I picked up copies of the HPR on Friday, 9.8.2017, when I went for lunch at Tailgators Bar & Grill with classmate Terry Steinweg (FCHS 63) where we ran into Tom Olson (FCHS 62) who was having lunch with his handball trophy winning friend Denny Tallman. At one point, I passed them the latest issue of the HPR calling attention to Ed Raymond’s The Gadfly column, “Arpaio vs Kaepernick: Who will win out?” However, the HPR column I had first read was Faye Seidler’s Trans Corner, “A love letter to Lana Wachowski”, on her encounter with Wachowski’s (Matrix writer/director) Sense8 Netflix series. I also really like Sense8 and am currently watching Season 2 Episode 8. I will return to Ed’s column and my meeting with Tom, when i again visit the topic of synchronicity.
Faye’s Trans Corner column focuses on sexuality, an important element of Sense8’s story-line and Faye writes specifically about the transsexualism of Nomi Marks, a computer hacker, played by Jamie Clayton, a transgender woman. Faye asks “What makes ‘Sense8’ so powerful? What about it calls so many people to action?” She answers, “Each person has their own reason, but I suspect it has to do with the show being about the celebration of life and what it means to be human. It does this by inviting viewers to see stories, cultures, and lived experiences beyond their own”. And then Faye, nails it writing that Sense8 … “bears witness to the live births of eight people of different backgrounds and cultures”.
I agree with Faye’s statement but will add another element that attracts me, present tense, since I will watch for the first time S2E8 when I finish this Morning Page. The excitement for me is witnessing these 8-diverse individuals coming together to form a sensate/intellectual/support team pitting as Faye’ points out “an evil corporation that drives the story’s main conflict”. If I was back at UND teaching team-management, this would be an assigned series to watch. In most classes, I would assign a currently playing movie, relevant is some way to our unfolding theories, and attend together with the class – I bought the popcorn. At Concordia College, we went to The Social Network depicting Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to his now billion-dollar corporate empire – here is an“evil corporation”. Interesting, Zuckberg’s corporation is now part of the investigation into the Russian’s “hacking” of U.S. elections! We are tuned in!
The Social Network – Hacking scene
Faye’s psychoanalytical analysis of Nomi in Sense8 is deep and important she says for LGBTQ+ people! Her analysis can be applied to all team-members, but for me it is being applied to the “evil corporation” and its role in ‘globalization’. I saw this theme emerging in S2E4 when we are told there are other Sense8 groups in the world that are now coming tougher. I am looking to see how this theme ends in Season 2, for we are told that this is the last season. So, I join Faye’s disappoint in that the Netflix Sense8 series looks to be ending. I wonder about writing script for a Season 3.
Let me end with a scene where Capheus “Van Damn” Onyango matatu driver in Nairobi, a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme, meets an English educated Nairobi woman and is told by her office mates, he has no chance with his big dick because she like girls. When they next meet, Capheus mentions this news and she responds “Yes, I had a relation with this woman, however, I fall in love with the person not the genitals”. The next scene they are entwined in passionate loving. Kind of invites one to join in – yes? Of course, this is the deep message of Sense8!
Sense8 We need you!
Ed’s column was not as interesting as Faye’s, da, but what caught my attention is Ed beginning with, “Sometime in the future we may teach real history, not real history, not fake history. The truth is that 8 of our president staffed their White House with slaves personally owned by them – and ran a government from a capitol building mainly built by slaves.” This morning I recorded this dream: I was following a sequence of ideas, situations from left to right, past to present, and when I got to now, I woke up. I am now ‘sensing’ that ‘the power of now’ begins Sense8’s Season 3, Episode 1.
A cottage industry of analysis has grown up around the Matrix movies and this documentary Philosophy and the Matrixx – Return to the source is one of the best. You can enjoy it at your leisure as you consider a similar philosophical analysis of Sense8 in The Philosophy of Sense8 | Emotion and Connection. Let’s get Sense in the new year! What does this mean? What are New Year Resolutions to commit to? What does commit mean? Happy New Year!
“I think, therefore, I am” has long been man’s distinguishing characteristic. But, exactly where does thinking take place? Early ideas located thinking in the heart, the gut and along the spinal cord. The Chinese ideogram for think, xiang, has the ideogram xin, meaning heart, as part of its construction, which in the past may reflect the Chinese location of this function. Today, most scientists locate the function of thinking inside the brain. And the way man’s brain “thinks” or to use psychological terminology “processes information” has become a major concern to psychologists and managers.
The Mind in Everyday Affairs
Bell Telephone executive Chester I. Barnard, over 40 years ago, recognized the importance of the “mind in everyday affairs”. In the appendix of his book, Functions of the Executive, he identifies the logical process of the mind as conscious thinking, which utilizes words and symbols, and is referred to as reasoning. The non-logical process is unconscious (intuitive) which is built up from experience and the surrounding environment. Barnard identified the thinking styles of different functional managers, but maintained that the effective manager will have access to either process depending upon the situation. His estimate of the balance of these two processes is: “Logical reasoning process is increasingly necessary but is disadvantaged if not in subordination to highly developed intuitional process.1 Executives such as Alfred P. Sloan of General Motors and Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels have made similar endorsements for the role of intuition in their decision-making processes.
Approaches to Human Information Processing
Since Barnard’s recognition, psychologists and management scholars have conducted extensive studies on human information processing, HIP. Three approaches can be identified: The first approach develops a heuristic model describing how an individual makes a decision in a complex situation.
The second approach to HIP focuses on the cognitive complexity of the individual’s conceptual system. Four decision making styles have been identified based on (1) the use of a single or multiple focus and (2) the amount of information utilized. The four styles are: decisive (single focus, low usage), hierarchic (single focus, high usage), flexible (multiple focus, low usage), and integrative (multiple focus, high usage). In addition, an individual’s interaction with environmental complexity is analyzed in order to understand the most efficient combination of information processing configuration. An important application of this approach is the matching of managers to decision situations.
The third approach emphasizes the dual nature of HIP and identifies styles that are qualitatively different from each other. Decision-makers using logical routines are classified as analytic or systematic and those using more non-logical routines are classified as unsystematic or intuitive. The duality of HIP is extensively supported by neurological evidence and also has a well developed philosophical/ psychological foundation, which suggests we consider this approach more closely.
The Duality of HIP
Substantial neurological evidence indicates that the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere directs the left. Roger W. Sperry and his associates have tested patients who have had a surgical operation in the treatment of epilepsy, which severs the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the cerebrum. These tests clearly illustrate the hemispheric specialization. For example, an object, such as a key, placed out of sight in a person’s left hand, cannot be named. The left hand communicates to the right hemisphere that a key is being held, but this information cannot be communicated to the left hemisphere where speech is controlled. The person knows what is being held with one mind, but is not able verbally to express it with the other. Later, when the person is given several objects, including the key, and asked to select the previously given object with his left hand, the key can be identified, although the person cannot state verbally just what he was doing.2
In another experiment, a woman is shown a picture of a nude woman in a series of otherwise routine pictures by only showing it to the left side of each eye, which registers in the right hemisphere. At first she reported seeing nothing, but simultaneously blushes and seems uncomfortable. Her “conscious” left hemisphere is only aware that something has happened to her body, which the “unconscious” right knew and triggered the body reaction.
Although each hemisphere shares the potential of the other, they do tend to specialize. The left hemisphere specializes in logical-analytical thinking, especially utilizing verbal and mathematical functions, which exhibit sequential information processing. The right hemisphere is more holistic/relational and is responsible for orientation in space, body image, recognition of faces, responsibilities requiring a simultaneous information processing. A number of opposites have been proposed to distinguish the left vs. right hemisphere models: Logical vs. non-Logical; sequential vs. simultaneous; objective vs. subjective; deductive vs. inductive; ‘analytic vs. synthetic; active vs. passive; yin vs. yang..
The philosophies of the West and the East also reveal the duality of HIP. Western philosophy’s Greek heritage views nature as dark, chaotic and in need of human control and rationality. This has led to the Western scientific method characterized by action, encountering, manipulating, dissecting, which aligns with the left hemisphere of rational processing.
In contrast, Eastern philosophy considers nature to be in harmony with man and the human response is to flow with its rhythm. The “emphasis” here then is to consider how disorder arises and can be avoided, which aligns with the right hemisphere of non-logical processing. The Chinese, “wu wei” or “taking no unnecessary action” expresses this attitude. The Taoist circular symbol of overlapping dark and light, yin and yang symbolized the unity of hemisphere differentiation and represents a goal to be reached in our individual development.
A number of psychological theories could be presented in order to represent this foundation, but the work of Carl Jung provides a particularly useful one, since he was keenly interested in the Chinese Tao if[ . Jung’s personality theory identifies two HIP dimensions.3 These are perception (receiving information) and judging (manipulating information). Perception can be via the senses (S) which is a conscious process or via intuition (N) which is unconscious.
Additionally, there are two modes of judging; thinking (T) which is rational inference and feeling (F) which is value oriented discriminations. Either mode of perception can pair with those of judging, resulting in four distinct HIP styles: sensing-thinking (ST), intuition-thinking (NT), sensing-feeling (SF), and intuition-feeling (NF). Although all four styles are present, and considered to be inherent in the individual, each person has a constitutional propensity toward the utilization and development of a superior perception-judgment pairing. This constitutional determinant in combination with environmental opportunities and demands is responsible for shaping the individual’s superior function.
However, individuals are potentially capable of two auxiliary perception-judgment combinations and one inferior pairing. These are usually dormant and underdeveloped. The auxiliary modes share one of the functions, either perception or judgment, with the superior mode, while the inferior mode is the opposite combination of the superior pairing.
Consider the characteristics of a person with an ST processing style. This person tends to utilize sensing for gathering information and rational thinking for judging. He would attend to facts with an impersonal analysis. He is more practical and matter of fact and develops abilities with technical skills in working with facts and objects. One likely occupation would be that of a technician, i.e. an accountant.
Taggart and Robey describe how different managers might respond to a subordinate whose performance has been rated marginal. For example, “An ST manager responds with ‘Improve your performance or you’re fired!’ (factual, impersonal, practical). The NT manager’s attitude moderates a bit with ‘If your performance does not improve, you will be transferred to another position.’ (possibilities, impersonal, ingenious). The SF manager approaches the problem with ‘You need to change, what can we do to help you?’ (factual, personal, sympathetic). And the NF manager suggests ‘You can improve you performance, let me suggest an approach.’ (possibilities, personal, insightful).”4 Any of the approaches might be successful depending on the circumstances and a flexible manager, one whose auxiliary styles are not too rusty, will be able to respond appropriately.
Measuring HIP Styles
A number of approaches to measuring HIP styles are being utilized in research studies and managerial training sessions. One, which is quite new, is the measurement of physiological state indicators (electro-encephalograms and electrical skin resistance). Doktor’s studies of business executives and operation research analysts, who solved two different types of problems (one analytic the other intuitive) found that executives tended to use more right brain processing on both tasks.5 A second measurement approach infers HIP styles by observing a subject’s problem solving behavior. This approach tries to determine what a person actually does in a certain situation. The third approach infers HIP style from self-description inventories which measures a person’s preference by asking him what he would do in various situations. The Mayer-Briggs Type Indicator; which has had extensive validation, identifies the lung personality types.6 Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages and research effort is continuing to improve their reliability and validity.
Implications of HIP for Organizational Functioning
Understanding HIP theory and its research findings has a number of implications in every aspect of organizational functioning. The areas of HIP’s impact can be represented by a series of concentric circles beginning at the center with the ancient Greek motto “Know thy self’. It goes without saying that the effective manager is one who knows his strengths and weaknesses. Reflecting on past decision-making situations is helpful, as well as individual testing to analytically identify one’s style. With this knowledge, effort can be taken to develop one’s auxiliary and inferior styles. Consider Abraham Maslow’s (a Western educated psychologist) call for an Eastern way to understanding one’s self, which emphasizes the right hemisphere process. Maslow states, “….one of the necessary methods in the search for identify, the search for self, the search for spontaneity and for naturalness is a matter of closing your eyes, cutting down the noise, turning off the thoughts, putting away all busyness, just relaxing in a kind of Daoistic and receptive fashion. . . . and just wait to see what happens, what comes to mind. This is what Freud called free association, free-floating attention rather than task-orientation and, if you are successful in this effort, and learn how to do it you can forget about the outside world and the noises and begin to hear these small, delicate impulse-voices from within, the hints from your animal nature, not only from your common species-nature, but also from your own uniqueness.”7
A second application is the identification of subordinate styles, which can greatly assist interpersonal interactions. For example, the delegation of responsibility to different subordinates requires “fine tuning” in the way you explain what is to be done. Barnard states the challenge: “It requires discerning the mental state and processes of the person to be convinced, adopting his mentality, ‘sensing’, what is valid from his point of view and meeting it by apparently rational expression. . . . . .”8 Knowing your subordinate, peer or superior’s cognitive style should direct you in structuring your interactions.
The third concentric circle represents group decision making. The concept of “operations research” originating in England during WWII, combined individuals with different educational background so that different viewpoints would be brought to the decision-making process. A manager with knowledge of individual cognitive styles can select group members to complement each other and thereby be assured of a more effective and efficient decision-making process. The over reliance on left hemisphere rational processing needs to be counter-balanced with the right hemisphere intuitive processing.
The fourth circle is that of the organization and the knowledge that different departments in an organization tend to have different cognitive styles. Lawrence and Lorsch have identified differences between production, personnel, marketing and R & D departments along the dimensions of time, interpersonal and goal orientation and formal structure.9 Such differences invariably lead to inter group conflict, which can be reduced by sensitizing groups to the differences in cognitive styles.
In considering the final concentric circle of society, the work of Geert Hofstede can be cited. Hofstede defines culture as “the collective mental programming of the people in an environment.”10 Cultural mental programming is a result of the common life experiences and education a group of people share. Hofstede was particularly concerned with the influence a national environment has in producing a national characteristic.
After extensive study and research in one large multinational corporation with subsidiaries in 40 countries, Hofstede identified four dimensions along which nations can differ.11 The four dimensions are:
Power Distance – the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed equally.
Uncertainty avoidance – the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid this situation by providing greater career stability, establishing more formal rules, not tolerating deviant ideas and behaviors, and believing in absolute truths and the attainment of expertise.
Individualism-(Collectivism) – Individualism implies a loosely knit social framework in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families only, while collectivism is characterised by a tight social framework in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups; they expect their in-group (relatives, clan, organizations) to look after them, and in exchange for that they feel they owe absolute loyalty to it.
Masculinity-(Femininity) – High masculinity societies are those in which the dominate values are assertiveness, the acquisition of money and things, and not caring for others, the quality of life or people.
Using the data collected from this one corporation, Hofstede constructs three diagrams by plotting the dimension results two dimensions at a time, i.e. Power Distance X Uncertainty Avoidance; Power Distance X Individualism; and Masculinity X Uncertainty Avoidance. These three diagrams represent what Hofstede calls “a composite set of cultural maps of the world.” The implications drawn from these three maps relate to a nation’s optimum organizational structure, motivation patterns, and leadership style.
Of particular interest to us are the results obtained from the Hong Kong sample. Hong Kong’s results are as follows:
. On Power Distance at rank 33 out of the 40 countries (Measured from below) it is above average.
. On Uncertainty Avoidance at rank 4 out of 40, it is below average.
. On Individualism at rank 9 out of 40, it is low, indicating a collectivist orientation.
. On Masculinity at rank 24 out of 40, it is slightly above average.
For comparison purposes the rank’s of the United States are 15, 9, 40, 28 and those of Great Britain are 10, 6, 38,33.
Hofstede’s findings have many applications with respect to management practices in differing cultures. For example, a society with a large power distance would not likely accept the low power distance implied in Management by Objective schemes. Or a society with low uncertainty avoidance would not adapt well to a highly formalized organizational structure. Or in more collectivist societies there may be a higher propensity to remain loyal to the organization rather than calculative. And in societies with a high masculinity index, motivating employees would take the form of achievement rather than social incentives. It should be apparent from these few examples that understanding a society’s mental programming is a pre-requisite for effective and efficient transnational management.
A final example at the societal level is drawn from the world of science fiction, since yesterday’s science fiction seems to have a habit of coming true. This can be illustrated with the example of science fiction movie hero Flash Gordon of the 1930’s becoming Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969.
In this same light Isaac Asimov’s science fiction novel Foundation Trilogy may give us a glimpse of how differing societies may come to a mutual understanding of one another; an understanding dependent upon the cognitive development of its leaders. The necessary development is expressed by the First Speaker saying to the First Citizen: “Emotional contact such as you and I possess is not a very new development. Actually, it is implicit in the human brain. Most humans can read emotions in a primitive manner by associating it pragmatically with facial expression, tone of voice, and so on. . . . Actually, humans are capable of much more, but the faculty of direct emotional contact tended to atrophy with the development of speech a million years back. . .. A million years of decay is a formidable obstacle and we must educate the sense, exercise it as we exercise our muscles.”12
Conclusion
The more one experiences the differences between the “East” and the ”West” the more one “feels” the need for a new integration. The development of western rationality, with all its accomplishments, needs “wu wei” of eastern intuition and vice versa. The obstacle to finding the lost keys to management is our own “habits of thought”, which prevent us from following Lao Tz’s suggestion, “one often wins over the world through non-action.”13
The above suggestion of Lao Tz may seem “beyond” the active-analytically trained manager and academician until we review the solid medical evidence showing differences in left/right brain wave occurrences. This fact should attract us into considering more closely how our mind works and what some of the “far out signals”, from ZEN, MEDITATION, ESP, Bio-feedback, Dream Analysis, etc. are signaling. The development of man’s total mind ought to be the goal.
Footnotes
Barnard, I. Chester, The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1966, p. 301.
Ornstein, Robert E., The Psychology of Consciousness, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., 1977.
Jung, Carl, “Psychological Types” in the Portable lung edited by Joseph Campbell, New York: Penguin Books, 1976.
Taggart, W. and D. Robey, On the Dual Nature of Human and Management,” Academy of Vol. 6, No.2, 1981, pp. 187-195.
Doktor, R., “The Development and Mapping of Certain Cognitive Styles of Problem Solving”, Doctoral dissertation, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, 1970.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto California: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1962.
Maslow, M. A., Toward a Psychology of Being, New York: D. Van Mostrand Company, 1968, p. 44.
Barnard, op. cit., p. 308.
Lawrence, P. R., and 1. W. Lorsch, Organization and Environment-Managing Differentiation and Integration, Boston: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Hofstede Geert, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values, Beverly Hills: Sage Pub., 1980.
Hofstede, Geert, “Motivation, Leadership and Organization: Do American Theories Apply Abroad?”, Organizational Dynamics, Summer 1980, p. 45.
Asimov, I., Foundation Trilogy, New York: AVON Books, 1974, p. 242.
Chang Chung-yuan, Tao: A New Way of Thinking: A Translation of the Tao Te Ching with an Introduction and Commentaries, New York: Harper & Row Pub., 1975, 121. 0
Steven Arvid Scherling, BS, MBA, DBA
Lecturer, Department of Marketing & International Business
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Scherling, SA. (1984, March). The lost keys to management. The Hong Kong Manager. Vol.20, No.3, pp.19-22.
I have read Ed’s Gadfly column, Crazy like a fox, several times and there is something “not quite right” with the essay. Of course, not with Ed’s syntax, especially knowing and then reading that he spent 36 years, 8 in teaching English and Journalism, and then 28 years is school administration. Ed knows how to diagram a sentence and “enforce” the curriculum! I am thinking Ed is “sly like a fox”, however, that may be giving him too much credit. How can Ed, who participated and contributed to the questionable state of our schooling system, now criticize Secretary of Education for deconstructing it – without first presenting her “deconstruction logic”, providing she has one. I think Ed may be worrying his 36-year investment might be exposed as a “sly trick” he has been playing on us.
I recently re-discovered in my library Ivan Illich’s small book “Toward a history of needs” containing five of his essays and started reading them. The essay “In lieu of education” helped to focus my attention in reading Ed’s crazy fox column. It is like reading in tandem two essays on the same topic but on differing planes. Ivan’s deeper analysis suggests that Ed is unaware of Ivan’s deeper probe. The objective of this musing is to examine Illich’s ‘invariant hidden structure’ in our educational system that I suspect is hiding from Ed (Illich: In lieu of education, 1971).
Bruce, your 1960 encounter with Ed was interesting and also motivated me to look closer at what he had written last week. It seems not quite right to cite Michael Fox’s manifesto and not see the “hidden structure” underlying his chosen profession. Consider Fox’s metaphor about a professor filling a pickle jar with golf-ball size rocks and then asking the class if it is full, which of course it is seen to be, until sand and Coors beer (our favorite Bruce?) are added. Then the professor instructs the class that this “jar is your life and make sure the ingredients are the big stuff, your family, your work, your career, your passions. The rest is just sand, minutiae. It’s in there. It may even be important. But it’s not your first priority.” What is this, ‘it may even be important’ – how so, if it is important?
This is where Michael and Ed both seem not right! The by now sandy beer is the most important ingredient – this is Jung’s individuation and Maslow’s self-actualizing need, “Self-Stuff” making the biggest most important rock the family stick-together. If we do not get individuation right nothing works together smoothly. When I first read this, I did not see the jar finally full and thought what else could be added – of course, it is one’s imagination. The other jar ingredients, your work, your career, are the focus of the Illich’s “invariant hidden structure” that we are investigating. Ed seems to not to realize this.
The theme of Fox’s book “A funny thing happened on the way to the future: Twists and turns” is similar to Illich’s essay “In lieu of education”, both reflecting Ed points out Mark Twain’s statement that “I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Fox complies a list of other school dropouts like himself, actors and businesspersons, and get this Ed writes, “have overcome (emphasis added) the lack of formal education to make their mark in the world.” And what is Ed’s and maybe Fox’s criteria for “marking this world” – you guessed it, money, as Ed goes on to point to billionaires that have made their money without formal education. Our society’s criteria of success, money, is not right and ultimately will kill us. Illich’s analysis takes us deep into school-logic that underlies our educational system, which he reminds us was established and is still supported by Kapitalism. It is the State that incorporates The Corporation, which should not be forgotten. If we have issues with Corporations, we have deeper issue with the State.
I am now writing, it appears, following along in Ed’s essay with Ivan’s hovering above in a DeLorean. Ed justifies why our society can place students in his professional hands by detailing his 36 years being educated, teaching, and administrating, and finally moving up to a director of district personnel, a crowning event justifying Ed to proudly state, “I feel I have some credibility.” Yes Ed, as Ivan points out, you were fully indoctrinated and successfully deployed: “The more education and individual consumes, the more ‘knowledge stock’ he acquires and the higher he rises in the hierarchy of knowledge capitalists. Education thus defines a new class structure for society within which the large consumers of knowledge – those who have acquired greater quantities of knowledge stock – can claim to be of superior value to society. They represent gilt-edged securities in a society’s portfolio of human capital, and access to the more powerful or scarcer tools of production is reserved to them” (Illich, In lieu of education, in Toward a history of needs, 1977: 84). Ed really is a good marine.
After commending Fox’s decision to go-his-own-way despite the warning of one teacher that “You are making a big mistake, Fox, you’re not going to be cute forever”, Ed acknowledges that Michael’s decision to follow his talent and not books was a right decision, after all Michael is a millionaire – what more proof do we need? But then Ed challenges Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education as someone “never having entered a public classroom at any level as a student” prompting Ed to surmise that “the Republican Party has the goal of destroying America’s public education system.” In the remaining part of this section, Ed presents in detail the “damage” he thinks Republicans have done and are still doing to the public-school system. Ed then asks this key question, which is an important aspect of Illich’s analytical framework, “How can students learn to read, write, and learn how to use computers and laptops if they don’t have supplies and equipment to do so?” The issue of technology is central in Illich’s analysis of schooling (in 1971 he foresaw the impact of the internet) and Ed ends this section not exploring or at least indicating its importance – he seems to accept technology as a benign entity.
In the last section of his column, Ed presents a flood of polling statistics from the Pew Research Center to criticize “the richest country in the world for refusing to fund education at all levels”. I am reminded of the book “how to lie with statistics” we read as college students. However, more to the point Illich makes – it makes no difference if the right or the left control schooling, their approaches on the surface while different, both lack awareness of what is “hidden” – they both remain unconsciousness or indifferent to what is going on. Ed ends his column with the interesting awareness of Michael in comparing his life experiences with that of the curriculum from Hunter College finding them to be very close, prompting Michael to reflect that he “fulfilled the requirement for each particular course – while having absolutely no idea I was doing it. I might have skipped class, but I didn’t miss any lessons.”
While Michael’s lack of formal education is similar to other successful movie stars and business types, society still needs educated workers. In a previous comment, I suggested Ed’s columns lacked depth but did not defend this statement. I started defending my position here and then in ending this introduction to Illich, he reminded me this about Ed and myself, “In order to see clearly the alternatives we face, we must first distinguished learning from schooling, which means separating the humanistic goal of the teacher from the impact of the invariant structure of the school. This hidden structure constitutes a course of instruction that remains forever beyond the control of the teacher or all of the school board. It necessarily conveys the message that only through schooling can an individual prepare for an adulthood in society, that what is not taught in school is of little value, and that what is learned outside of school is not worth knowing. I call it the hidden curriculum because it constitutes the unalterable framework of the schooling system, within which all changes in the visible curriculum are made.” (In lieu of education, 82).
Wow, as I read Illich, I recalled my past teaching experiences and took note of what had been ‘hiding’ from me. I remember teaching and using management textbooks, now fetching $200 a copy, presenting Maslow’s “Needs Hierarchy Theory”. It may have taken 2 out of 300 pages for these PhD authors to cover Maslow’s Theory, leaving a few paragraphs for Self-Actualization, which they defined as doing all one can for the corporation, building one’s career – being the good worker. Seldom do they address the “deep unconscious work” needed to approach individuation, self-actualization. I came to realize that students are not being taught to care about the deep Self-stuff – the real challenge in business schools is mastering the “mathematics of finance” not the “mathematics of psyche”. There was no time to properly address this math, there are 298 pages I had been told must be covered. Even advanced management classes do not go deep. My attempt at committing class treason is now hovering – preparing a new attack, yes, it has started!
I should not be so hard on Ed – how we go about understanding and addressing the “invariant hidden structure” is tough! To uncover this hidden structure, we have to investigate all the ingredients in our pickle jar – our family, our work, our career, and our passions. Illich states “the economic system” is hiding something. What and why are corporations hiding this knowledge? Why are we, the State, allowing them to hid this knowledge? Illich’s essay examines how schools have turned education into a “commodity”. Pinky’s “class-treason” dialogue is an attempt to reverse this process but as this clip ends, realization hits – more work on this project is badly needed!
I looked for video clips on Illich and there are not many but this one is interesting. Illich was a speaker at the 1984 Water and Dreams Conference sponsored by Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture addressing city life. Illich begins with William Harvey’s discover of the circulation of blood and follows this idea into other circulation of water in cities. (The heading link below is more compete but still illich’s full address is missing.)
Ivan recounts that understanding water circulation made possible city life, noting cities were quite stinky until we got the technology right – today 42% of city water is used to flush waste down, out, and in Fargo’s case up the Red River to Grand Forks. Fargo is in the midst of replacing its water and sewer system and over the weekend, we learned that Garrison water will soon be piped to Grand Forks. Then we witnessed hurricane Harvey’s assault on Houston and are learning now the its water circulation is not right. I liked Michael Fox’s saying at one time he showered with his dishes – wonder if he still does? How about you Bruce? After living with you for a year, I know you drank in the shower – ha!
The weekend before last, we welcomed Ken Harvey a Fargo classmate into the FSHC Class 62 FB Group. I started writing “sly like a fox” and listening to Illich’s clip on William Harvey’s blood circulation discovery and then Hurricane Harvey sinks Houston. Then a new born emerges from his sack of water and is named Harvey. Four Harvey’s in a week – hum… . Ken, is there a song here?
One more weekend experience. In surfing TV channels, I re-watched the end of “Back to the Future” where Doc drops Marty back at home and then sets his time dial to visit the future 30 years out. Marty wakes the next morning to find his family’s life has significantly changed –economically and socially better off. Doc and Marty’s effort not to influence the future had failed. Then Doc suddenly returns with knowledge from the future – Marty and his girlfriend have to see something that is not right with their children. Doc then says he needs more fuel for the DeLorean, opens the fuel chamber, reaches into a near-by trash-can, throws in a banana peel, empties a can of Bruce’s Miller beer, throws the can in, closes the lid and takes off – “technology and the Soul” Wolfgang Giegerich; “Technology with Soul” – Bernard Amadei. Past and future circulations to continue …
A New Universal Spirituality in Fargo’s Civic Center Courtyard
One year ago, 2003, during Fargo’s Ten Commandments Monument debate, a local professor supported his argument for removing Fargo’s Ten Commandments Monument with this reasoning, “Try to imagine you have recently escaped persecution in another country and are now a refugee in the United States. You travel to city hall or a courthouse to find a tablet saying, ‘Thou shalt not have other gods before me.’ What if you aren’t Christian? Are you going to feel as though you will get a fair treatment in this country? Your entire life has been one of fear of being hurt or killed for not belonging to the accepted group. And you escape that, only to find an apparent requirement to belong to another group” (Reasons clear why marker should be removed, Forum 9/03/03). His rationale is that emigrants and refugees entering public buildings should not have to pass any such religious monument so remove them all.
I tried putting myself in refugee shoes, walking into Fargo’s Civic Center courtyard for my first civic experience, and thought about what I would like to greet me. Instead of having no references to the center of life, I would prefer to see the Civic Center courtyard displaying monuments to the many ways men and women have found to touch center ground – place monuments to all beliefs and to “no belief”, if no belief is possible. For me the most welcoming reception would be to see all religions openly acknowledged – this would tell me that Fargo’s belief systems are encompassing and accommodating. And this seems to be the issue – are we open and tolerant to all beliefs?
This summer I was working on a Fargo photo collage and when I took a photo of the Civic Center, I saw an opportunity to state my opinion photographically. With a panorama of the Civic Center at the top and the green lawn extended downward, I placed at the poster’s center a photo of the Ten Commandments Monument. I then selected saying from the other religions Houston Smith, author of The Religions of Man, discusses to surround the Ten Commandments Monument photo. These saying may not be the ones others would choose to represent these faiths but they have similar themes.
I had the opportunity while at UND in the 1970s to attend visiting lectures by Houston Smith and in the last chapter of this book he suggests that at the core of man’s religions we find the same underlying truth. In Smith’s final chapter, he asks us to ponder, “how do these religions fit together? In what relation do they stand to one another?” He poses three answers and suggests a direction forward. The first is that one religion is clearer and superior in expressing religious truth. The challenge here is to live to the depths of them all in order to make this judgment. The second is that in “all important respect they are the same” – each contains a version of the Golden Rule, sees man’s self-centeredness as source of his troubles and seeks to help, and acknowledge a universal Divine Ground from which man rose and good is sought. The challenge is again to fully understand them and then decide how to fit them together.
The third answer stands in contrast to the first two, in that, not all religions say the same thing but they do have a similar unity. Nor does it find one tradition to be superior, for if God is a God of love, surely, He would be revealing himself to all others as difference necessitated. The third answer is the most challenging in that the light of man’s religions derives from the “same source.” Smith suggests the challenge in this third response is “whether our personal, autonomous reason is qualified to stand judgment on matters as important as these, picking and choosing what in other traditions is authentic and what is spurious?”
Smith’s last question is, “What should be our approach to the religions of man from this point on?” Here I suggest Smith misses the point, in that we should not be about “picking and choosing” with “autonomous reason” but of exploring inwardly with symbolic reasoning our common source – our common collective unconscious. Smith’s suggestion that we must listen first to our own faith and then to others, left me wondering what listening involves. Smith views the “same religions source” as an objective rather than a subjective experience and thus left me looking for more direction.
In the face of the threats, Smith saw in 1958 from “nationalism, materialism, and conformity” (today add terrorism) he correctly calls attention to the urgency of opening a dialogue on “man’s spiritual life.” In spite of these plagues, Smith called this a potentially “great century” if, however, the scientific achievements of the first half are matched by “comparable achievements in human relations” in the second. What happened to Smith’s call for a basic change in human relations? How do we rate the capacity of man’s mind today to destroy itself? Where have all the soldiers gone? Still going to fields everyone….
Indeed, soldiers are still going, as suggested by C.G. Jung, in that the body count in the wake of the 20th Century’s political faiths surpasses the slaughter left by the crusaders, inquisitor, and Holy Wars following the Reformation. Jung writes, “Not even the medieval epidemics of bubonic plague or smallpox killed as many people as certain differences of opinion in 1914 or certain political ‘ideals’ in Russia.” There certainly is an urgency to find a common understanding – a new universal spirituality.
In considering Smith’s approach to “religions from this point on”, I discovered John Dourley’s book, The illness that we are, to offer a point of departure. What is unique is Dourley’s thesis that a universal subjective symbolic reasoning process provides a way to deeply listen, understand, and dialogue about man’s common religious function. Symbolic reasoning addresses this key concern of Smith’s, “Who does not have to fight an unconscious tendency to equate foreign with inferior?”
Smith closes his book with this Jesus saying, “Do unto others as you would they do unto you.” However, at a deeper level this Jesus saying, “First take the beam out your own eye,” has to precede “Loving thy neighbor as thy self” or “Doing unto others…” Symbolic reasoning is about “understanding the beams”, which in turn unveils the “unconscious tendency to equate foreign with inferior” or that “evil” is out there in an “empire” or “triad” and can be eradicated. A more universal spirituality might begin by placing many religious monuments in Fargo’s Civic Center Courtyard. [Scherling, SA, 2004, Ten Commandments or a new universal spirituality in our Civic Center courtyard? High Plains Reader, October 14, Vol.11, Iss.6. p.3.]
City of Fargo down for the count-of-ten
I anticipated a line of spectators for the March 11th 2005 Fargo Ten Commandments hearing but only a small camera crew was at the Courthouse entrance and the courtroom was only three-quarters full. Third-year law student Tiffany Johnson presented the plaintiffs’ case and argued that the monument violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutional for the city to have accepted and to maintain the Monument. Defense assistant Fargo City Attorney Patty Roscoe argued that “secular” and “context” aspects of the monument matter, illustrating the secular by pointing to America’s legal heritage and that donation of the monument to commemorate Fargo’s 1950s urban renewal. How is Judge Erickson seeing this case?
Throughout the hearing, Erickson made comments and asked questions. As the judge professed, for this case he was playing the role of educator for the benefit 4th grade and university law students present. This certainly was helpful for court pundits analyzing the judge’s thinking and setting odds on how he will rule. Just as the attorneys and judge speculated on the meaning of what several Supreme Court Justices said or did not say in hearing their Ten Commandments case, we can speculate on how Erickson might rule based on his comments and questions.
Erickson stated the reason he allowed this case to come forward is its unique circumstances. One uniqueness is that the monument had been donated to the city to commemorate its 1950s urban renewal project, clearly stated on the monument. The judge saw this as supporting the city’s secular argument. However, Johnson made an important point – the monument contains two stars of David, the $1 bill “all-seeing eye”, an eagle grasping an American flag, and the Greek letters Chi and Rho, which are symbols representing Jesus Christ. The judge, however, did not buy Johnson’s argument that “eagle grasping an American flag” on the monument when seen by a passing U.S. shoulder holding the Muslim faith would be seen as an affront to his service.
Erickson responded with concern to Johnson’s photo of the Monument 20-feet off the ground showing that the only direct sidewalk between three public buildings intersect in a circle sidewalk surrounding the Monument. Erickson asked, “Why can’t the City move the sidewalks?” The judge clearly feels the sidewalk layout between these public buildings is making an inappropriate statement about the centrality of this religious monument. While the judge seemed to discounts the argument that it is a burden to have to avert one’s eyes when passing such a monument, he was not impressed that the city has not provided an alternate sidewalk between these buildings. The layout of the Civic Center Courtyard sidewalks should have been and needs changing Erickson is thinking.
Erickson asked Johnson, what her clients thought of the idea of placing other monuments in the Civic Center Courtyard. “I do not know – they are only concerned about the present situation,” she replied. The judge asked Roscoe, “Have other groups offered to donate similar monuments to the city.” “Not to the best of my knowledge”, Roscoe responded. Roscoe informed the court the City Commission (July 8, 2002) voted not to move the Monument and that City Commissioner Rob Lynch’s no vote was because the City’s new urban renewal plans envisioned extending 2nd Avenue North through the Courtyard and would thus necessitate moving of the Monument. Erickson quickly asked, “Does the city have any current plans regarding this?” “None to my knowledge”, Roscoe replied.
Erickson’s comments accepted and discounted points on both sides and reveal he was probing for accommodation. At the center of his concern seems to be, “how can the Fargo’s Ten Commandments Monument remain?” The judge has to be thinking that the City Commission has not strategically anticipated this case and properly defused the plaintiffs’ case with plans to address the sidewalk and to place other religious monuments in the courtyard. Such efforts in other communities have met with success in retaining Ten Commandments monuments.
A more important lapse, the judge must be thinking, has occurred within Fargo’s religious
communities. They have failed to seize the opportunity to donate like monuments representing their beliefs. Where are Fargo’s Muslim’s Koran, Hindu’s Bhagavad-Gita, Tibetan’s Book of the Dead, the Native American’s Lakota Wisdom, Unitarian’s Seven Principles, free-thinkers’ Humanist Manifesto III, Chinese Dao de Ching, atheist’s manifesto, and really where is the Christians’ Sermon on the Mount monument?
Erickson’s comments and questions reveal that he would favorably have viewed Fargo Community support and a current City Commission plan to reconstitute the Civic Center Courtyard as justification for keeping the Ten Commandants Monument. Pundits calling the pending Supreme Court decision are predicting its decision will require the Ten Commandments monument be removed from inside courthouses but will allow it to remain in courtyards providing they include other secular and religious monuments. It seems Erickson’s summary decision will be for the plaintiffs – a sad outcome for all belief systems and a setback for Fargo making a statement on “universal spirituality”. However, I hear there is a side bet at even odds that Erickson will rule in favor of the City, providing the sidewalk is changed and other monuments added. [Scherling, SA, 2005, Ten Commandments Update. High Plains Reader, Vol.11, Iss.31, April 21:7.]
Does a Ten Commandments monument belong on public land?
Today, 7/18/17, Fargo’s Ten Commandments Monument crying – she is lonely!
Dream: I am watching myself from 1st base on the mound pitching a baseball game. I have lost previous games but now have discovered within myself a source of energy, a way that now gives me confidence that I am pitching a winning game. I just have to look deep within to sum-up the energy for the winning pitch.
Association: Recently, I read the “ND hero story”, a story about Herman Stern and then re-reading Murray Stein’s essay The ethics of individuation and the individuation of ethics I read this, seeing it is a description of Herman Stern: “There is a Jewish myth of thirty-six just men (Lamed-Tov) who are ‘the hearts of the world multiplied’ and who keep the World afloat because of their very existence. They often do not know who they are and are quite unaware that they are sustaining the human enterprise with their mostly invisible and internal efforts.” Remembering that I had previously posted on this topic, I found that on April 29, 2013 I had posted this on Jung’s concept of Individuation – Ethics of Individuation & Individuation of Ethics (DAMBlog). I now realize that I am being pulled back into this Blog entry after reading the “ND hero Story” to reflect anew on what still needs discovering, what is still unfolding. So, there is some overlap here.
I was surprised and enjoyed watching Herb Jonas (FCHS ‘62) talking about his ancestors being helped by Herman and saying “if not for his help, I would not be here.” Another classmate, Art H. said, “Seeing Herb Jonas is certainly a blast from the past. I lived at Earl’s house for several months (until Earl’s untimely death) and got to know Herb’s mother Hilda quite well. They were [a]cross the alley neighbors. I learned a lot about their escape but not this part. Quite impressed.” My response was “Art, interesting reading about Herman’s life experience….. After reading this web entry on a photograph of Herman, I wondered if he and my photographer grandfather, Arvid Scherling, had met. My family lived two houses south of the Edward Stern family on south 10th street and I had 4th grade crush on oldest daughter Decie. With only a few yards separating these grandfathers when both were visiting, I am going to guess they met – now to imagine what they might have discussed.
Adam Smith is called the father of modern economics had acquired this title with his 1776 publication ofThe Wealth of Nations. Smith’s 1759 publicationThe Theory of Moral Sentiments is regarded as his magnum opus but is considered a modifying companion to his Wealth of Nations. In Moral Sentiments (Wikipedia), Smith critically examines the moral thinking of his time, and suggests that conscience arises from social relationships. His goal in writing the work was to explain the source of mankind’s ability to form moral judgements, in spite of man’s natural inclinations towards self-interest. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy, in which the act of observing others makes people aware of themselves and the morality of their own behavior.
… that in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith advocates for a form of moral sentimentalism. We naturally link sympathy to either approval or disapproval of an action or reaction. For instance, if an individual insults another person, we attach sympathy to the reaction of the person who was insulted. If the person insulted under-reacts or overreacts, we will disapprove the response morally. If the reaction seems right, we will approve of the response morally. We will also sympathize with parties who are not sharing a similar sentiment. For instance, if a person loses their mental capacity or passes way, we will sympathize with that person even though they themselves are not feeling the same sentiment. Lastly, using Smith’s moral sentimentalism, we can judge our own actions. We can do this by looking at our own actions from a third person point of view” (Wikipedia)
An advancement on Smith’s Wealth & Moral Sentiments occurs with John Nash’s intuitive insight in this Beautiful Mind Bar Scene, which has Nash suggesting that Smith needs revision. Smith’s Wealth of Nations principle ruling the dominant institution of our time, the corporation, is that “In competition, individual ambition serves the common good” and “the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what is best for himself.” Nash’s insight suggests that a revision is needed, “The best result will come from everyone doing what is best for himself and for his group.” The governing dynamic “in game theory, known as the Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a non-cooperative game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally. If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing strategies while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute a Nash equilibrium. Stated simply, Amy and Wili are in Nash equilibrium if Amy is making the best decision she can, taking into account Wili’s decision, and Wili is making the best decision he can, taking into account Amy’s decision. Likewise, a group of players are in Nash equilibrium if each one is making the best decision that he or she can, taking into account the decisions of the others.” We must make note that Nash’s game theory was the logic behind the US and USSR Cold War face off.
However, what occurs with Nash’s realization that Smith’s theory needs revision, is an individuation of ethics – Justice advancing.
Okay, reading and watching this scene sets the stage to imagine a dialogue between Herman and Arvid. Both Smith’s and Nash’s views look outward for reference. So, let us develop another view on “The best results come from everyone doing what is best for himself and for this groups.” This view is inward and presented by Murray Stein (2007) in his essay The ethics individualization and the individualization of ethics. Stein begins his essay with the favorite rainmaker story Jung was fond of telling, which was told to him by Richard Wilhelm translator of the Chinese Secret of the golden flower and The I Ching at a Psychological Club of Zurich lecture in the 1920’s. Wilhelm actually witnessed this event when he was living in Qingdao, China.
There was a long dry spell in the region. The land in the countryside was utterly parched, and the crops were failing. As a consequence, many people were facing the prospect of starvation. Desperate, they tried to produce rainfall by performing all the religious rites they knew: the “Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss-sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result.
Finally the Chinese said, “We will fetch the rain-maker.” So they sent a message to another part of the country asking for the assistance of a well known rain-maker. Eventually a “dried up old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days. On the fourth day the clouds gathered and there was a great snow-storm at the time of the year when no snow was expected, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumours about the wonderful rain-maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it.”
When asked, the old man replied: “I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order, they are not as they should be in the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country. So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao and then naturally the rain came” (Douglas, 1997: 333) cited in (Stein, 2007: 65).
The idea behind Wilhelm’s story is that an individuating person has “the capacity to affect society and the cosmos (for good or ill) because the individual, society, and the cosmos are intimately connected parts of a single reality.” Thus doing what is best for oneself is to walk the way of individuation, which eventually naturally flows into the collective. Erich Neumann’s 1945 book Depth psychology and a new ethic develops this new ethics, which is addressed in the BlogDeep Jesus, Us?. The new depth ethic is to walk the way of individuation – this is a transformationalleader’s way, which I imagine both Herman and Arvid understood and, I suspect was part of their discussion, maybe on President Franklin Roosevelt’s leadership. Eventually we will address this leadership style.
Alan Watts Tribute to Carl Jung captures the essence of Jung’s individuation process and as I am now re-listening to it, I imagine around my table Herman and Arvid are looking over my shoulder participating in what is unfolding – I am listening Pops! Yes, at the center of this tribute, Watts re-visits the Nazi Holocaust and describes Jung’s personal experience and individuation, which I sense is in the lives of Herman and Arvid. This clip points us in the direction of the individuation of ethics – Justice, let me continue with an amplification.
Amplification: I have been reading and re-reading Robert Romanyshyn’s book The Wounded Researcher – Research with Soul in Mind (WR) for many years now. Each time it is read, I read it with the experiential learning model (CE – RO – AC – AE) that has accompanied me in my teaching career. This circular model begins with a concrete experience (ce) following into reflective observation (ro), which takes place with abstract conceptualizations (working theories in mind) (ac), all brought together in an active experimentation (ae) writing about one’s unfolding experiences. One continues this experiential learning process by again generating new but related experiences and in this case re-reading WR and carrying this effort forward into a new writing experiment to comprehend and implement the idea of conducting research with “Soul” in mind. The central idea in conducting research with soul in mind is to include my wounded researcher’s complex psyche soul in the research project.
As we examine past Blog entries, we see that most are working to apply this model of experiential learning working with the WR method. For example, in blog entry Cyclops Trump Amor Fati, the last section of WR’s last Chapter 13, Towards an ethical epistemology, is titledAmor Fati, which is a one-page ending encapsulating Romanyshyn’s 386 page opus magnum. Also consider the dream amplification in the Blog post,A Dream, Association, Amplification, as an effort to apply the unfolding processes presented in the WR. Both of these examples are efforts to understand and accept the Scherling Project as amor fati. And now I see in the Stern Project the uncovering of Herman’s acceptance of his amor fati. Herman and Arvid both lived their lives accepting and living their amor fati. My effort here is to bring my latest reading of the WR to bear on the individuation of ethics – Justice, which we might call the individuating World – an individuation that these two GrandPops participated in!
Murray’s essay The ethics of individuation and the individuation of ethics is a deep dive into what has always been challenging the World – Justice. We can read his essay linked here in full and you may want to in order to feel the rawness of what we are being challenged to understand. However, I will attempt to capture the essay’s central points and expand it with a few examples unfolding around us.
The point Stein addresses in the first half of his essay, the ethics of individuation, is to understand the “ethics” of an individual with intense focus on his or her personal individuation. When a personal individuation focus is undertaken, it requires a person to pull back from collective involvement in order to undertake the intense individual efforts required. However, this self-imposed isolation eventually has to be balanced when he or she reaches the point of integration and needs, is required, to give back to the community. Stein writes that, “The severe ethics of individuation rises above the moral codex of the community, past adherence to the vox Dei, and beyond all other forms of identification with collective voices, politics, rules, images, or religious convictions, and reflectively ponders the situation under the protection and auspices of the archetypal and uncontaminated image of Dao (the Self)”.
The rainmaker when experiencing the drought, needed to retreat to his hut outside the village for 4 days in-order bring himself back into Dao, before re-emerging into the community, giving back, and then it naturally rains, even snows lifting the drought. Stein writes that, “This introduces the second great movement of individuation: The integration of (not identification with) a transcendent archetypal image following upon separation from all prior distorting and inflating identities and identifications. It is by this means that the rainmaker brings himself into order and harmony with Dao. He separates (goes into a hut at the edge of the village), and there he connects inwardly to the archetype of unity and order (Dao), not however by identifying himself with it and getting inflated with its numinous power. He brings himself into alignment with the Dao.”
Before citing further examples of the individuation of ethics, Stein concludes this section by setting a challenge to communities of collective consciousness needed to engage in complex ethical reflections. Stein writes, “In this double movement of individuation – separation and integration – one can discover also a potential for the further individuation of ethics itself. By individuation of ethics, I mean the further incarnation of the archetypal idea of Justice, a transcendent moral order. Since this requires the extension and elaboration of ethical reflection in territories and fields where it has not been considered before, especially with regard to individual situations and differences as well as to novel cultural movements, experience teaches that this work is best done within communities and by people skilled in this kind of reflection. The elaboration of ethics is a fully conscious undertaking, although its initial impetus and deepest grounding are usually unconscious and archetypal. Practically speaking, it is well nigh impossible for the involved individual to attain the necessary objectivity required for this type of complex ethical reflection. The moral archetype (Justice), raised to consciousness in community by individuals and brought into reflection by many people upon unique and new situations, can thereby reach further incarnation in new and specific areas of experience and application. This becomes a matter of urgent importance when individual and cultural/social developments critically outstrip collective consciousness and bring into view spheres of human activity where ethical considerations and viewpoints have not been elaborated yet.”
I suspect we are living in the end times when developments are critically outstripping collective consciousness and there is an urgent need for “an extension and elaboration of ethical reflection.” Zizek gives us a peak into how the complexethical reflection is unfolding in these times and I for one would like Slavoj on the team.
After watching the above clip our thoughts and feelings on Justice really spread out!
We have already looked at John Nash A Beautiful Mind movie’s bar scene as an experience, a Nash intuition of the individuation of ethics – the individuation of Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” to a more Just position of “doing what is good for one’s self and for one’s group.” It is worth noting that Smith identifies the “wealth of a Nation” to be its workers – the labor class. Do our Republican, Democratic, Independent Parties, and all those now living below, at, or even well above the poverty-line know this? No, I doubt it. We ought no longer watch, idolize, the endless Hollywood Parade of conspicuous consumers of stuff as children starve and are gassed.
Stein’s illustrates the individuation of ethics with an example from the early years of psychoanalysis first pioneered by Sigmund Freud and then Carl Jung at the turn of the 20th Century. It took several decades to sort out the ethical codes addressing the transference and countertransference occurring between the analysand and the analyst. In this first scene from the movie A Dangerous Method we see Jung’s patient Sabina Spielrein saying to Jung that he can take the initiative to engage in a sexual affair, which he does leading to the ‘famous spanking scene’ now removed from Youtube.
Wikipedia has this entry on the transference and countertransference processes:
In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a patient’s feelings for a significant person to the therapist. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with patients, he thought he was encountering patient resistance, as he recognized the phenomenon when a patient refused to participate in a session of free association. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done: “the transference, which, whether affectionate or hostile, seemed in every case to constitute the greatest threat to the treatment, becomes its best tool”.[9] The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is, in large part, the therapist and patient recognizing the transference relationship and exploring the relationship’s meaning. Since the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient’s unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with childhood figures.
Countertransference is defined as redirection of a therapist’s feelings toward a patient, or more generally, as a therapist’s emotional entanglement with a patient. A therapist’s attunement to their own countertransference is nearly as critical as understanding the transference. Not only does this help therapists regulate their emotions in the therapeutic relationship, but it also gives therapists valuable insight into what patients are attempting to elicit in them. For example, a therapist who is sexually attracted to a patient must understand the countertransference aspect (if any) of the attraction, and look at how the patient might be eliciting this attraction. Once any countertransference aspect has been identified, the therapist can ask the patient what his or her feelings are toward the therapist, and can explore how those feelings relate to unconscious motivations, desires, or fears.
Discussion on this relationship were revealed in numerous letters between Jung, Sabian, Freud, Jung’s wife and Sabian’s mother, finally ending in Jung realizing the mistake being made and the individuation of a new ethical responsibility between analysand and analyst began to evolve. Stein describes this evolution taking “several decades until ethics caught up and elaborated detailed codes of conduct for therapists that took into the account the nuances and subtleties of transference and countertransference.” In just the past decade, the issues of feminism, homosexuality, medical advances, termination of life, genetic engineering, health-care as a right, livable income for all are pressing for further individuation of ethics. Here Jung realizes that his ethical behavior needed to evolve:
We are examining the individuation of religion from polytheism, to monotheism, to atheism and within monotheism between Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism. Žižek in Atheism and Christianity examines the ethical difference between Judaism and Christianity and proposes, “The only way really to be an atheist is through Christianity. Christianity is much more atheist than the usual atheism, which can claim there is no God and so on, but nonetheless it retains a certain trust in The Big Other. This Big Other can be called natural necessity, evolution, or whatever. We humans are nonetheless reduced to a position within the harmonious whole of evolution, whatever, but the difficult thing to accept is again that there is No Big Other, no point of reference which guarantees meaning.”
Another example of the individuation of ethics, is the change occurring in the movement from polytheism, to monotheism, to atheism. And even within monotheism between Judaism and Christianity. In the Old Testament there exists a literal place, the Tabernacle, the Wailing Wall, where followers gathered to worship God. In the New Testament this evolves so that wherever two or more are gathered in Christ name there Am I, the Holy Spirit, with you. Zizek outlines the difference between Judaism and Christianity as that between anxiety and love – with the crucifixion of Christ there is no longer “A Big Other,” there will be no return of The Christ. We only have each other – doing what is best for yourself and others. This is the challenge – how do we do this? Jung’s Answer to Job addresses this individuation of ethics clearly. The Wikipedia entry indicates that Jung considers the Book of Job to be
…. a landmark development in the “divine drama”, for the first time contemplating criticism of God (Gotteskritik). Jung described Answer to Job as “pure poison”, referring to the controversial nature of the book (Storr, 1973). He did, however, feel an urge to write the book. The basic thesis of the book is that as well as having a good side, God also has a fourth side – the evil face of God. This view is inevitably controversial, but Jung claimed it is backed up by references to the Hebrew Bible. Jung saw this evil side of God as the missing fourth element of the Trinity, which he believed should be supplanted by a Quaternity. However, he also discusses in the book whether the true missing fourth element is the feminine side of God. Indeed, he saw the dogmatic definition of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Pope Pius XII in 1950 as being the most significant religious event since the Reformation. Another theme in the book is the inversion of the myth that God sent his son Christ to die for the sins of humanity. Jung maintains that upon realizing his mistreatment of Job, God sends his son to humankind to be sacrificed in repentance for God’s sins. Jung sees this as a sign of God’s ongoing psychological development.
I am listening to you, Arvid, sitting around my table reminding us in your book, The dogma of a sinful constitution, you write to us about the ethics in the dogma of original sin.
Recently posted at my Facebook was this essay on How nationalism and Socialism Arose from the French Revolution by Dan Sanchez. (https://fee.org/articles/how-nationalism-and-socialism-arose-from-the-french-revolution/). When I read what Steven W. had written, “that no matter what our political difference are, this needs reading,” I immediately read it, knowing something should come of our differences aired several months back. My answer to the statement, “that we are not free and want to believe in a free society” is yes. Sanchez’s historical essay is well written but I am disappointed in the details of his suggested solution that: “A non-state-centered revolution in minds and morals is what we need to truly shake the world and to finally shake off the chains of oppression, war, and poverty that bind us.” Sounds like we need someone who “walks on water”, know anyone doing this today. We need specifics! How to Dance…
Okay, I know we have watched “Zizek On Atheism and Christianity” with this message “whenever two or more are assembled there I Am”, the Holy Spirit. So, here WE are, what to discuss? Zizek continues his thesis making sure we understand “God Is Dead” and we best get on putting an end to all killing in His Names – just realizing this about religion should help! However, the big issue and maybe Sanchez addresses in another essay is “what is at the center of nationalism’s warring mentality?” I just finished watching “The Great War” PBS documentary on WWI, which puts film to Sanchez’s essay illustrating the “psychic frenzy” in the US in the World, the economic benefits of full-employment – the rise of the military-industrial-media complex, the rise of the creed for money. Then at the end of, Charlie Rose’s Zizek interview, Zizek identifies “private property,” as it exits in “The Corporation” as the root of our insanity. The Corporation is something real, concrete, that needs discussing – it is at the center of Sanchez’s “non-state-centered revolution in minds and morals.” It is the State that incorporates The Corporation!
I will end this blog entry noting that Wolfgang Giegerich’s further individuation of ethics, presented in his essay “The end of meaning and the birth of man,” echoes Jung’s Project but does introduce a paradigm shift in approaching the individuation of Justice,The Soul’s Logical Life that we will attempt to addresses in a future blog entry.
Herman’s and Arvid’s Family Projects are important elements in their respective families and I imagine they began discussing this on South 10th Street Fargo. What next is unfolding in the individuation of ethics – Justice? We are still listening – Pops!
The winning pitch in my dream – a fastball, high & inside! Why this pitch? If I am looking deep within I need to to sum-up as much energy as I can. An idea behind psyche energy, E = MC2, was first presented in my very first blog entry, The Mathematics of Faith, where Bill Moyers interview of Anouar Majid on America’s orthodoxy – global corporate capitalism. Steven Arvid
I had this early morning dream: I was able to take from my computer screen the program that was running a Looney Tune program and then use the program with others to act-out any Looney Tune cartoon. It seems the dream image was of The Joker since an exclamation/question-mark was displayed. (04.05.2017 3:15)
“Why so serious?” seems appropriate!
Yesterday, I watched a clip of President Trump delivering a speech to the “North America Building Trades Unions,” where he was naming the individual trades, welders, roofers, sheet metal-workers, etc. – those needed to “re-build” America’s infrastructure. The cheers after each skill was named were not robust and at one time there were boos. I went to bed reading the new Time Magazine issue (4.19.2017) essay “What it will take to rebuild America”
I then remembered Steve Allen’s excellent show Meeting of Minds, expecting to help Donald with his reading, literacy, and thinking challenges. Here we have in two parts Aristotle, Machiavelli, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Sun Yat-Sen in a dialectic-analytical-dialogue that should help prepare President Trump for his up-coming meeting with President Xi Jinping.
This is “Why so serious”! What possible impact could this Blog entry have on the upcoming meeting between Trump and Xi? None, I think. (04.05.2017 15:00)
This ‘meeting of minds’ is consuming, they were watched back-to-back with two broad observations. Browning brought ‘feeling’ to the meeting that could be set along side Aristotle’s ‘thinking’ personality – these can be seen as the work of C.G. Jung’s Personality Types. The Sun and Machiavelli dialogue is like watching the difference between Clinton and Trump’s Presidential leadership style. We are now all waiting to see how ‘Machiavellian’ Trump will be. Getting to ‘know’ a little about these persons was really quite an experience!
(04.05.2017 18:00) Post Script: At 15:00 when this was published, I joked with myself thinking there was no way this message from Fargo could be communicated to Mr. Trump. I then went to work in the yard and at 18:00 began watching the evening news. A major re-alignment in Trump’s administration had taken place – Bannon had been removed from NSC. I immediately thought what had taken place was the occurrence of a synchronicity – thinking, writing, and publishing this essay linked to Trump. This is a Chinese way thinking and we will be tending closely to what is unfolding between Xi and Trump.
This Mother Jones post says, “Donald Trump met with the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus at the White House Thursday to try to hammer out a deal on Obamacare repeal. A major question in the final negotiations? Whether or not maternity care and mammograms should be considered “essential” treatments covered by all health insurance policies under the Republican proposal. (“I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms,” quipped Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who supports scrapping the requirement. He apologized.) The White House happily snapped a photo of the gathering that will go a long way toward deciding the future of women’s health in America, and EMIILY’s List, the group that works to elect pro-choice Democratic women to Congress, also blasted out a photo of the event to reporters. Notice anything?”
I penned this response to my classmate, Carolyn, who posted this news and photo.
This is a serious oversight and my causal joke about Trump’s past behavior with women was a shallow comment before diving ‘deep’. In my Blog post, ‘Blue, Red, a Third Pill?’, there is a start to go ‘deep’ and this is what I wrote: “In one Zizek clip we see just a 2-second clip from the Solaris movie. Below is the Zizek – Solaris clip that deconstructs the movie. The logic and implications for the loss of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential bid is startling and will be fully explored later. For now, let us get it from the unconscious into consciousness.”
Seems, I am not to wait to get the Zizek – Solaris clip deconstruction transcribed. We have Neo awaking from being a ‘human battery’ supplying libido-energy to the Matrix Machine creating ‘virtual-reality’. Zizek asks, ‘why does the Matrix need our energy?’ Zizek turns this question around and asks ‘why does the energy need the Matrix? The energy under consideration is our libido-energy – our pleasure. Zizek asks, “Why does our libido need the virtual universe of fantasies? Why can’t we simple enjoy IT directly?” That is making love. Zizek, suggests that our libido needs an illusion to sustain itself and here he deconstructs the Solaris movie, which begins by considering the Freudian Id Machine – deep in us.
Calvin, a psychologist, is sent to the planet Solaris’s space station to address strange problems of the inhabitants going crazy. The planet Solaris has the “magic ability to actualize your deepest traumas, dreams, fears, desires – the innermost of your inner-space.”
One morning Calvin’s deceased wife appears and they make love, which arises in him not so much his desire but his guilt-feelings toward his wife. He then realizes he has to get ride of her. The key in Zizek’s analysis is the subjective position of the wife, who knows she has no consistency of her own. She has gaps in her memory because she only knows what he knows of her. She is just his dream realized and her true love for him is a desperate attempt to erase herself from him – to clear this space because she guesses he wants this. However, getting rid of a ghost, a spectral presence, is no easy task – it sticks to you like a shadowy presence. For now, I will leave this topic to a future entry.
Zizek says what we get here is the “lowest of male mythology – the idea that woman does not exist on her own, a woman is nothing more than a man’s dream realized.” Women exist because male desire got impure. If men cleanse their desire, get rid of Hustler Magazine fantasies, women cease to exist. The film ends with sort of a holy communion, a reconciliation, not with Calvin’s wife but with his father. Humm… Who knows – The Shadow Knows.
I propose this hypothesis, the photo image of all men addressing the America Health Care decision without a woman in the room is for sure Trump’s and maybe all these men’s “holy communions” with their fathers. So, we have a hypothesis, what is our research methodology? I am imaging a movie with all these men’s Shadows as characters – it is “a horror movie that is not a horror movie”.
On January 20, 2017 shortly after Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. President, I put my copy of theI Ching on the table, my three Chinese coins on top of the book, folded my hands around the coins and book, and mediated for awhile about this question: What of Donald J Trump’s Presidency?
I held the three Chinese coins with this question in mind and tossed them six times to generate one of the 64 possible hexagram responses. The I Ching’s answer was Hexagram 45 Tsui/Gathering Together (Massing), with a changing third line resulting in hexagram 31 Hsien/Influence (Wooing). In the blog entry The I Ching on Trump’s Election – Gathering Together I reflected and wrote a commentary on this response. The Six in the third place is especially important to read and when this weak line changes to a strong line it gives us Hexagram 31 Hsien/Influence (Wooing), further insight about the future. Below is Hexagram 31 and then my COMMENTARY follows.
31. Hsien/ Influence (Wooing) ____ ____ _________ above Tui The Joyous, Lake _________ _________ ____ ____ below Ken Keeping Still, Mountain
____ ____
The name of the hexagram means “universal,” “general,” and in a figurative sense “to influence,” “to stimulate.” The upper trigram is Tui, the Joyous; the lower is Kên, Keeping still. By its persistent, quiet influence, the lower, rigid trigram stimulates the upper, weak trigram, which responds to this stimulation cheerfully and joyously. Kên, the lower trigram, is the youngest son; the upper, Tui, is the youngest daughter. Thus the universal mutual attraction between the sexes is represented. In courtship, the masculine principle must seize the initiative and place itself below the feminine principle. Just as the first part of book 1 begins with the hexagrams of heaven and earth, the foundations of all that exists, the second part begins with the hexagrams of courtship and marriage, the foundations of all social relationships.
THE JUDGMENT Influence. Success. Perseverance furthers. To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune.
The weak element is above, the strong below; hence their powers attract each other, so that they unite. This brings about success, for all success depends on the effect of mutual attraction. By keeping still within while experiencing joy without, one can prevent the joy from going to excess and hold it within proper bounds. This is the meaning of the added admonition, “Perseverance furthers,” for it is perseverance that makes the difference between seduction and courtship; in the latter the strong man takes a position inferior to that of the weak girl and shows consideration for her. This attraction between affinities is a general law of nature. Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being. Through such attraction the sage influences men’s hearts, and thus the world attains peace. From the attractions they exert we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.
THE IMAGE A lake on the mountain: The image of influence. Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him By his readiness to receive them.
A mountain with a lake on its summit is stimulated by the moisture from the lake. It has this advantage because its summit does not jut out as a peak but is sunken. The image counsels that the mind should be kept humble and free, so that it may remain receptive to good advice. People soon give up counseling a man who thinks that he knows everything better than anyone else.
THE LINES Six at the beginning means:
The influence shows itself in the big toe.
A movement, before it is actually carried out, shows itself first in the toes. The idea of an influence is already present, but is not immediately apparent to others. As long as the intention has no visible effect, it is of no importance to the outside world and leads neither to good nor to evil.
Six in the second place means:
The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs.
Misfortune.
Tarrying brings good fortune.
In movement, the calf of the leg follows the foot; by itself it can neither go forward nor stand still. Since the movement is not self-governed, it bodes ill. One should wait quietly until one is impelled to action by a real influence. Then one remains uninjured.
Nine in the third place means:
The influence shows itself in the thighs.
Holds to that which follows it.
To continue is humiliating.
Every mood of the heart influences us to movement. What the heart desires, the thighs run after without a moment’s hesitation; they hold to the heart, which they follow. In the life of man, however, acting on the spur of every caprice is wrong and if continued leads to humiliation. Three considerations suggest themselves here. First, a man should not run precipitately after all the persons whom he would like to influence, but must be able to hold back under certain circumstances. As little should he yield immediately to every whim of those in whose service he stands. Finally, where the moods of his own heart are concerned, he should never ignore the possibility of inhibition, for this is the basis of human freedom.
Nine in the fourth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Remorse disappears.
If a man is agitated in mind,
And his thoughts go hither and thither,
Only those friends
On whom he fixes his conscious thoughts
Will follow.
Here the place of the heart is reached. The impulse that springs from this source is the most important of all. It is of particular concern that this influence be constant and good; then, in spite of the danger arising from the great susceptibility of the human heart, there will be no cause for remorse. When the quiet power of a man’s own character is at work, the effects produced are right. All those who are receptive to the vibrations of such a spirit will then be influenced. Influence over others should not express itself as a conscious and willed effort to manipulate them. Through practicing such conscious incitement, one becomes wrought up and is exhausted by the eternal stress and strain. Moreover, the effects produced are then limited to those on whom one’s thoughts are consciously fixed.
Nine in the fifth place means:
The influence shows itself in the back of the neck.
No remorse.
The back of the neck is the most rigid part of the body. When the influence shows itself there, the will remains firm and the influence does not lead to confusion. Hence remorse does not enter into consideration here. What takes place in the depths of one’s being, in the unconscious mind. It is true that if we cannot be influenced ourselves, we cannot influence the outside world.
Six at the top means:
The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.
The most superficial way of trying to influence others is through talk that has nothing real behind it. The influence produced by such mere tongue wagging must necessarily remain insignificant. Hence no indication is added regarding good or bad fortune.
COMMENTARY I have waited a few weeks since asking the I Ching about Trump’s election to reflect on the changing line of a six in the third place, which generates Hexagram 31. This Hexagram provides additional insight as time moves on. This hexagram indicates that it is a time to influence (wooing) – to stimulate. The second part of The Book is about courtship and marriage – the building of all social relationships, which is what we now see Trump doing with lunches and dinners with Republicans need to pass their health care bill.
The Judgment suggests that with perseverance Trump will be successful, however, this requires Trump to “keep still within while experiencing joy without”. Trump can “prevent his joy from going to excess and hold it within proper bounds” by not tweeting, which would revel his was really just seducing and not courting his fellow Republicans. This is going to be challenging for Trump.
The Image is most telling and indicates the challenge facing Trump. The Image counsels Trump that his mind should be kept humble and free, so that it may remain receptive to good advice.
If we see Trump tweeting as he has the response says, “People soon give up counseling a man who thinks that he knows everything better than anyone else.” The chatter on the news this morning, is exactly this – how much longer will people accept his behavior before giving up on him.
In looking at the changing line which is now a nine in the third place, I am struck by the continuing issue from Hexagram 45. If Trump continues his “acting on the spur of every caprice, … it leads to humiliation.” Three consideration are suggested for Trump to ponder:
First, a man should not run precipitately after all the persons whom he would like to influence, but must able to hold back under certain circumstances. As little should he yield immediately to every whim of those in whose service he stands. Finally, where the moods of his own heart are concerned , he should never ignore the possibility of inhibition, for this is the basis of human freedom.”
We now wait to see what unfolds. sas
Note: Inhibition theory is based on the basic assumption that during the performance of any mental task requiring a minimum of mental effort, the subject actually goes through a series of alternating latent states of distraction (non-work 0) and attention (work 1) which cannot be observed and are completely imperceptible to the subject. Additionally, the concept of inhibition or reactive inhibition which is also latent, is introduced. The assumption is made that during states of attention inhibition linearly increases with a slope a1 and during states of distraction inhibition linearly decreases with a slope a0.According to this view the distraction states can be considered a sort of recovery state. It is further assumed, that when the inhibition increases during a state of attention, depending on the amount of increase, the inclination to switch to a distraction state also increases. When inhibition decreases during a state of distraction, depending on the amount of decrease, the inclination to switch to an attention state increases. The inclination to switch from one state to the other is mathematically described as a transition rate or hazard rate, making the whole process of alternating distraction times and attention times a stochastic process.
At major events in life, I have consulted the I Ching for understanding and guidance. When we woke at The Friendship Hotel in Beijing, where we were living on the morning of June 4, 1989 and walked into the street, we quickly realized seeing no one there and several burnt-out vans that something had happened on Tienanmen Square, which we had just visited the day before. After visiting the empty Square later in the week and crossing where Tank Man stood, I asked the I Ching about what had happened. I read the response about a space like in a dead-end canyon being closed off on three sides, leaving one end open for escape. When the news came out, we learned that the Chinese Army had surround the Square on the east, north, and west sides allowing blooded students to escape to the south. Here are a few personal previous experience using the I Ching: The I Ching Speaks to the World on September 11: A New Ethic; I Ching on Trump; The I Ching on President Obama Forward.
Person of the Year
The I Ching’s responses have been meaningful and in the above Blog post on 9/11 I describe three concepts underlying the I Ching, describe its response to three question asked in the year following 9/11, and finally address the implications of this ancient Chinese Book to our Western Way – in particular, to President Bush’s responses to the event. Now on January 20, 2017 shortly after Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. President, I put my copy of the I Ching on the table, my three Chinese coins on top of the book, folded my hands around the coins and book, and mediated for awhile about this question: What of Donald J Trump’s Presidency?
America First
I held the three Chinese coins with this question in mind and tossed them six times to generate one of the 64 possible hexagram responses. The I Ching’s answer was Hexagram 45 Tsui/Gathering Together [Massing], with a changing third line resulting in hexagram 31 Hsien/Influence (Wooing). As we read Hexagram 45, reflect and note how it might be speaking about Trump’s Presidency. The Six in the third place is especially important to read and when this weak line changes to strong line it gives us Hexagram 31 Hsien/Influence(Wooing) for further insight about the future. President Trump’s reading of this Hexagram would give the most in-depth reading. My COMMENTARY is below.
45. Ts’ui / Gathering Together [Massing] ____ ____ _________ above Tui The Joyous, Lake _________ ____ ____ ____ ____ below Kun The Receptive, Earth
____ ____
This hexagram is related in form and meaning to Pi, HOLDING TOGETHER
In the latter, water is over the earth; here a lake is over the earth. But since the lake is a place where water collects, the idea of gathering together is even more strongly expressed here than in the other hexagram. The same idea also arises from the fact that in the present case it is two strong lines (the fourth and the fifth) that bring about the gather together, whereas in the former case one strong line (the fifth) stands in the midst of weak lines.
THE JUDGMENT GATHERING TOGETHER. Success. The king approaches his temple. It furthers one to see the great man. This brings success. Perseverance furthers. To bring great offerings creates good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
The gathering together of people in large communities is either a natural occurrence, as in the case of the family, or an artificial one, as in the case of the state. The family gathers about the father as its head. The perpetuation of this gathering in groups is achieved through the sacrifice to the ancestors, at which the whole clan is gathered together. Through the collective piety of the living members of the family, the ancestors become so integrated in the spiritual life of the family that it cannot be dispersed or dissolved. Where men are to be gathered together, religious forces are needed. But there must also be a human leader to serve as the center of the group. In order to be able to bring others together, this leader must first of all be collected within himself. Only collective moral force can unite the world. Such great times of unification will leave great achievements behind them. This is the significance of the great offerings that are made. In the secular sphere likewise there is no need of great deeds in the time of GATHERING TOGETHER.
THE IMAGE Over the earth, the lake: The image of GATHERING TOGETHER. Thus the superior man renews his weapons In order to meet the unforeseen.
If the water in the lake gathers until it rises above the earth, there is danger of a break-through. Precautions must be taken to prevent this. Similarly where men gather together in great numbers, strife is likely to arise; where possessions are collected, robbery is likely to occur. Thus in the time of GATHERING TOGETHER we must arm promptly to ward off the unexpected. Human woes usually come as a result of unexpected events against which we are not forearmed. If we are prepared, they can be prevented.
THE LINES Six at the beginning means:
If you are sincere, but not to the end,
There will sometimes be confusion, sometimes gathering together.
If you call out,
Then after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again.
Regret not. Going is without blame.
The situation is this: People desire to gather around a leader to whom they look up. But they are in a large group, by which they allow themselves to be influenced, so that they waver in their decision. Thus they lack a firm center around which to gather. But if expression is given to this need, and if they call for help, one grasp of the hand from the leader is enough to turn away all distress. Therefore they must not allow themselves to be led astray. It is undoubtedly right that they should attach themselves to this leader.
Six in the second place means:
Letting oneself be drawn
Brings good fortune and remains blameless.
If one is sincere,
It furthers one to bring even a small offering.
In the time of GATHERING TOGETHER, we should make no arbitrary choice of the way. There are secret forces at work, leading together those who belong together. We must yield to this attraction; then we make no mistakes. Where inner relationships exist, no great preparations and formalities are necessary. People understand one another forthwith, just as the Divinity graciously accepts a small offering if it comes from the heart.
Six in the third place means: Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.
Often a man feels an urge to unite with others, but the individuals around him have already formed themselves into a group, so that he remains isolated. The whole situation proves untenable. Then he ought to choose the way of progress, resolutely allying himself with a man who stands nearer to the center of the group, and can help him to gain admission to the closed circle. This is not a mistake, even though at first his position as an outsider is somewhat humiliating.
Nine in the fourth place means:
Great good fortune. No blame.
This describes a man who gathers people around him in the name of his ruler. Since he is not striving for any special advantages for himself but is working unselfishly to bring about general unity, his work is crowned with success, and everything becomes as it should be.
Nine in the fifth place means:
If in gathering together one has position,
This brings no blame.
If there are some who are not yet sincerely in the work,
Sublime and enduring perseverance is needed.
Then remorse disappears.
When people spontaneously gather around a man, it is only a good. It gives him a certain influence that can be altogether useful.. But of course there is also the possibility that many may gather around him not because of a feeling of confidence but merely because of his influential position. This is certainly to be regretted. The only means of dealing with such people is to gain their confidence through steadfastness an intensified, unswerving devotion to duty. In this way secret mistrust will gradually be overcome, and there will be no occasion for regret.
Six at the top means:
Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears.
No blame.
It may happen that an individual would like to ally himself with another, but his good intentions are misunderstood. Then he becomes sad and laments. But this is the right course. For it may cause the other person to come to his senses, so that the alliance that has been sought and so painfully missed is after all achieved.
COMMENTARY:
Trump Meltdown
The persons with the most insight into this response is President Trump and those in his inner circle. So, like sending President GW Bush the I Ching’s response to the questions on 9/11, I have sent this to President Trump. However, we can also read this response to gain some insight in what is and will be unfolding in Trump’s World and in our worlds. I suggest anyone reading through this hexagram let the sentences of each sections sink-in, pausing for a moment to reflect, if moved taking notes and posting a response.
Chaos Theory
After the Introduction, we have three section to comment on: THE JUDGMENT, THE IMAGE, and THE LINES. THE LINES of a six in the third place is a changing line requiring close attention and for giving us Hexagram 31 Hsien/Influence(Wooing) for further insight about the future. I have also linked Time Magazine issues covering Trump that offers content on this response. What I hope will be experienced is the yin & yang flow of reality now being described asChaos Theory.
Hexagram 45 is related in form and meaning to Hexagram 8 Pi, HOLDING TOGETHER
In the latter, water is over the earth; here a lake is over the earth. But since the lake is a place where water collects, the idea of gathering together is even more strongly expressed here than in the other hexagram. The same idea also arises from the fact that in the present case it is two strong lines (the fourth and the fifth) that bring about the gather together, whereas in the former case one strong line (the fifth) stands in the midst of weak lines.
The Judgment points to an important challenge facing Trump! In the gathering together, as in the case of his family business, it is a “natural occurrence” with Trump’s family naturally gathering around him as “the father at its head”. The success of such gathering is achieved “through sacrifice to the ancestors,” at which the Trump clan gathers together to pay collective piety – the Trump ancestors have become “so integrated into the spiritual life of the family that it cannot be dispersed or dissolved.” This is the inner most psychological make of Trump’s family business and he is attempting to transfer this into his new White House state business. The Judgment clearly contrasts this with the “artificial gathering together” that should occur in the gathering required in Trumps White House. The “art of the deal strategy” carried out with vastly different organizational structures and cultures is part of the chaos we are witnessing.
The Judgment suggests the task of “gathering together” with Trump’s mind-set is not impossible but it requires a “leader to server as the center of the group.” The type of leader needed to bring the United States together is more than a transactional leader, which Trump is now being labeled – it requires a transformational leader. And then we are told what is the essence of such a leader – “this leader must first of all be collected within himself”. The collected leader is self-actualizing (Maslow) an individuating (Jung) person. This Judgment then lays it all on the table, “Only collective moral force can unite the world. Such great times of unification will leave great achievements behind them.” In Trump’s gathering together there is a need for great leadership – the World indeed is watching! A challenge for psychologists is observing, measuring, and tracking Trump’s self-awareness, his individuation. Trump’s success hinge on his individuation!
Carl Jung discussing Individuation
THE IMAGE addresses the lake over the earth and what the level of the lake is doing during the Gathering Together. If the water rises and breaks-through there is danger to all, “thus the superior man renews his weapons” and takes precautions to prevent adverse things from happening. This image cautions Trump to dangers arising from other counties like Iran, North Korea, Russia, China challenging US’s leadership. Scholars already now identify the 21st Century to be China’s. The image also cautions about the possible dangers arising from within Trump’s team now being gathered together. The Image say that Trump must “arm promptly to ward off the unexpected.” It is apparent now that both external and internal players now see a wounded Trump. His team is struggling to take the field and calling the Press the Enemy is worrying!
THE LINES: There are six lines in this hexagram and the six in the third place is active, needs our attention, and when it shifts from a yin to a yang line the resulting Hexagram 31 adds more insight into our question. Here is a six in the third place and lets re-read it to see what is being said with respect to our question on Trump’s Presidency.
Six in the third place means: Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.
Often a man feels an urge to unite with others, but the individuals around him have already formed themselves into a group, so that he remains isolated. The whole situation proves untenable. Then he ought to choose the way of progress, resolutely allying himself with a man who stands nearer to the center of the group, and can help him to gain admission to the closed circle. This is not a mistake, even though at first his position as an outsider is somewhat humiliating.
Most Powerful
As I write this on 2.20.17, President’s Day, there are many “sighs” in the World. Courts have challenged one of Trump’s Executive Orders, top positions are not filled, one team member has been fired, another decided not to join his team, and Trump’s first news conference last week was for many disappointing! Trump’s team is working through the phases of team development and a key is the “in-formal leader”, who is a team member closest to representing the group’s norms. What we learn from line six is that the team around Trump has formed with Trump on the outside looking in – which is “untenable”. The task facing Trump, we are told, is to ally himself with someone standing “nearer to the center of the group that can help him gain admission to the closed circle.” This move is not a mistake, it simply has to be done, even though Trump’s position as “an outsider is somewhat humiliating”. It seems the challenge here is for Trump’s White House to understand the dynamics in the House and the Senate in carrying out the duties of President. Is Trump mentally capable of doing this? Many are now questioning his sanity.
We could continue digging into the dynamics of Trump’s team building efforts, but we only need to follow the news to see how this unfolds. This does not require deep-analytical analysis, like is needed to explore Trump’s personality, in order to see if he is capable of transformation leadership. What caught my attention in line six was its mention of “slight humiliation” on the part of Trump. Trump having to ally himself with someone with a more central position will be somewhat humiliating? I wondered “what is the psychology underlying humiliation? How can Trump not feel humiliated by his behavior? What does it mean to feel humiliated perked my continuing study of what is going on in Trump’s psyche. Here is Wikipedia’s entry on humiliation. How does it apply to Trump and to the US?
Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status has just decreased.[1] It can be brought about through intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have committed a socially or legally unacceptable act. Whereas humility can be sought alone as a means to de-emphasize the ego, humiliation must involve other person(s), though not necessarily directly or willingly. Sometimes humiliation is a by-product of institutional prejudices, as when racism, sexism, or ageism, or is built right into the structure of our laws, or is part of the unquestioned practices of a workplace.[2]
Humiliation is currently an active research topic, and is now seen as an important – and complex – core dynamic in human relationships, having implications at intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional and international levels.[3]
Psychological effects: A person who suffers from severe humiliation could cause major depressions, suicidal states, and severe anxiety states such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The loss of status, like losing a job or being labeled (either wrongly or correctly) as a sexual predator, could cause people inability to behave normally in their communities. Humiliated individuals could be provoked and crave for revenge, and some people could feel worthless, hopeless and helpless, losing sense of reality and may eventually commit suicide.[4]
Feelings of humiliation can produce ‘humiliated fury’[5] which, when turned inward can result in apathy and depression, and when turned outward can give rise to paranoia, sadistic behaviour and fantasies of revenge. Klein explains, “When it is outwardly directed, humiliated fury unfortunately creates additional victims, often including innocent bystanders … . When it is inwardly directed, the resulting self-hate renders victims incapable of meeting their own needs, let alone having energy available to love and care for others.” He goes on to say, “In either case, those who are consumed by humiliated fury are absorbed in themselves or their cause, wrapped in wounded pride…”[6]
A study by researchers at the University of Michigan revealed that “the same regions of the brain that become active in response to painful sensory experiences are activated during intense experiences of social rejection.” In other words, humiliation and isolation are experienced as intensely as physical pain.[7]
Punishments and interrogation tactics: Humiliating of one person by another (the humiliator) is often used as a way of asserting power over them, and is a common form of oppression or abuse used in a police, military, or prison context during legal interrogations or illegal torture sessions. Many now-obsolete public punishments were deliberately designed to be humiliating, e.g. tarring and feathering lawbreakers, pillory, “mark of shame” (stigma) as a means of “making an example” of a person and presenting a deterrent to others. Some practices, such as tarring and feathering, became tools of unofficial mob justice. In folk customs such as the English skimmington rides and rough music (and their continental equivalents, such as the French Charivari), dramatic public demonstrations of moral disapproval were enacted to humiliate transgressors and drive them out of the community.[8]
Some U.S. states have experimented with humiliating or shaming lawbreakers by publishing their names and indicating their offense (e.g., with soliciting prostitutes or drinking and driving). In 2010, there was public outcry about reports showing police in Dongguan and Guangdong in China leading a parade of arrested prostitutes for the purpose of humiliating them. The national Ministry of Public Security reprimanded the local police and affirmed that such punishments are not allowed.[9
A wider human perspective: The Humiliation of Emperor Valerian by Shapur, King of Persia by Hans Holbein the Younger. Donald Klein described humiliation as “a powerful factor in human affairs that has, for a variety of reasons, been overlooked by students of individual and collective behavior. It is a pervasive and all too destructive influence in the behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, and nations.”[6]
Though it is a subjective emotion, humiliation has a universal aspect which applies to all human beings: “it is the feeling of being put down, made to feel less than one feels oneself to be.”[3]
A society that suffers from humiliation is an unstable one. The cognitive dissonance between the way in which the society is perceived and the way in which it sees itself can be so great that violence can result on a massive scale against people belonging to an out group. According to Jonathan Sacks, “By turning the question ‘What did we do wrong?’ into ‘Who did this to us?’, [hate against an out group] restores some measure of self-respect and provides a course of action. In psychiatry, the clinical terms for this process are splitting and projection; it allows people to define themselves as victims.”[10]
CONCLUSION: It seems that the Press now see humiliation as a tool to address Trump’s lack of truthfulness. Last week’s Trump press meeting saw reporters pressing Trump on his “truth” as he walked around and away form his lies. Trump may be so one-dimensional in his thinking that humiliation has no impact. Then the possibilities of leading our Nation and the World with the most potent leadership style –transformational leadership will not be available.
Campbell, Joseph, Editor, (1976). The portable Jung. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Jacobi, J. (1965). The way of individuation. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc.
Neumann, Erich, (1969). Depth psychology and a new ethic. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons.
Wilhelm,Helmut, (1968). The I Ching Book of Changes, 3rd Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
I recently went to my bookcase looking for Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren’s book How to Read a Book and started to re-read Chapter 20 The forth level of reading: Syntopical reading – how to read two or more books on the same topic. This book’s chapters 1-19 are on Youtube, sorry Chapter 20 is not. However, I will be making use of this chapter while reading Nassim Taleb’s book The Black Swan and Herbert Marcuse’s book One Dimensional Man, and will be demonstrating how syntopical reading operates as we examine the thesis that Donald Trump is a black swan one-dimensional man.
The past DAMBlog entries have been experiential (CE); were supported with readings, documentaries, and Web content; which were reflected on (RO); adding to our abstract conceptual knowledge (AC); and then used to write (AE) anticipating what is unfolding. Black swan events are coming and by repeating this process we expect to build an understanding of emerging events, but doing this requires multi-dimensional thought. This is the Kolb learning model behind this blogging experience.
So, as these past blog entries are referenced they re-enter our dialectic-analytical framework of inquiry. The recent blog entry, Black Swan Trump, began this trek, which initiated the inquiry into Trump’s election as a black swan event. We add Herbert Marcuse’s book One dimensional man, to our investigatory tool kit and on this Presidential Inaugural Day, January 20, 2017, we begin following President Donald J. Trump as the President of the United States. As he delivers his inaugural speech, we will be listening to his words, sentences, and paragraphs!
What is interesting in Mortimer Adler’s interview below, The Great Ideas, is that he can tell by the way a person speaks – the words, sentences, paragraphs, the themes developed, a speaker’s dimensionality of thought. This is the same thesis in Marcuse’s One-dimensional Man book that we are studing. This is a Sherlock task – listen carefully to Trump’s rhetoric in his inaugural speech. The objective is to examine Trump’s words, sentences, paragraphs, we are not sure tweeting Trump can even think in paragraphs but we will soon see, as we were told he has writing his inaugural speech. As we listen to Trump’s speech, we need to listen with Mortimer’s framework. The other Adler book I took down from my bookcase was “How to speak and to listen”. [This was posted the morning of January 20 and below is Trump’s Inaugural Speech, which continues our analysis of the dimensionality of Trump’s thought. It is being suggested that comprehending the movement to higher levels of thought will help us see into future “black swans”.]
The great ideas Adler mentions are those of justice, freedom, labor, language, law, infinity, mortality, and soul. When Mortimer is asked by William F. Buckley why these great ideas are not being taught in schools today, like they were at the height of the British Empire, Adler’s response is shallow – “they were stupid.” What has made them stupid, should have next been asked. Marcuse more dialectic-analytical response is that corporate capitalism of 1817 has changed – the leaders managing GB’s global empire were taught the Classics in order to think on their own on the other sides of the Globe. It has been assumed that we do not need this thinking skill today – we have an increasingly technological, centralized, authoritarian, web system that does the thinking at the top for labor. All that is needed is to teach labor to fit into the pace of machines – thinking is not allowed. This is what schools of business do – they do not teach the skill of critical thinking, if they had, we would not have had the 2008 financial crisis or the ones coming.
To begin studying our one dimensional society, this Herbert Marcuse’s interview will introduce his thought and initiate the processes of critical thinking needed for our multi-dimensional global society. Okay, this investigation will continue. Think about this day!
Herbert Marcuse and the Frankfurt School (1977)
Herbert Marcuse, “Liberation from the Affluent Society” (1967)
Part of our focus going forward applies Marcuse’s One dimensional Man’s dialectic-analytical framework to Trump, his leadership, and his administration. We will continue addressing this project in DAMBlogs.
Dialectic Analytical Man 