semi-permeable membrane.

There are always pressures that tend to disrupt this protoplasmic, biochemical conglomerate, and, the cell has to have continuous access to some sort of a suitable source of energy in order to carry-out essential repairs. This is the reason, why living organisms are always on the look-out for a supply of suitable energy, and, we can verify the accuracy of this statement by the fact, that, after a few hours, our last meal seems to have disappeared, and we are becoming hungry again.

As animals, we have taken a short-cut. In stead of synthesising the required food-stuffs and building-blocks from inorganic materials with the help of solar energy, we have come to rely upon preformed, organic or living materials in order to sustain our existence. As a member of the kingdom of animal species', we have no choice, but to kill other life in order to sustain our own existence, be it plant life or animal life, but, in our continuous quest for this ever-recurring need for food-energy, we are constantly exposed to all sorts of perils. We may endanger ourselves in a thousand different ways, as we are looking or hunting for food, and, we may become a prey for other predators who are doing exactly the same; looking for a chance to prolong their existence.

There is a constant struggle going-on between the living organisms and their environment, and, we know, all too well, that, in the long run, the environment always wins. For a while, we may be successful and obtain sufficient food and shelter. We may prosper and bloom in our youth, growing in vigour and mastery over our environment, but, during adulthood, we consolidate, and, then, we begin to lose ground, inexorably, inevitably. Slowly, our physical powers decline as we get older, and, finally, our mental powers deteriorate as well. Our organism finds it ever harder to sustain its integrity and existence. Internal regulatory mechanisms begin to fail, and, some cells may escape from regulatory controls and begin to grow without inhibitions. Perhaps, some vital pathways of communication or blood-vessels are clogged by blood-clots and deposits of fatty materials, or, bacterial and viral organisms may find a reduced resistance to their presence, and go on a rampage.

Sooner or later, we all die, and, all our cells in the body die, too, while the biochemical reactions of the cells run-down to their lowest level of energy. These cells disintegrate by a combination of automatic self-destruction, or "autolytic processes", resulting from the inability to find or make use of a suitable energy-source, and, a profusion of bacteria and other organisms that have found an abundant energy-supply in the rotting flesh of our decaying body.

From the beginning of the evolution of life, survival has been the ultimate criterium for the mechanisms of natural selection, and, only those successful cellular communities that were able to mature and reproduce, perpetuated themselves as a living species, while others lost the battle with the environment and became extinct.

The functional and structural organisation of cells forming a multi-cellular organism, was inextricably inter-twined with their behaviour-patterns, and, we may, therefore, conclude, that the behavioural responses, as well as the organisational patterns of the cells themselves, together with their inter-relationships, were carefully guarded and transmitted from one generation to the next with the help of a genetic code.

The human being is heir to these same developments, and, we have discussed, on previous occasions, why it seems reasonable to recognise in man's emotional behaviour-patterns, elements of a preformed, genetically encoded pattern of behaviour. On most occasions, these behaviour-patterns have become strongly modified by secondarily acquired and culturally transmitted guidelines or modifying factors.

For example, if we look at the mechanisms of breathing, hiccoughing or the evacuation of a bladder or bowel, or, the swallowing of food, we see, that these "behaviour-patterns" are so stereotyped from one individual to the next, that we do not really call these activities forms of behaviour, but, rather, basic physiological reactions or "reflexes". We have, therefore, no difficulties accepting the concept, that these stereotyped or reflex movements are genetically encoded.

If we look at voluntary behaviour, we see, that a smooth muscular act, such as picking-up a glass of water, differs little from one individual to the next, but, as we look at the more complex movements, such as the way we eat or dress, we see, that other factors bring-about a significant difference from individual to individual, and, these differences become even more pronounced, if we compare one group of people with another. Then, we see "cultural inluences" at work, which are mainly due to the fact, that, we, as a group of people living together in fairly small and isolated communities, have been living under somewhat different circumstances. As a result, we use different objects, live in different places, speak a different language, and, we believe in different concepts and ideas.

If we look at people's behaviour in the extremes of the emotional spectrum, such as the rage-reaction, exuberance or ecstasy, the attitudes in victory or defeat, we see, that, people resemble each other much more than when people behave more rationally, and react more calmly or deliberately in their actions, thoughts and attitudes. For these reasons, it seems justified to recognise in the primitive, unbridled emotional reaction-patterns, traces of genetically encoded, inborn behaviour-patterns, which are, nevertheless, almost always modified, at least, to some extent, by cultural influences; e.g. by our will, by efforts to control ourselves, as well as by the exhortations and admonitions from people around us, etc., etc.

We have also discussed the development of behavioural flexibility, or plasticity, which became a major development in a variety of species', and, we have seen, how this trend culminated in the human species with the development of a conscious perception of reality. A conscious perception of reality requires a structure of beliefs, as well as a deliberate and concious "will", necessary to shape, consciously and deliberately, at least, a part of our behavioural responses.

We will not trace these developments, here, in any detail, because we have done so before. Let us re-iterate the conclusion, that we see in the human being a wide range of responses fluctuating between the highly emotional extremes of aggressiveness and defensiveness. The closer we are to these emotional extremes when responding to the stimuli from the environment, the less influence we see from our conscious or deliberate "will", and, the more stereo-typed these reactions become.

Most of the time, we are not anywhere close to these emotional extremes, and, we seem to drift, gently, between mildly confident and somewhat anxious moods, where there is always a mixture of emotional, pre-programmed, involuntary patterns of behaviour, together with extensive modifications upon these patterns by our conscious "will". We influence the pre-programmed behavioural reactions because of the way we have been brought-up, and, to a lesser extent, we influence these behaviour-patterns by a deliberate choice on the basis of our beliefs and convictions.

We have also seen, that nature's experiment with behavioural flexibility requires an enormous enlargement in the range of recognition patterns, as well as a greatly increased complexity of the categories into which the sensory input is classified by a neurological or cerebral system of classification. This system has been elaborated in the human species by a similar and parallel classification system of conscious, mental images, where the conscious or verbalisable mental images are also classified into categories of similarity in existence and event.

Man's world of perception is astonishingly complex. We rely upon our neurological mechanisms to recognise an object or event, or, to execute a smoothly coordinated movement, and, we rely upon our mental imagery and its verbalisable classification systems to interpret our environment in a conscious structure of beliefs. This conscious structure of beliefs determines, in turn, the outline of our voluntary behavioural responses.

We have come to the realisation, that we refer, constantly, to our memory-banks in order to recognise our environment and shape our responses, but, in addition, we carry-out complex projections of probable consequences of a particular behavioural choice. The imagined results of what would happen, if we choose to do so and so, is then incorporated into the input to our behavioural choice.

So, we come to the conclusion, that we live in the moment of the present with a mental imagery that is constantly supported and maintained by a large variety of images from past experiences, as well as a complex set of predictions or anticipations of what is likely to happen in the immediate future.

We live, constantly, with a mixture of memories of the past and anticipations of the near future, and, we need this mixture in order to shape a viable response to the realities of the present. We also range through a wide, sliding scale of positive-negative interpretations of the existential significance of the moment, (coloured by past experiences and future expectations), but, we may also hover around a narrow zone of emotional near-neutrality, where the powers of rationality, thought, logic and objective observations seem to reward us with a sense of "being in tune" with our realities.

The entire field of the sciences with their many interpretations has been based upon this zone of emotional near-neutrality, but, let us not go into this, because, for the moment, we seem to have sketched the basic outlines of the human personality with sufficient clarity to be able to zero-in on more detailed aspects.

As we have mentioned, many of these outlines have been discussed more extensively before, and, we have only sketched a summary over-view of this field, which, unfortunately, still lacks a broad basis of agreement amongst the peoples of the world.

It is my impression, that the evolutionary imagery of the biological sciences, which has slowly been built-up over the past century, is becoming a remarkably fruitful source for study and thought in our attempts to trace a broad, philosophical over-view of our existence. It is logical that such an imagery will meet considerable resistance, especially, from those, who rely strongly upon a religious interpretation of their realities, because this evolutionary interpretation is just as shocking and just as central to the concepts about human nature, as the discovery that the earth was not the center of the Universe.

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Chapter 3

Content

Looking at ourselves from an evolutionary point of view.
A fascinating blend of emotional and rational behaviour-patterns.
Verbalisable awarenesses; the tip of an ice-berg.
The possibility to deceive; a by-product of intellectual abilities.
The trade-off between scope and detail.
The need for cohesion in scientific knowledge.
We can not grasp the essence of being human from the "humanities" only.
An increasingly important role for the biological sciences in philosophical efforts to grasp the essence of human existence.
The role of intuition in a philosophical effort.
An emphasis on the negative, defensive aspects of human behaviour.
The price of specialisation.
The solution of "behavioural flexibility".
A more complex vision.
The subjective experience of a "free will".

If we look at ourselves from an evolutionary point of view, we see, quite clearly, that our rational faculties are a fairly recent development, which came-about as a result of the evolution of behavioural flexibility and the ability to conceptualise. In contrast, our emotions represent a much older heritage, in spite of the fact, that the ability to verbalise or conceptualise our emotional experiences is a recent addition to our rational and introspective powers.

There is, therefore, a fascinating blend of emotionality and rationality, whenever we try to conceptualise the more emotional aspects of our own behaviour. Just because our emotional behaviour is much less dependent upon the ability to form, handle and communicate concepts, we see, that it is more difficult to get a firm intellectual grip over the structural and functional make-up of our personality. Just because we communicate emotionally so much easier than by intellectual arguments, we get the impression, that our emotionality is a more highly developed and valuable faculty than our rational abilities.

We are still so little aware of the hidden and emotional motivations in our behaviour, that we fail to appreciate to what extent we use the tools of rationality as a weapon; either aggressively or defensively. How often, do we realise, in a heated argument or debate, that the real motivation is to shatter our opponents or defend ourselves against attack, and, how often, do we realise, that we search for the right arguments, attitudes, twists or witticisms, just as a hunter looks for the right weapon or method to kill his prey?

Intellectual arguments become, so easily, tools for a fight, and the content of the arguments has then little real weight. This is perceived by many, bewildered onlookers, as intellectual sophistry, or useless hair-splitting, but, rarely have the combatants been put in their rightful place by a clear and concise analysis of the existential battle that was raging behind their battle of words.

Our emotionality permeates our behavioural responses to a far greater extent than we are aware of, in particular, when we have a tendency to pride ourselves upon our intellectual powers. While we think to argue rationally, we are, in essence, behaving as clever opportunists, ready to move in for the kill, whenever the opponent shows a sign of weakness.

Yet, it would be unfortunate to throw-out all intellectual activities as treacherous and deceitful, just because we have been intimidated by intellectual sophistry on a few occasions. There is such a thing as intellectual honesty. There exists an attitude of quiet persistence and curiosity about the nature of things, including the nature of ourselves, and, there are examples, where people have chosen, on purely rational grounds, an attitude of genuine sensitivity and concern for the plight of others.

While many of us abuse our intellectual powers in a blatantly egocentric and arrogant manner, without realising what we are doing, we may also see some people come to a genuine insight and understanding about the human phenomenon. Let us not throw the knife away, just because we had the misfortune to cut ourselves with it!

If the power of emotionally neutral observations and the lucidity of a truly integrated and broadly based scientific reality perception can be a thing of beauty, as well as an asset upon which we have come to rely to a remarkable extent, we should hesitate to think lightly about the way it is used. We should carefully look at the way the faculty of rationality developed, and, how it has been exposed to a variety of contrasting influences. I mean this; we have to know, at least, to some extent, how, and why, the sciences have given us a remarkably detailed picture of man as a product of natural evolution on earth, in spite of the fact, that this imagery has become scattered over a large variety of specialised scientific disciplines.

While the contraction of the scope of a scientific field is unavoidable, if we want to master, in detail, the technology of a specific field of scientific research, we should keep in mind, that the function of the researcher is nothing more than that of a "machine", digging-out the coal or raw materials from the earth, or, digging-up the fruits from the fields of knowledge. The products of research are the basic ingredients of man's knowledge and insight, but, we still need a lot of work to transform these basic ingredients into a coherent perception of the overall reality.

The individual, who is going to use these "raw data" to contruct a coherent imagery of reality, has to have a far broader field of scientific vision than the scientific researcher. The construction of a coherent over-view of reality requires a vastly enlarged field of vision, because meaningful relationships often transcend the borders of specific scientific fields, and, the philosophical "worker" does not have to be a master in the techniques of digging-out the raw materials of facts and data.

Unfortunately, in the last few decades, the researcher has been glorified, because it remained relatively easy to put the dug-out data to immediate use, but, now, the whole field of science has become greatly fragmented. It is still possible for most scientific workers to put their raw data into a framework that falls within their own specialty, but, because this framework has become increasingly narrower, the fields themselves are becoming less coherent in relation to each other.

We need, therefore, more people, who are able to absorb the data and the gist, or essence, of a particular field of science, and, we need people who can construct a broad canvas of inter-relationships bringing-out patterns of coherence that span many scientific disciplines.

The faculty of rational evaluation is extremely useful, and essential, if we want to continue to explore a perception of reality that is based upon emotionally neutral observations. Even, if many people are inclined to shy-away from this area, we still rely, often subconsciously, upon the fruits of this type of reality perception; e.g., we seek medical help when we are sick, or, we "research" the market, if we want to buy a toy or a tool we like to have.

We may, indeed, be repulsed by a blatantly arrogant and egocentric attitude of intellectual superiority, but, we may also be "turned-off" by the complexity and confusion of the scientific imagery, the demoralising squabbling between experts and various schools of thought, as well as by the frightening and somewhat mysterious powers of our most sophisticated technological machinery.

Any reason for turning-away from the tools of rational evaluation and comprehension represents an unfortunate event, and, we may be assured, that this broad field of scientific reality perceptions and amazing technological mastery is so important, that we can not hope to understand ourselves, unless we have, at least, a grip over the many relevant fields of science and technology.

Fortunately, the time has passed, that we could make a mental split between science and the "humanities", in spite of the fact, that this is still not widely recognised. Not so long ago, it seemed, that the road towards human understanding lay over a course that looked somewhat down upon those "technicians" of scientific and technological wizardry, but, it is becoming much clearer, now, that we can not understand evolution without a fairly good grasp of many hard-nosed scientific disciplines.

We can not hope to develop a mental picture of the cell, or, about life in general, without knowing something about physics, geology, biochemistry, biology, as well as the physiology and anatomy of many living organisms. The time has passed, that we can philosophise with impunity about man's nature, without knowing what the imagery of the sciences of psychology, neurology, physiology or anthropology have to offer us.

It is true, that each field by itself still gives us only a fragmented picture, but, a philosophical attempt at understanding man from a vantage-point that is exclusively rooted in the humanities and ignores the imagery of the modern sciences, is doomed to failure.

It is useless to talk in terms of "higher" or "lower", when trying to relate the functions of rationality and emotionality to each other. Let us only say, that, rationality is a late evolutionary development, and, it represents the logical culmination of an evolutionary trend that explored the possibilities of behavioural flexibility.

The consequences of this experiment with behavioural flexibility were gigantic, and, they are still poorly visualised, because, only now, are we beginning to appreciate the fact, that behavioural flexibility brought-about a vastly enlarged neurological apparatus for the storage of memory-traces. This facilitated the function of "recognition", as well as many motoric capabilities, and, last but not least, the faculty of conscious awareness. Yet, in spite of a vastly increased network of nerve-cell connections, the variety of circumstances an organism may have to react to, became so great, that the genetic code could not instruct the behaviourally flexible organism, with any precision, how to react in any one particular situation.

Because of the limitations associated with the genetic encoding of precise behavioural instructions in behaviourally flexible animals, behaviour-patterns became "genetically given" as an overall range rather than in the form of a detailed instruction. This overall range of behavioural reactions functioned then as a set of general guidelines and limits, where the specific adjustments in response to finer fluctuations in environmental circumstances were left to the behaving individual to decide.

This is the essence of behavioural flexibility, which reached a new level of evolutionary development, when proto-man, on the threshold of developing the capabilities of symbolic representation, started to experiment with a process of voluntary image-recall by imitations and gesticulations, and, later, by the far more rapid communication of somewhat arbitrary and stylised sound-symbols; speech.

We have discussed all these developments before, and, we are only recapitulating these aspects of evolution, in order to give ourselves a background from which we can discuss a more specific feature of the human personality.

We have also discussed the manner in which we refine intellectual concepts. This involves a slowly increasing precision of a concept by debate or dialogue, and, we apply the same methods, when we try to understand the nature of human emotions, moods or motivations. We are applying the tools of rational analysis and concept formation in an effort to understand, why we feel or behave in a certain way, under a specific set of circumstances.

However, this technique of conceptualisation is not really scientific in nature, because we do not try to design experiments, large questionnaires or polls, nor, any of the specific techniques of gathering data which are used by psychologists or sociologists. We are relying, primarily, on a method of introspection, or, rather, we rely on the correlation of broad and wide-ranging observations, together with an analysis of intuitive feelings and conclusions, which are, hopefully, based on a sound and rational understanding of scientific observations and conclusions. The validity of the opinions and conclusions will, therefore, depend, primarily, on the degree of recognition or rejection which these thoughts will eventually encounter, and, in this sense, the evaluation of its validity is, in essence, artistic.

The focus of our attention in this essay will be on the negative range. This is the defensive, anxious spectrum of our behaviour, which comes to the fore whenever we interpret the environmental stimuli as threatening. There are a great number of poorly defined, but, nevertheless, different moods, feelings and behaviour-patterns associated with a large variety of somewhat different circumstances, whenever our negative emotional range has come to the fore as a behavioural response or as some sort of an awareness.

It is useful, to remind ourselves, here, once again, about the reasons for the evolution of rational behaviour. We have seen, that nature's experiment with behavioural flexibility led to the need for a mechanism that was able to adjust the behaviour of the organism more precisely to local and temporary circumstances.

Genetic adaptations take place, slowly, and a finely tuned adaptation is only possible, if a particular ecological niche remains constant for a significant period of time. The mechanisms of natural selection have, then, an opportunity to shape a set of genetic instructions that is precisely adapted to a particular ecological niche.

As we know, such a precisely adapted organism is highly specialised in the range of its behavioural reactions. Even a minor change in the ecological circumstances will then pose a severe adaptative strain on the organism, or, rather, on this specifically adapted population of organisms, and, the threat of extinction is near. A highly adapted and specialised species has often lost a great deal of flexibility or "molding ability" of the genetic code, and, even, a minor change may require a degree of anatomical and physiological "re-tooling" of the organism that is beyond the capabilities of this particular genetic code or gene-pool.

In nature, there are many circumstances that vary so rapidly, that a precise genetic adaptation is impossible, especially, if we are dealing with large, multi-cellular animals. If the variations in environmental circumstances are cyclical and recur at predictable time-intervals, like seasons or tides, the genetic code can cope fairly well by incorporating a mechanism, or, a change in behaviour and appearance, allowing the organism to bridge a difficult but predictable period of time.

If the variations are random, however, the genetic code has no way of making use of many transient possibilities of existence, and, it is here, that we see the reasons, why nature started to experiment with the possibilities of a more flexible form of responding to specific circumstances.

If an organism could change its behavioural response according to the prevailing circumstances, making use of transient possibilities of existence and avoiding transient threats or difficulties, an organism, or, a population of organisms, could survive in areas or environments, where organisms with a more rigidly encoded form of behaviour could not.

While behavioural flexibility opens-up new vistas of existence possibilities, we should not forget, that, any natural experiment, any specialised development and every evolutionary road has its own price to pay, because behavioural flexibility means, also, that an organism begins to lose the availability of a precisely encoded, genetically sheltered pattern of behavioural instructions, which has been shaped over countless generations of evolutionary pressures. In stead, the organism is given a broad, overall range of behaviour, but, many of the details of a viable and necessary response are beginning to depend upon the perception and interpretation of local circumstances.

With the opening-up of new vistas of possibilities, we see, also, new vistas of perils. The requirements for a more sophisticated perception and analysis of environmental conditions are rising dramatically, and, the criteria of viability become now a shared responsibility; partially born by the genetic code, but, partially, it has become the responsibility of the actualised and living organisms of a species to find a viable response. These living members have to decide, from one moment to next, how to respond to a particular situation.

This idea is summarised in the concept of "behavioural fine-tuning", and, it leads in the human being, with its faculties of conscious awareness, to the experience and concept of a "free will". We will not discuss, here, in any detail, the aspects of the "free will", because we have done so before. We still see, that, very strong stimuli, which are existentially significant and lead to a life and death situation or decision, provoke the strongest emotional responses, and, it is clear, that these responses are relatively independent from, and poorly controled by, our rational faculties; e.g. a panic, a rage, etc.

Yet, away from these emotional extremes, we see an increasing level of control by our rational faculties over the inborn, instinctive, or emotional patterns of behaviour. In the zone of emotional near-neutrality, we see an almost exclusively rational form of behaviour, but, it is important to realise, that we never see a complete absence of emotionally or instinctively coloured patterns of behaviour. Our behaviour represents always a blend of these two great inputs of rationality and emotionality, and, this ever-varying mixture of emotionality and rationality is one of the reasons, why human behaviour is so extremely varied and complex.

.......

Chapter 4

Content

Rationality decreases as we slide further down the defensive scale.
The essence of "being depressed".
Paralysed by fear; a question of over-loading the central nervous system.
The panic-reaction; a useless form of agitated behaviour.
Alternating states of depression and hyper-activity.
The liability of a state of panic, hyper-activity, depression or paralysis.
Too stringent and thoughtless a form of self-discipline transforms us into robots, but, an insuffient level of self-discipline makes us into a whining and egocentric child.
The value of controled behaviour-patterns.
Learning to protect ourselves from attack and exploitation.
The strong personality.
Self-discipline, and the commercial interests.
Control, yes; suppression, no.
Oscillating rapidly, but gently, around the zone of emotional neutrality.
The attitude of "hope".
The practice of self-deception.
The emotional "ground-tone".
Why it is so difficult to grow-up into happy adulthood in a confused society.
The "saving grace" of working hard towards a long-term goal.
We need an elusive balance between achievement and failure.
Smouldering ghettos.
The wounds of chronic injustice.
The value of reflective thought.
A sense of sadness.
A few personal reflections.

We have covered, rather quickly, the basic concepts of the human personality, seen from an evolutionary point of view, but, we acknowledge, that, many questions about human behaviour have not even been touched upon. Elsewhere, we have discussed the human personality more extensively, but, we should keep in mind, that we are still in an era of exploration, because many concepts still have to be widely accepted throughout the living generations of mankind.

We have discussed, before, how the creation of a globally acceptable reality image of ourselves is one of the most ambitious but urgently needed projects we can undertake at this point in time, in our social and evolutionary history. Slowly a composite picture of the human personality is beginning to emerge, and, this image may, eventually, be stylised and condensed into a more easily comprehensible and digestible form, but, until we have reached this stage, we will have to reconcile ourselves to the idea, that a great deal of hard conceptual work has to be done.

If we look at the defensive range of human behaviour, we see, clearly, that the component of rationality diminishes, as we come closer to the extreme ends of this spectrum of defensive behaviour-patterns. From a mild caution or slight uneasiness, we progress through a gradually mounting feeling of anxiety, until we reach the stages of panic or extreme depression.

It is interesting to note, that the words "panic" and "depression" emphasise two contrasting forms of behaviour, in spite of the fact, that both are a result of severely negative, threatening or harmful pressures upon an organism. In panic, we see a state of intense activity that is nearly always ineffective and does not alleviate the pressures or stresses of the moment.

Here, we see a good example of the failure and inadequacy of stereo-typed behaviour-patterns for behaviourally flexible animals. These patterns represent an old inheritance, and, they have been shaped by genetic instructions. Behaviour-patterns with a component of rational fine-tuning are far more beneficial, especially, for the human being, compared to the reaction-patterns at either end of the emotional scale.

In a severely depressed state, we see an almost total absence of any behavioural reaction-patterns. The individual appears paralysed, but, in our common use of the word "depression", we limit its meaning to the more introspective and specifically human aspects of negative feelings and gloomy experiences.

However, a more physiological interpretation of the mechanisms involved, can give us valuable information during our attempts to understand ourselves, especially, when we are driven, for one reason or another, into a highly defensive attitude or mood. It is, indeed, curious to note, how the extreme range of defensive behaviour can show, either a frantic, poorly coordinated and highly ineffective profusion of activities, or, a near-motionless state, where the organism seems to be incapable of formulating any sort of response.

Actually, this is, indeed, the crux of the matter. In such an extreme situation of defensive agitation, the neurological and mental systems of the organism are "over-loaded", and, they are unable to come-up with any sort of appropriate response. This is the reason, why the response may manifest itself in ceaseless but ineffective movements, or, as an absence of all movements.

In essence, the physiological conditions of the organism are very similar in these apparently contrasting conditions, but, it seems, that the paralysed state can easier revert to an effective and coordinated response than the true panic reaction. It may well be, that being paralysed by fear is one step short from a completely uncontroled panic.

I realise, that we usually reserve the term "panic" for the incoordinated and uninhibited reactions of a group of people, but, I do not see any reason to isolate the concept of a panic-reaction to a group. It is true, that, the frantic activities, associated with a stage of extreme fear, seem to arise somewhat easier, when emotional synchrony can sweep the level of anxiety into a feverish pitch, but, there are many examples, where an isolated individual can fall prey to this ceaseless, uncontrollable and senseless hyperactivity.

In psychiatric terms, it is more common to speak about "hyper-activity", or "extreme agitation", rather than panic, when we see this type of behaviour in an individual. The field of psychopathology has recognised, for a long time, that people may swing between extremely active or agitated states, and, periods of extreme apathy, lethargy or depression.

We should remind ourselves, that the terminology is somewhat confusing, because, in psychiatric parlance, there is a tendency to see the alternating hyper-active and depressed states as opposites of a spectrum. I prefer to see them as manifestations of a severe anxiety, or state of defensiveness, well down the negative scale, and, the oscillations between hyper-activity and absence of motion represent more an apparent than a real contrast, especially, when we look at the mechanisms at work within an organism.

Man has recognised, for a long time, that the extremes of emotional behaviour are unproductive, and, every society, be it large or small, be it a nation with its cultural guidelines or the sensible parent as a leader of the family nucleus, has curbed these emotional extremes with a certain element of vigor.

Sensible parents restrain the unbridled manifestations of all emotions, and, they reward a calm, rational control with an attitude of subtle respect. Every healthy society does the same, and, we see, that a tolerance or exploitation of less restrained forms of emotional behaviour, be it in violence, panic or sexual excitement, leads, quickly, to social chaos, an atmosphere of weakness, as well as a dangerous rise in social tensions.

We need restraint, just as we need, on occasion, an outlet for built-up tensions. We need to learn the value of control and self-discipline, just as we need to learn to relax, and, to be aware of the emotional mechanisms that take place in ourselves and other people.

Too stringent and thoughtless a form of control or self-discipline will make us into non-understanding robots, but, an insufficient level of self-discipline reduces us to a whining, spoiled and egocentric child.

Self-discipline refers to a variety of attitudes and actions we can adopt, and, we have discussed, here, a rather specific form. We have discussed the fact, that we can control with our voluntary "will", at least, to some extent, the level of anxiety or excitement we are subjected to, and, the "will" functions, then, as a means to prevent wild emotional swings. The will dampens our emotional oscillations, and, this is one specific form of self-discipline.

Some people are so successful with this type of control over their emotions, that they seem to deviate hardly ever from the emotionally neutral zone. While they are sometimes accused of being insensitive and un-feeling people, this is rarely the case. The discerning individual will see under the veneer of outward calm a highly sensitive intelligence, and, often, a quietly compassionate attitude of understanding.

Do not lightly dismiss such an attitude as dull or useless, because this controled, self-disciplined sensitivity allows us to tune our behaviour, most precisely, in accordance with the prevailing circumstances. Those self-disciplined individuals, quietly effective and unobtrusive in their accomplishments, form the backbone of every social environment, and, rarely, do they abuse their intelligence for egocentric purposes.

Certainly, intelligent and efficient people are sensitive to the needs of their own existence, but, they have learned to control their egocentric tendencies, as well as their emotional swings, and, they are too intelligent and too much aware of the trappings associated with a ruthless attitude of opportunism, to let themselves be goaded into such thoughtless and exploitative behaviour.

Yet, self-discipline has other aspects as well. Probably, the most obvious reason for excercising a measure of self-discipline is the realisation, that we can minimise our vulnerability to attack or exploitation, whenever we have learned to curb our desires and instincts. In doing so, we lessen, not only, the chances of conflict with others, whenever our desires and instincts infringe upon the interests and rights of someone else, but, we become less gullible, less vulnerable to exploitation and deceit, if we learn to control our passions and acquisitive drives.

True, the primary motivation for adopting an attitude of self-discipline is the experience, or insight, that we benefit from such a stance. We realise, that we become stronger personalities, and, that we are more easily accepted by others, but, the real gain lies in the possibilities of understanding opened-up with an attitude of self-discipline.

We learn to accept, that the reason for failing to achieve what we set-out to do, may be, at least, partially, a result of our own faults and short-comings, and, we begin to avoid the ever-present temptation to blame someone else for our failures. Self-discipline leads to self-knowledge and a greater level of understanding of others, as well as human nature in general. We become more thoughtful, and, because of the increased ease of our existence, we have more time and energy to think about problems that are a little further removed from our personal concerns.

Doomed is the individual who succumbs to the temptation of unbridled self-gratification in times of prosperity, and, doomed are the indulgent, affluent societies that allow rampant egocentric and commercial interests to pervert the attitudes of their citizens by constantly appealing to their instincts for immediate gratification.

It is sad to see, to what extent the virtue of self-discipline is disappearing from the vocabulary and attitudes of affluent people. Sure, it survives here and there, in isolated pockets, usually on the basis of a religious outlook on life, or the unspoiled simplicity of a frugal life in the country-site, but, by and large, the affluent family, the well-educated individual, as well as the socially conscious achievers have been brain-washed into believing, that self-discipline is an archaic and stultifying attitude, which our modern, liberated philosophies of consumption and entertainment have made obsolete.

The attitudes of frugality and self-discipline are laughed at, in particular, by the sophisticated and clever merchants of entertainment and excitement, because they realise, very well, that the attitude of self-discipline is their most serious enemy.

Heaven forbid, that the people would re-discover the virtues of self-discipline, because it would ruin their empires built on titillation and indulgence. It would be a disaster for most modern writers, if the people would go back to the old-fashioned virtues of decency and self-discipline, because many of them have staked their livelyhood on the expectation, that people will continue to read their "shocking" vulgarities that pass as sophisticated entertainment.

What exactly happens, when we excercise self-discipline? First of all, it allows us to survey the overall and long-term consequences of our goals, which may have been set, largely, by our instinctive drives or emotional desires.

Certainly, by far the most efficient way to curb excessively egocentric goal patterns is a strong inhibitory influence, or "taboo", from our social environment, but, if we are able to control our desires ourselves, we see, immediately, a gain in the level of our intelligence. Then, we are not blinded, anymore, by forbidden desires, but, we are able to think through all the consequences of our behaviour, whenever we would give-in to an impulse.

On occasion, our self-control may become stifling, and, we may become afraid to follow any of our instinctive or emotional impulses. As always, the extremes of every spectrum of behaviour are less viable and less desirable than the optimum, middle range.

While we advocate a measure of control over our emotions and impulses, we certainly do not advocate their suppression. Sometimes, it is easier to suppress an instinct, or emotion which is somewhat frightening to us, than to control it, but, the real solution is to learn to control an emotional impulse, and yet, recognise and utilise all the valuable aspects of such an emotional impulse.

We know, now, that a certain measure of control over our emotional impulses keeps us closer to the zone of emotional neutrality, and, consequently, our rational faculties are better able to design a highly refined and appropriate response. If we are not too far away from this zone of emotional neutrality, it is easier to regain our sense of confidence, which belongs to the positive zone, and, we see, clearly, how we tend to oscillate, fairly rapidly, but gently, around this zone of emotional neutrality, as mildly defensive and mildly encouraging stimuli are assessed and recorded, nearly constantly and simultaneously.

Then, we summarise our attitudes in terms of "cautious optimism" or "guarded confidence", indicating an awareness of this mix of slightly defensive and slightly aggressive or confidence-inspiring sense impressions.

We should not forget, that sense impressions and behavioural responses follow each other rapidly. The results of a behavioural response have an immediate influence upon the way we interpret the continuous stream of sense impressions, and, the way we judge the significance of these sense impressions influences, to a significant extent, the type of response we select as the most appropriate under the circumstances.

If we receive a series of sense impressions indicating that we are facing a problem or a pressure, (which, if left unchecked, may become more serious), we will find ourselves somewhat on the defensive. If we have a reasonable measure of self-control or self-discipine, we know, that it is foolish to give-in to the temptation to bring us out of this somewhat defensive situation by ignoring the problem.

Unfortunately, it is a very common attitude to try to solve a problem by distorting sense impressions, and, by suppressing the disturbing or embarrassing evidence that is associated with these impressions. We will later discuss, how this distortion relates to the common defense mechanisms of the attitude of "hope".

If experience, far-sightedness and a measure of self-discipline have taught us, that we are better of by tackling the problem seriously and decisively, now, while the problem is still small, we will do so, and, we will find in a majority of cases, that the problem is rather simple, even, if it requires a little effort or some sort of sacrifice.

For example, if we have entangled ourselves financially by borrowing a little more than we should have, or, if our relationships with other people have become somewhat strained, because we have not been entirely candid or forthright, or, if we have become emotionally entangled to the point, that we are endangering our family and marital relationships, in all these examples, as well as numerous others, we are slowly being driven into a defensive attitude, and, the most efficient and only permanent solution is to make hard and difficult decisions, which may cost us a serious effort, as well as a measure of embarrassment.

The temptation is always there to "patch-up" a situation, hide behind slight "inaccuracies", or, a slightly dishonest relationship or communication. While such a solution may temporarily ease the situation, the web gets thicker, and, we are likely to entangle ourselves ever further.

Self-discipline is invaluable to come to real solutions and reduce our vulnerability, as well as the likelyhood that we will hurt others. Those behavioural responses, which would lead to feelings of guilt and a loss of self-respect, can only lead us further away from a permanent solution, and, these behaviour-patterns will lead us further up the scale of anxiety and depression. If we devise a behavioural response that really solves the problem, we become more confident and less vulnerable, and, our perceptions will slowly return to a more neutral zone as well.

However, some of us live with a near-constant filter of anxiety, which colours all feelings, sense impressions and behavioural choices with a defensive or anxious under-tone, and, often, we are at a loss to explain such a persistent bias in our emotional under-tone or "ground-tone". Such a persistent emotional bias, which occurs, most often, as a bias into the defensive or anxious range, is not due to a series of well-defined, negative experiences which have occurred in the recent past, or, are taking place in the present, but this bias is due to a poorly defined set of experiences in the far distant and largely forgotten past, where an unfortunate childhood may have damaged, perhaps, permanently, the normal balance between positive and negative evaluations.

We have elaborated these mechanisms before, and, we will only refer to them briefly, here. It may be, that genetic factors play a role as well. The organism may, indeed, have a genetically weak physical and mental constitution, which may be perceived, quite accurately, as a permanent and inborn vulnerability by the individual in question. These people will stay low on the hierarchical "pecking order", but the weakness may be more imagined than real, and, then, we enter the field of psychopathology.

It is not clear, at the present time, whether a persistently distorted bias in perceptions is due to traumatic experiences early in life, or, the result of a defective mechanism, based on a genetic fault; or, perhaps, on a combination of both. The influence and effectiveness of self-discipline is less apparent in distortions of the emotional bias or ground-tone, because the bias is so strong and so persistent, and, yet, so poorly amenable to rationalisation and insight, that the mechanisms of rational evaluation and will-power are insufficient to control them.

These people are, indeed, vulnerable creatures, but, occasionally, they make a highly valuable contribution to society, in spite of their severe handicap, because they may become gifted artists, who are able to contribute to society as a result of their high level of sensitivity in a specific area of human endeavour.

For us, average and ordinary people, self-discipline is a valuable tool to dampen our emotional swings, as well as our most blatantly egocentric attitudes, and, this tool helps us greatly to learn and understand what human life is all about. However, most of our long-term goals are not simply aroused by a primary instinct, and, many of our problems are not just due to an unwise management of finances, relationships or personal habits. Many of us have to learn to live with serious failures, chronic frustrations, and long-term ambitions that will never be realised.

How full of enthousiasm and vigour were we in our fortunate youth, and, we see this energy and idealism still mirrored in the vitality of our healhty youngsters, but, we know, that, they, too, will have to go through many disappointments, or, even, more serious mental crises, before they reach maturity. We know, that some of them, for no apparent reason or purpose, will be taken-away by accident, illness or suicide.

We know, how many failures and heart-breaking disillusions will have to be endured by these youngsters, but, we also know, how empty their victories and achievements may turn-out to be. This seems to be one of the most profound ironies of human existence; we are able, and willing, to channel a fantastic amount of energy and dedication into the achievement of a goal or ideal, only to see the value of this goal evaporate, as soon as we come close to it.

Some of us are apparently oblivious to the odds against success, and, we load upon our shoulders the near-certainty of failure by not being realistic about the circumstances of our existence, and our powers of realisation. Yet, even, if we succeed, we are not prepared for the fact, that, after a few heady moments of triumph and success, life goes on, and, we seem to be back where we started; on the road towards another goal, another achievement, another triumph, and the routine of hard work and constant self-discipline becomes, then, almost a comforting routine, interrupted, now and then, by a bitter disappointment, or a sweet moment of success.

While we learn from our moments of triumph, how transient success really is, and, how difficult it is to answer questions about the meaning or purpose of all our efforts, we also learn, that it is dangerous and disrupting to experience only failures, and, to miss always this final moment of victory and achievement.

Only, if we are successful, at least, once in a while, can we appreciate the relative value of our goals and efforts. If we only experience failure, we are likely to become obsessed with success and power of any kind, and, we may become a threat and danger for others, or, for the society at large. This may happen, when we, finally, achieve a short but sweet taste of victory, as we grab power and attention in a daring act of criminal violence.

We seem to need an elusive balance between achievement and failure, victory and defeat. While it is highly unlikely, if not impossible, for a human being never to experience defeat, it certainly is possible for many forgotten and forlorn youngsters to taste a depressing succession of failures, or, to taste success exclusively in anti-social attitudes and criminal activities.

Most of us are so busy looking after our own well-being, that we have no time to look seriously at these smouldering ghettos of seething frustrations and criminal activities, until we are surprised and shaken out of our complacent doldrums by a violent eruption of chronic frustration and hatred.

Perhaps, the greatest frustration and sense of chronic failure comes, when we are subjected to a persistent form of unjust treatment. Chronic injustice leads, eventually, to a violent rebellion, unless the injustice is so severe and repressive, that life ebbs-away into a dull, sub-human perception of reality. People live, then, in such poverty, ignorance and depravity, that, only a vague feeling of unhappiness permeates their existence, barely reaching a level of conscious verbalisation or articulation.

However, most of us are more fortunate, and, most of us experience a sufficient level of failure and frustration to make us aware of the transience of life and our achievements. We may, then, become aware of the remarkable similarities between people with their diverging and conflicting interests. Yet, most of us have experienced a sufficient level of success, encouragement and security to avoid the bitter cynicisms of the perpetually frustrated individual, and, we are fortunate enough to have avoided the obsessions and neurotic fixations that come with an unending series of failures.

Reflection, or, rather, the tendency to reflect and re-evaluate the situation we are in, or, more broadly, the situation our society and the world around us seems to be in, is based on an experience or sense of failure. We are looking for a way to overcome difficulties in our goal-patterns, or, we are vaguely searching for an attitude, or a way of looking at life, which may disperse this feeling of uneasiness, chronic depressiveness, or melancholic sadness. These feelings may persist for no good reason at all, in spite of apparently optimum circumstances.

Is such a feeling of melancholy and sadness nothing more than a vague feeling of self-pity, or, is it an expression of restlessness and boredom with a perfect but somewhat dull condition of security and success? Is this feeling a sign of indulgence, a lack of self-discipline, or, a lack of awareness, how well-off we are, and, how much worse it could be?

Probably, there is some truth in all these considerations, and, if we ever would feel seriously unhappy, we would have become neurotic and spoiled in our position of security and affluence, but, if we use this vague sense of uneasiness and melancholy as a spur to search for new answers, new ideas, new attitudes, as well as a new avenue to create something we believe in and find beautiful, then, such a feeling may be highly productive and stimulating.

Perhaps, this vague sense of sadness may be present in spite of optimum living conditions, because we feel, that we are wasting time. We may feel, that we are becoming somewhat complacent; that our energies are ebbing-away by a combination of continuous comfort and a gradually advancing age. We become more set in our ways, less flexible in our thinking, and, there is, perhaps, an uneasy feeling, that ambitious plans will come to nothing.

We may become quickly aware of the fact, that time is running-out; not only because of the inescapable logic, that, every day, we have come a day closer to the moment of death, but, we may also realise, more and more vividly, that our later years are becoming less and less productive. We seem to suffer from increasingly larger and more frequent "blank spells", where the mind is empty and stale, while there used to be such a turmoil of ideas, waiting impatiently and fighting for a chance to become written-down on a piece of paper.

Perhaps, our sadness may be due to the vague feeling, that the people in our environment do not really appreciate our somewhat esoteric and nebulous efforts. We would like the opportunity to meet someone, who understands these ideas perfectly, and, who would be willing and able to enter, immediately, into a spirited debate about any of the many ideas we have been living with for such a long time. But, then, we wake-up from these dreams, and, we realise, that it is impossible to find such a person, and, that we will just have to express our ideas patiently and clearly on paper, in order to give the younger generations a chance to look at them.

On the other hand, we notice, from time to time, how, to our surprise, an idea may be thrown back at us by someone we have been talking to frequently. This indicates, that, at least, some of the ideas have found a fertile soil and are starting to grow. As for the "ideal debater"? One of these days, I will be able to "create" him or her, and we will have a spirited dialogue, on paper.

Perhaps, these melancholic moods are a reflection of the sadness we feel, when we see a culture being poisoned by the pernicious forces of greed and commercial exploitation. It is sad to see fine people, and, especially, potentially healthy youngsters, whose genetic code is, still unaffected by pollution and radiation, to see such a potentially healthy generation of young people grasp and grope for meaning; without guidance, fragmented and confused, because we, the older generations, have allowed our cultural code to wither-away for the sake of the television commercial and the "fast buck".

It is sad to see conflicts arise, time and again, because of the same mechanisms of ignorance and primitive anxiety which prompted the prophets of biblical times to raise their voices. What have we really learned during all those centuries, or, am I too gloomy? Is my emotional bias too strongly coloured in the negative range to answer this question with a few positive thoughts?

Yes, I do feel a sense of frustration and sadness, because I know, that it is not necessary for people to be so brain-washed by commercial greed or religious fraud. Certainly, there is religious fraud, because, on many occasions, the high ideals and lofty morals of Christianity are exploited by commercially oriented preachers, who are teaching a gospel of Christ any way the congregation wants to hear it; as long as they are willing to pay their dues.

Fraud is everywhere around us, but, it goes largely unrecognised, and, the more society crumbles under the weakening effects of fraud and corruption, the more strident and self-righteous the people and their leaderships seem to become. We are becoming so defensive, so chronically anxious as a society, that we lose, increasingly, the ability to see the good points in a life-style or a philosophy that is different from our own.

We think, that we are the heirs and guardians of the Christian Faith, and, I suspect, that a good many righteous Christians would not hesitate to throw nuclear bombs at those Anti-Christs, the Communists; all for the love of their God!

We champion freedom of expression and human rights, without knowing the perils of chaos, or the price of human obligations. We despise the dictatorship of the Social Dogma, but, we turn a blind eye to the dictatorship of the commercial enterprise. Perhaps, I am saddened, because I know, that people will not listen to me. They can not listen to me, because, if they would agree, the catastrophic collapse of our affluent societies would be hastened.

Yet, I am not saying, that our people are any worse than the peoples in those countries that seem to have a better balance between human rights and obligations, between consumption and self-discipline, between health and self-indulgence. People are people, and, they may become magnificent and responsible citizens, or, they may become anxious, frightened, self-centered and ignorant members of a decaying and confused social environment.

Perhaps, I am too gloomy. Perhaps, our society can regain control over the powerful commercial interests, as well as over our own gluttonous attitudes. Perhaps, I see things too melancholic or "black-biled", and, I do not want to leave the impression, that I glorify the societies based on Dogmatic Socialism. I do not believe that Dogmatic Socialism would be any better equipped to handle affluence than the Capitalist societies, because, ironically, for many Socialist societies, our level of material affluence is still one of their major, long-term objectives.

Perhaps, I am not really all that sad to live where I live, and, to live in our times, and, I was certainly happy to have witnessed the little, healthy and athletic girl with the tears in her eyes, who came from a country, where self-discipline is obviously alive and well, as we see, so clearly, in the number of medals they took at the recent Winter Olympics.

.......

Chapter 5

Content

Anger and anxiety caused by insecurity.
The leader who is losing his support.
A review of leadership mechanisms.
The jungle of international relations.
The temptation to grab and hold-on to power by force.
Increasing anxieties.
Social decay; a variety of mechanisms.
The need for sound fiscal principles.
We all have to learn to live within our means.
Missiles sitting powerless in their silos.

It is certainly possible for fanatic, unstable and self-righteous people to obtain power, by military force or electoral victory. They may use this power, eventually, to unleash a nuclear war against what they perceive to be an utterly evil enemy. "Our side" of the global balance of power seems to be more on the defensive, than it has been for a long time, and, I believe, that the inexorable decay of our weakened societies will be a direct cause for belligerent posturing and unsophisticated behaviour-patterns, by leaders and peoples alike. Certainly, this is quite a common and understandable reaction, but it is nevertheless a frightening prospect because of the type and quantity of weapons available on both sides.

Let us look at the mechanisms and behaviour-patterns of a leader, who is in danger of losing his position of power and dominance. The weakening of a leadership position and the erosion of a leader's sense of security may have "natural causes", such as the ageing of an established leader, and the growing vigour of younger challengers. With the decline in physical powers, the leader has also become set in his ways, and, often, somewhat complacent and insensitive to the need to seek continued support from the other members of the group.

Even the leader of a small group of socially integrated animals requires a measure of support from his followers. If this support melts away, and, if the members come, intuitively, to the conclusion, that they are not benefitting anymore from the leader's leadership, they will start to resist his efforts to maintain his position. More members begin to support a rival leader, who is gaining in confidence and authority, and, eventually, the rival will challenge the older leader to a fight.

The mechanisms of leadership succession in the human societies are very similar in nature, in spite of the fact, that, we have a much more varied way of contesting or defending a leadership position. These mechanisms range from popular acclaim, all the way through intrigue, deceit, flattery, conspiracy and assassination, but, sometimes, the process of leadership succession has been transformed into an orderly method of democratic elections, where every member of society has been given the right to vote for the candidate of his or her choice.

Yet, we see, in essence, the same reasons for the gradual weakening of a leader, or, anyone, who is in a vulnerable position of prominence. There are always other people who would like to occupy this position of privilege and prestige, and, the challenger is, therefore, never far away. In an open and healthy society, a leader or prominent figure will have to show, from time to time, why he or she is still the right person for this position, and, here, we see the importance of the factor of public support.

If a leadership has gained access to power by force, e.g., a military coup, it is logical, that the maintenance of this position of power will shift to the mechanisms of force and intimidation. Even so, the military dictator needs, at least, a measure of popular support, primarily, from his soldiers and officers, but, also, from the society at large, otherwise, his tenure will become frustrated and nearly impossible.

If the population of a society has been polarised into highly antagonistic factions, a dictatorship will be much easier to maintain, because the leader may woo one segment of the population, which, together with the armed forces and its monopoly over the economic resources of the country, is then in a position to dominate and exploit the more impoverished segments of the population.

Human rights disappear. Brutality, intimidation, and, even, torture and assassination become the primary mechanisms of control. We see, then, a reign of terror, but, often, the rest of the world turns a blind eye towards these atrocities, while dealing blandly with the leadership in power.

Under the false doctrine of "complete non-interference in each other's affairs", the people are left to suffer under a brutal regime, in particular, when an oppressive leadership has been persuaded or bribed into cooperating with the major, powerful nations in its neighbourhood. Only in retrospect, are we able to see, what has happened, because the peoples of the world are largely kept in the dark about the events that are taking place in a society with an oppressive regime.

It is tragic, and highly unjust, if a nation supports a dictatorial regime in another nation, especially, if such support is based on the cooperation with, and support for, the national interests of powerful neighbours. For the sake of obtaining raw materials, oil and other essential commodities, or strategic advantages, dictatorships are being kept in power, and, the people are suffering as a result. The responsibility for the persistence of oppression, poverty and all sorts of injustices lies as much with supportive neighbours, as with the oppressive regime itself.

Yet, let us return to the mechanisms and behavioural reactions that take place, when a position of authority is being challenged. As we have seen, such a development is, nearly always, due to ageing or weakening of the leader, together with the growth in vigour and boldness of younger rivals. The mechanisms of weakening may not be primarily physical, however. Complacency, indulgence, insensitivity, as well as the temptation to become more capricious, tyrannical or intimidating, are hallmarks of a weakening mind, and, these mechanisms contribute to a sense of alienation.

In a way, this trend represents the essence of corruption, just as it is corrupt to abuse a position of privilege for egocentric gains, and, to forget the responsibilities and objectives of a leadership position. All these mechanisms are messengers of decay, and, the rivals are quietly biding their time for an opportunity to challenge and topple such a weakened leadership.

The temptation to hold-on to power by a reign of terror, or, in less extreme circumstances, by favouritisms, bribes, or, conniving alliances that accentuate the purpose of personal security, all these elements indicate a gradual rise in the defensiveness of a leadership.

Here, we see a good example, how a reaction to a threat or a difficulty can be answered by a truly effective and sensible response. If an individual in a position of leadership or prominence can bring him- or herself to carry-out a truly appropriate and definitive response to the mounting difficulties, such a course of action will bring the individual back into a zone of emotional neutrality, or confident security, while a patch-work response, a postponement of difficult decisions, or measures of a self-disciplinary nature, only serve to aggravate the situation, driving an individual increasingly onto the defensive scale.

Often, an individual in a position of prominence or leadership becomes thoroughly confused by the conflicting pressures upon its decision-making processes, and, such an individual does not know, anymore, what to do. The overall meaning and understanding of leadership requirements have disappeared, or were never fully developed. A leadership may function quite well for a while, as it draws on its intuitive wisdoms and natural talents, but, in times of severe crises, these talents often run dry, and the leader begins a cumulative series of inadequate reactions and decisions, which lead to a rise in anxiety, injustice and suffering.

Even, if leaders are not able to express, in conceptually precise and clear terms, what the overall functions and requirements are for a successful and just leadership, I am convinced, that, every natural leader has a good intuitive judgement about these matters, and, he knows, deep in his heart, whether or not a certain decision or action is right and just; whether or not his activities are the beginning of a submission to egocentric pressures and anxieties.

Once a leader has chosen the road of an egocentric defensiveness, the stage is set for a disastrous decline in the quality of leadership behaviour, and, the mechanisms of social decay, corruption, incidences of injustice, as well as a build-up to civil strife, have, once again, been set into motion.

Even, if the leadership and the mechanisms of succession have been safeguarded from the most serious forms of corruption and decay by Constitutional Guidelines, it is still possible, that the nation or society becomes complacent, lazy and unwilling to work innovatively. Affluence lies at the root of such a weakening effect upon the society as a whole, because people become accustomed to a soft and luxurious life-style and, they are, in essence, unable to earn this life-style with hard work and an attitude of self-discipline.

A society that begins to rely upon a continuous influx of imported goods becomes weak and vulnerable, just as it becomes vulnerable, if it has to rely on a foreign source of energy or a continuous influx of capital investments from abroad. As a result of increasingly egocentric attitudes, the level of internal disruptions rises, strikes increase, workmanship declines, people feel deceived and exploited, and, a few of the more intelligent members realise, vaguely, that they are contributing to the decline of society by participating, out of necessity, in these polarising mechanisms of deception and exploitation.

The larger corporations begin to dominate the outlook and attitudes of the people in affluent, Capitalist societies. The value of money begins to fluctuate, and, often, to devaluate. The trust in governments and their institutions is undermined, and, wealth begins to accumulate into isolated pockets of corporate holdings or private assets. A majority of the people become entrapped in a life-style of chronic indebtedness, wasteful consumptive habits, as well as a constant feeling of insecurity. They are powerless to do anything about their predicament. Drug and alcohol abuse rises, patriotism becomes a shrill and confused ideal, but, people are still easily goaded onto the battlefields, either because of a lack of employment or a facile trust in a "social saviour".

The high levels of anxiety and confusion are reflected in the attitudes of the leadership. The nation has lost its proudly independent and dominant position, but it is still not willing or able to admit it. The more anxious and defensive we are, the less we can afford to admit to ourselves, that we are failing. The nation and its leadership become frustrated as it has to look-on, helplessly, without any effective response, when other countries begin to encroach upon its interests. The nation becomes helpless and humiliated, if a small number of its citizens are taken hostage in a foreign nation, and, it is seen to be helpless and indecisive in the spotlight of international attention that has been focussed upon this drama, week after week, month after month.

It is not surprising, that a leadership begins to make idle threats and unenforcible ultimata, whenever it is becoming anxious and defensive. As prestige and self-confidence are crumbling, a nation and its leadership are forced to "put up a front", and, just as an animal will suddenly turn-on its predator in a desperate last stance, so can a society that has been driven into a corner, easily unleash a desperate war.

Threats and irresponsible rethoric only serve to underscore the weakness of a nation and its leadership. Respect declines, and, rivals are encouraged to challenge the authority or sphere of influence of a declining nation in ever bolder moves. Slowly, the nation becomes a focus of ridicule, in spite of its many good intentions and its massive aid programs.

Yet, the people and their leaders are so emotional in their reactions, and, they are so ignorant in their attitudes, largely as a result of a constant commercial bias, that they are unable to see themselves somewhat more objectively; as others see them. Here, we see the incalculable value of self-discipline, and, the tragedy of every affluent nation is the fact, that, prosperity and easy living conditions always undermine the insight and willingness of people to excercise a measure of restraint or self-discipline.

What does one have to do, if one lives beyond one's means? One has to cut back, save, and work hard to pay-off debts, because, as long as there is a debt to pay, earnings and productivity will be drained by a combination of interest payments and debt repayments. If such basic principles of sound management apply to an ordinay individual, why should it be any different for us collectively? As a result of our ignorance in economic matters, we still believe, that governments can "print" their way out of a debt.

Certainly, the phenomenon of inflation encourages the practice of borrowing money, because one can pay the lender back with devalued monies. Often, one is able to borrow more than one pays back, because, in spite of interest payments, the devaluation of a currency means, that the repaid value is less than the borrowed value.

As long as governments are not able, or willing, to curb inflation or eradicate it completely by guaranteeing a constant value for their currencies, there will be no incentive to live within our means, but, by borrowing more and more, and, by paying foreigners large sums of money for the products upon wich we have become dependent, we enslave ourselves to these foreign interests. We enslave ourselves to the large corporations, and, we sell-off our country and industries to foreign investors, bit by bit.

Unless we return to sound fiscal principles, the spiral of inflation, impoverishment and financial entrapment will continue to escalate. Unless governments ackowledge their responsibility to guarantee, once again, the value of their currencies, people will rightly sense, that they are being deceived and penalised for their efforts to save and be frugal. Unless we learn to see, that we all have to curb our egocentric instincts and desires, the level of suspicion and mutual hostility will continue to rise, and, we will be incapable to avoid a disastrous collapse.

Unless we learn to see, that, fiscal responsibility should not be limited to curbing the powers of labour-unions, or to freeze the wages of ordinary people, such a policy of fiscal restraint will continue to be looked upon as a ploy by the rich to get richer.

Fiscal restraint, means, an iron-clad guarantee of the stability of money; a balanced budget, regardless of the price; a completely fair and progressive taxation upon all types of earnings, including inventory and property appreciation, holdings, and all sorts of financial gains and earnings, etc.

Fiscal restraint, means, a swift and efficient retirement of the national, provincial and municipal debts, as well as all personal debts. It means, controled interest-rates for short-term borrowing, the elimination of useless products and jobs, as well as a serious attempt to shift into a life-style of frugal conservation, backed by a universal guarantee of a minimum standard of living.

"Utopian nonsense", you will say, "because in these sweeping statements you do not spell-out, how such a radical transformation of fiscal and taxation policies can be accomplished. We have discussed, frequently, the ways and means by which such a transition can be accomplished, and, we will not repeat the arguments, here. It can be done, and, it has to be done, if we want a world with more justice and less tensions.

We have to have complete openness in society; in particular, we have to have complete openness about financial matters, business assets, holdings, incomes, etc. We can only expect our neighbour to go along with austerity measures, if he can verify for himself, that we all are contributing our fair share to the efforts that are needed to put our house in order. We should stop blaming each other for the problems we are facing. We are on a dead-end road, if we think, that we can have effective austerity by curbing the powers of those segments in society we do not identify with, and, we are deluding ourselves, if we think, that we can solve all the problems of society by taking-over the assets of the rich, multi-national corporations.

We have to learn, once again, what it means to live within our means, and, we have to learn, once more, that the restoration of a situation of justice has to be done within our means. We have to learn, that we have to make a comparable effort in return for the products we buy. We can not continue to remain dependent upon foreign supplies, if we want to have a say in the world. We can not continue to live in affluent and abundant luxuries, while a significant portion of the world population lives in poverty and under-privileged conditions. We are deluding ourselves, if we think, that the rest of the world is going to continue to allow the existence of a few pockets of overheated consumption, while it is becoming aware of the gigantic injustices that still exist.

Let us not delude ourselves in thinking, that the poorer nations can get what they want, if they are willing to work hard for it. Most, if not all people who are living in poverty, work already far harder, than we, in our affluent societies, and, the greatest part of our affluence does not come from our own "hard work", but from a reckless rate of depletion of natural resources and the exploitation of the poorer nations.

It is a serious error to think that we will not be seriously challenged, as long as we have our inter-continental nuclear missiles, because injustice and desperation will, eventually, find a way to hold us thoroughly to ransom, while our missiles are sitting powerless in their silos.

.......

Chapter 6

Content

An anxious affluence.
The zone of rational behaviour.
Art, and the zone of emotional neutrality.
Finding happiness in religious attitudes and beliefs.
A number of questions and objections.
It is not useful to describe a position as right or wrong; it is more useful to recognise the conditions under which a certain point of view becomes valid.
Why we want to be in the emotionally positive zone.
When religious view-points and attitudes are valid.
Charity is, in essence, an outmoded attitude.
Natural ethics.
The place of artistic endeavour.
In arts and sports, it is possible to exist in the emotionally positive zone without hurting anyone.
The conditions necessary for this to be the case.
The rules of fair and open competition.
Draw-backs for science and technology, when coloured by emotional attitudes.
A rational diagnosis, and therapy, for the problems of man and his societies.
Justice for all, and a state of peaceful co-existence.

It is unlikely, that the affluent nations will change their wasteful and consumptive habits voluntarily. The level of suspicion and mistrust is still rising, as well as the disparities between the rich and the poor. The processes of social decay and fragmentation are going to continue, and, our leaders will be continuing their shrill rethoric, but, there is always the danger, that anxieties and hostilities rise to the point that a violent confrontation is likely to break-out. Such a war will, most likely, be fought with nuclear, as well as conventional weapons.

We all know, that the chaos and destruction of a nuclear war will be unimaginable, and, that the viability of mankind may be seriously endangered by such a holocaust. We want to do everything we can to avoid such a disastrous act of desperation from ever taking place, and, we have to look at all possible mechanisms that may lead to the outbreak of nuclear war; from a final desperate act to ward-off internal chaos, an incidence of nuclear blackmail when nuclear devices have fallen into the hands of terrorists, to a fatal accident and miscalculation.

Yet, what can we really do? It seems impossible to change the momentum of a nation or society, and, the reforms we are talking about are so dramatic, that few people will think that it is possible to bring them about. What then, can we do?

If we want to solve the problems of a society, we quickly run into opposition and revolt, because many people will feel threatened by significant reforms. Everyone in a position of privilege will feel threatened by a movement towards essential equality, and, many people genuinely believe, that they deserve what they own. Besides, many people will be skeptical about any sort of reform, because they have seen revolutionary upheavals turn into renewed incidences of injustice and violent dictatorships. Many people do not believe in the possibility of achieving a situation of universal or long-term justice, or, they cling to the idea, that those who have been left-out should work a little harder.

Some people believe, that it is an inevitable fact of human nature for some to wind-up with everything, while the rest of the people are enslaved to a small elite of super-intelligent people entitled to rule the world.

We have discussed all these attitudes and opinions before, and, we should not repeat the counter-arguments here. We will only emphasise, once again, the conclusion, that we all have a lot to learn about human nature, about the way we function, our emotions and motivations, our personality structure, as well as about the similiarities and differences between people; be they in our own social environment, or in a far-away and little known corner of the globe.

We first have to learn to agree about the way we function, feel and think, and, then, we can collectively choose the way we want to live together. Only, then, will it be possible to break through the apparently never-ending cycle of birth, growth and vigour, stagnation, decay and dissolution.

Let us return to the negative range of our emotional scale, and, we will try to analyse and understand, a little better, what kind of behaviour will keep us in firm control of ourselves, and, what kind of mistakes will lead us, surreptitiously, into the zone of social instability and collective suicide.

Let us concentrate, therefore, on the idea, that we function optimally within, or close to, this zone of emotional neutrality, because, we have concluded, that, the further away we get from this zone of emotional neutrality, the more difficult it is to control our behaviour. We know, now, that our behaviour takes place on a sliding scale, ranging from an aggressive, ebullient and confident attitude, to a cautious, anxious or defensive mode of behaviour.

In the zone of emotional near-neutrality our behaviour can be tuned to its most refined and appropriate form by the voluntary will. We have seen, how the human species comes from an evolutionary line of development, where the responsibility for survival has been placed, at least, in part, on the ability of the living organism to choose the most appropriate response under the prevailing circumstances. This has become necessary in order to make use of rapidly fluctuating and transient possibilities of existence.

Even, if you understand the ideas behind such a sliding scale of behavioural extremes, it may be difficult to agree with the concept, that behaviour in the emotionally neutral zone is more viable or preferable than behaviour in the emotional range, because it seems obvious, that we prefer to be in the positive range of our emotions, where we "feel good", confident and secure.

"Is it not the instinctive desire of each living organism to exist in such an optimum equilibrium", you ask, "where it feels satisfied, satiated, secure and in excellent condition?" You may argue, that the zone of emotional neutrality does not seem to be the ideal zone to be in. We prefer to experience an emotion of satisfaction, satiation, security and confidence, rather than a feeling of emotional neutrality.

"Feeling happy and experiencing a sensation of moving beauty, is, surely, a state we prefer to be in, compared to a state of emotional near-neutrality, where we have to work continuously, sorting-out a confusing mass of contradictory sense impressions?"

"Certainly, our mind may be most active in this zone of emotional neutrality, and, our powers of objective observations are most highly developed whenever we exist in this zone. Scientifically and technologically, we may be most successful, when we are emotionally more or less neutral, but, this does not mean that we prefer to stay or live in this zone".

"It is a zone of hard work and great achievements, but, where do we fit-in our artistic achievements? Certainly, you do not want to maintain, seriously, that the zone of emotional neutrality is the zone that gave us our writers, novelists, musicians and other artists? Are artists not emotionally motivated, before they can create their artistic works, and, do we, as members of the audience, not have to be emotionally sensitive, before we are able to recognise the value of a work of art?"

"How can you say, then, that we should regard the zone of emotional neutrality as the most desirable state to be in? What about our passions, our sensitivity to beauty, our feelings of sexual arousal? Are we not performing in an emotionally aroused zone, if we respond to this type of stimulus or impulse? You would like us to remain in an emotionally neutral zone, but, if we do, the next generation would have a hard time to see the light of existence, because more and more people would come to the emotionally neutral conclusion, that it is too large a responsibility to bring-up children."

"What about people who have searched a life-time for the sensation of ultimate happiness or religious ecstasy? Have they been wrong to look for these feelings of emotional satisfaction, regardless, whether they found it in the privacy of their individualised perceptions or in the hard work of being charitable to other people? Are these forms of behaviour not preferable to a cold and calculating intellectuality?"

"Look at our sense of ethical behaviour. Does this experience not have to be based on an emotional gratification; upon a feeling of "being good", whenever we help others and reduce the level of suffering? Is it not realistic to consider it a feeling of satisfaction, whenever we recognise a sense of gratitude in those we have helped?"

"I think, that it is wrong to give the zone of emotional neutrality such a prominent position, or, to consider it to be the most desirable status of human existence. I believe, that emotional neutrality has its place, just like emotional exaltation, and, I think, that it is wrong to try to place the varying levels of emotionality and rationality on a hierarchical scale of relative importance".

So, your counter arguments may run, and, you would find a great deal of support for your position, because this would, indeed, be the most common opinion of the thoughtful people of today. Yet, are these opinions and interpretations correct? Are they completely or partially right, or, are they "dead wrong"?

As usual, it is not very useful to try to see a position as "right" or "wrong", or, even, as partially right or partially wrong. It is more meaningful to try to define an existing opinion or position as a special kind of validity. Perhaps, we can show, persuasively, that these ideas and attitudes are perfectly valid and right under special, or specified, circumstances, but, we may also be able to show that we have to look, seriously, at some of the draw-backs or disadvantages associated with an opinion that considers the previously outlined position as being valid at all times.

In other words; we have to generalise further. We have to examine, in depth, the position that has been stated, and, we have to show, that we can resolve the tensions of the discrepancies and disadvantages that become apparent in a totally consequent application of the above position.

We hope to show, that the position, taken above, is perfectly valid, provided, certain social conditions and circumstances have been met or achieved. Under circumstances of a strictly adhered-to social contract, we are, indeed, free to behave, far more frequently, in the emotionally positive zone, but, we will have to acknowledge, that it is a privilege to do so; that it is a privilege we have to earn, as well as a privilege we have to make possible for everyone else on the basis of just social relationships between the peoples of the world.

Let us explain this a little more in detail. There is no argument at all, that we would "prefer" to exist in the emotionally positive zone. Of course, we all like to feel good, to feel confident and secure, to be victorious or ebullient, to feel sexually stimulated, or, to feel a sensation of ecstatic happiness or moving beauty. The question is, to what extent our desire to be in such a desirable situation, comes into conflict with similar desires and interests of other people around us.

In other words; is my desire to be confident and happy, to exist in the positive side of the emotional scale, a source of conflict, injustice or harm to others? Frequently, it is. Let us examine the previous arguments a little more in detail.

If we have found the truth in a Faith in God, we may consider ourselves a "saved sinner", or, we consider ourselves as an individual, who has been chosen for a special purpose by God. We may derive a great deal of strength and happiness in having found such an Absolute Certainty, but, often, we lose the ability to understand a differing point of view.

We lose the feeling for those, who disagree with us. We become inflexible and intolerant when defending our Faith, and, we do not have to search far in history, before we see appalling examples of religious fanaticism and intolerance.

The same arguments apply to the even more egocentric and non-ethical ecstasy of a "higher consciousness", which has preciously little to offer the peoples of the world, except, perhaps, the temptation of an elitist exclusivity.

Similarly, we are wrong, when we think, that our ethical behaviour-patterns have to be based on a feeling of "being good", or, by feeling satisfied with the response of gratitude. This is "charity", and, charity is, in essence an unjust attitude, which has outlived its usefulness, because well-being is not an item to be dispensed by benevolent people from a position of privilege, but, well-being is a basic human right, acquired as a birth-right by everyone.

Ethics are based on the understanding, that a position of privilege has to be shared in order to avoid devastating tensions of injustice and social unrest. Ethical guidelines are based on the realisation, that a position of privilege, wealth or power is, so often, more the result of chance and fortunate accident, rather than merit or hard work. Ethical principles are based on the insight, that the poor always work much harder than the rich. Ethics are based on the acceptance of a social contract, where we recognise the similarities of our competitive drives, and, where we substitute, deliberately, the mechanisms of competitive strife with those of a trustful inter-dependence in an atmosphere of essential equality.

Sure, we like to fulfill our desires and fantasies to the full, but, unless we control the instinctive drive for gratification and evaluate the consequences of our instinctive impulses rationally, we seem to cause untold harm, suffering and hardship to other people, and, perhaps, even, to the following generations.

Let us look at the questions, that have been raised about the mechanisms of artistic achievement. Here, we seem to have a better argument to support the view, that emotionality deserves a higher place in our esteem than emotional neutrality, in particular, if we consider the somewhat frightening achievements of science and technology. After all, these are the acknowledged off-spring of emotional neutrality.

Indeed, art is based on the expression of certain feelings, sensations or awarenesses, which are usually coloured by fairly strong emotions. The value of a work of art is, partially, determined by the level of validity and appeal it has for a fairly large number of people. The more people recognise a work of art as conveying something that is genuine and strongly expressive, the more value will be attached to this work of art, but, we are quite well aware of the fact, that the world of art-appreciation is also influenced, in many instances, by huge commercial interests.

Nevertheless, in any work of art, there is also an aspect of "technique"; of perfection; of care and competence in the construction of this work of art, and, our admiration and appreciation are intricately inter-woven with the technical features of a work of art. But, the technical aspects of intelligence, care and hard work are activities that fall in the emotionally neutral zone, is it not?.

Art gives us, therefore, a wide focus for our interests and attention. It appeals, partially, to our more emotional zones of behaviour, and, if we experience a strong sensation of recognition that the art-form is honest, accurate and genuine, we feel a strong sensation of beauty, which lifts us up and sustains us during the more depressive periods in our lives.

Yet, the admiration for technical aspects, the level of devotion and care, the ingenuity and intellectually clever solutions of artistic problems, all these aspects fall into the more neutral zone of our behaviour, but, they become part and parcel of our ability to appreciate a work of art.

There is no doubt, that the appreciation of art, and, in a somewhat similar manner, the appreciation of, and participation in, a variety of sports, gives us a chance to exist in an emotionally positive zone, which we feel to be preferable, or, at least, to be a welcome change from the long periods of hard work in emotional neutrality.

It is interesting to note, here, that in the arts, as well as the sports, it becomes possible to exist in an emotionally positive zone without harming anyone else. However, we also notice, that certain conditions are necessary for this to be the case. Certain contractual agreements have to be adhered to, before we can say, unequivocally, that a pre-occupation with arts or sports is not going to hurt someone else.

For example, in any competitive situation, (which is nearly always present in sports, as well as the arts), the rules of scrupulous equality and impartiality have to be adhered-to, and, they have to be seen to be adhered-to, otherwise, the people who particiate in these competitive activities, can not be sure, that, indeed, their position is just, and, that the positions of the winners and the losers, are completely justified.

If the agreement to adhere, scrupulously, to the rules of the game or the dictates of an honest artistic evaluation, has been violated, a feeling of injustice and frustration inevitably returns.

In sports, as well as the arts, the moment of victory and triumph is short-lived, but, powerful and sweet, especially, if we can feel, that we genuinely deserve the victory, and, if our competitors agree, wholeheartedly, with our victory. By far the largest amount of time is spent in study, training and hard work, and, we know, that the goal of ultimate achievement is only possible after careful, patient, intelligent and dedicated efforts, under the guidance of gifted teachers or coaches. This too, is work done in an emotionally neutral zone, where we are continuously vigilant and willing to learn from our mistakes.

The ability to understand the problems of artistic or sport's achievements depends upon our efforts in the emotionally neutral zone, and, we can be sure, that the highest achievements in any art, or sport, is achieved, only, with a healthy dose of dedication and hard work in an emotionally neutral frame of mind.

If we look at the fields of science and technology, it is easier to see, how important emotional neutrality really is. We do not achieve any significant scientific accomplishments, if our emotions interfere with our work, and, we become quickly aware of disastrous results, if we lose a careful, diligent and considerate approach to the many complex technological problems we are confronted with.

We see, how the attitude of "hope", as well as other emotional sentiments, interferes with the appreciation of scientific and technological problems, and, we are becoming more aware of the need to school ourselves in a rigorous and disciplined approach in order to seek solutions in a zone of sustained emotional neutrality.

Even, in our national and international contacts, we can only understand, or, even, appreciate the view-points and concerns of our adversaries, if we are able to keep a cool head and take a distance from the problems we are dealing with.

While we like to dwell, for short periods, in the emotionally positive zone, there can be little doubt, that we can only understand ourselves, together with the conditions necessary to create a just society, if we learn to discipline ourselves. Only, if we learn to make full use of our rational faculties, will it be possible to avoid, individually or collectively, the conditions and circumstances that will pressure us into a zone of anxious defensiveness, and, possibly, a desperate panic.

The problems of man, our societies, as well as the world we live in, can only be solved, if we dedicate ourselves to a diligent search for the mental imagery that lets us agree about the nature and significance of our problems. Only, if we agree about the diagnosis, can we agree about the therapy. Only, if we agree about the way we should interpret our existence and behaviour, only, then, will it be possible to agree about the meaning of this lofty ideal; justice for all, and a peaceful coexistence for the whole of mankind.

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Chapter 7

Content

Do we really want Peace and Justice?
How many people remember the horrors of war?
Man loves to fight, and, it is not difficult to get him to fight for the glory of the fatherland.
The horrible consequences of an aggressive euphoria.
An arena to act-out fantasies.
The need to remember the deeds and follies of mankind.
It is so easy to forget, but, forgetting may be a fatal flaw for human viability.
The pivotal role of education for future generations.
Creating the conditions for a durable and viable cultural code.
The balance between freedom and conformity.
Practical agreements are more important than theoretical points of view.
The shared biological heritage.
If we could just agree, how to live together, and, how to share our resources.

The question is; do we really want peace and justice? Do we want to give-up some of our privileges and advantages for the sake of equalising opportunities for development and standards of living?

Not really, because the reason, why we want peace is the fact, that we are afraid for social turmoil and the upheavals of warfare. We are afraid, that we are going to lose what we have, but we are not really thinking of those, who will die or be maimed in a war, or, those who have to live in poverty and deprivation through no fault of their own.

Very few people can truly agree with the concept, that, those, who have more should relinquish some of their privileges and luxuries. Most of us feel, that this is a matter for governments to decide, but, we forget, that, governments are, and should be, chosen by the people, and, that they reflect, therefore, the will of a majority of the electorate. Governments are powerless to change the status-quo, if we, the majority of people want to hang-on to this privileged status-quo.

Besides, most of us like a good fight, as long as we are convinced that we can win. We like a fight, especially, when we are healthy, vigorous and young. We enjoy flexing our muscles, to make our presence felt, to throw our weight around, to feel important and be listened to. These activities soothe and inflate our ego, but, we do not like to think about the possibility of defeat, or, what it will be like for our adversaries, if we have defeated them.

How many of us remember the horrors of war? How many know about the miseries of utter despair, humiliating defeat, disastrous poverty or permanent injuries? History is foreign to most of us, and, we frequently believe only partially what the older generations tell us. We suspect, that we are being manipulated or scared into submission.

Man likes to fight, and, one of the main reasons for this is the fact, that the prologue to combat, the belligerent posturing, the threats and tough commitments, drive us increasingly into the zone of aggressive euphoria. We revel in our positive notions. We feel so good, so powerful, so righteous, and, the more we slide into the extreme end of the positive scale, the less rational we become, and, the more likely an armed conflict will break-out.

Soon, both parties will have adopted a public posture from which they can not climb-down without losing face. The die has been cast. The conflict becomes inevitable, as well as a matter of national pride.

Leaders have always been in the forefront of making belligerent noises, grandiose statements and rallying cries for battle, regardless, whether we look at our own leaders or those of the enemy; whether we look at contemporary leaders, or those of the past. When they have shouted themselves into a corner from which they can not escape without loss of prestige, they send their peoples into battle with each other.

The ordinary people have to die for a cause, which the law-abiding citizens of either side only partially understand. Even, if some of them go to war willingly, or, even, with enthousiasm, all for the "glory of the fatherland", they do so, because their leaders have brain-washed them into believing, that they are fighting for the ultimate cause of "Absolute Righteousness".

It makes me sick, when I see, how the primitive emotionality of gifted leaders makes them into war-mongering monsters, who are losing sight of the broad perspectives of human objectives, and, who are, eventually, sweeping millions of ordinary people into a senseless bloodbath.

Nobody knows, anymore, what is going-on, or, what the outcome is going to be. Our emotions have run-away with us, and the unbridled bellicosity, which is so often a hallmark of a prolonged period of aggressive euphoria, is one of the most compelling reasons, why we should look at the apparent attractiveness of emotional extremism with a great deal of caution.

A man, or woman, who is sober, emotionally neutral and mentally active, may not experience the satanic delusion of being completely right and all-powerful, with God on his or her side, but, neither is such an individual likely to plunge into an act of destructive or suicidal warfare.

We still have to learn to recognise the dangers of emotional extremes, and, in particular, the dangerously violent swings in the moods of an unstable personality. As we come closer to the extremes of our mood-scale, we become more prone to violent swings, and, we begin to shift, rapidly, from extremely positive to extremely negative moods and perceptions, and vice vera.

We may easily destroy ourselves, either, as the result of a blinding euphoria, a rageing belligerence, or, an utter despair, because in all these emotionally extreme conditions, we fail to make use of the remaining possibilities for recovery and improvement.

I propose, that we, ordinary and average people, who have learned the value of a controled emotionality, will provide for those of us who are incurably addicted to highly emotional experiences and patterns of behaviour, an arena, where they can act-out their fantasies. We provide them with an environment, where they can engage in all-out combat; where they can kill each other, if they like, and, where they can experience all the violent emotions, from glorious victory to utter despair.

However, we will contain them and sequester them from the rest of society, but, we will let our children watch and study them. I am certain, that, by far the majority of our youngsters will learn, with a certain measure of horror, how important it is to learn to control their emotions and solve problems by a process of rational compromise, rather than with violent conflict. And, if a few of our youngsters want to join them in the fray, well, let them perish or learn the hard way.

I am proposing this plan only partly facetiously, because, in all seriousness, I believe, that we have to provide a forum, where some people can actually experience the consequences of unbridled emotionality, while others may learn from the experiences of others through a process of close observation and intense reflection.

Of course, I do not propose this to be a jail, where people are thrown into if they do not behave. It should be a voluntary arena, where only criminals convicted of incorrigeable violent behaviour are forced to spend a certain period of time, as a last resort to try to rehabilitate them. However, this is only one option in the search for solving the problems of incorrigeable behaviour, because we have also outlined the concept, that the most violent and psychopathic forms of behaviour may have to be eliminated through the death-penalty, when all efforts at rehabilitation have failed completely.

In the societies of the future, we have to provide contemporary and future generations with the possibility to have a vivid mental imagery of all forms of human behaviour, and, we have to be able to see, clearly and honestly, the many and varied consequences that flow from these behaviour-patterns.

We should have on record completely honest, detailed and full accounts of human behaviour in all its aspects; from the killing and maiming of people in battle, the atrocities and cruelties carried-out by psychopaths, as well as the crimes of those, who kill and terrorise in order to maintain their position of power. In addition, we should be well aware of the acts of despair, as well as the manifestations of a bleak depression, which tend to make people into caricatures of what they could be.

We have to learn to face the consequences of all possible forms of behaviour, at any time, and, as soon as we forget to teach our children realistically, what the consequences are of all sorts of behavioural extremes, we will, once again, set the stage for chaos, war and catastrophe. Then, we will learn, from first-hand experience and in an actual situation of reality, (with all the existential consequences that flow from such a situation in real life), the lessons we forgot to keep in mind, and, which could have refreshed our memories, if we had made the effort to remain vigilant and reflective.

Man is a species whose viability depends, to a large extent, upon the way he adapts to rapidly changing circumstances, and, in order to know, how we have to finely-tune our behaviour to the prevailing circumstances, we have to know a great deal about the consequences of various behavioural options. We may obtain this body of knowledge, in part, from personal experience, but, we can learn much more, if we are willing to learn from the experiences of others.

This is the reason, why it will become ever more important to know the experiences of previous generations, and, we will really have to study these experiences carefully and honestly, in order to have some idea, how to avoid the many pitfalls of the present and safely exploit the opportunities for survival, as they come along.

Any human being, who fails to see the importance of learning honestly and diligently from the experiences of others, including previous generations, may become a menace to society, because one may, then, engage in reckless pursuits that could imperil us all.

Education will become ever more important in the future, as we become more aware of the fact, that our survival depends on intelligent, collective and individual choices, but, education will have to evolve from the rather unsatisfactory methods that are currently in use; where a teacher does his best to "pump" as many facts into his pupils as he can, about the subject that happens to be his teaching responsibility.

It is ridiculous, and senseless, to let students memorise a series of facts, data or events they do not really understand, and, the unfortunate result of such an archaic and thoughtless method of teaching is the fact, that the process of learning becomes irrelevant to teachers and students alike.

We have to start teaching our students, first, those aspects of life they can directly relate to. These are the concerns and events that fall, directly, within their sphere of experiences, but, from this basis we should trace the broad outlines of human awareness in order to prepare them for adulthood and the burdens of responsibility. Only, if education becomes a coordinated and serious effort to expand the intellectual and emotional horizons of our youngsters, only, then, can we say, that we have begun to understand, how and what to teach.

At the present time, only an occasional youngsters gets something out of the educational experience. The objective of the expansion of emotional and intellectual horizons is, still, such a nebulous concept in the minds of most educators, that we have not begun, as yet, to teach our youngsters adequately.

Certainly, to have a truly effective system of education, the whole atmosphere in society has to change, and, it is irrealistic to expect a successful and disciplined form of education, as long as the atmosphere in society is indulgent, lax and confused.

A society can only create an educational system that is in tune with public opinion, and, in most affluent societies, we still have to discover the value of a measure of self-restraint, before we can expect to see an effective educational program.

We can only create a comprehensive, globally relevant and understandable system of education, if our attitudes, view-points and life-styles have converged into a lean, viable and just standard that is shared throughout the world. It may be too late to see this trend emerge, and, it may well be, that the momentum of chaos and confusion will wipe-away, whatever educational system we have. It is also possible, that the changes in the educational system will be so slow, that it is not my good fortune to see the beginning of a turn into the right direction.

Yet, after I am gone, there will be many other concerned people in every society around the globe, and, perhaps, they can streamline their ideas and agree amongst themselves, what our human priorities should be. Perhaps, they can make a start with the construction of a globally acceptable perception of reality.

A widely shared and agreed-upon reality perception has to arise, before we can agree amongst ourselves about an educational curriculum. We are back to the importance of a globally acceptable vision of reality, as well as an agreed-upon perception of the meaning of our existence, but, I would like to emphasise, once again, that such an agreement has nothing to do with a belief in an "Absolute Reality".

As a matter of fact, we can only find common avenues for our reality perceptions, if we explore, carefully, the ideas and concepts we can agree about, and, which seem to offer the best possible solutions for the problems we face. The only realistic way to come to an agreement about a globally relevant perception of reality, is to distinguish, clearly, between those concepts and ideas that can be left, safely, to a measure of individual variability in interpretation, and those, which require, for practical purposes, a much clearer and sharper definition, as well as a measure of consensus.

Just as we can agree about the rules of traffic, while leaving each individual free, where to go, and, what sort of vehicle to drive, so should it be possible to agree upon the rules that regulate the transactions and contacts of people, while leaving each individual free about the details of his or her innermost convictions and beliefs.

As long as we can agree amongst ourselves, that we should live under essentially equal opportunities for development and essentially equal standards of health and freedom, we do not have to agree about all the aspects of human existence. As long as we agree, that we have to start on the road towards global equality and harmony, we may discuss and debate the various ideas about how to get there.

However, we can leave it to each individual's point of view, whether one is a creature of one's God, or a product of natural evolution. The only reason for dealing with dogmatic beliefs and attitudes are the consequences of such convictions, especially, if they begin to interfere with the rights and freedoms of other human beings. For example, it is important to debate the practical issues of ownership on various levels of social existence, because the level of ownership, be it on a private, a corporate or a national level, has significant consequences for the balance of powers, as well as the implementation of a contract of essential equality.

We should consider and discuss the balance between rights and obligations, rather than the will of God, the destiny of man in an after-life, or the sins of other people. Let us examine ourselves with scrupulous honesty, and, let us acknowledge as legitimate ambitions in others, whatever ambitions and behaviour-patterns we consider to be legitimate for ourselves.

Common sense and honesty, openness and a willingness to question everything we hear or see, to make sure we understand something as precisely as possible, will go a long way towards the necessary foundation for global cooperation and harmony.

We will have to acknowledge a position of privilege frankly, but, we will also have to acknowledge, equally frankly, that we will resist being robbed of our privileges, whenever someone forces us to give-up a position of privilege and comfort we think we deserve.

While it is ignorant and short-sighted to become narrowly concerned with our own problems when basking in affluence, comfort and wasteful habits, it is equally ignorant and short-sighted to grab for the primitive tools of power and violence, as long as we have not exhausted all other possible avenues to effect a change in the balance of powers and conditions of social injustice.

Before condemning elitism and egocentricity in others, let us make sure, that we are generous and broad-minded ourselves, and, that we avoid being caught-up in a fanatic effort to bring-about short-sighted and dogmatic revolutionary reforms.

Before we become absolutely convinced, that our way of looking at the world is the only just and right way, let us soberly reflect upon the fact, that our most intransigent enemies think just like us.

Absolute Certainty and our unquestioned faith in an Absolute Truth, act like an emotional filter, colouring the perception of all our realities. Such an attitude makes us rigid, and, we lose viability in the long run, while paying the price of a staggering level of suffering and destruction.

The resilience of hopeful expectations and strength of character that come with an absolute faith and the certainty of being in the right, may be valuable, but rather primitive, tools to withstand severe stress, but, in the complex societies of today, and the future, the accent will have to lie on the prevention, rather than the resistance of stress. This can only be done by hard and conscientious work in an emotionally neutral frame of mind, because, only then, can we maintain essential equality of existence and a fair sense of justice for everyone. It is not sufficient to extend the sphere of concern and implement the principles of justice only to those, who think and believe as we do.

Relativity in the perception of reality is nothing more than the common-sense realisation, that we all share a tendency, as well as a need, to construct a picture of reality that is centered around the interests and concerns of our own existence. Yet, to acknowledge the common bonds of existentially similar, or, even, identical requirements, will give us the best possible opportunity to see each other as people, sharing a same fate and a same need, regardless of creed or ideology.

If we could just agree amongst ourselves, how we should live together and share our resources, potentials and problems, we will have reached a sufficient level of understanding to make a fruitful diagnosis of mankind's ills, and, we will be well on our way towards a long-term condition of social and individual health.

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Chapter 8

Content

We are not there, as yet.
A gloomy prospect for modern, affluent, Capitalist societies.
The blessings of having plenty of room to get-away from each other.
Subjective reflections.
Controling our feelings of despair and euphoria.
We want to be able to trust each other.
We are afraid of being deceived and exploited.
A few ideas about how to create a stable, viable, large-scale society.
The mechanisms of "hope".
Hope is re-enforced by emotional resonance.
Hope is a deliberate filter for our sense impressions and interpretations.
The high price of religious fervor.
We are all human beings, friends and foes alike.
No weak-kneed attitude, begging for mercy, but, no stubborn and unnecessary resistance either.
Contacts, laid during a situation of conflict, may bloom into a greater degree of mutual understanding, even, friendship.
Let us be weary of facile propaganda.
Let us remain calm and controled.
The horrors of a nuclear holocaust.

However, we are not there, as yet. We have not even begun to move into the right direction. There is no widespread awareness, that we need a global integration of mankind, nor am I aware of any trend towards a globally acceptable interpretation of reality.

If I look around me, I see a slow, but steady rise in the level of anxiety. Increasingly blatant egocentric attitudes seem to be rewarded, time and again. Many modern, affluent societies are slowly fragmenting, and the antagonistic factions are becoming more hostile towards each other.

The various regions of my country are drifting further apart, as people squabble over the ownership of resources and the distribution of revenues and royalties. Many societies seem to have a tendency to fragment along ethnic lines, and there is also a polarisation between the work-force, the business community, and the various bureaucracies.

The general public gets squeezed, and becomes increasingly cynical. I am not very optimistic about what I see in my social environment, but, then, what is happening, here, may not be representative for what is going-on throughout the world. The people of my country are still living a rather sheltered life. Conditions are still quite stable. There is no significant poverty. There is no civil violence, as yet, and, by and large, the people are soft, indulgent and spoiled by constant affluence and commercial enticements.

The level of education and general comprehension is fairly low. Many people are blissfully ignorant about the major problems people face in other parts of the world, and, they are equally unaware of the relative prosperity and ease of living they enjoy in their own social environment.

Because our country is sparsely populated, rich in resources, vast in territory, and, by and large, cold and inhospitable, we do not experience any of the population pressures, which are so obvious in densely populated areas.

Apart from a few overheated, unhealthy urban pockets with dense populations, we can still get-away from each other if we want to. This is the reason, why our urban over-crowding is not really a serious problem. People can get-away, and, they do so, on the week-ends, while the population of a small, poor and densely populated country has a much more difficult time to get-away from it all. This is one of the reasons, why the people of my country can tear their country apart without anyone lifting a finger, because, we can all retreat to our enclaves and look out the window to see what is going-on.

In a way, I have done the same thing. I have made use of a certain affluence and the spaciousness of this beautiful country to retreat to the country-site and to think about what is going-on. I look out the window, too, and I listen to what is happening, monitoring the significant events and developments on my short-wave radio. I read books and listen to the music of composers from the past.

I am not optimistic about the developments I see, but, then, I enjoy the opportunity to relax and reflect, and, I hope that my writings may, some day, make a contribution to the comprehension and awareness of people all over the world.

I am also subject, like everyone else, to certain mood-swings, and, while I believe to have a reasonable degree of control over my emotions, I notice, how necessary it is to make a deliberate effort, time and again, to bring myself back into a sphere of emotional neutrality.

It seems, that, without such a deliberate effort to control our emotions, we have a tendency to oscillate more wildly between opposing moods, in particular, when we respond to an emotional synchrony.

In the phenomenon of "emotional synchrony", we see a clear example, how the constant re-enforcement of a certain mood may lead to extreme emotional tensions. It is, as if the emotions are constantly amplified by the synchrony of people re-enforcing each other's mood. This may lead to the feverish belligerence of a war-psychosis, but, it may also result in a desperate panic or a leaderless stampede.

We need to control ourselves, and, we need to encourage others to control themselves, and, occasionally, we have to take firm control over people, whenever they appear to lose the ability to behave rationally.

While I am not particularly impressed with the level of education in my country, and, while I deplore the easy indulgence, gullibility and commercialised religiosity which seems to be so prevalent on this Continent, I know, that, I would not have had the chance to retire so early in my career in any other social environment, and, I would not have had the freedom to choose a life of frugal near self-sufficiency, with a complete freedom over my time.

Even in the people around me, I sense a basic decency underneath the confused attitudes of egocentricity and wasteful, consumptive habits, and, I know, that the people of my society, just like peoples all over the world, would welcome the ideals of global cooperation and integration, as long as they could really trust these ideals and did not have to sacrifice too much.

No-one wants to be exploited when listening to altruistic impulses, only to find out, later, that one has been cleverly deceived. We want to be able to trust each other again, but, we also want to know, for sure, that our trust is reciprocated and is not being abused.

We still recognise the fact, that we have to create genuine equality and justice on a global scale, but, those, who live in affluent societies, do not know where to start. We do not want to give-up anything, because we are afraid that our neighbours or governments, the big corporations, as well as the many powerful special-interest groupings will benefit from our acts of good-will, and, we are afraid, that our efforts will turn-out to be fruitless. We are afraid to be deceived and exploited, and, this is the principal reason, why the attitudes of belligerent egocentricity are now tacitly accepted as normal.

We have a good idea, how we can rid ourselves from such a collective attitude of defensive suspiciousness, because we know, now, that we have to increase the level of transparence in society to such a level, that we can verify for ourselves, whether or not our acts of trust and good-will are matched by similar acts of trust and good-will from our neighbours; whether or not our governments are using the fruits of our collective acts of good-will and trust in such a way, that the original intentions and objectives of these acts are being realised.

Let us hope, that we will be able to see a trend developing towards an increase in mutual cooperation and trust, because we know, that the road of increasing egocentricity leads only to violent conflict, chaos and death. At the same time, we should, in these last few pages, fulfill a promise we made earlier in this essay, when we announced that we would discuss the functions of the attitude of "hope".

What is hope? Hope is an attitude of expectation, where we derive a great deal of comfort by contemplating, almost continuously, the expectations for an improvement in the near future. Obviously, we hope for something better, when we are under a certain amount of stress. In our attitudes of hopeful expectation, we are trying to cope with the disturbing realities of the present, but, we see, also, that this attitude of hopeful expectation is an emotional and, often, not a very effective response to the problems and stresses we face.

If we look a little more closely at the conditions, where hopeful expectations begin to play a major role in our defense against a stressful situation, we see, that the stress is already fairly severe and long-standing. We have exhausted the rational attempts to fight or resist this stress. In addition, we see, that we are increasingly driven into a defensive corner of hopeful expectations, whenever a rational analysis of the factors that give rise to this stress, only indicate, that the level of stress is likely to continue or to get worse.

If a community has been occupied and subdued by an occupying power, and, if armed resistance has been overcome by captivity and an overwhelming force of oppression, then, the mind tries to rid itself from the continuously depressing effects of a rational evaluation of the situation. This is done by "hoping", that something will happen, which will make the conquerors leave.

If rational thoughts and evaluations keep telling us, that things are likely to get worse, we tend to ignore such rational considerations, or, we ridicule such rationality and condemn it as "treacherous", if we are still in a relatively powerful position. If we have already been defeated, we can only hope, that the situation will improve, somehow, in spite of all the rational evidence to the contrary.

No wonder, that we are thrown back to this marvelous but, often, so painful attitude, where we place our Faith in the Lord. We place the burdens of worrying about the problems of our existence and the stresses of the present, on God. Hope is re-enforced by a mutual resonance, and we see many remarkable examples in history, how a small community was able to tolerate nearly unbearable levels of stress as a result of this mutually re-enforced attitude of hope and faith.

Yet, the price is high, and, such an attitude of hopeful expectations requires an enormous amount of energy. There is always the possibility that doubts about the validity of our hope and faith will surface again, and, these doubts have to be stifled and suppressed. If hopes and prayers remain unfulfilled for a prolonged period of time, we are beginning to wonder, why it takes the Lord such a long time to answer.

An attitude of hope and prayer is a powerful way to sustain a severe stress for a relatively short period of time, but, it is less effective to solve any of the real problems, or, to answer any of the questions, why we find ourselves in such a stressful situation in the first place.

During an attitude of hope, we filter, deliberately, our sense impressions, thoughts and observations in such a way, that we accentuate the positive findings out of proportion to the negative sense impressions. We constantly bring to the focus of our minds those hints, possibilities or thoughts, that may indicate an impending improvement, while we shut-out, nearly completely, all the rational observations that give us a negative but more realistic view of the situation at hand.

Let us examine the reasons, why a suppression of these negative but rational data may be detrimental to our ability to solve practical problems. If we cloud our reality perceptions with the undifferentiated glow of hopeful expectations, we lose the ability to make full use of data that are available. Our rational faculties could analyse these data, provided, we would be able to control the somewhat anxious and depressive feelings that are associated with analysing a situation that is clearly a disadvantage for us.

Yet, the rewards are high. We may see possibilities that would completely elude us, if we would give-in to the euphoria of hopeful expectations, stubborn religious resistance, or, the undifferentiated feelings of a hopeless despair. We may be able to review, clearly and calmly, the series of events, as well as the sequence of our own behavioural reactions, which, eventually, culminated in the position we find ourselves in. We may be able to see, where we made mistakes, or, where we contributed to the problems we are facing, or, where we were to blame for the attitudes of belligerence, aggressiveness or hatred from our victorious enemies.

We may be able to see, that, the soldier, who is looting our property or putting us in confinement, is acting on orders from his leadership, just as we have been called to arms and would have done the same, if we had been victorious. We may discover to our surprise, that the enemy soldier does not have any clearer perceptions about the war than we.

We may suddenly discover, that, he too, is a human being, just like ourselves, and, that he does not like to fight or be involved in the war anymore than we. We may discover, that he is homesick, loves his family and carries a photograph of his wife and children. Suddenly, we realise that we are both in the same situation, and, that neither of us exactly understands, why we are in conflict with each other.

While a thoughtless and anxious desire to collaborate with the enemy will rightly evoke only suspicion and contempt on either side, we should not forget the possibilities, that are given in the contacts arising from a situation of conflict. There are many opportunities to accentuate the common, humanitarian features of each other's existence. There is a good chance, that our enemy does not want to make our life anymore miserable than he has to, provided, that he can trust us to some extent not to kill him or injure him in a moment of friendliness or inattention.

If we understand, that he is doing a job on orders of his commanders, just as we are under orders of our leadership, we may explore, together, the possibilities to make each other's life as tolerable as possible. This is not treachery. This is not deceitful to the interests of the fatherland. This is good common-sense, as well as an acknowledgement of reality as it exists. It signifies the realisation, that we all are pawns in high-stake power-plays of our respective leaderships.

Let us not adopt a weak-kneed attitude of begging for mercy at the slightest hint of stress, but, let us remain calm at all times. Let us never forget, that there are two sides to any story, and, let us never forget, that, in a situation of armed conflict, the soldiers on both sides have been given a slanted interpretation of the background events, putting each side unquestionably in the right.

The contacts between enemy soldiers during a war may give us a chance to communicate and to find-out, what the other side believes to be true. In a historical overview, as well as in the conflicts between rival adolescents, we can always see the seeds of communication and mutual understanding arise during and after a period of belligerent contact.

Let us always be aware of facile propaganda and resist a gullible acceptance of whatever our leaders want us to believe. These are attitudes that lead to uncompromising belligerence, and, eventually, to bloodshed.

There is a lot to be learned, if we remain emotionally neutral under all conditions, and, the fruits of understanding are plentiful, if we can resist the temptation to be goaded into a dull and undifferentiated emotion of hopeful expectation, the bellicosity of aggressive exuberance, or, the annihilating destructiveness of hopeless despair. With such attitudes, we lose everything, but, there is no need to lose everything. Let us be weary of facile conclusions about who is right and who is wrong. Regardless, how unlikely it seems to us, as we are involved in a conflict-situation, we may not be totally right, and, let us keep in mind the undeniable fact, that the other side is just as convinced to be right as we are. Let us not forget, that the soldiers on the other side are also doing their civic and military duties, because they have been called-upon to defend their fatherland and the interests of their country.

If we remain calm, emotionally neutral and sensitive to the arguments put forward by both sides, then, conflicts can be avoided, and, if the belligerent parties are so involved and emotionally aroused that they do not want to listen to reason, or, do not want to compromise and negotiate in good faith, then, citizens of the world, let us make sure, that we have the power, the discipline, as well as the resolve to intervene and force them to come to their senses.

If we fail to do so, we may, eventually, find ourselves completely powerless, as we watch the super-powers of the world lapse into a catastrophic emotional turmoil of blind, aggressive hatred or a black despair. Then, citizens of the world, we may see the people in power push those fatal buttons that unleash a nuclear holocaust. Then, citizens of the world, we will be witnessing the suicide of mankind, as it destroys itself in a moment of utter frenzy and madness.

It does not matter, then, whether or not a few miserable remnants of humanity may survive for a few more generations, because the technology for survival will have been lost forever, and, these miserable remnants will be unable to cope with the disastrously high levels of radio-active contamination and other toxic pollutants.

Then, citizens of the world, those last few citizens will witness, how more and more of their children are born, hideously deformed, mentally and physically defective, totally incapable of sustaining the fight for survival. It will be a slow and miserable death, so full of despair and so depressing in its scope, that no attitude of hope, not, even, a desperate attempt to analyse and think rationally, is going to make any difference.

Our youths will be crippled, sick, diseased, mentally abnormal, and, everyone will be going insane, before the genetic code of the human species will finally become totally and irrevocably extinct.

Never again will there be a human species on this earth. Never again, will there be a human awareness or a sensation of beauty and gratitude. Never again will there be hundreds of millions of people watching a young girl skate beautifully to an Olympic gold-medal, and, never again, will we see those moving tears trickle down her cheeks, as she stands, there, on that platform; a glorious symbol of human achievement.

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Summary

1. A small vignette.
   The figure-skater.
   Tears of relief and gratitude.
   The sensations of beauty and happiness.
   The value of long-term goals.
   The fusion between goal and achievement.
   No trace of a cheap triumph.
   A sense of indebtedness to the people
   Emotional resonance.
   True achievement does not have to lead to an egocentric victory.
   Sentimentality; an emotional over-reaction.
   The need to understand our own behaviour.
   
   
   
2. The free-floating cell.
   The basic discrimination between benefit and harm.
   Aggression; "moving towards"; "ad-grado".
   Negative and positive stimuli.
   The sense of vision.
   The search for a possibility to exist.
   The short-cut of animal existence.
   The inevitability of death in the end.
   Human behaviour-patterns.
   The closer we behave to an emotional extreme, the less our behaviour is under the control of rational evaluations.
   Behavioural flexibility, and the ability to finely tune our responses.
   The functions of the "free will".
   A fusion of contemporary sense impressions with the memories of the past, as well as the expectations for the immediate future.
   Evolution; a second shock for Christianity, after the discovery, that the earth was not the center of the Universe.
   
   
   
3. Looking at ourselves from an evolutionary point of view.
   A fascinating blend of emotional and rational behaviour-patterns.
   Verbalisable awarenesses; the tip of an ice-berg.
   The possibility to deceive; a by-product of intellectual abilities.
   The trade-off between scope and detail.
   The need for cohesion in scientific knowledge.
   We can not grasp the essence of being human from the "humanities" only.
   An increasingly important role for the biological sciences in philosophical efforts to grasp the essence of human existence.
   The role of intuition in a philosophical effort.
   An emphasis on the negative, defensive aspects of human behaviour.
   The price of specialisation.
   The solution of "behavioural flexibility".
   A more complex vision.
   The subjective experience of a "free will".
   
   
   
4. Rationality decreases as we slide further down the defensive scale.
   The essence of "being depressed".
   Paralysed by fear; a question of over-loading the central nervous system.
   The panic-reaction; a useless form of agitated behaviour.
   Alternating states of depression and hyper-activity.
   The liability of a state of panic, hyper-activity, depression or paralysis.
   Too stringent and thoughtless a form of self-discipline transforms us into robots, but, an insuffient level of self-discipline makes us into a whining and egocentric child.
   The value of controled behaviour-patterns.
   Learning to protect ourselves from attack and exploitation.
   The strong personality.
   Self-discipline, and the commercial interests.
   Control, yes; suppression, no.
   Oscillating rapidly, but gently, around the zone of emotional neutrality.
   The attitude of "hope".
   The practice of self-deception.
   The emotional "ground-tone".
   Why it is so difficult to grow-up into happy adulthood in a confused society.
   The "saving grace" of working hard towards a long-term goal.
   We need an elusive balance between achievement and failure.
   Smouldering ghettos.
   The wounds of chronic injustice.
   The value of reflective thought.
   A sense of sadness.
   A few personal reflections.
   
   
   
5. Anger and anxiety caused by insecurity.
   The leader who is losing his support.
   A review of leadership mechanisms.
   The jungle of international relations.
   The temptation to grab and hold-on to power by force.
   Increasing anxieties.
   Social decay; a variety of mechanisms.
   The need for sound fiscal principles.
   We all have to learn to live within our means.
   Missiles sitting powerless in their silos.
   
   
   
6. An anxious affluence.
   The zone of rational behaviour.
   Art, and the zone of emotional neutrality.
   Finding happiness in religious attitudes and beliefs.
   A number of questions and objections.
   It is not useful to describe a position as right or wrong; it is more useful to recognise the conditions under which a certain point of view becomes valid.
   Why we want to be in the emotionally positive zone.
   When religious view-points and attitudes are valid.
   Charity is, in essence, an outmoded attitude.
   Natural ethics.
   The place of artistic endeavour.
   In arts and sports, it is possible to exist in the emotionally positive zone without hurting anyone.
   The conditions necessary for this to be the case.
   The rules of fair and open competition.
   Draw-backs for science and technology, when coloured by emotional attitudes.
   A rational diagnosis, and therapy, for the problems of man and his societies.
   Justice for all, and a state of peaceful co-existence.
   
   
   
7. Do we really want Peace and Justice?
   How many people remember the horrors of war?
   Man loves to fight, and, it is not difficult to get him to fight for the glory of the fatherland.
   The horrible consequences of an aggressive euphoria.
   An arena to act-out fantasies.
   The need to remember the deeds and follies of mankind.
   It is so easy to forget, but, forgetting may be a fatal flaw for human viability.
   The pivotal role of education for future generations.
   Creating the conditions for a durable and viable cultural code.
   The balance between freedom and conformity.
   Practical agreements are more important than theoretical points of view.
   The shared biological heritage.
   If we could just agree, how to live together, and, how to share our resources.
   
   
   
8. We are not there, as yet.
   A gloomy prospect for modern, affluent, Capitalist societies.
   The blessings of having plenty of room to get-away from each other.
   Subjective reflections.
   Controling our feelings of despair and euphoria.
   We want to be able to trust each other.
   We are afraid of being deceived and exploited.
   A few ideas about how to create a stable, viable, large-scale society.
   The mechanisms of "hope".
   Hope is re-enforced by emotional resonance.
   Hope is a deliberate filter for our sense impressions and interpretations.
   The high price of religious fervor.
   We are all human beings, friends and foes alike.
   No weak-kneed attitude, begging for mercy, but, no stubborn and unnecessary resistance either.
   Contacts, laid during a situation of conflict, may bloom into a greater degree of mutual understanding, even, friendship.
   Let us be weary of facile propaganda.
   Let us remain calm and controled.
   The horrors of a nuclear holocaust.

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