Re: Changing Images of Man: Prepared by the Center for the
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CHAPTER 6: The Feasibility of an Integrative, Evolutionary Image of Man We have postulated a set of characteristics that an emergent image of man-in-the-universe would need in order both to be adequate to the challenges of the future, and also to be compatible with our historical past. How feasible is it that such an image might come to dominate world society in the near future?
We propose to address this question here, in two parts. First we shall examine the conceptual feasibility. Mathematicians use what they term an "existence theorem" — it is enough to show that solutions can exist if you can find even one. In that spirit we discuss one sort of image of man that appears to meet the conditions laid down in the preceding chapter.
Then in the second section we shall examine the operational feasibility of replacing past images of man with a new and emergent one.
CONCEPTUAL FEASIBILITY OF A NEW IMAGE OF MAN Thus the possible construction of a new image, and the testing for conceptual feasibility, will be examined first.
Elements of a New Image It would be impossible to cite all the contributions that influenced the envisioning of the composite image described below. However, the ways of thinking or imaging contained in the following works stand out as having had particular significance in this exploration:
• General systems thinking (Laszlo, 1972; von Bertalanffy, 1967), but in particular the hierarchical relationships of ascending levels of "consciousness" (Polanyi, 1966; Weiss, 1969); and the process of "hierarchical restructuring" (Piatt, 1970).
• Various past theories and images (e.g. Judeo-Christian, Darwinian, Freudian, behaviorist), reviewed in Chapter 3, that somehow must be incorporated.
• The metaphor of the human biocomputer (Lilly, 1972).
• The postulation of "state (of consciousness) specific" theories, needs, knowledge processes, and modes of explanation (Tart, 1972; Kantor, 1969; Maslow, 1962; Hubbard, 1954; Kohlberg, 1969).
• The vision of continuing evolution of man — social (Dunn, 1971), cultural (Mead, 1964), spiritual (Chardin, 1939), and integrative (Aurobindo, 1963; Assagioli, 1965).
• The "Perennial Philosophy" (Huxley, 1945) and various occult writings (e.g. Ouspensky, 1943).
• The process of transformational discovery, as in the "Monomyth" (J. Campbell, 1956), "cultural revitalization" (Wallace, 1956), and in the work of Toynbee, Jung, and Eliot, as described in The Experiment in Depth (Martin, 1955).
The Gradient Figure 9 shows a number of theories about the nature of the human and their underlying images that we will attempt to show can be integrated into a more holistic image/theory of humankind. If this attempt proves successful, each composite part would come to be seen not as erroneous but rather as having its own validity (albeit a restricted one as seen from the perspective of the whole). First, it is useful to introduce the concept of gradient, and to see how it applies to the systemic properties of existence.
Images of man / Dominant aspects of consciousness / Spokesmen Divine self / "Super-conscious" / The Vedas, Perennial philosophy, etc.
Many-leveled self (astral, etc.) / -- / Rosicrucians, Theosophy, etc.
Existentially-free man / (ego?) / Humanists, NeoFreudian
Absurd man / -- / Sartrian existentialists
Conditioned man / "conscious" / --
Economic man / (super-ego?) / Freud, Watson, Skinner
Animal-bestial man; Impulsive- irrational man / (id?) / Freud , Lorenz, Ardrey
Repressed man / Personal and / Freud
Dreaming man / collective "subconscious" / Jung[ i]
Fig. 9. Complementarity of various images as they might fit in a proposed composite image of the person.
By "gradient" we mean, simply, "the grade or ascent ... a series of transitional forms, states, or qualities connecting related extremes" (Webster's).
It is widely recognized that each succeeding level of biological and social evolution forms a hierarchical gradient of interacting levels of increasing complexity and order. The various scientific disciplines reflect this ordered series — from phylogenesis to ontogenesis to socio-genesis; from such disciplines as physics, chemistry, genetics, and physiology to ethology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology and to such newly emerging disciplines as systems theory and the policy sciences.
Some type of gradient should similarly be recognizable with regard to the higher aspects of human existence. In biological evolution, as each higher level system emerges, it brings with it the capacity to order chemical reactions in an increasingly coherent and purposive manner. Similarly with social and cultural evolution where, for example, ethical norms order or channel the energies associated with more primitive processes (such as anger) in keeping with higher needs, or where immediate gratification is postponed in order to obtain a greater gratification at some future time.
Three principles are enunciated in this approach: one, the dimensions of existence form a hierarchy of lower and higher levels or dimensions; two, the higher dimension, although resting on the foundations of the lower ones, cannot be understood in terms of the principles governing the lower ones; it receives its meaning from the higher dimension which integrates the particulars of the lower dimension into a new emerging Gestalt. Three, the highest level is the realm of the normative, of the moral sense, of the standards of value.
-- Weisskopf, 1971, p. 186
An analogy to computer programming may be a helpful illustration at this point.
The Gradient in the Human Biocomputer. The real power and flexibility of the modern computer is found not in its hardware, but in its software — the gradient series of ever more general symbolic programs that make it feasible to use the computer for vastly different functions. The basic functioning of a computer requires one instruction for each operation that is carried out, and while programming at this machine- language level is in principle very flexible, it requires too much time to prepare special purpose programs for different applications. Rather, it has been found useful to create a hierarchical series of macroprogramming languages, where a single instruction at one level generates a score or more detailed instructions at a more basic level.
The utility of the computer metaphor of human functioning is illustrated in Table 6 (a). At the lower (machine language) end of the human biocomputer are such processes as genetic inheritance; instinctual, endocrine, and autonomic processes; semantic and cultural determinism — all of which we have some degree of subconscious awareness of; and as the experience of yoga, hypnosis, and biofeedback training suggests, all of which we can to some extent reprogram. At a higher level, that of normal waking awareness, the executive function of the human biocomputer manifests awareness of the self (cogito, ergo sum); and as part of that self-awareness, believes that it is constantly capable of choice and of reprogramming itself, i.e. that it has freedom. Just how much freedom of choice exists at this level is somewhat problematical, however, for as Lilly (1972) has pointed out, there are still higher level metaprograms to which the human biocomputer is subject.
Table 6: THREE DIMENSIONS ON A "GRADIENT OF AWARENESS"
(a) Hierarchical programs in the human biocomputer / (b) Hierarchy of needs (Maslow) / (c) Hierarchy of moral orientations (Kohlberg) Higher levels of awareness and functioning, metaprograms, transcendence of time and space, aesthetic and creative sense, supra-mental functioning astral levels, contact with spiritual entities, etc. / 5. Self-actualization; 4. Esteem / 6. Universal ethical principle ; 5. Social contact/shared understandings; 4. Authoritarian law and order/doing duty
Normal levels of waking awareness and ego functioning / 3. Belongingness and love; 2. Safety / 3. Other-directed — conformist; 2. Instrumental relativist; 1. Obedience and fear of punishment
Subconscious awareness, id functioning, semantic and cultural determinism; psychosomatic process; genetic inheritance / 1. Physiological / --
If such metaprograms (the basic beliefs; images of self, others, and the universe; influence from subconscious and the superconscious aspects of self) determine the criteria for choice, then there is in fact very little true freedom of choice unless access to these levels can be obtained. We have only the most rudimentary maps for these aspects of the self, but they must be incorporated into any image of humankind adequate for the future. To the extent that a linear dimension of lower and higher is valid, however (and we will later discuss limitations of this approach), it would seem that it is the lower quasi-conscious or unconscious aspects of man that are operative through the functioning of instinctual energies (Freud) and operant conditioning (Skinner); and conversely, the higher levels are those to which esoteric wisdom refers and from which the intuitive sources of creativity most likely stem. The Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli has formulated a map (reproduced here as Fig. 10) that depicts these various domains of consciousness in a useful way.
The Gradient of Human Needs. Maslow (1962) described a gradient that parallels the above as being manifest by persons with different levels of need-fulfillment. He noted that persons who have adequately fulfilled their basic physical and emotional needs act from a very different type of motivation than do those who have not. Very simply stated, "deficiency needs" are those which, if not fulfilled, will eventually lead to illness or to death. Their non-fulfillment causes the deprived person to act at lower levels of functioning, as we have portrayed on Table 6 (b). Growth/being/wisdom needs, on the other hand, are the needs whose fulfillment provides a sense of meaning for existence, aesthetic or spiritual delight; non-fulfillment brings, not illness, but rather a sense of boredom or apathy (assuming that the deficiency needs are adequately met).[ii] It was Maslow's hypothesis that most people move sequentially through a "hierarchy of needs." Such movement likely occurs in two rather different modes. As Maslow emphasized, it can occur quite spontaneously — as one modal need type is adequately fulfilled, there is a natural tendency to grow and seek further. On the other hand, as noted by Clare Graves (another theorist who has developed the needs hierarchy theme), it can also occur or be stimulated in crises — as one modal behavior style becomes dysfunctional there is a tendency to seek another level of need fulfillment.
1. The lower unconscious
2. The middle unconscious
3. The higher unconscious or superconscious
4. The field of consciousness
5. The conscious self or "I"
6. The higher self
7. The collective unconscious
Fig. 10. Various aspects of consciousness/function in the personality. Source: Assagioli (1965). Assagioli presents a great deal more background, reservations, and qualifications with regard to this type of conception than can be presented in this report.
The Gradient of Human Morality. Still another similar gradient series, this time having to do with ascending degrees of moral thinking and acting, has been derived by Kohlberg (1969). In both cross-cultural and domestic studies, Kohlberg found that the dominant form of morality tends, over time, to follow a definite, hierarchical progression. This is true both of whole cultures and of the individual within the culture (until he reaches or surpasses the dominant form in his culture). Like the hierarchy of needs, these stages also form a gradient, as depicted in Table 6 (c). (Descriptions of each of the stages are given in Fig. 11.)[iii]
PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL
At this level the child is responsive to such rules and labels as Rood or bad and right or wrong. He interprets these labels in purely physical or hedonistic terms: If he is bad, he is punished; if he is good, he is rewarded. He also interprets the labels in terms of the physical power of those who enunciate them — parents, teachers and other adults. The level comprises the following two stages:
Stage 1: punishment and obedience orientation. The physical con- sequences of action determine its goodness or badness regardless of the human meaning or value of these consequences. Avoidance of punishment and unquestioning deference to power are valued in their own right, not in terms of respect for an underlying moral order supported by punishment and authority, the latter being stage 4.
Stage 2: instrumental relativist orientation. Right action consists of that which instrumentally satisfies one's own needs and occasionally the needs of others. Human relations are viewed in terms similar to those of the marketplace. Elements of fairness, of reciprocity and equal sharing are present, but they are always interpreted in a pragmatic way. Reciprocity is a matter of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours," not of loyalty, gratitude or justice.
CONVENTIONAL LEVEL
At this level maintaining the expectations of the individual's family, group or nation is perceived as valuable in its own right, regardless of immediate and obvious consequences. The attitude is one not only of conformity to the social order but of loyalty to it, of actively maintaining, supporting and justifying the order, and of identifying with the persons or group involved in it. This level comprises the following two stages:
Stage 3: interpersonal concordance or "good boy-nice girl" orientation. Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others and is approved by them. There is much conformity to stereotypical images of what is major- ity or "natural" behavior. Behavior is frequently judged by intention: "He means well" becomes important, and one earns approval by "being nice." Stage 4: "law and order" orientation. Authority, fixed rules and the maintenance of the social order are valued. Right behavior consists of doing one's duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining the social order for its own sake.
POSTCONVENTIONAL LEVEL
At this level there is a clear effort to reach a personal definition of moral values — to define principles that have validity and application apart from the authority of groups or persons and apart from the individual's own identification with these groups. This level again has two stages:
Stage 5: social-contract legalistic orientation. Generally, this stage has utilitarian overtones. Right action tends to be defined in terms of general individual rights and in terms of standards that have been critically examined and agreed upon by the whole society. There is a clear awareness of the importance of personal values and opinions and a corresponding emphasis on procedural rules for reaching consensus. Other than that which is constitutionally and democratically agreed upon, right is a matter of personal values and opinion. The result is an emphasis both upon the "legal point of view" and upon the possibility of making rational and Socially desirable changes in the law, rather than freezing it as in the "law and order" stage 4. Outside the legal realm, tree agreement is the binding element of obligation. This is the "official" morality of the U.S. government and the Constitution.
Stage 6: universal ethical-principle orientation. Right is defined by the conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical principles, which in turn are based on logical comprehensiveness, universality and consistency. These principles are abstract and ethical (the golden rule, the categorical imperative); they are not concrete moral rules like the Ten Commandments. At heart, these are universal principles of justice, of the reciprocity and equality of human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.
Fig. 11. Stages of moral development. (Source: Kohlberg and Whitten (1972). Reprinted by special permission from Learning, The Magazine for Creative Teaching, December 1972. © 1972 by Education Today Company Inc., 530 University Avenue, Palo Alto, California.)
Hampden-Turner (1971) has suggested that each of the dominant social sciences has a "hidden morality" that can be located in one of Kohlberg's categories, and that although most social sciences claim to eschew metaphysics, they make unverifiable moral assumptions that significantly affect their choice of methodology and criteria of validation. Hampden-Turner concludes that only those social sciences that are consistent with Kohlberg's stage 6 have the demonstrated capacity to move from paradigm to paradigm (stressing congruence between and reconcilability of perspectives) despite dialectical tension.
The Relevance of a Gradient of Awareness for an Adequate Image. What is the common characteristic of the various gradients we have reviewed? Recalling the operational definition of consciousness (the organization of the biosystem; with awareness as the psychological equivalent or complementary aspect of that organization), it seems reasonable to cast the image of ascending stages of evolution in terms of a gradient of awareness. As we come to higher stages of evolution, the attribute of consciousness comes to the fore. By this we mean the discovery of relationships and the making of choices — both individually and collectively — on the basis of understanding, appreciation, and judgement; and being influenced by a relevant context with its past, present, and future rather than being determined by instinct, habit, or some authority from another time and place. In this sense we speak of the evolution of consciousness manifest in hierarchical restructuring of our conceptions; and the derivative systems of thought, institutions, etc., through which we achieve coherent integration at higher orders of differentiation and complexity.
We have only briefly sketched some of the thinking that leads to this conception. Other contributions which are in keeping with an ascending gradient of awareness in evolution we have postulated: "this worldly" (e.g. D. Campbell, 1966; Polanyi, 1966; Weiss, 1969; Land, 1973), "other worldly" (e.g. Cummins, 1952), and "trans worldly" (e.g. Hubbard, 1951; Aurobindo, 1963). (Land's book Grow or Die: The Unifying Principle of Transformation (1973), especially Chapter 10, elaborates this theme in more detail than we can do here.) Again, however, we are not here concerned whether these ways of thinking are right or wrong as judged by the methods of any one particular knowledge paradigm, but rather whether (1) they give us a vision of potential growth and further evolution beyond where we are now — a vision that accepts where (both as individuals and as a species) we are now, seeing ourselves now as being more highly evolved (in some ways, less in others) than was earlier man, and less highly evolved than we hope future man will be; and (2) they lay the conceptual beginnings of a general systems framework in which an integration of the various fragmented images of man — each of which can come to be seen as haying a restricted validity — becomes possible. At this state of know- ledge, then, we view the gradient of awareness more as useful metaphor than as proven theory. Indeed, as the review of limitations of sciences presented in Chapter 4 makes clear, it is likely not possible to prove whether or not such a view is valid. Rather we will have to estimate what results might flow from translating this — as opposed to some other image of humankind — into concrete policies for the resolution of societal problems and the fuller realization of the human potentialities. We attempt such an estimate in Chapter 8.
The Self A second key element in our attempt to discover a more adequate, integrative image of man-in-the-universe concerns imagery regarding the nature of the self. In our culture, the dominant image which the person holds of himself is that of a separate and independent entity, as denoted by the very term "self" — defined by Webster's as "the person — having its own or a single nature or character." But even a cursory examination of the known facts of existence indicates that this is an unduly limited view, as explained below.
Transpersonal and Personal Imagery. The most basic aspects of our being which we have portrayed as being at the lower level (the machine language aspects of the human biocomputer) we share in common with all other persons. Indeed, because of this commonality, one suspects that it is only this level which is usually comprehended in the phrase "the nature of man." The next stage in developing an integrative image of humankind is explored in Fig. 12, which shows these aspects as being transpersonal rather than idiosyncratic to each person. Jung's phrase "the collective unconscious" seems particularly appropriate for this level.
Coming up the gradient of awareness we observe the egoic and sensory level, where there is a valid perception of separateness between persons. The behaviors that are unique to this level, such as our use of sensory channels to communicate with other humans across the spatial distance that separates us, are typically perceived as manifesting freedom in the sense of their being freely chosen behavior under the unique control of each person as a separate entity.
Transpersonal region of shared consciousness
"Higher" transpersonal region / Personal "super-conscoius"
Personal region / Person "A" / Person "B"
"Lower" transpersonal region / Personal unconscious
To the beginnings of evolution
Transpersonal region of shared unconscious (e.g. racial memories, cultural and genetic inheritance)
Fig. 12. A metaphorical image of the personal and transpersonal aspects of consciousness.
But coming still further up our gradient of so-called awareness we find — if the reports of yogis (Patanjali, Prabhavananda, and Isherwood, 1953), mystics (Reinhold, 1944), and some recent laboratory evidence (Tart, 1969; Backster, 1972) are to be believed — that things once again become transpersonal in nature. Perceptions become intuitive and "quasi-sensory" (to use the term coined by McBain, 1970), rather than stemming from the usual senses. And typically as higher levels are reached, subjective experiences of mind-sharing are often reported, as are experiences of a disconnectedness or transcendence from the usual constraints of time and space (see, for example, Tart, 1969, 1970). Indeed, it is likely that only when we are able to expand our scientific image of man to include phenomena at this level will we be able to develop adequate theories to account for the various psychic phenomena reviewed in Chapter 4.
The schematicized integrative image of the person shown on Fig. 9 is therefore cast in the shape of the hour glass, or cone, thus connoting the ways in which one's nature is properly seen as transpersonal at the lower and upper reaches of existence and personal or unique in between. More speculatively (but based on anecdotal reports from various researchers in the phenomenology of consciousness) we might add the symbol of infinity for the uppermost reaches of the map, and the phrase "to the beginnings of evolution" for the lowermost: if the ancedotal reports are to be believed, infinity and the "beginnings of evolution" can be subjectively experienced, and when experienced, tend to merge. F. W. H. Myers has formulated a different but similar conception, shown below in Fig. 13.
Subsystem, System, and Supersystem Imagery. The ways in which a person is a separate and distinct system are but a small part of the ways in which he incorporates lower-level (sub) systems, and in which he is part of higher-order (super) systems. Displaying both the independent properties of wholes, and the dependent properties of parts, the person is a "holon." Other dimensions could be added as well, but as Fig. 14 shows, we now have the conceptual basis for a multi-dimensional systems-oriented image of person-in-the-universe that is indeed integrative in the ways desired.
Before completing this image, we might pause to ask the important question: If the experience of individuality is but a small slit in all there is to the totality of our existence, where is the essence of the human person, the being (as opposed to the class) to be found? Echoing Koestler (1967), where is the "ghost in the machine;" It is here that the image of humankind espoused in the Perennial Philosophy probably provides the best single answer:
The atma, the Self, is never born and never dies. It is without a cause and is eternally changeless. It is beyond time, unborn, permanent, and eternal. It does not die when the body dies. Concealed in the heart of all beings lies the atma, the Spirit, the Self; smaller than the smallest atom, greater than the greatest spaces.
-- The Upanishads, 1000 B.C.
Group mind / Network of memory; Individual mind / Unifying principle: Cells; Brain; Systems of body
Fig. 13. A personal-transpersonal mind/body model. Source: F. W. H. Myers, in Johnson (1957).
Gradient of awareness / Gradient of aggregation / atoms, microbes, cells, organs, body, family, group, nation, planet / Transpersonal; Personal; Transpersonal
Fig. 14. Two of "N" possible dimensions of an integrative image of the person.
Finally then, to represent this self that is (in terms of space and time) a "not-thing," we complete the pictorial version of our proposed composite image of humankind by adding the center as in Fig. 15. It might be represented by another shape (e.g. as in Assagioli's model shown earlier), but the tubular shape is often reported as the "feel" of those who experience meditation, and we agree in principle with Wilson (in press) that any adequate image will not be constructed, but rather seen through experience.
Man as Process. If the vision of the Perennial Philosophy is at all valid, this Center is the only truly static image. All of the other images of the human which depict how the self manifests are but temporary, ever-changing attributes of that self. As Norbert Wiener (1954) observed:
We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves; whirlpools of water in an ever-flowing river.
Fig. 15. Transcendent-immanent aspects added to the personal-transpersonal aspects of an integrative image of the person.
How can the vision of the static self "hidden in all things" be usefully reconciled with the many visions of the quasi-static — but in reality, changing — visions of the visible self that we call a person? If the collective wisdom of the myths of various cultures is to be trusted, the way of reconciliation is illuminated by the Image of the Center (Eliade, 1952). The idea of "moving from where we are not to where we most truly are" (William James) is well expressed in a now archaic meaning of the word "weird" (Anglo-Saxon wyrd), which is a word related to the German werden, "to become." Standing in direct contrast to the Indian notion of dharma or the current Western notions of socialization or conditioning (both of which see the individual as necessarily subject to the law imposed by society), weird is an unfolding from within of what is potential. (Note that this is also the essential meaning of the root word educere, "to bring forth, as something latent," from which our word educate derives.) In this image of reality — as with Eliot's (1935) "still point of the turning world. ... Where past and future are gathered" — the metaphysical ground of the person and what has brought him forth are one and the same. To realize this Center of one's being is said to provide conceptual release from the tyranny of such polarities as creator and creature, good and evil, I and Thou, and freedom and determinism.
Images of man / Dominant aspects of consciousness / Spokesmen Divine self / "Super-conscious" / The Vedas, Perennial philosophy, etc.
Many-leveled self (astral, etc.) / -- / Rosicrucians.Theosophy, etc
Existentially- free man / (ego?) / Humanists, Neo-Freudians
Absurd man / -- / Sartrian existentialists
Conditioned man / "Conscious" / Freud, Watson, Skinner
Economic man / (Super-ego?) / Freud, Watson, Skinner
Animal-bestial man; Impulsive-irrational man / (id?) / Freud, Lorenz, Ardrey, etc.
Repressed man / Personal and / Freud
Dreaming man / collective "subconscious" / Jung
Fig. 16. Composite metaphor of an integrative, evolutionary image of the person for the future.
But as all outward manifestations (or partial images) partake equally of this Center (as Fig. 16 depicts), we find that we now have the conceptual framework for an image of humankind which, as we shall see, comes very close to satisfying the characteristics we earlier postulated.[iv]
Examining the New Image for Conceptual Feasibility If one agrees that the thrust of evolution seems to be toward greater "consciousness" (i.e. increasing organization of the bio-system, with "awareness" as the psychological equivalent or complementary aspect of that organization), the above framework provides the needed imagery for evolutionary growth, direction, and a holistic sense of meaning of life. It gives an open-ended and experimental sense of something to grow toward (both personally and culturally). Pursuit of higher states of awareness; increasing ability to integrate knowledge and to coordinate and balance the relative needs of the subsystem/system/supersystem relationships; and exploration of personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal aspects of existence — each of these con- tributes to the emergence of an "ecological ethic" and a "self-realization ethic"; to coordinated "satisficing"; and to goals of "ephemeralization" that are consistent with limits to growth of materialism. (The term "thrust" has been chosen to describe this progress toward greater complexity and consciousness, not to denote the goal of evolution, but rather the path it seems to take. Goal is a term which is associated with the conceptual paradigm of linear causality; it is this paradigm that somehow must be transcended, if only in part. It is for this reason also that we have singled out Dunn's term "process teleology," because it explicitly avoids the difficulties of the older concepts of vitalism and teleology.[v]
To illustrate how the holistic image portrayed by this framework could adequately incorporate and reconcile the more specialized images of humankind at various levels of development, some additional discussion is necessary.
We postulate that each of the various specialized images presented in Chapter 2 and displayed in Figs. 9 and 16 is appropriate to a given context or situation that has repeatedly been in human experience — which is why they exist in the image repertory of our various cultures. We further observe that to the extent which the person cannot manifest in an appropriate situation any of the various "ways of being" connoted by the gradient of awareness, to that extent the person is deficient in ways that limit his flexibility in dealing with a changing environment — hence limit the survival potential of the race. The ability to fight effectively (physically or psychologically) when one's survival (physical or mental) is threatened; the ability to experience aesthetic pleasure, to marvel at the mystery of existence, and to transcend one's individuality in a direct sense of participation in that mystery when appropriate — each of these is a part of the human experience through which each of us should be able to flow in and out as fitting. The point is not that one should necessarily fight, cooperate, or meditate in any or in all circumstances (nor should one necessarily impugn others for so doing), but rather that one should be able to do (and accept others doing) any of these things when they fit. All partake of the Center.
Needless to say, trade-offs are involved and coordination of different behaviors is required. As Jonas Salk (1973) has observed:
The conflict in the human realm is now between "self-expression" and "self-restraint" within the individual, as the effect of cultural evolutionary processes has reduced external restraint upon the individual.[vi]
While easy mobility across the various levels portrayed by the gradient of awareness is clearly in the interests of the survival of the human race and of the fulfillment of each individual's potentialities, such freedom needs to be exercised by the restraint that can derive in our era only from a holistic perspective of life, growth, and evolution.
For these reasons we emphasize the need for development of imagery of person-as-(in)-process; for a vision of growth not as in getting above persons at one level after another (as some occultists are wont to do), but rather in the expansion of awareness in both more and less inclusive directions; in the gaining of choices of appropriate behaviors that partake of all levels but are coordinated by the more inclusive ones; and in learning to dissolve fixations at any given level, hence being more able continuously to flow from a predominant orientation at one level to one at another, according to the needs of the environment and in appropriately coordinated growth.
It is primarily in the above sense that we believe that a holistic image such as the framework depicts could adequately integrate the various aspects and past images of humankind without blurring or invalidating their uniqueness; for only in this way will we have an ontological basis for tolerance of difference and change.
There are some difficulties with the framework as presented above. The main one is that it is — in keeping with the dominant conceptual paradigm of Western culture — essentially hierarchical in nature. Thus not only is the conception somewhat culture-bound; it does not easily integrate newly emerging mutual-causal thoughts in science. Other cultures have dominant conceptual paradigms that are essentially non-hierarchical and are more mutualistic as regards knowledge, ecology, and human development.[vii] As the anthropologist Maruyama has pointed out (1960, 1963, 1967, 1973) many functions of concern to a society are more usefully fulfilled by non-hierarchically structured paradigms. But Maruyama also notes that when a hierarchical/self-righteous and a mutualistic/symbiotic paradigm have come into intercultural contact, the self-righteous paradigm has an almost irresistible tendency to run over the mutualistic one.
A somewhat different but related problem arises in connection with the exclusivist interpretation the Judeo-Christian tradition has put on transcendental images of man. There appears to be a basic contradiction contained in this tradition between the exclusivist (as in "no man cometh to the Father but through me") and the universalist (God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, therefore all that is, is God). The exclusivist is the tendency that has captured the popular imagination in the mainstream religious traditions of our culture. But this turns out to be not so much one side of a contradiction as one arm of a dialectic, one element of a paradox.
Better understood, these difficulties turn out to be based in misunderstandings (which is not to say that they will not be very real difficulties in a communication or political sense). They arise from having to use traditional language to express what are essentially non-traditional, "non-paradigm" concepts.
Thus we have used words such as "gradient," "thrust," and "hierarchy" when describing the evolutionary trend toward greater complexity and consciousness. We have used diagrams and tables which may seem to imply progression from "primitive" to "sophisticated," or "lower" to "higher." This may seem to imply an elitist view of human evolution. It might have been helpful to adopt a circular model in which, for example, the dreaming man of Jung would be cyclicly linked to the superconscious man in a visional system that implied on-going process. But substituting one metaphor or visual image for another simply seemed to change the nature of the difficulty.
The problem appears to be primarily that reality is so much richer, so much more multidimensional than any metaphor, that all maps of reality lead to difficulties if they are mistakenly assumed to be literally true. Thus reality is hierarchical in one sense and not in another, and man is separate, seeking self-fulfillment and yet part of a unity in a sense that makes self-fulfillment illusory. The "higher" forms of consciousness may be similar to the psychic abilities of "lower" forms of life (for example, household pets, dolphins, plants) in a way that makes the latter as "sophisticated" as the highest transcendental characteristics evolving in the human species.
Thus it would appear that an emergent world-wide image of humankind, satisfying the conditions identified in Chapter 5, is conceptually feasible, providing we remain clear that it is an image, or a set of metaphors, and that its real function is to lead toward the direct experiencing of what it can only incompletely and inadequately express.
OPERATIONAL FEASIBILITY OF A NEW IMAGE OF MAN We want now to examine the conditions under which such a new image of man might emerge to a commanding position in the society. One condition, inherent in the fundamental characteristics of Chapter 5, is that it probably cannot be engineered or manipulated into such a position. Safer, at any rate, is a process whereby the new image is fostered by some and resisted by others, such that the principles of checks and balances, and of creative synthesis of differences, are allowed to operate.
Essentially, we shall:
1. review the process through which both cultures and persons appear to evolve in response to crisis;
2. draw inferences as to how transformational discovery and the emergence of a new image of man can appropriately or inappropriately be fostered;
3. consider various indications that personal and institutional transformation, and the emergence of moral paradigms, are feasible without being caused to happen.
Evolutionary Transformation in Response to Crisis It seems clear that today we are living in an ecological system in which higher-order systems coordinate the interactions of lower-order subsystems, an ecology in which there is an increasing ability of higher organisms to make symbolic maps of reality, to test and to improve those maps. Thus, in the evolutionary battle for survival, it may be possible "for our ideas to die in our stead" (Popper). In the evolution from phylogenesis (natural selection through mutation and genetic recombination) through ontogenesis (the ability of a highly developed organism to "reprogram" itself within limits and modify its behavior to suit environmental changes) to sociogenesis (the accumulation of acquired behavior through symbolic communication), the trend that stands out is the power and utility of consciousness. This manifests itself as the ability to map the various dimensions of existence, both physical and symbolic, and to use those maps for "behavior directed to changing behavior" (Dunn, 1972).
A crisis is often the catalyst for the redrawing of one's preferred "map." Inasmuch as this is precisely the direction in which our culture appears to be heading, it is useful to review the processes of crisis-oriented transformation in other cultures, in science, in mythology, in persons. All these may contain insights that could prove applicable to the resolution of our difficulties.
Cultural Transformations What happens when, because of environmental changes, military defeat, or intercultural invasion (e.g. by a new technology), a culture no longer adequately serves its essential functions? If the degree of perceived crisis is not too great, the classic processes of cultural change (evolution, drift, diffusion, historical change, acculturation) take place; if, on the other hand, the degree of perceived crisis is acute, cultural transformation is likely to occur rapidly.
The anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace (1956) in a comparative study of the crisis-motivated type of cultural change derived a series of idealized stages through which many such transformations — if successful — have passed. Especially relevant for our purposes are Wallace's findings on how images of the role of self and society have changed in other societies in response to crisis. He discovered that unlike classic culture change, the process of revitalization requires explicit intent by members of the society and often takes place within one generation:
The structure of the revitalization process, in cases where the full course is run, consists of somewhat overlapping stages: 1. Steady State; 2. Period of Individual Stress; 3. Period of Cultural Distortion; 4. Period of Revitalization (in which occur the functions of mazeway reformulation, communication, organization, adaption, cultural transformation, and routinization); and finally 5. New Steady State, (p. 264)
The key element in the process of transformation is what Wallace terms the "mazeway," which the following shows is almost synonymous with our term "image of man-in-the-universe":
It is . . . functionally necessary for every person in society to maintain a mental image of the society and its culture, as well as of his own body and its behavioral regularities, in order to act in ways which reduce stress at all levels of the system. The person does, in fact, maintain such an image. This mental image I have called "the mazeway," since as a model of the cell-body-personality-nature-culture-society system or field, organized by the individual's own experience, it includes perceptions of both the maze of physical objects in the environment (internal and external, human and nonhuman) and also of the ways in which this maze can be manipulated by the self and others in order to minimize stress. The mazeway is nature, society, culture, personality, and body image as seen by one person. . . . Changing the mazeway involves changing the total Gestalt of his image of self, society, and culture, of nature and body, and of ways of action. It may also be necessary to make changes in the "real" system in order to bring mazeway and "real" system into congruence. The effort to work a change in mazeway and "real" system together so as to permit more effective stress reduction is the effort at revitalization; and the collaboration of a number of persons in such an effort is called a revitalization movement, (pp. 266 ff. Emphasis added)
Whether the revitalization movement is religious or secular, the reformulation
. . . seems to depend on a restructuring of elements and subsystems which have already attained currency in the society and may even be in use. . . . The occasion of their combination in a form which constitutes an internally consistent structure . . . and of their acceptance by the prophet as a guide to action, is abrupt and dramatic, usually occurring as a moment of insight, a brief period of realization of relationships and opportunities. The reformulation also seems normally to occur in its initial form in the mind of a single person rather than to grow directly out of group deliberations, (p. 270. Emphasis added)
After mazeway reformulation come adaption, cultural transformation, and routinization, during which the idealism of the original vision is modified in response to cultural feedback; it tends to be preserved only in those areas where the movement "maintains responsibility for the preservation of doctrine and performance of ritual," in other words, it becomes a church, whether religious or secular.
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Conceptual Revolutions in Science Studying the history of science, Thomas S. Kuhn recognized a similar pattern. In his somewhat controversial The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Kuhn's use of the "knowledge paradigm" and the cycle through which knowledge paradigms are replaced is almost analogous to Wallace's use of the term "mazeway." The term knowledge paradigm is used to denote
. . . the collection of ideas within the confines of which scientific inquiry takes place, the assumed definition of what are legitimate problems and methods, the accepted practice and point of view with which the student prepared for membership in the scientific community, the criteria for choosing problems to attack, the rules and standards of scientific practice, (p. 11)
Such a knowledge paradigm has a well-understood set of exemplars or precedents that define a field of inquiry, determine the rules that govern the formulations of new problems, and specify acceptable forms of solutions. Thus, the paradigm can only exist if there is a shared commitment to certain beliefs, such as that the molecules of a gas behave like tiny elastic billiard balls, or that certain kinds of procedures should be used for experimentation, or that some topics are appropriate for scientific investigation and others not. Its communicants must also agree on the meaning of symbolic representations, as in mathematics. Finally, its communicants must share relevant values, such as the importance of making predictive versus non-predictive explanations, the appropriateness of imposing social concerns during problem formulation, and the degree of simplicity demanded in theories.
Such a knowledge paradigm bears the same relation to the laws and rules in a field of scientific inquiry as do the myths and rituals in a pre-scientific society. That is, they are considered by many to be the fundamental units influencing the scientific research process.[viii]
The excitement generated by Kuhn's work rests not so much with his formulation of the knowledge paradigm, however, as with his portrayal of the dynamics with which such paradigms are created and replaced. Rather than aim at novelty, in Kuhn's view normal science attempts to actualize the promise offered by the existing paradigm. But it results almost invariably in the exposure of anomalies between expectations based on the paradigm and fact. Thus, as noted in Chapter 4, as such anomalies grow more numerous, we see the recurring emergence of crises and the development of new paradigms which embrace both the old paradigms and the anomalous data that the old could not deal with adequately. Kuhn has noted that this transformational process typically passes through four stages: preparadigm research, normal science, crisis, and revolution.
Similarities between Scientific and Cultural Revitalization Seeking as we are useful patterns from history to guide our thinking for the future, it is interesting to compare Kuhn's and Wallace's analyses.[ix] In normal times (steady state : : normal science) the functioning of the dominant images and ways of doing (mazeway : : knowledge paradigm) are considered adequate. However, when these become inadequate (individual stress/cultural distortion : : crisis) the responses are many and varied, but take predictable forms. Some individuals avoid facing the difficulties (undergo chronic high level stress : : avoid the anomalies) and assume that a continuation of ordinary means of problem-solving will suffice; others call for a return to fundamentals. Expressions of discontent increase, however, and a "creative minority" (Martin, 1955) turns from searches for incremental ways of problem-solving to searches for fundamental reconceptualization of the facts. Inevitably the legitimacy of these searches is difficult to obtain from the established authorities, unless the perception of crisis becomes widespread.
Although the discovery and application of the new reconceptualization (revitalization : : revolution) is a complicated process and occurs over an extended period of time, the moment of discovery of the desired conceptual reformulation occurs not by deliberation and interpretation, but by a relatively sudden and unstructured conceptual event like the Gestalt reversal. Like the charismatic leaders of revitalization movements, scientists often speak of "scales falling from the eyes" or of a "lightning flash" that illuminates a previously obscure puzzle, enabling them to see its components in a new way. Though such intuitions depend on experience, both anomalous and congruent, gained with the old paradigm, they are not logically linked to particular items of that experience as an interpretation would be. Instead, large portions of that experience are gathered and transformed into a "rather different bundle of experience" and "thereafter . . . linked piecemeal to the new paradigm but not to the old" (Kuhn, 1962, pp. 122 ff., also cited in Wirt, Lieberman, and Levien, 1971, p. 55).
A significant difference between the scientific revolutions and the cultural revitalization movements stems from the fact that scientific inquiry can incorporate a much wider range of difference than can the institutions of a culture — although Kuhn observes that established scientists often find it difficult if not impossible to convert to the newly emergent paradigm from the one in which they have invested their professional lives, so that the new paradigm is often fully accepted only with a new generation of scientists. Wallace observes that the trans- formation of an entire culture takes place only when and if the purity of the original vision is adapted (in response to resistance that is encountered) by "adding to, emphasizing, playing down, and eliminating selected elements of it" (1956, p. 274).
Other scholars (e.g. Toynbee, 1935; Quigley, 1961; Mumford, 1956) who have reviewed the rise and transformation (or fall) of civilizations have deduced similar series of stages that portray what we might call "the cycle of transformation." Before trying to deduce the implications of these findings for our own situation, it is useful to consider similar patterns that can be found in the literature of mythology and of psychotherapy.
Mythic Transformations As various scholars have noted (e.g. Boisen, 1962; Erikson, 1958) often those individuals who bring the new reconceptualizations to society have had personal problems which were similar in form or which were significantly related to those of the larger society. In resolving their own problems they presented visible resolutions to the problems of their culture, and vice versa. This characteristic of the hero is in fact so common throughout the transformation myths of different times and places that Joseph Campbell (1956) has used the term "the monomyth" to describe it:
The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation — initiation — return: which might be named the nuclear unity of the monomyth. ... (p. 30)
The composite hero of the monomyth . . . and/or the world in which he finds himself suffers from a symbolical deficiency. In fairy tales this might be as slight as the lack of a certain golden ring, whereas in apocalyptic vision the physical and spiritual life of the whole earth can be represented as fallen, or on the point of falling, into ruin.
Typically the hero of the fairy tale achieves a domestic microcosmic triumph, and the hero of myth a world-historical, macrocosmic triumph. Whereas the former — the youngest or despised child who becomes the master of extraordinary powers — prevails over his personal oppressors, the latter brings back from his adventure the means for the regeneration of his society as a whole, (pp. 37 ff.)
The basic pattern is clear:
Whether the hero be ridiculous or sublime, Greek or barbarian, Gentile or Jew, his journey varies little in essential plan. Popular tales represent the heroic action as physical; the higher religions show the deed to be moral; nevertheless, there will be found astonishingly little variation in the morphology of the adventure, the character roles involved, the victories gained, (p. 38)
Just as the mythological here often suffers from a defect that spurs him on to action, so many of the great men of history have not been typically the product of carefree, "well-adjusted" homes (Goertzel and Goertzel, 1962). Nor do such persons typically adjust in a conformist fashion to personal and social realities which to them seem filled with anomalies. Rather, they attempt to resolve the dissonant elements of their life in creative ways, which is the central goal of psychotherapy.
Personal Transformations Although the literature of psychotherapy is so varied that it is difficult to make any clean and clear-cut generalizations, a pattern does emerge from writers who attempt to describe the process of crisis-motivated personal transformation. From the writings of Boisen (1936/1962), Martin (1955), Sullivan (1953), Fingarette (1963), and Kantor and Herron (1966) we derive the following series of stages that seem to typify this process:
1. Adequate mastery of one's life: reliance on defense mechanisms (e.g. denial, repression, sublimation).
2. Inadequate mastery of one's life: anxiety and disintegration.
3. Looking for causes: blame and guilt.
4. Finding causes: acceptance of responsibility.
5. Looking for new solutions: openness to seeing things anew both in the inner world and in the outer world.
6. Finding new solutions: insights that reformulate one's existential conceptions and reintegrate the personality.
7. Applying new solutions: learning new modes of behavior that test and apply the new perspective with increased mastery of one's life.
8. New level of adequacy: open-ended growth and learning as nor- mal behavior.
Although there is insufficient space to discuss these stages here, it is useful to note their similarity to those in science and myth.
Synthesis and Inference We now draw the various observations of personal, scientific, and cultural transformation together in order to draw any inferences that might increase the operational feasibility of a new, more adequate image of humankind. Table 7 summarizes the idealized stages of the "cycle of transformation" that has been formulated by different scholars.[x] Although numerous examples of creativity can be found which do not fit this cycle of transformation, the overall pattern seems typical of the crisis -motivated transformations that have occurred repeatedly in a wide variety of settings in place and time.
In the general creativity literature the common elements to this cycle have been termed preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification (G. Wallace, 1926).
First comes the testing of conventional approaches and finding them wanting ("preparation").
The next step ("incubation") often necessitates making what P. W. Martin (1955) has termed "the experiment in depth," the deliberate setting aside of assumptions that are conventionally made about reality, and engaging in techniques or activities that open up one's self to more primal and direct perceptions of reality which are less strongly filtered by convention. As these sources of creativity are not yet generally understood, access to them is for most persons a rather random and uncontrolled process. Hence the term "incubation," which suggests the cessation of deliberate attempts to force insight.[xi] Two quotations describe the process:
"Cease striving; then there will be self-transformation."
-- Chuang-Tse, Book XI
"Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."
-- Luke 17:33
Table 7: STAGES OF CRISIS RESOLUTION IN MYTH, CULTURE, SCIENCE, PSYCHOTHERAPY, AND ESSENTIAL CREATIVITY
Monomyth (J. Campbell) / Cultural revitalization (A. Wallace) / Scientific resolution (T. Kuhn) / Psychotherapy (O. Markley) / General creativity (G. Wallace)
-- / 1. Steady state; 2. Period of individual stress / 1. Normal science; 2. Growth of anomalies / 1. Normal defence mechanisms; 2. Anxiety and disintegration / --
1. Separation / 3. Period of cultural distortion / 3. Crisis / 3. Blame and guilt; 4. Acceptance of responsibility; 5. Looking for new solutions / 1. Preparation; 2. Incubation
2. Initiation / 4. Period of revitalization: reformulation; communication; organization / 4. Revolution / 6. Insight/reformulation/reintegration / 3. Illumination
3. Return / adaption; cultural transformation; routinization; 5. New steady state / 5. Normal science in new paradigm / 7. Testing and application; 8. Open-ended change and growth as "normal" / 4. Verification
The moment of insight (illumination), as we observed in connection with the cultural revitalization movements and creation of scientific paradigms, occurs with vivid clarity and suddenness, is abrupt and dramatic, "a brief period of realization of relationships" (A. Wallace, 1956, p. 270) that "inundates a previously obscure puzzle, enabling its components to be seen in a new way for the first time" (Kuhn, 1962, pp. 122 ff.). Thus, the moment of sudden insight seems to be an element common to radical discovery and transformation — both mythic and scientific. We might well apply to this type of reconceptualization of the Greek word for religious conversion, metanoia, that is, a fundamental transformation of mind (Pearce, 1971).
Finally there is the task of validating the knowledge (verification) and bringing it to fruition for self and society.
Such processes of discovery may be termed heroic not so much because they parallel the classic stages of separation, initiation, and return of the hero in the monomyth, but because they require in- ordinate courage in the face of fear. They involve not only the possibilities of failure, but require confronting the truly unknown; and confronting as well the sure knowledge that successful discovery will inevitably upset the established patterns of one's existence. It will likely mean drastic personal and psychic change. In this connection, Abraham Maslow (1962) has written eloquently about "the need to know and the fear of knowing."
What does all of this mean for our society today? Are we to conclude that the answer to our problems is to be found in the chance occurrence of a revelation or intuitive breakthrough by one or a few individuals who will then become the charismatic leaders of a true-believer revitalization movement? Such an occurrence is not at all unlikely if other approaches have not been developed before the problems of our late industrial era reach truly crisis proportions, and it would undoubtedly result in a high degree of disruption and chaos throughout society. But other approaches are possible.
We now know something about the nature of the creative person. For example, a study of research observations that were made during the process of scientific discovery found that scientists considered to be unusually creative in productive ways are:
(1) of superior measured intelligence; (2) exceptionally independent in judgment and resistant to group-endorsed opinions; (3) marked by a strong need for order and for perceptual closure, combined with a resistance to premature closure and an interest in what may appear as disorder, contradiction, imbalance, or very complex balance whose ordering principle is not immediately apparent; (4) unusually appreciative of the intuitive and non-rational elements in their own nature; (5) distinguished by their profound commitment to the search for esthetic and philosophical meaning in all experience.
-- Barron, 1969, p. 102
Additionally, it now appears possible to combine the insights of science, art, and religion so as systematically to reduce the fear of (yet) unknown discovery and to foster the abilities of normal persons to discover and apply more of their creative potential. Such approaches as Synectics (Gordon, 1961), group dynamics (Bradford, Gibb, and Benne, 1964), Psychosynthesis (Assagioli, 1965), Scientology (Hubbard, 1954), psychedelic drugs (Masters and Houston, 1966; Aaronson and Osmond, 1970), integral yoga (Chaudhuri, 1965), self-hypnosis (Kripp- ner, 1969), biofeedback training (R0rvik, 1973), small conferencing (Mead and Byers, 1968), imagistic thinking (Krippner, 1967), specific educational programs (Barron, 1969), and others (Peterson, 1971) typify the diversity of ways in which one or a group of individuals, with an appropriate "set and setting,"[xii] can be helped to make the type of conceptual breakthroughs here being discussed. If the emerging "science of consciousness" discussed in Chapter 4 is turned toward these ends, it seems obvious that even more effective approaches would result.[xiii]
We are not simplistically advocating that society needs a great man to lead us to a new image of the nature of man. It may be that because of the new approaches for self-exploration, the communication flow which makes esoteric ideas and processes more available, and the exchange of shared and vicarious experience, many persons may find themselves on the path of the adventurer, reflecting first the stress and problems of the society, then opening themselves to new insights and direct perceptions of reality which are less strongly filtered by the current paradigms and myths, and finally emerging to see the world in new ways.
As Joseph Campbell (1968) has observed:
For even in the sphere of Waking Consciousness, the fixed and the steadfast, there is nothing now that endures. The known God cannot endure. Whereas formerly, for generations, life so held to established norms that the lifetime of a deity could be reckoned in millenia, today all norms are in flux, so that the individual is thrown, willy-nilly, back upon himself, into the inward sphere of his own becoming, his forest adventurous without way or path, to come through his own integrity in experience to his own intelligible Castle of the Grail — integrity and courage in experience, in love, in loyalty, and in act. And to this end the guiding myths can no longer be of any ethnic norms. No sooner learned, these are outdated, out of place, washed away. There are today no mythogenetic zones. Or rather, the mythogenetic zone is the individual heart. Individualism and spontaneous pluralism — the free association of men and women of like spirit, under the protection of a secular, rational state with no pretensions to divinity — are in the modern world the only honest possibilities: each the creative center of authority for himself, in Cusanus's circle without circumference whose center is everywhere, and where each is the focus of God's gaze. (p. 677)
We would thus hope not for a handful, but for a thousand heroes, ten thousand heroes — who will create a future image of what humankind can be.
Institutional and Personal Change The needed transformation cannot occur without both personal and institutional change. Institutional change depends on the actions of individuals, but it is unrealistic to expect personal illumination to become effective in any widespread way unless our institutions — which are locked into the mores of industrialism — are suitably modified. How can we break this cycle?
Imagining Makes It So As a result of a career in psychotherapy and facilitation of personal growth, Frederik S. Perls, the originator of Gestalt Therapy, concluded that "we cannot deliberately bring about changes in ourselves or in others," that people who try to do so end up typically "dedicating their lives to actualize a concept of what they should be like, rather than to actualize themselves. This difference between self-actualizing and self-image actualizing is very important" (Perls, 1969, p. 19). This is perhaps the essence of the difference between what Boulding (1964) termed the "scientific" approach and the "ideological" approach to progress. The contrast provides a needed precaution to overzealous attempts to proselytize on behalf of a new image of humankind for our society.
Although Perls' assertion may seem paradoxical to us, caught up as we are in the rational-manipulative paradigm of industrialism, it is a view that has been repeated through history. For example, from a variety of periods and disciplines come the following conclusions:
• Every idea which exclusively occupies the mind is transformed into an actual physical or mental state. (Brooks, 1022, p. 18)
• The efforts we make to conquer an idea by exerting the will only serve to make the idea more powerful. (Brooks, 1922, p. 19)
• So long as the imagination is adverse to the conscious mind, effort of the conscious will produces a contrary effect. We must think rightly, or rather must imagine rightly, before we can will rightly. In a word, our formula must not be "who wills can," but "who imagines can." (Baudouin, 1922, p. 10)
• The most significant phenomena of autosuggestion occur in the domain of the unconscious. (Baudouin, 1922, p. 10)
• The basic law of autosuggestion is: Every idea which enters the conscious mind, if it is accepted by the Unconscious, is transformed by it into a reality and forms henceforth a permanent element in our life. (Brooks, 1922, pp. 54-55)
• "Merely to be attracted to any set of ... ideas does not bring with it any realisation. ... A mere mental activity will not bring a change of consciousness, it can only bring a change of mind. And if your mind is sufficiently mobile, it will go on changing from one thing to another till the end without arriving at any sure way or any spiritual harbour. The mind can think and doubt and question and accept and withdraw its acceptance, make formations and unmake them, pass decisions and revoke them, judging always on the surface and by surface indications and therefore never coming to any deep and firm experience of Truth, but by itself it can do no more. There are only three ways by which it can make itself a channel or instrument of Truth. Either it must fall silent in the Self and give room for a wider and greater consciousness; or it must make itself passive to an inner light and allow that light to use it as a means of expression; or else it must itself change from the questioning intellectual superficial mind it now is to an intuitive intelligence, a mind of vision fit for the direct perception of the divine Truth." — Sri Aurobindo (On Yoga: II, Tome One, p. 174).
• Underneath all the reasoning, inductions, deductions, calculations, demonstrations, methods, and logical apparatus of every sort, there is something animating them that is not understood, that is the work of that complex operation, the constructive imagination. (Ribot, Essay on the Creative Imagination, quoted in Johnson, 1957, p. 38)
• [In experiments using altered states of consciousness to increase creativity, we find that] people get into imagistic thinking. That is, pictorial thinking as opposed to sequential, verbal thinking. With imagistic thinking, there is a tendency to see whole constellations of information as a picture, a coded symbol, or a series of flowing symbolic forms . . . such free inter-space exploration was always blocked by religious dogma on the one hand or by scientific dogma on the other. . . . Visionary experience does tend to be heretical. It is a tuning in on the creative process, and so it will not obey the laws of any particular religion or political system. . . . And this imagistic thinking is often attended by an increase of enthusiasm. (Masters and Houston, quoted in Avorn, 1973, p. 17)
• Man is made by his belief. . . as he believes, so he is. (Bhagavad Gita)
• As man thinketh in his heart, so he is. (Proverbs 23 : 7 of the Bible)
• In order to live wisely, men must have a sense of participation in a uniting purpose understandable to all, vital enough and noble enough to be the object of a common sense of dedication. (Andrea, ca. 1700, cited in Hall, 1958, p. 107)
• The rise and fall of images of the future precede or accompany the rise and fall of cultures. (Polak, 1973, p. 19)
If these observations are at all valid (and their validity is essentially untestable within the presently dominant paradigms of science), they are important insights from which to draw social-policy implications.
First, it becomes imperative to note the likely consequences of the type of image that is portrayed in the various artistic media. If the future is portrayed in primarily dystopian terms, a dystopian image of humankind will prevail in the collective unconscious of the culture. But as Margaret Mead has noted (1957):
... all visions of heaven, in this world and in the next, have a curious tasteless, pale blue and pink quality. . . . Beside any picture of heaven above or heaven on earth, the pictures of hell and destruction stand out in vivid and compelling intensity, each detail strong enough to grip the imagination as the horrid creations of a Wells, an Orwell, or an Aldous Huxley unroll before our horrified eyes. Where positive Utopias are insipid and a detailed heaven is unbearable to think of as a permanent abode, the creators of terror have no such problem. So, if Utopian visions are the stuff by which men live, it would seem a legitimate subject of inquiry to ask what is the matter with them? Why is Hell always so much more vivid than Heaven? (p. 958)[xiv]
Or as Aldous Huxley once observed, "A dualistic perception of God may be bad metaphysics, but it makes good art."
These observations seem perfectly valid insofar as they apply to static conceptions of Utopias or to static metaphysical views, but there appear to be no necessary limitations on artistic creativity to portray the excitement of constructive, positive images of continuing human evolution, and in that sense be able to create a vision of "more vivid Utopias."
Second, these insights suggest that the most important component of planning is based not on the realm of the rational, but rather in those realms of consciousness that lie beyond the rational. In many if not most cultures throughout history, the executive leaders maintained access to seers (shamans, prophets, "fools," medicine men, etc.).[xv] In keeping with the seriousness of the problems our society faces and the resulting need for a more valid sense of the whole context in which we live, the opening up of these aspects of consciousness — not for the few but for the many — seems of vital importance.
Third, these insights suggest that "ordinary" attempts to shift the prevailing image of humankind by rational-manipulative means would likely prove ineffectual. Other evidence, however, suggests that such a strategy (if it uses "extraordinary" means) might well be effective, but ultimately dysfunctional: Kinser and Kleinman (1969) have written a provocative book, The Dream That Was No More a Dream: A Search for Aesthetic Reality in Germany 1890-1945, which contends that during this recent era, the German government undertook to deliberately shape the image of man, to create a "myth" that would resolve the German's identity crisis. Using all means at their disposal, some conventional (e.g. visual art, songs, slogans, and propaganda) and some unconventional (e.g. arm-in-arm rocking, goose-step marching, and other somewhat more esoteric ways of releasing primal energies in a structured form — some of which have appeared from time to time in the American human potential movement), Germany created for itself "a sense of national density in accord with the universe." Kinser and Kleinman assert that the central equation in this process was that:
Myths shape perception. Perceptions produce policies, policies cause events and situations. And events require explanation. How can one separate the beginning of the circle from the end, the mythic invention from the archetypal situation, or the fabrication from the candid recognition of a geopolitical fact? The first feeds the last, and the last vindicates — and reinstates — the first. This cycle is what Freud meant by "self-fulfilling prophecy" — the manufactured statement that creates historical reality thereby validating itself.
The recent appearance of such writings as The Image (Boorstin, 1971), The Selling of the President (McGinnis, 1968), Catch a Falling Flag (Whalen, 1972), The Image Makers (Lawton and Trent, 1972), and "Friendly fascism" (Gross, 1970) would indicate that the German approach of image manipulation and myth creation is all too feasible in the United States.[xvi] Image manipulation is practiced in our society, but it has not yet reached the proportions that were practiced in Germany before World War II. As we note in the next chapter, however, an extrapolation of current trends makes this possibility seem almost expected. Martin, writing almost two decades ago, concluded that:
The whole world is in imminent peril from the totalitarian technique. . . . The free peoples, because they are still free, have the means of making the withdrawal-and- return, of rediscovering the creative contact by rediscovering themselves. There can be no assurance that they will fully realize this peril or make use of these means. But if they do, a fundamental change can come over the world. . . . There is in this present age a possibility of greatness exceeding all that has gone before, the possibility that our time of troubles can become the timeless moment, the moment of vision and commitment. (1955, pp. 264 ff.)
And,
In fairness to the reader, it should be emphasized that this creative contact is not an armchair pursuit. What is proposed is an experiment, an experiment involving risk, making heavy demands on those who undertake it, with no guarantee of results. Mythos meant originally the words spoken in a ritual, the means of approach to the God . . . there are a variety of modern means of approach to the creative process working in and through man. And, as always, the creative is dangerous. (1955, p. 15)
Although not without danger, the democratic assumption is that pluralistic creativity is always more to be trusted than is fascistic manipulation (cf. Mead and Byers, 1968).
New Paradigms from Old We spoke earlier of the need for what we termed a "moral science" and a "moral economics" denoting by the terms "moral" paradigms that would be consistent with what Dunn (1971) has termed a "process teleology"
. . . where human beings . . . establish the process of human development as the goal of the process of social evolution, both the process and the goal being understood to be open to further transformation as we advance in the practice and understanding of them.
The translation of such a conception into operational terms seems especially crucial given the problems discussed earlier. As the economist Robert Heilbroner observed (1968),
. . . the central problem which is likely to confront the societies of tomorrow is nothing less than the creation of a new relationship between the economic aspect of existence and human life in its totality, (p. 631)
It seems evident that the characteristics we postulated for an adequate image cannot be fulfilled unless such a new type of policy paradigm comes into existence — a paradigm that provides a far closer reconciliation of C. P. Snow's "two cultures" (the sciences and the humanities) than has heretofore seemed feasible. Central in this pursuit would be the reconciliation of the objective inquiry methods found suitable for learning to manipulate the external/physical environment and the inquiry methods which are emerging to similarly explore the subjective/internal/psychical environment of our living.
Likely such an umbrella paradigm will not be possible without the emergence of other, somewhat more specialized but nevertheless holistic, paradigms to support it. An adequate policy-relevant paradigm for understanding the subtle complexities of ecology, for example, will likely require a creative synthesis of those disciplines we call biology, anthropology, ethology, and possibly even parapsychology. Similarly, an adequate new science of "internal states" (which would deal with topics as varied as psychosomatic medicine, creativity, quality of life, and so-called psychic abilities), if present trends are any indication, will require a synthesis of Eastern wisdom, Western psychology, electronic engineering, physics, physiology, etc.[xvii] Donald Michael's book On the Social Psychology of Learning to Plan — and Planning to Learn (1972) contains numerous insights on how this difficult task might more adequately be approached.
Considerations of Operational Feasibility But what indications are there that pervasive personal and in- stitutional transformation and a creative mushrooming of new paradigms are feasible without their being "caused"?
There can be no easy answer to this question, of course. The forces against fundamental conceptual change appear almost insuperable. Virtually every institutionalized aspect of our society, but especially the image-creating media (whose revenues, hence editorial policy, currently derive primarily from advertising), indirectly support the current industrial paradigm. The physical aspects of our culture (urban-centered factories, freeways, automobiles, etc.) all reinforce it by shaping our perceptions, incentives, and habits.
However, there appear sufficient indications of a new image emerging that continued work in this direction is indeed appropriate. We outlined in Chapter 4 an historical analogy between the present and the post-Medieval period that is suggestive of various forces at work which are creating the conditions for a transformation. Added to that line of argument are the following assessments of societal conditions that together indicate, with appropriate stimulation, the feasibility of a "new renaissance" which would have the characteristics set forth in Chapter 5.
• There is need. Societal problems (such as those described in Chapter II) are mounting that appear to be intrinsic to the very structure of the mature industrial society. Similarly there is growing evidence that a variety of goals cannot be adequately realized due to intrinsic limitations of the essentially objective and reductionistic paradigm of science that is currently dominant in our society.[xviii]
• There are motivation and progress. Although the societal trends that appear to be dominant (e.g. the "multifold trend" noted in Chapter 1) and the overall momentum of industrialism do not point to the emergence of a new and more adequate image of the human, there are various signs indicating increasing desire for the progress toward such an emergence. For example:
1. Interest in cultural survival, in Eastern thought, in self-exploration, in holistic understanding of complex systems, in personal and cultural transformation is in the ascendant. Surveys and polls show this growing trend, most noticeably in the Yankelovitch data on the new naturalism among such groups as student elites and corporate executives who are increasingly turning away from economic values (Yankelovitch, 1972; Seligman, 1969). A survey of major public libraries made in connection with this study reveals an unusually strong demand for books on wholesome living (natural/organic foods, yoga for health, etc.); the occult (extrasensory processes, divination, esoteric wisdom, etc.); and Eastern practices (zen, yoga, meditation, etc.). While the more fundamentalist of the traditional churches are growing at a rate about equal to the decline of the more ecumunical traditional churches (Kelley, 1972), other voluntary organizations, especially in what is called the "human potential movement," are growing far more rapidly.[xix]
2. Population growth is declining, environmentalism is growing, new legislation is being considered that might promote more holistic understandings of societal problems — for example, Senator Humphrey's recent bill on national growth policy. Increasing numbers of technical symposia and ad hoc groups are being formed on the theme of survival-motivated transformation, e.g. the World Order Models Project, the Club of Rome, the Blueprint for Survival Project, The International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Projects of the National and World Council of Churches.
• There are recognizable processes of transformational discovery. The historical record of cultures and individuals which successfully coped with crisis-motivated change, the process of "new paradigm" discovery in science, and the process of general creativity show some remarkable parallels. Two characteristics which stand out from the record of such discoveries are:
1. That they are intuitively rather than rationally based. In most descriptions of transformational discovery, the tapping of imagistic, intuitive, and supra-rational aspects of consciousness appears as a central element of discovery. Only before and after the new Gestalt is recognized do the more rational processes serve the useful functions of evaluation, planning, and so forth.
2. That they reformulate rather than replace previous ideas. Although both types of creativity occur in times of crisis, the type of discovery that has led to revitalization of a culture is that in which the creative thrust was more a reformulation and combination of ideas already having good currency than a revolutionary change to radically different ideas. Thus cultural transformation seems feasible without revolutionary disruptions, to the extent that the transformed society can meet the unique and habitual needs of diverse groups while at the same time providing a unifying framework for the entire culture. Techniques exist with which transformational discovery can be fostered; others can be discovered.
• There is timely stimulation of attempts — both individual and collective — to foster an evolutionary transformation. The majority of the society do not perceive the need or have the motivation noted above. This is perhaps fortunate, for it gives time to create the needed ideas before charismatic leadership and/or simplistic attempts at reform are demanded. Although there is (among an increasing number of elites) a perceived need, motivation, some progress, and proper tools (yet small in proportion to the need), most funding understandably goes into work that fits within the present paradigms of our culture. The efficacy of transformational research and working toward more adequate paradigms has yet to be demonstrated to the mainstream institutions of society. Thus support of this kind of activity could prove to have "high leverage" in terms of building the kinds of knowledge and necessary experience that might turn cultural crisis into creative transformation.
We emphasize the stimulation of transformational thinking and experimentation not because we see it as necessary for the emergence of a new image of humankind and/or new "moral" paradigms, but because of urgency.[xx] Although it is impossible to prove, we suspect that if either is to emerge at all, they will do so whether or not any given individual, group, foundation, or government agency chooses to deliberately support — or to fight — their emergence. To be sure, their emergence depends on the actions of individuals, but scientific and cultural transformation is a far bigger and more amorphous agenda that can be dealt with by rational/deliberate attempts to make it happen, as, one would say, a moon shot. The emergence of a new image and/or new paradigm can, however, be hastened or slowed by deliberate choice. Furthermore, and most importantly, the degree of social disruption accompanying such a change can be affected by the degree of understanding of the forces bringing it about.
Given the uncertainty as to the likely severity and the timing of the societal crisis that may be ahead, appropriate actions which prepare for the crisis need to be stimulated. Only if we have the necessary concepts and tools — both individually and collectively and in time — can we hope to ride at all smoothly through to a better society on the other side of the transition. Thus the fostering of conceptual reformulations which do not reject but rather reconcile previously dominant ideas into a higher-level integration appears most timely.
_______________
Notes:
Note A "Two criticisms: one, that there have been a concomitant increase in consciousness together with the generally increasing complexity and differentiation of evolving biological systems does not mean that the thrust of evolution is toward greater consciousness (as the study infers); it could mean, for example, that consciousness is merely an epiphenomenon of complex organization. In my view it is more reasonable to assume that consciousness is a resultant of biological evolution. ... I believe that the spectacle of evolution can give meaning to existence and a sense of holistic direction without embracing the controversial premise of a vitalistic-anthropomorphic thrust toward consciousness [see Chapter 14 in Laszlo (1972)], and it is more rational to place one's hopes for a new meaning in life on an objectively evolutionary, rather than an anthropomorphizing thesis.
"My second criticism is that the meaning of 'consciousness' is not made clear. . . . Consciousness as self-awareness can be explained without recourse to grand assumptions about evolutionary thrusts simply by noting the selective advantage it confers on systems that increasingly rely on computed-extrapolated strategies for their existence. Like a prehensive tail, it is an instrument of survival and a factor in . . . biological evolution."
— Ervin Laszlo
Note B "I believe many readers, especially those in the stricter sciences, will not appreciate the diffusive and wildly ambiguous qualities of the word paradigm, which is used excessively (even from the point of view of good prose!) in the latter parts of the document. My early classical training forces me to associate the word paradigm with the sober word example. Its main use is in grammar, where it is used as an example to illustrate a declension or a conjugation. It might also mean, more generally, an illustration. But it has none of the far flung meanings you have assigned to it (following Kuhn). You have employed it as a synonym for general belief, tenet, hypothesis, dominant theory, prevalent view, prevailing philosophy, general understanding, accepted thesis, scientific world picture of the time, temporarily confirmed assumption. . . . Each phrase in this list is clearer than paradigm, and I suppose it might be well to choose from it on occasion."
— Henry Margenau
Our usage of the word paradigm is indeed extended from its original meaning and is in keeping with our search for metaphors which catch the "sense" of our time. We use it to refer to a scientific (or generally held) world view, including any assumptions about reality and rules of operation. Kuhn (1962) describes his usage as referring to 'universally recognized scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners' (p. x). This corresponds to the common meaning of paradigm as a model or pattern.
Note C "Do you think that the cultural survival lobby, broadly defined, outnumbers the supporters of Maharaj Ji? The John Birch Society? Would you care to contrast the readership of any five new culture periodicals to the 160,000 subscribers to Street Chopper Magazine, or the 175,000 subscribers to Off Road Vehicles Magazine (the latter group, I understand, is destroying the California desert).
"Also, I think it is very problematic as to whether environmentalism is growing, particularly with newly announced scarcities in electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. If it is growing, we need a sober head count: growth from 3% to 4% doesn't count for much, if 80% are ready to vote to maintain their comfort.
"In fact, I disagree with this entire section. I would like to see the signs of a positive emerging image, but I will not let my enthusiasm be confused with a sober analysis of the data around me. As is quite clear, students are turning away from 'The New Natural- ism' toward quietude, fundamental Christianity, alcohol instead of drugs. Shows the hazards of extrapolating data and cheering when what we are watching is a cultural pendulum. As for the 'cultural indicators' you had best be more specific, e.g. what books read by whom and with what result? (As a quick indicator, look at the top ten non-fiction list for the last few years to see what is in fashion. Whereas Future Shock was big a couple of years go, there is nothing in the top ten today — other than The Sovereign State of ITT — that has anything to do with the new naturalism, public policy, or wholistic science. Rather, people are concerned with Dr. Atkins' diet, and the Joy of Sex.) Be precise about any interest in the growth of holistic science; I fail to see any good signs, such as the RANN budget in NSF or significant developments in SGSR. The control of internal states, books on wholesome living, the occult, etc., are to some degree current fads — and there is a great deal of balderdash mixed in with serious sentiments that you and I favor. Failure to distinguish between the serious and the rip-off is one of the quickest ways to weaken if not kill off the evolutionary transformationalist movement (or whatever we wish to call it — another problem being a profusion of titles).
"Finally, you should be very cautious about the 'humanistic capitalism' professed by the corporations (most notably in John Rockefeller's recent book, The Second American Revolution). Haven't you ever heard of co-optation? See Roszak's comments on 'suave technocracy' in Where the Wasteland Ends."
— Michael Marien
We agree. See our "last work" (p. 268).
i. Jung's imagery of "dreaming man" is difficult to place in the model — precisely because this aspect of man partakes of "the center" (discussed on pages 137-138), which tends to integrate "the higher" and "the lower."
ii.
"It is important to note that boredom and apathy (if not viewed from a dualistic mind-body bias) does lead to illness, non-productivity, and death in terms of the holistic concepts this paper is espousing."
— Stanley Krippner
iii.
"To these dimensions, you might add Rollo May's five descending levels of power and five ascending kinds of power (Power and Innocence, Norton, 1972)."
— Michael Marien
iv. See Note A, p. 160.
v.
"This is good, but instead of a linear hierarchy (instead of envisioning the system in terms of our old way of looking at things) how about something on the order of a circular model (uruborus like) — where the dreaming man of Jung would be circulatory, cyclicly linked to the superconscious man, in a visual system that implies ongoing progress?"
— Stanley Krippner
"I find this model most interesting, especially the way it incorporates the 'absolutes' of existence at both of its extremes. ... A good starting point for further work." [Paraphrased from]
— Margaret Mead
vi.
"A reduction of external restraint upon the individual? Tell it to Amalrik, Solzhenitsyn, and Sakharov. For that matter, I would like to see the evidence for such a trend in this country."
— Michael Marien
vii.
"I fail to see how any non-hierarchical system of thought and organization can provide the needed coordination across different levels of aggregation. What is necessary, is that the coordination be from the 'inside out' as it were, and not from the top down, as the hierarchical notion is so often interpreted."
— [Paraphrased from] Edgar Dunn, Jr.
viii. See Note B, p. 160
ix.
"The use of Anthony Wallace's analysis of cargo cults as a parallel to Kuhn is very bad; [it is] an undiscriminating use of material."
— Margaret Mead
"The citations from my writing on Revitalization Movements in Chapter 6 very well represented my views."
— Anthony F. C. Wallace
"[The] basic concept that we need a new knowledge paradigm, and the use of Kuhn/Wallace is excellent."
— Elise Boulding
x.
"It should be pointed out that A. F. C. Wallace's theorizing is not conceptually independent of the psychotherapeutic schools of thought. Being an anthropologist of the 'culture and personality' emphasis, Wallace was very much influenced by psychoanalytic thought. Also it should not be thought that his work tells how crisis- oriented cultural change actually takes place; rather his work is an abstract construction of this process. Also his work was not based on his own field studies, but rather on literature sources. If it had been based on field studies, it is quite possible that his conclusions (especially about the charismatic leader) would have been very different."
— Luther Gerlach
xi.
"[Regarding the] operational feasibility of transformation, Reza Arasteh's work should be included. Like Chuang-Tse, he calls for an 'existential moratorium' so that society can reintegrate at a higher level. Dabrowski also calls for what he calls 'positive disintegration' so that a higher level individual integration may take place."
— Robert A. Smith, III.
xii.
"Set" refers to the expectations of the participant and "setting" to the physical, psychological, and spiritual context in which a given growth or therapeutic process is experienced. These two variables have been found to significantly affect the outcomes of creative processes. See Sherwood, J. N. et al., "The psychedelic experience
— A new concept in psychotherapy," Journal of Neuropsychiatry, Vol. 4 (December 1962), pp. 69-80.
xiii.
"All of these techniques are aimed at the individual, rather than his social setting. Until you can make institutions receptive if not promotive (see John Gardner, Self -Renewal — infinitely better than anything you mention here) to creativity, there will be a dis junction between individual and institution, creating greater frustration for the charged-up newly creative with no place to go. Incidentally, I would much prefer that emphasis be on the broader concept of excellence."
— Michael Marien
Note: See also Elise Boulding's compelling statement of "The Spiritual Dimension of the Human Person" in Appendix A.
xiv.
"Like so many quotes, the real point — the imagination of children — is omitted."
— Margaret Mead
xv.
"Today the seers are scientists and 'experts.' See Guy Benveniste, The Politics of Expertise, Glendessary Press, 1972."
— Michael Marien
Agreed, which is why the necessary future emphasis is on holistic knowing as opposed to specialized knowing.
xvi.
"While you note briefly the societal manipulations of the Third Reich under Hitler, you do not deal with the consequences of this tragedy. I would urge that Ernst Cassirer's work, The Myth of the State, be included in your review of relevant literature. I also suggest the tremendous impact of Mao should be included and that the classic of Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China, showing the transforming effect of the great march on a total population cannot be ignored. The image of the pilgrim remains important and its consequences dramatic."
— Robert A. Smith, III
xvii.
"You . . . fail to indicate how these might merge. Perhaps if you update Assagioli, using Youngblood's Expanded Cinema, and suggest new musical and art forms for global audiences through the moog synthesizer, ballet and satellite communication, you could provide a world stage for Transformation."
— Robert A. Smith, III
xviii.
"There is still a vast amount of support for the notion that a variety of goals can be adequately realized by more of the same type of science and technology that we have had. You are not providing an adequate counter-argument to Daniel Bell, Herman Kahn, the Nixon administration, and most of academia and the American people. Consonant with established cognitive systems is the fact that societal problems are not seen as severe enough to require the system break that would lead to the 'new renaissance.'"
— Michael Marien
xix. See Note C, p. 161.
xx.
"Again, I stress that the 'urgency' is not perceived by others; or, if perceived, there are totally different prescriptions."
— Michael Marien
[Jesus] "Of course it's damp underfoot! That strikes me as a very petty complaint to make at a time like this."
Reproduced by permission of the New Yorker Magazine, Inc. Drawing by Starke. © 1977.
Re: Changing Images of Man: Prepared by the Center for the
Posted:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 2:24 am
by admin
CHAPTER 7: Societal Choices and Consequences of Changing Images Massive and rapid change confronts virtually every person and sector of our society. Paradoxically, such rapid change — leading to "future shock" in the words of Toffler — seems to be the only constant of our time. This change has contributed to a contemporary feeling of purposelessness and meaninglessness:
• It creates uncertainty about the future and lessens the time "durability" of our images of humankind.
• Associated with this change has been the emergence of a societal structure of virtually incomprehensible size and complexity.
• Also corresponding to this rapid change has been a proliferation of segmented roles for the individual to play, supported by fragmented imagery.
Such rapid rates and magnitudes of change would be tolerable to many people if it seemed purposeful. Indeed, as Gerald Heard once noted, "Life does not need comfort, when it can be offered meaning, nor pleasure, when it can be shown purpose." Since a primary function of images is to provide meaning in life, our present alienation and loss of purpose is reflective of the inability of contemporary images to inspire within people a feeling of meaningfulness.
Our survival and our continued evolution depend upon our acting, soon and wisely. On what basis do we choose one societal trajectory over another?
Many of the different images that we have surveyed provided differing normative standards from which to evaluate ethical decisions. Precisely because different conceptual paradigms provide differing standards for evaluation, it is not possible to prove that one image of humankind is ultimately better or more valid than another.[ i] It is therefore useful to compare the likely societal outcomes of the different images.
We choose to compare the societal consequences of two images, both of which seem feasible within the near-term future of the United States, each of which would lead to a very different type of future. One of these is based on an extrapolation of the images that underlay the industrial state (i.e. it portends a post-industrial future with industrial images of the human); the other is based on a transformed image of the human similar to that we have postulated as being needed for a desirable post-industrial society.
In creating such an idealized polarity, or dialectic, we do not expect that either will come to pass in a pure form, but rather hope that a clear-cut contrast between possibilities will foster a continuing debate which will in itself help create a more responsible future society.
CONTRASTING FUTURE TRENDS AND IMAGES The nature of a future based on continuing dominance of the industrial state mentality is aptly characterized by a distillation of the "multifold trend" developed at the Hudson Institute and described earlier. It envisions a society with the following developmental trends:
1. Increasingly empirical, secular, pragmatic, manipulative, explicitly rational, utilitarian.
2. Centralization and concentration of economic and political power.
3. Continued rapid accumulation of scientific and technical knowledge.
4. Increasing reliance upon specialists and "knowledge elites" despite anti-intellectual trends.
5. Increasing affluence and the institutionalization of leisure.
6. Increasing use of social, economic, political, and behavioral engineering.
7. Increasing urban concentration and the emergence of megapolitan/regional urban areas.
This trend set might well be termed a "technological extrapolationist" future. An image of humankind that is supportive of this future would likely have the following characteristics:
• The individual by nature is aggressive and competitive, largely determined in his behavior by hereditary and environmental forces.
• The group is emphasized, to the relative detriment of individualism.
• Sexuality, territoriality, materialism, rationalism, and secularism are emphasized.
• There is an increased demand for and implied reliance upon technological solutions to our societal problems, and upon centralized regulation of technology application to provide needed controls.
Contrasting rather sharply with the foregoing trends and supportive image is a cluster of trends that is compatible with the characteristics postulated as desirable in Chapter 5. These trends and supportive image might lead to what could be termed an "evolutionary transformationalist" future. This future does not assume the logical extension of existing societal trends as does the technological extrapolationist view; rather it presumes a substantial departure from current trends, with the following trend characteristics resulting:
1. Increasingly balanced between dimensions such as empirical/intuitive, manipulative/pan-determined, rational/intuitive, utilitarian/aesthetic.
2. Stabilizing population; decentralization of urban areas so that population is distributed with greater balance; a greater diversity of living environments to express a larger range of life-style alternatives.
3. Increasing affluence for a time but then tending toward a steady-state society without substantial income/wealth differentials; a "do more with less" technology; more creative/participative leisure activities.
4. A decrease in the use of social, economic, political, and behavior engineering except where this was chosen by a group as the preferable mode of organizing and directing life-activities within their societal subsystem.
5. Increasing reliance upon specialized and general (holistic) skills of "knowledge elites" with greater legitimization and use of divergent thinking; also greater participation in the planning processes.
6. Continued accumulation of scientific and technical knowledge but of a sort which fits within the framework of a new "moral" paradigm.
7. Decentralization and deconcentration of economic and political power to allow "full valued participation" of people in their political and productive processes.
An image of humankind that would be supportive of this trend cluster would likely have the following characteristics:
• The individual's behavior is determined partly by hereditary (biological) and environmental (social) sources, which can be for either good or ill, but also there is a significant potential within the individual for behavior which is free from such deterministic influences.
• The individual has primacy but there are recognized needs of the societal system for its own maintenance as a supportive environment for individual growth/actualization.
• Thus, the self, along with societal structures, evolves toward higher states of awareness such that societal and individual diversity is hopefully integrated at a higher order of complexity and "self" becomes an experiential concept having transpersonal as well as individual aspects.
• An emphasis upon loving sexuality leading to a deemphasis of possessiveness.
• Rationalism and secularism are balanced by an equal regard for the significance of the intuitive and spiritual.
• An implied reliance is placed upon the individual's alteration of internal states for the solution of many societal problems.
Clearly, the technological extrapolationist and evolutionary transformationalist images present us with sharp contrasts — both direct, and in terms of the societal trends they support. The plausibility of each of these divergent images can be partially inferred from an examination of the potency of their historical roots — these are presented in Tables 8 and 9. Table 10 contrasts the ethical attributes that we might associate with these two images. With this as background, we now consider the societal consequences that would accrue in the technological extrapolationist and the evolutionary transformationalist futures.
Table 8: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL EXTRAPOLATIONIST IMAGE
1. Hobbesian Man — Hobbes saw humankind as elaborate machines whose "vital motions" were determined by outward stimuli. One seeks the power to insure the continuation of favorable stimuli and in that egoistic concern one comes into strong conflict with other people acting in like manner. What is required to insure peace is a sovereign with absolute power over the citizenry.
2. Economic Man — Is rationalistic (able to calculate what will maximize one's utility), self-centered (acquisitiveness constrained only by the self-seeking of others), mechanistic (a factor in the production process), individualistic (responsible for taking care of one's self), and materialistic (with an overriding concern for one's own material welfare).
3. Freudian Man — Freud saw people as being driven by the dual instinctual forces of eros (the sex drive) and thanatos (the will to destruction of self or, when turned outward, the will to aggression). Civilization suppresses these potentially destructive instincts and in doing so it increases the individual's internal tensions. Therefore, civilization is bought at the price of an increase in personal frustration.
4. Etiological Man — An aggressive animal with a veneer of civilization holding this aggression back. Man is instinctually programmed from his hunter origins toward war, destruction, and territoriality, and this cannot be unlearned or outgrown but can only be sublimated, redirected, or repressed. This any civilized society must do.
5. Behavioristic Man — One's actions are completely determined by hereditary and environmental factors. A recent emphasis is upon behavior modification through a stimulus-reinforcement-response process. Freedom and dignity are thought to be the illusory constructs of an individual who views himself as having autonomy. The survival of a culture is likely dependent on the systematic "shaping" of human behavior.
SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF A TECHNOLOGICAL EXTRAPOLATIONIST IMAGE Table 9: HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE EVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATIONALIST IMAGE
1. Lockean Man — For Locke, the pre-social condition of the human being was not mutual hostility but mutual tolerance. Nor was man's social contract a surrender pact drawn up between the people and the sovereign; it was a limited agreement among the people to allow regulation of some natural rights so as to gain protection for the remaining ones. Innate ideas or instincts were not the source of knowledge and character, but rather experience and awareness.
2. Emergent "Humanistic Capitalism" — Would replace the economic growth ethic with self-realization and ecological ethics, and holds that the appropriate function of social institutions is to create environments conducive to that human-growth process which would ultimately transcend a materialistic orientation.
3. Perennial Philosophy — " . . . the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds" (Huxley, 1945). The individual can, under certain conditions, attain to a higher awareness, a "cosmic consciousness," in which state he has immediate knowledge of a reality underlying the phenomenal world. "Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions." It is then, the highest common denominator among the religions and thereby has tremendous integrative potential while recognizing the diversity of peoples.
4. The "Other" Ethology — From this perspective, aggression is not inherent in human nature. The environment more than instincts is the source of aggression. To the extent that aggression, territoriality, etc., are learned rather than innate attributes, then they can be unlearned.
5. Systems Theory — The person is an interdependent part of the progressive differentiation and higher-order reintegration of bio-social systems; the next phase in this evolutionary process is for the person to become conscious of his own evolution and to make the process purposeful so that there can be reconciliation of subsystems into large systems without loss of uniqueness. The underlying goal is the enhancement of individual fulfillment through the actualization of the best potentials there are within the person.
Assuming that the cluster of societal trends and images identified under the rubric of "technological extrapolation" becomes dominant in our society, what might be the likely consequences? Our society suffers from fundamental problems which are intrinsic to the very structure of mature industrialism. The cluster of multifold trends embodied in the extrapolationist perspective will likely exacerbate these problems. Indeed, given the present nature of our societal problems, we can expect:
• Continued acceleration of industrial development through massive transnational corporations which, because they transcend national boundaries, will be difficult or impossible to regulate adequately.
• Intensification of ecological problems, and of marathon competition to exploit vanishing resources.
• Increasing discrepancies in the distribution of affluence;
• Intensification of "revolutions of rising expectations" and of strife among interest groups.
• Increasing danger of sabotage, and increasing concern for personal and institutional security; development of new "security technologies."
• A shift from basic research to applied research and development.
• Increasingly unwieldy urban agglomerations whose political, financial, and total-systemic stability becomes uncertain.
• Increasing dominance of institutional needs over human needs.
• Increasingly questioned legitimacy of the entire socioeconomic system.
Table 10: ILLUSTRATIVE CONTRASTS BETWEEN ALTERNATIVE IMAGES
-- / Technological extrapolationist image / Evolutionary transformationalist image
1. Mind and Matter: Is the human essentially a complex and sophisticated but physical machine, or is his essence that of mind or consciousness? / The human is definitely viewed as mechanistic, rationalistic, materialistic. / Both mind and matter are embraced as interdependent and interactive components of an evolving system which includes the person and his society. While some tend to emphasize the human as being essentially mind or spirit, the evolutionary thrust is toward increasing consciousness.
2. Freedom and Determinism: To what extent is the human free in his choices and actions? / The human is viewed as being more or less determined in his behavior patterns — either by instinctual forces or by the behavior-shaping forces of his external environment. / The human is potentially more or less free. Although he has a genetic inheritance which has stronger influence at the "lower levels" of his functioning, he is somewhat determined by the social environment learning process, and to the extent that he is the creator of his social/cultural learning environment, then he is relatively free to foster his own evolution.
3. Good and Evil: Is the human's nature essentially good or evil? / The person tends to be viewed as innately antisocial — aggressive in the ethological perspective, competitive-acquisitive in the economic point of view / The person is essentially neither good nor evil but conditioned by his environment, unless or until he wakes up and sees how things are or can be at a more profound level of awareness.
4. Individual and Collective: Does ultimate significance rest with the individual or the societal collective? Is the individual more subject to the collective, or vice versa? / In spite of the strongly individualistic roots of this composite image, the collective aspects of human existence are emphasized to the virtual exclusion of the individual aspects. (Behaviorism denies individuality.) A collectivist response is necessary to control the antisocial aspects of behavior. / Individuality and wisely chosen autonomy are paramount concerns, although there is utility in the collective aspect of existence — particularly in the ways it can be supportive of evolutionary development.
What kind of society might emerge? On the one hand, our wisdom and good luck could combine with ineptitude and misfortune in such a way as to cause our nation to just about break even in our efforts to deal with the growing problems. There may be (though it appears unlikely) neither disastrous failures nor remarkable successes. Our shortcomings could be offset by the traditional poultice of an increasing income for the majority, a greater amount of time for leisure pursuits, and the certainty of a greater quantity and variety of goods and services to be consumed.
On the other hand, it seems entirely plausible that these trends could exacerbate our societal problems and bring demands for immediate and drastic solutions to ensure the stability and survival of the society. Methods of regulation that severely reduce individual freedoms could be welcomed in the face of severe disruptions. We could quickly or, more likely, gradually emerge into the kind of society that Bertram Gross (1970) has termed "friendly fascism." This is a fascism that "will come under the slogans of democracy and 100 percent Americanism ... in the form of an advanced technological society, supported by its techniques — a techno-urban fascism, American style" (p. 44). Gross describes it as:
... a new form of garrison state, or totalitarianism, built by older elites to resolve the growing conflicts of post-industrialism. More specifically: a managed society [which] rules by a faceless and widely dispersed complex of warfare-welfare-industrial-communications-police bureaucracies caught up in developing a new-style empire based on a technocratic ideology, a culture of alienation, multiple scapegoats, and competing control networks . . .. Pluralistic in nature, techno-urban fascism would need no charismatic dictator, no one-party rule, no mass fascist party, no glorification of the state, no dissolution of legislatures, no discontinuation of elections, no distrust of reason . . . this style of management and planning would not be limited to the economy; it would deal with the political, social, cultural, and technological aspects of society as well . . .. The key theme, therefore, would not be the managed economy, but rather, the managed society[ii] (pp. 46 ff. Some emphases omitted)
What conditions would be required for such a pernicious future to emerge out of the extrapolation of the present? We think the following:
• The need — Our societal problems might combine with the multifold trend to create the need for such a friendly sort of totalitarianism. Perhaps this feeling of benign need was presaged in a recent statement by the White House Chief of Telecommunications: "A great many people in '1984' like what Big Brother was doing because he was doing it in their interest and concern" (Whitehead, 1973).
• The ability — Although one may fault the metaphysical implications of behavior modification, one cannot deny that it works. Today we are seeing the rapid emergence of "psycho-technologies" which could efficiently shape and modify patterns of behavior as well as motivational and emotional states. This could take the form of directed emotional conditioning in childhood; objectively constructed reinforcement patterns in adult life; the use of a wide variety of drugs; electrical brain implants; the modification of genetic makeup to activate different human potentials; the use of sophisticated electronic surveillance mechanisms to detect "aberrant" behavior patterns.
• A supportive image of man — The use of and dependence upon such psycho-technologies might well lead gradually to a pernicious form of the extrapolationist image of man. This is plausible in a self-validating way, since many aspects of the current form of the extrapolationist image seem supportive of the increasing use and dependence upon these technologies. Man is viewed as a sophisticated machine (therefore, master human nature as we have mastered physical nature); man is thought to be largely determined in his behavior (therefore, objectively shape his behavior in the most efficient way); man is innately antisocial (therefore, restrain antisocial tendencies with the aid of new technologies); individual man is subordinate to the needs of the collective (therefore, impose upon the individual whatever is to the benefit of the larger society).
• The acquiescence — Many psycho-technologies are already in limited use in our society and they would appear to be quite palatable to the general public if they were assimilated gradually while being couched in the appropriate language; e.g. rather than discuss the control of emotional and motivational states, we can talk of insuring peace and harmony by modifying the behavior of those "irrational" persons who threaten the stability and security of our society.
Quarton (1967) examined the plausibility of widespread use of such processes and concluded:
If these protective and avoidance patterns are greatly extended in the future, one can imagine a society that allows widespread use of drugs to prevent pain and anxiety, brain surgery to prevent both suffering and any aggressive actions by individuals, and extensive use of monitoring equipment to restrict individual behavior with a destructive potential, (p. 850)
There are already signs of the emergence of key elements in Gross's "friendly fascist" scenario:
• Application of military surveillance technologies to urban police problems.
• Utilization of behavior-changing drugs and operant conditioning in schools.
• Government attempts at management of news.
• "Personality screening" and maintenance of files on "pre-delinquent" children, through cooperation between elementary school administrations and local, state, and federal authorities.
• The cross-correlation of computer-based files containing personal data (e.g. credit, employment records, tax status, insurance, criminal record, education).
• The introduction of legislation to control access to techniques for self-initiated alteration of consciousness (both non-drug and drug induced).
Although the above pictures an extreme outcome from the technological extrapolationist image and trend, nonetheless it is an alternative future for the United States that is even now proving its feasibility by its growing emergence. This future would seem unintended to most people; yet, by not "rocking the boat" and by pursuing what is a familiar societal path, it seems clear that we could reach a societal future which was quite different and far worse than was originally anticipated. This future is by no means inevitable but it does confront us with profoundly important choices — both individual and collective.[iii]
SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF AN EVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATIONALIST IMAGE Whereas the technological extrapolationist response represents the logical extension of currently dominant societal trends, the evolutionary transformationalist response presumes a qualitative and quantitative departure from them. However, in the early stages at least, the transition to an evolutionary transformationalist post-industrial society would create some degree of disruption and disorientation.
Assume for a moment that the industrial state does have problems that are fundamentally unresolvable within the context of the present, and further assume that the evolutionary transformationalist image points the way to a resolution of the difficulties engendered by the industrial era. It might seem that our society would welcome the coming of such a transition with open arms. More likely, we would welcome such a societal change no more than the Middle Ages welcomed Galilean science, no more than the neurotic welcomes the changes in perception and behavior necessary to extricate himself from his unhappy condition. Such a new image and the societal consequences it implies would be viewed as a real threat to the established order. The emphasis on inner exploration would look like escapism, and the new interest in psychic phenomena and spiritual experience would be put down as a return to the superstitions of a less scientific and more gullible age. The increased reliance on intuitive processes would be interpreted as an abandonment of rationalism. The shift in priorities away from material and toward spiritual values would appear as a weakening of the work ethic and as a turning away from economic goals — imperiling both the state of the economy and the stability of economic institutions. The ethic of love and community would seem subversive to the national defense. Such interpretations would not be totally unrealistic, since the world in general is far from ready for such drastic value-changes, and partial moves in these directions would likely be interpreted as weakness.
At a more fundamental level, the implied responsibility of the individual for his own growth and development, in the evolutionary transformationalist view, can by itself evoke a resistance to entertaining this new image of humankind. Maslow (1962) described this phenomenon succinctly in a chapter entitled "The Need to Know and the Fear of Knowing":
The great cause of much psychological illness is the fear of knowledge of oneself .... We tend to be afraid of any knowledge that could cause us to despise ourselves or make us feel inferior, weak, worthless, evil, shameful. We protect ourselves and our ideal image of ourselves by repression and similar defenses, which are essentially techniques by which we avoid becoming conscious of unpleasant or dangerous truths .... But there is another kind of truth we tend to evade. Not only do we hang on to our psychopathology, but also we tend to evade personal growth because this, too, can bring another kind of fear, of awe, of feelings of weakness and inadequacy. And so we find another kind of resistance, a denying of our best side, of our talents, of our finest impulses, of our highest potentialities, of our creativeness .... It is precisely the god-like in ourselves that we are ambivalent about, fascinated by the fearful of, motivated to and defensive against, (pp. 60-61)
Thus, at both the individual and societal levels, the implications of an evolutionary transformationalist image are bound to engender strong resistance. This would contribute to the disruption that inevitably accompanies a period of rapid societal change, such as the present transition from an industrial to some type of a post-industrial society. A paradoxical situation thus arises: even if the evolutionary transformationalist image is essential to a satisfactory resolution of the problems of advanced industrialism, actions designed to force the emergence of such a transformation could be socially disruptive.[iv]
Let us turn now to a longer time perspective and the plausible characteristics of a society in which this image of humankind had become established. These must be considered tentative and incomplete speculations; but they do provide a basis for further discussion.
Individual and Social Goals The evolutionary transformationalist image must begin with the relatively deterministic confines of our socio-economic system. This is simply a recognition that, to a substantial degree, people's general pattern of behavior, perception, and motivation is conditioned by the imprinting force of our urban-industrial living environment:
Instead of the economy being embedded in social relations, social relations are embedded in the economic system .... For once the economic system is organized in separate institutions, based on specific motives and conferring a special status, society must be shaped in such a manner as to allow that system to function according to its own laws.
-- Polanyi, 1944, p. 57
Rather than accept and adapt to this societal context, the evolutionary transformationalist response would affirm the relative primacy and existential autonomy of the individual while still recognizing the deterministic socialization and stringent demands made by a highly developed society. Given the power of the industrial dynamic, the nature of the transformationalist task is substantial, and it seems not unfeasible that a variety of social and psychotechnologies would be embraced — but not in the mode of control. Thus, for example, behaviors consistent with operant conditioning might become commonplace not as the linear control (which most people fear), but as reciprocal influence (which is what it seems Skinner is talking about).[v]
Taking precedence over the dominant economic goals of growth and efficiency would be two complementary guiding ethics, the ecological ethic and the self-realization ethic. The ecological ethic expresses a concern for all peoples and life on the planet (a geographic dimension), for future generations of life (a time dimension), and for the interrelations of peoples, their states of consciousness, cultures, and institutions over time (a societal dimension). The self-realization ethic would highly value "life, liberty, and the pursuit of self-actualization."
A central activity of the self-realization ethic is the pursuit of one's vocation, which would include work-play-learning, all intertwined. A central societal goal, then, should be the full participation in this expanded vocation so that all individuals have access to one or more satisfying work-play-learning ways of life. This expanded sense of vocation would vastly increase the activities in which persons could receive affirmation by society and thereby develop and hold a healthy self-image. It would also legitimate the purposeful thrust of sociocultural revolution to include individual self-evolution-of-consciousness. For such an expanded sense of vocation to become a reality, material goals would have to be deemphasized, we would tend toward a steady-state economy, routine work tasks would become increasingly cybernated, and only a fraction of the work-play-learning force would be required to pursue activities directed at supplying material goods and services to society. The many other activities in individualistic combination should be meaningful, non-stultifying, and non-polluting. There is one area of activity which in particular might meet these conditions — learning — which in the broad sense includes personal exploration and research as well as social learning activity. Robert Hutchins (1968) describes "the learning society" as one that will have transformed:
... its values in such a way that learning, fulfillment, becoming human, had become its aims and all its institutions were directed to this end. This is what the Athenians did .... They made their society one designed to bring all its members to the fullest development of their highest powers . . . Education was not a segregated activity, conducted for certain hours, in certain places, at a certain time of life. It was the aim of the society .... The Athenian was educated by the culture, by Paidea.
The central educational task fostered by Paidea was "the search for the Divine Center" (Jaeger, 1965). But the post-industrial society would differ from that of Athens in important respects. Its slaves will be machines, with the Faustian powers of its technology introduced to a new level of responsibility. It thus must become not only a social-learning society but a social-planning society. Helping to choose the future, then, would be a primary responsibility of citizens.
Another important area of change would be in the goals of corporations and particularly multinational corporations. As the latter become more powerful than most nation-states, it becomes essential that their operative goals shift to resemble those of public institutions. This means, specifically, that the priority in corporate goals would become something like the following: (1) to carry on activities that will contribute to the self-fulfillment of the persons involved, (2) to carry on activities that contribute directly to satisfaction of social needs and accomplishment of societal goals, and (3) to earn a fair profit on investment, not so much as a goal in itself (as at present) but as a control signal which monitors effectiveness. How might such a utopian-sounding situation come about? Does it not sound impractical and preposterous that corporations would be willing to relegate profit-making to third priority? The social force that might bring about such a revolutionary change in operative goals is the subtle but powerful (and poorly understood) influence of granting or withholding legitimacy. Governments have often felt the potency of legitimacy withdrawal. In mid-eighteenth century, as we have already noted, the suggestion would have seemed preposterous that a monarchy would soon be declared not legitimate by contrast with governments "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Giant corporations today are feeling the challenge put to the divine right of kings two centuries ago. It assumes many forms — movements of consumers and environmentalists; civil rights and women's liberation; truth-in-advertising pressures; worker demands for improved quality of work environment; stockholder revolts. Awareness is growing that the largest corporations, at least, are in an important sense public institutions. Directly or indirectly (through life insurance policies, annuities, mutual funds, etc.) they are owned by a large fraction of the public and employ a large portion of the people; the public uses the goods and services they produce, and suffers the environmental degradation they produce. The wave of public challenge is forming.
Institutions Many of our institutions seem to have inadvertently reached a critical size beyond which they are virtually uncontrollable in any coherent fashion. This fact of life was aptly described by Richard Bellman, in accepting the first Norbert Wiener prize for applied mathematics (1970):
I think it's beginning to be realized that our systems are falling apart. We don't know how to administer them. We don't know how to control them. And it isn't at all obvious that we can control a large system in such a way that it remains stable. It may very well be that there is a critical mass — that when a system gets too large, it just gets automatically unstable.
We see these problems in our educational systems, in our legal systems, in our bureaucratic systems, in our transportation systems, in our garbage-collection systems, and so on. The inability to sustain stable subsystems (let alone the macro-system) suggests that a strong thrust toward decentralization would be a plausible concomitant to the transformationalist image of humankind.[vi] Relatively autonomous subsystems would enhance diversity in our society, which is increasingly confronted with an underlying (and, at times, overriding) homogeneity of physical structures, life-styles, and living environments generally. Relatively autonomous subsystems (whether in government, business, education, or elsewhere) that are oriented toward human growth would give many more citizens a greater sense of significance and meaning in a more approachable institutional environment.
As the social system becomes increasingly interdependent and complex, the need for accurate information becomes greater. Such accuracy presumes a fairly high degree of trust, honesty, and openness. Highly complex task operations, such as putting men in space or resolving the impending energy crisis, require a high level of honesty and trust; so too would building a humane society. For quite practical — as contrasted with moralistic — reasons, then, the demanded level of honesty and openness in an evolutionary transformationalist type of post-industrial era could be expected to increase, especially affecting such activities as advertising and merchandising.[vii]
Similarly, as the complexity of societal operations increases, autocratically and hierarchically organized bureaucratic structures (whether business, education, government) tend to develop communication overloads near the top and discouragements to entrepreneurship and responsibility lower down. In order to sustain our complex societal system, we may systematically reconstitute massive bureaucratic structures into organizations with relatively autonomous subsystems (in effect, decentralization). This adaptive form of organization would seem better suited both to cope with complex tasks and to provide more satisfying work for the people involved.[viii]
Another societal consequence might be the growth of the family from an atomistic unit of refuge to an extended unit, a larger source of meaning and significance. Experiments with a variety of family structures would be a legitimate endeavor in a society that encourages individual and interpersonal exploration of human-growth processes. In an extended context, the family might regain some of its traditional meaning as a source of education, broadly defined, and as a unit for work.
Given a relative deemphasis of economic growth and efficiency, and an enhanced concern for social, psychological, political and environmental matters, it seems plausible to think that the trend toward huge urban agglomerations would be reversed and populations would be redistributed with greater balance. There would likely be experiments with a diversity of living environments to allow people a greater range of trade-offs in selecting a community. In such a context, there may emerge increasingly sophisticated communal types of living environments which experiment with new institutional forms.
The societal changes we have discussed under the rubric of the "evolutionary transformationalist" may appear at first to be too radical. On the contrary, they are probably too conservative. Our task is the equivalent of standing in the Middle Ages and attempting to describe the culture and institutions after the Industrial Revolution.
We can hardly claim to have demonstrated that a shift toward the evolutionary transformationalist image of human-in-the-universe is well underway — especially since such a fundamental shift is historically so improbable. We may simply have made the hypothesis plausible. If so, then the questions raised here about the characteristics of a society dominated by the new image are of extreme importance. The greatest hazard in such a transition is that the anxiety level can raise to where the society responds with irrational and self-destructive behavior. The best safeguards are widespread understanding of the need for transformation and reassurance that there is someplace good to get to on the other side.[ix]
SUMMARY Winston Churchill stated that, "We shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us." Similarly, but in a larger and more pervasive sense, we are being irrevocably shaped by our unprecedented urban-industrial environment which is premised upon images of humankind whose historical origins are far removed from contemporary reality.
The decision to suppress image change or to allow societal and image transformation confronts us with an important branch point in our history. The consequences of our decisions in the next few decades will endure long into the future:
The environment men create through their wants becomes a mirror that reflects their civilization; more importantly it also constitutes a book in which is written the formula of life that they communicate to others and transmit to succeeding generations.
-- Dubos, 1968, p. 171
Human beings can become adapted to almost anything and, since our physical and psychological endowments give us a wide range of adaptive potentialities, it is crucial to distinguish between those images that foster a short-term tolerable living environment and those that foster a long-term desirable living environment. The dynamic character of adaptability is illustrated by a laboratory demonstration in which a frog was placed in a beaker of boiling water and immediately jumped out; when the frog was placed in a beaker of cold water that was slowly warmed to boiling temperature, however, the temperature change was gradual and the frog adapted in increments, making no attempt to escape until he finally died. Analogously, the mere fact that a society can generate an image of the human and, for a time, adapt to it does not necessarily ensure that it would be a desirable thing to do. We can make errors and inadvertently accept images which may prove lethal both to our existence as being seeking to unfold our potentials, and to our "physical existence as an evolving species. Given our capacity to adapt — even to the point of virtual self-destruction — it is difficult to know whether or not we may have already gone too far with our industrial images. Given the apparent momentum of the industrial dynamic, it is difficult to know whether we could turn back even if it seemed we had gone too far.
Nonetheless, we are still confronted with the existential choice: "... in matters of life ... it does not matter whether the chance for cure is 51 percent or 5 percent. Life is precarious and unpredictable, and the only way to live is to make every effort to save it as long as there is a possibility of doing so" (Fromm, 1968, p. 141). We can either involve ourselves in the recreative self and societal discovery of an image of humankind appropriate for our future, with attendant societal and personal consequences, or we can choose not to make any choice and, instead, adapt to whatever fate, and the choices of others, bring along.
Life is occupied both in perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.
-- Simone de Beauvoir
To a significant extent, society is waiting, hoping that the impulse for change will settle around certain fundamental attributes of the American ethic. At the present time, however, no consensus about the nature of these fundamentals exists. We are all looking for values that have deep roots as we attempt to sort out the durable from the ephemeral.
-- Wall Street Journal
_______________
Notes:
Note A "Given my own pre-paranoid selective-perception 'set', the most convincing discussion of all is the drift into the Gross 'friendly fascism'! It is comforting to hear you affirm that this is 'an extreme outcome from the technological extrapolationist image and trend', and 'unintended to most people' but it seems to me we are well into it! The very crisis nature of our future seems to me to most likely increase the garrison-state dynamic:
• dissent, repression; more dissent, more repression;
• complexity-breakdown, engineered solution; more complexity-breakdown, more engineered solution;
• fear, surveillance; more fear, more surveillance . . . etc., etc., ETC.!!.
"I wish I could see this whole thing more positively and creatively, but so far I can't, and your discussion just seems to reinforce my pessimism, though I'm certain the opposite is your intent!"
— David Cahoon
Note B "The 'genius' of the industrial-state paradigm is that it did appeal to and unify the three levels of the self (unconscious, conscious, super-conscious) you identify in Ch. 6. This was not a rational, conscious, intentional event, but what Tillich calls a 'kairos' historical form of a God-Destiny-Evolution consciousness-transformation ('an idea whose time has come'). Our 'transition' period in history and evolution consists in this; that the old kairos paradigm image is tarnished and dysfunctional, has lost its 'spirit' in the sense that it doesn't unify and inspire, and no longer 'points beyond itself to Being-Itself consciously or unconsciously (Tillich's language in The Courage To Be, 'The Religious Symbol'). The new unifying 'kairos' imagery and vision of the post-industrial era has not yet coalesced, been evoked, been created, germinated.
"Now, what seems right to me in your analysis is that the 'evolutionary-transformationalist' symbols, metaphors, images, etc. . . .catch up the conscious and superconscious components of the new emerging 'kairos' imagery; what seems weak or missing is the unconscious component, and as you rightly emphasize in this beautiful paragraph this cannot be consciously engineered or speeded up."
— David Cahoon
Note C "There are a couple of places in the text where you use language and make assertions that are not fully consistent with your general system theory concepts, [e.g.] the necessity for organizational decentralization. I am afraid that in the minds of most people this language evokes the classical centralization-decentralization dichotomy. The work of Lawrence and Lorsch at the Harvard Business School makes clear how misleading this image can be (see Lawrence, Paul R., and Lorsch, Jay W., Organization and Environment, Irwin, 1969). In a similar vein [below] you speak of the communication overload that attends hierarchical organization. This would be true only in the case of a linear nested hierarchy that seeks to maintain direct point-by-point control. General systems theory makes plain that it is the partial decoupling of information processing systems that yields precisely that hierarchical form of organization necessary to the conservation of information and the regulation of complexity. But this is a far cry from simple decentralization as conceived by classical organizational concepts. I'm afraid that the 'New Federalism' suffers from this same defect. There is an essentially valid principle here that founders because the conventional expression fails to understand the epistemology of social processes.
"In general, the principal weakness of [your report] reflects the principal weaknesses of the literature that it synthesizes. There is no real understanding or expression of the nature of the very difficult problems of organizational transformation that must attend the transformation processes advanced as essential for the survival and evolution of an 'open society.' My Wiley book deals partially with these issues."
— Edgar S. Dunn, Jr.
i.
"But you can prove that one is held more frequently than another through the use of survey research. An image of man survey of what is and what ought to be, parallel to Hopes and Fears of the American People (Universe, 1972), should be conducted."
— Michael Marien
ii.
"A somewhat later and considerably more scholarly piece by Gross, contrasting techno-urban fascism vs. humanist reconstruction, is offered in a lengthy essay, 'Planning in an Era of Social Revolution,' Public Administration Review, May/June 1971, pp. 259-297. Gross is also writing a book on friendly fascism, to be published in late 1974."
— Michael Marien
The book finally appeared in 1980 and is a most sobering appraisal of (now) current trends.
iii. See Note A, p. 179.
iv. See Note B, p. 179.
v.
"I am not sure that 'reciprocal influence' is exactly what I am talking about. I am very much concerned about the future and certainly adopt what you call the ecological ethic rather than the self-realization ethic, which I regard as a rationalization of selfishness."
— B. F. Skinner
vi. See Note C, p. 179.
vii.
"If honesty and openness are correlated with an evolutionary transformationalist era, the possibilities for such an era would seem bleak if, as I fear, trust is eroding. We must still hope, but we must accurately assess the strength of the enemy amongst us."
— Michael Marien
viii.
"I believe you could make a real case for computer conferencing a la Murray Turoff, and electronic consensus taking, a la Etzioni, as means for decentralizing or making more democratic what could become a terrifying 'robopathic' way of life in affluent bureaucracy."
— Robert A. Smith, III
ix.
"Well, I agree with that! I find the 'hazard' almost inevitable, and the 'safeguard- widespread understanding' very unlikely! I do not want to be naively 'super-sophisticated' or on the side of those saying 'I told you so' when western civ. or mankind collapses ... in fact I find the 'someplace good to get to' both in the present and in the future Image you postulate . . . but I do feel that your presentation of the 'evolutionary transformationalist' imagery suffers (as does Reich's 'Greening') from a one-sided optimistic or romanticized Imagery that undermines its credence."
— David Cahoon.
[George] You can't change human nature. There'll always be war. There'll always be violence. There'll always be corruption. There'll always be greed. There'll always be apathy.
[Harriet] I'm leaving you George. You're too cynical.
[George] Harriet! I'll change!
Reproduced by permission of Jules Feiffer. © 1980. Distributed by Field Newspaper Syndicate.
Re: Changing Images of Man: Prepared by the Center for the
Posted:
Tue Jun 04, 2019 2:56 am
by admin
CHAPTER 8: Guidelines and Strategies for Transformation In this final chapter we approach the difficult question from the practical person — what is to be done? What sorts of actions and programs do the foregoing arguments suggest? What could be accomplished by corporations, foundations, political agencies, voluntary associations?
We have not found it possible to respond satisfactorily without casting this discussion at a more personal level than the material of the first seven chapters. This is mainly because the actions that appear appropriate depend upon how one interprets the substance of the preceding discussion. One of the more frequent responses we received to an earlier version of this report was a request for candor, for a forthright statement of the conclusions we reached after immersing ourselves for some months in this material. This chapter starts with such a statement. The discussion reflects hope. It is an affirmation that what could be is worth examining even if the likelihood of its coming to pass seems small. Our honest observation is that our society is traveling full speed down the technological extrapolationist path described in Chapter 7, and that by the time the danger lights begin to glow brightly, it will be terribly late.
No blueprint will emerge from this examination, no specific set of research programs and institutional changes. If there are forces pushing toward an evolutionary transformation of the sort described in Chapter 7, they are firmly rooted in the past and their present momentums will have a major shaping effect on the future. Thus, a successful strategy probably needs to be an incremental and an adaptive one.
SOME PREMISES FOR THE PRESENT DISCUSSION We start with five premises that grow out of the preceding discussions.
1. An interrelating set of fundamental dilemmas, growing apparently ever more pressing, seem to demand for their ultimate resolution a drastically changed image of man-on-earth. We seem able to tolerate neither the ecological consequences of continued material growth nor the economic effects of a sudden stoppage. We fear the implications of greatly increased control of technological development and application, yet sense that such control is imperative. We recognize the fatal instability of economic nationalism and a growing gap between rich and poor nations, yet seem unable to turn the trend around. We seem unable to resolve the discrepancy between man's apparent need for creative meaningful work and the economic imperatives that cause much human labor to become superfluous or reduce it to makework. A massive challenge is growing to the legitimacy of a business-government system wherein pursuit of economic ends results in such counteracting of other human ends. We face a cultural crisis of meaning — it is not clear who is at the helm, how the ship is steered, nor what distant shores we should be aiming for. In a way it is a crisis of awareness, a set of situations which with less awareness might seem more tolerable.
A serviceable image of humankind must reflect interdependence of the Nature that modern man once misguidedly sought to "control," and with the social-technological systems on which his survival has come to depend, and whose complexity he is yet unable to comprehend. It must provide humanity with a meaning for its struggles, above and beyond that involved in learning to manipulate the physical environment. It must enable humankind to appreciate and deal with the peril which its unbridled Faustian powers of technology have brought upon it.
2. There are increasingly evident signs of the imminent emergence of new li image of man." It is a new image in the sense of being very much a challenger to the dominant scientific world view as that has evolved over the past few centuries, and also to the image of materialistic "economic man" that become enshrined in the institutions and economic theories of the industrial era. Yet it is not new, since traces of it can be found, going back for thousands of years, in the core experiences underlying the world's many religious doctrines, as reported through myths and symbols, holy writings, and esoteric teachings. The staying power of the new image is suggested by the facts that it reactivates the cultural myths whose meaning had become forgotten, and it seems to be substantiated by the further advances of the science which earlier played a role in seemingly discrediting it (see Chapter 4).
Chapter 6 described some characteristics of the "image of man" which is at once compatible with the reemergent "Perennial Philosophy" and is well adapted for dealing with humankind's contemporary dilemmas. Of special interest to the Western world is that Freemasonry tradition which played such a significant role in the birth of the United States of America, attested to by the symbolism of the Great Seal (on the back of the dollar bill).
Fig. 17. U.S. one-dollar bill. In this version of the transcendental image, the central emphasis is on the role of creative work in the life of the individual. (In "true Freemasonry" there is one lodge, the universe — and one brotherhood, everything that exists. Each person has the "privilege of labor," of joining with the "Great Architect" in building more noble structures and thus serving in the divine plan.) Thus this version of the "new transcendentalism" (perhaps more than other versions imported from the East more recently) has the potentiality of reactivating the American symbols, reinterpreting the work ethic, supporting the basic concepts of a free-enterprise democratic society, and providing new meanings for the technological-industrial thrust. At the same time, it is compatible with other versions more indigenous to other parts of the globe.
3. There is a serious mismatch between modern industrial -state culture and institutions and the emerging new image of man. This mismatch produces such reactions as the growing challenge to the legitimacy of business institutions whose primary allegiance appears to be to their stockholders and managers, the growing disenchantment with the technocratic elite, the decreasing trust and confidence in governments, all revealed in recent survey data. The mismatch could result in serious social disruptions, economic decline, runaway inflation, and even institutional collapse. On the other hand, institutions can modify themselves and adapt to a new cultural paradigm, though probably not without a relatively traumatic transition period.
4. There is, and will continue to be, deep psychological resistance to both the new image and to its implications. No aspect of a person's total belief-and-value system is so unyielding to change as his basic sense of identity, his self-image. It is a well-known phenomenon in psychotherapy that the client will resist and evade the very knowledge he most needs to resolve his problems. A similar situation probably exists in society and there is suggestive evidence both in anthropology and in history that a society tends to hide from itself knowledge which is deeply threatening to the status quo but may in fact be badly needed for resolution of the society's most fundamental problems. The reason contemporary societal problems appear so perplexing may well be not so much their essential abstruseness and complexity as the collective resistance to perceiving the problems in a different way.
5. The degree to which the needed characteristics described in Chapter 5 are realized may well determine the degree to which highly undesirable future outcomes (economic collapse, a garrison-police state) can be avoided. The emerging image of humankind has increasingly widespread acceptance and long historical roots. It can be opposed and suppressed, but probably at great social cost. The necessary condition for a stable society in the medium-term future (say 1990) is that the behavior patterns and institutions of the society shall have transformed themselves to be compatible with the new image.
These five premises are in their essence not demonstrable. Thus, we make no pretense of having proven, them in any sense. They are in general supported, however, by the evidence and arguments presented in the previous chapters. They can be checked against new information as it becomes available, to verify whether or not they receive further support. Thus, it is appropriate to explore what sorts of actions would be indicated if these propositions were to be accepted.
COMPARISON OF BASIC STRATEGIES In the following analysis we concentrate on strategies for the United States. They would be similar, but with important differences, for other parts of the industrialized world, especially the nations with planned economies. Significantly different strategies would be appropriate for those Third-World nations with resources valued by the industrialized world (mainly fossil fuels and minerals). The situation is still more different for that residual "fourth world" of nations that have no resources other than poor land and poor people.
Furthermore, we emphasize the roles of the powerful political and economic institutions of the technologically advanced world because it appears to be there that the main decisions will be made which will determine the smoothness or disruptiveness of the transformation. It is our purpose not to list specific tactics, other than as exemplars, but rather to indicate guiding criteria for decisions and actions.
It will be useful to contrast five different basic strategies through which a desired transformation might be fostered. These are restorative, stimulative, manipulative, persuasive, and facilitative.
The fundamental goal of a restorative strategy would be to restore the vitality and meaning of past images, symbols, institutions, and approaches to problems, which are believed to have worked successfully in some prior period and hence are judged to be appropriate in the present. Wallace, in his study of cultural revitalization movements (1956), found that this strategy has particular appeal during the beginning stages of the revitalization cycle, when the extent of the crisis has not yet been recognized. In later stages, however, attempts to revert to earlier forms come to be seen as clearly inadequate; hence, other strategies are then adopted.
A stimulative strategy has as its fundamental goal the emergence of new images, approaches, or actions that are desired but that are "premature" — they do not fit the prevailing paradigm and hence would not be very likely to attract support from mainstream institutions in the society. The foci of stimulative strategies would tend to be actions that anticipate a new paradigm, but do not yet have much visibility or legitimacy. Such a strategy is especially appropriate when it is becoming clear that a crisis exists and the inadequacies of the old structures and concepts in -a society (or a science) are being revealed. (Wallace calls this "cultural distortion" and Kuhn terms it a "crisis" involving a breakdown of the old paradigm.)
While a stimulative strategy seeks to alter the institutions, values, and behavior patterns of society in such a way as to honor or increase the freedom of choice of individuals in the society, a manipulative strategy attempts to accomplish a similar result through overtly or covertly reducing individual freedoms. Some manipulative tactics may be direct (as with the passage of a law); others may be more indirect (as with editorial policies in the media, or "confrontation politics" in the counter-culture). This approach is more likely to be used by well-established interests that are challenged by newer ones. As we saw, however, it was effectively used in Germany to bring about dominance of a new image of man and of the Fatherland, and it could be so used again.
A persuasive or propagandistic strategy has as its goal persuading others of the Tightness, utility, and attractiveness of a given image, conception, or way of acting. This strategy is an essential part of the political process, whether in the governmental activities of pluralistic democracies and totalitarian states alike, or in the deciding between competing scientific theories.
A facilitative strategy seeks to foster the growth of new images and patterns that are visibly emerging. The main purpose of the support may be less to hasten or ensure the development than to help bring it about with lowered likelihood of social disruption.
If we examine these five approaches in the context of the five premises listed earlier, some seem appropriate and others much less so to the transformation under consideration (from the industrial-era image to the emergent transcendental-ecological one). The manipulative type of strategy, for instance, is in such direct conflict with the self-realization ethic that it could not be used without risking severe distortion of the state it seeks to bring about.
Restorative strategies can play an important role in the present transformation because of the fact that the new, emerging image is essentially that of the Freemasonry influence which was of such importance in the shaping of the nation's foundations. The activities of the "Heritage" segment of the American Revolution Bicentennial are mainly an attempt to recapture a waning American spirit, although they could serve to promote the new image by reminding us of the transcendental bases of the nation's founding (e.g. the all-seeing eye as the capstone of the pyramidal structure in the Great Seal).
It is relatively easy to generate stimulative strategies from the discussions of earlier chapters. For example, practically all the areas of scientific research listed in Chapter 4 would furnish likely candidates — altered states of consciousness and psychic research to name a couple. Also, various educational and institutional-change strategies come to mind. Appendix E lists a number of such stimulative strategies. There is a caution to be kept in mind, however. Once a societal trans- formation is underway, as this one appears to be, social stability becomes a central problem. It is essential to have as accurate a picture as possible of the total state of affairs, so that research related to anticipating the nature and characteristics of the transformation rightly assumes high priority. Widespread anxiety and the hazard of inappropriate and irrational responses can be kept lower with accurate information. On the other hand, stimulative actions that result in too rapid a change could be overly disruptive. It is even conceivable that once into the transition period, actions contributing to social cohesion might be much more constructive than actions to increase the polarization between the transformation enthusiasts and the conservatives.
Other than in the passage of laws, manipulative strategies, insofar as the five initial premises hold up, would appear to be incompatible with the emerging image. No doubt existing consciousness-changing, behavior-shaping, subliminal persuasion, and other conditioning techniques could be used to accomplish some sort of transformation of sobering proportions (we ought to be able to be more effective than Nazi Germany). However, the use of manipulative techniques for this particular transformation conflicts fundamentally with the goals implicit in the transformation. Thus, they would probably in the end be disruptive and counterproductive.
Persuasive techniques that fall short of manipulation are unlikely to be very effective. The reason is that one characteristic of such a transition period as we seem to be entering is low faith in, disenchantment with, and cynicism regarding both scientific and political leadership.
The most appropriate strategies, if the initial premises are accepted, would appear to be facilitative ones. The transformation has its own dynamic; it can probably not be slowed down or speeded up very much by political action, once it has enough momentum to be visible. But the trauma of the transition, the amount of social disruption, economic weakening, and political confusion can probably be affected a great deal by the degree of understanding of what the transformation process is, why it is necessary, and what the inherent goals are. To use a biological metaphor, the woman beginning to experience labor pains and associated physiological changes is much more likely to approach the birth experience with low anxiety, and hence to avoid tensing up and doing the wrong things, if she understands the nature of pregnancy and its inherent goal, than if she had no idea of the process or where it leads.
Perhaps another comparison is even more pertinent. We have earlier noted that societies in transformation bear a certain resemblance to individual behaviors accompanying a psychological crisis. The dislocation known as a psychotic break is sometimes brought on by the total unworkability of the person's life pattern and belief system, such that the whole structure seems to collapse and need rebuilding. Prior to the crisis the person, to a disinterested observer, is seen to be engaging in all sorts of irrational behavior in his frantic attempts to keep from himself the awareness that his personal belief, value, and behavior system was on a collision course with reality. Under favorable circumstances the individual goes through the crisis, uncomfortably to be sure, and restructures his life in a more constructive way. In an unfavorable environment, of course, the episode can escalate into a catastrophe. In the case of a society a parallel condition to the psychotic break can occur, with a relatively sharp break in long-term trends and patterns. The analogues of irrational individual behavior may appear (social disruptions, violent crime, alienation symptoms, extremes of hedonism, appearance of bizarre religious cults, etc.). Massive denial of realities may occur (e.g. with regard to exponential increases in population or energy use). The society may go to extreme measures to hide from itself the unworkability of the old order and the need for transformation. The transformation itself, like the psychotic break, may come almost ineluctably — and as with the individual, favorable and unfavorable outcomes are both possibilities. What we have termed facilitative strategies can be likened to the sort of care that may help bring about a favorable outcome.
SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRANSFORMATION Assuming, then, that primary emphasis should be placed on strategies to facilitate a non-disruptive transformation, it follows that those strategies will be incremental ones, dynamically adapting to a rapidly changing situation, and guided by an understanding of the nature and necessity of the transformation and of the essential conditions for a favorable outcome from a traumatic transition period. We need, therefore, to examine the salient characteristics of the tranformation.[ i]
Nature of the Fundamental Anomaly The central feature of the hypothesized transformation is that its ineluctability comes about, as indicated in Chapter 3, because of a major and growing discrepancy between the cultural and social products of industrialization, on the one hand, and generally desirable human ends on the other. A fundamental anomaly exists of the following sort:
• The basic system goals that have dominated the industrial era (material progress, private ownership of capital, maximum return on capital investment, freedom of enterprise, etc.),
• and that have been approached through a set of intermediate goals that include efficiency, economic productivity, continued growth of technological-manipulative power, and continued growth of production and consumption,
• have resulted in processes and states (e.g. extreme division of labor and specialization, compulsive replacement of men by machines, stimulated consumption, planned obsolescence, exploitation of common resources, environmental degradation, worsening world poverty) which
• culminate in a counteracting of human ends (e.g. enriching work roles, self- determination, conservation, wholesome environment, humanitarian concerns, world stability).
Put another way, the fundamental anomaly is that "good" micro- decisions, i.e. local decisions made in accordance with prevailing rules and customs, currently do not add up to socially good macro-decisions. Individuals, corporations, government agencies in the course of their activities make micro-decisions (e.g. to buy a certain product, to employ a person for a particular task, to develop and market a new technology, to enact a minimum-wage law) that are guided by a web of cultural and habitual behavior patterns, common values and beliefs. These micro-decisions interact to constitute a set of macro-decisions of the overall society (e.g. a 4 percent annual growth rate in energy usage, degradation of the environment, depletion of non-renewable resources) which, if Adam Smith's "invisible hand" were working properly, would be compatible with the cultural aims and objectives of the society. The degree of compatibility has for some time been visibly deteriorating.
The response to this fundamental anomaly is a massive and intensifying challenge from consumers, environmentalists, minorities, workers, civil libertarians, youth, and others, to be the legitimacy of basic system goals and institutions. If economic and business goals do not appear to be congruent with social goals, if "good" business decisions lead to "bad" social decisions, this suggests the need for fundamental changes in dominant institutions and social paradigms, to bring the functioning of the society into harmonious relationship with the dominant cultural image of human life. To this end some have proposed one and another form of "new socialism" to increase the governmental regulatory responsibilities over the micro-decision-making of the citizenry and private-sector institutions.
It is important to note, in this connection, that the fundamental anomaly described above is essentially a characteristic of technological and industrial success, not of a particular form of government. Thus, although its form is somewhat different, a similar sort of fundamental dilemma is found in industrially advanced collectivist nations with centralized social planning.
Essential Conditions for Resolution of the Fundamental Anomaly This is not the place for an exhaustive discussion of the changes necessary for society to resolve this basic dilemma. It is important to our aims, however, to understand some of the conditions that will have to be met as we muddle or plan our way through to a satisfactory resolution.
In the first place, there will have to be some satisfactory coming to terms with the "new scarcity." Scarcity (of food, potable water, construction materials, etc.) has always been an aspect of the condition of human life. It has in the past rather successfully been considered as remediable by advancing frontiers and adequate technology. In some sense it has thus been all but eliminated in the advanced nations. The "new scarcity" is of a different sort. It arises from approaching the finite planetary limits (1) natural storehouses of fossil fuels and strategic materials, (2) the ability of the natural environment to absorb the waste products of industrialized society, (3) fresh water, (4) arable land, (5) habitable surface area, and (6) the ability of natural ecological systems to absorb interventions without risking ecological catastrophes that threaten human life. (In speaking of "finite limits" we recognize that the limits are not rigid constraints, and are interdependent. Were "clean" fossil fuels available in unlimited supply, for example, limits in the other categories would be altered.) There has to be a reconciliation of the "new scarcity" and of a culture of frugality with the conditions for a healthy economy. To the extent that this can be accomplished through institutional and cultural changes guided by a new image of "man-on-earth," fewer constraints will be placed on enterprise and individual liberties.
A second essential condition is the provision of sufficient opportunities for full and valued participation in the society. In other words, there has to be a solution to the psychological-cultural problem of the growing group of persons in an industrialized society who are defined as out of the mainstream, as having little or nothing to offer in what are taken to be the primary activities of the society, and who come to accept for themselves the damning self-image of superfluousness. In a modern society where productiveness comes from position in a productive organism, the individual without the organization is un- productive and ineffective; unemployment and underemployment endanger self-respect and effective citizenship. Because of the deep individual need for productive and significant work, none of the current welfare and job-creation approaches offers much hope of reaching to the roots of the unemployment problem. Treating work opportunity as a scarce commodity (e.g. raising work-entry age and lowering retirement age, inflating entry criteria, refraining from cybernation of routine operations, maintaining disguised featherbedding and makework) is in the end an unsound approach. Adequate resolution would offer full and valued participation in the ongoing societal evolution to all who want it.
These two basic conditions imply a third, namely, a satisfactory resolution of the control dilemma. On the one hand, to deal with the problems of the "new scarcity," with the cultural (as distinguished from the economic) goal of full employment, and with the growing powers of technology to change any and all aspects of the total environment (physical, social, political, psychological), there is a demonstrated need for some form of effective societal planning and control. On the other hand, there are well-founded fears of the consequences of opting for more governmental control. It remains to be shown that a democratic society can deal with the "new scarcity," provide sufficient and suitable social roles, anticipate and guide technological impacts, and protect the interests of the overall society, and yet preserve the basic characteristics of a free-enterprise system.
Fourth, the problem of obtaining more equitability in distribution of the earth's resources will have to be dealt with. Inequities and maldistributions are not new in human history, but with the appearance of the "new scarcity" they present a new face. The achievement of a level of life in accord with fundamental dignity for the world's nearly three billion poor does not appear possible without continued economic growth in both developing and developed nations. And yet economic growth on the pattern of the past poses an undeniable threat to stocks of non-renewable resources, to the environment, and to the health of man. Furthermore, the expectations and demands of the lesser developed world may well come at such a pace that they can be met only by a lowering of the standard of living in the rich nations.
Thus, in the process of resolving the fundamental anomaly of the industrial-state system, all four of the critical problem areas enumerated above will have to be dealt with. An essential precondition is an image of man-on-earth something like that described in Chapter 6, or at least meeting the conditions laid down in Chapter 5.
Two additional characteristics of the "necessary transformation" deserve mention. Both have to do with the ways in which the changes are stimulated and guided. The first relates to Adolph Lowe's observation (1965) that the state of an economic system depends upon behaviors, which in turn depend upon motivations, which depend upon images, beliefs, and values — and thus interventions for change could be contemplated at any of these levels. Behavior patterns can be altered by authoritarian controls, motivations can be affected by psychological conditioning, and beliefs and values are modified by education. Because of the images implicit in this particular historical transformation, it would seem that at least in the long term, authoritarian measures and manipulative conditioning approaches would be incompatible with the emergent state and hence of doubtful effectiveness. The possible exception to this might be a temporary measure to help hold things together during a disruptive transition period, but even here the society would be well advised to use such approaches with caution.
A second and related characteristic has to do with contrasting responses to the challenge of the four key problems above. As Galbraith and others have noted, when the thousand largest (mainly multinational) corporations in the world attained such size and power that their incomes are larger than the majority of nation-state incomes, their role in contributing to societal macro-decisions is significantly altered. No longer are they simply subject to market forces; in an important sense they exert control over the market. No longer are they simply subject to the controls imposed by national governments; in an important sense they exert control over national governments. Thus, there arises a demand that the largest corporations assume a social responsibility toward all those (a worldwide group) whose lives they affect. One way in which this might come about is represented in arguments for a "new socialism" in which important industries might be nationalized (e.g. energy supply) and business would be subjected to more control by government to ensure that society's macro-decisions would be strongly influenced by elected representatives of the people affected. An alternative response might be termed "new privatism" by contrast. This response would involve recognition that legitimacy is conferred or withdrawn in various ways besides elected representation, and it would entail modifications to the operative goals of corporations such that they include, on a par with earned return to stockholders, the two additional goals of providing opportunities for meaningful work (as output, in addition to goods and services) and providing tangible benefits to society. Stockholders, after all, represent only one group who have an investment in the corporations — employees invest some portion of their lives, and the society invests its trust toward the shaping of the future.
Difficulty of Achieving a Non-disruptive Transition To restate the premises with which we began this chapter, we can see two important dynamics bringing about a major historical trans- formation, from the industrial era as we have known it to some sort of "post-industrial" society (though not in the sense in which Daniel Bell has used the term, which is much more the technological-extrapolationist future of the preceding chapter). One of these dynamics is the growing espousal of a new image of humankind, as described earlier in this volume. The other is the progressive awareness of the ultimate unworkability of the industrial paradigm as we have known it thus far.
It daily grows more abundantly clear that the Industrial Age is running into trouble. The cultural premises and images that fostered scientific, technological, industrial, and economic growth are proving to be maladapted to the humane use of the products of that growth. The emergent "image of man," with its implicit ecological ethic and self-realization ethic, points the way to resolution of the contradictions of the industrial era. On the other hand, as was pointed out in Chapter 7, institutional changes may already be lagging behind basic changes in the culturally dominant images, and actions taken to further hasten emergence of the new image could be socially disruptive. (Something like this seems to have taken place during the psychedelic period when Timothy Leary's advice to the young to "tune in, turn on, and drop out" added its bit to the disorder of the times.)
The League for Spiritual Discovery has three purposes - (a) individual worship of the Supreme Energy - God; (b) communal worship of the Supreme Energy - God; and (c) public worship of the Supreme Energy - God. These three forms of worship based on revelation and empirically validated methods for spiritual discovery.
(a) Individual Worship - We league together to help each member discover the divinity within by means of sacred teachings, self-analysis, psychedelic sacraments, and spiritual methods and then to express this revelation in an external life of harmony and beauty. We pledge ourselves to help each member to devote his entire consciousness and all his behavior to the glorification of God. Complete dedication to the life of worship is our aim, as exemplified in the motto "Turn-on, Tune-in. Drop-out".
(b) Communal Worship - We league together to maintain League Centers (Ashrams; monastic centers) where renunciates (i.e. "drop-outs" - those who take a vow to abandon secular activities for a specified length of time) will live a communal life of worship and glorification. The community serves to facilitate individual illumination and to liberate and channel spiritual energies to accomplish the evangelic and public mission of the League.
(c) Illumination of the Human Race - We league together to inform, teach, guide, liberate, and illuminate other human beings so that they can be initiated into a life of glorification and worship. We are concerned that modern civilization (as exemplified in American culture) is becoming insane, destructive, warlike, materialistic, atheistic - a meaningless set of repetitious robot responses. We seek to return man to a life of harmony with his own divinity - with his mate and family, with his fellow human beings, and with the other natural energies - organic and inorganic - of this planet. A complete and rapid evolution of society is intended. Public celebrations will be held, and League offices will be established in cities in this country and throughout the world. The League will assist in every way other groups of seekers to form their own religious cults and their own ashrams.
-- Start Your Own Religion, by Timothy Leary, Ph.D.
Thus, the appropriate question may be not so much how to bring about a transformation (even if one is quite convinced the situation is exigent), but rather how to facilitate a non-catastrophic transition when the dynamics for transformation are already there.
ELEMENTS OF A STRATEGY FOR A NON-CATASTROPHIC TRANSITION Based on the foregoing considerations, six elements of an overall strategy for a minimally disruptive transition are discussed below. It is a provisional strategy, in the sense that we assume events of the next few years will continue to support the five initial premises. But we offer no apology for strongly recommending the strategy, as long as this is coupled with the recommendation to continue testing the premises.
1. Promote awareness of the unavoidability of the transformation, as a first essential element of the strategy. Pulled by the emergence of a "new transcendentalism" and pushed by the demonstrated inability of the industrial-state paradigm to resolve the dilemmas its successes have engendered, the fact and the shape of the necessary transformation are predetermined. Growing signs of economic and political instability indicate that the time is at hand. No more than the pregnant woman approaching the time of her delivery can we now stop and reconsider whether we really want to go through with it. The time is ripe for a great dialogue on the national and world stage regarding how we shall pass through the transformation, and toward what ends.
2. Construct a guiding version of a workable society, built around a new positive image of humankind and corresponding vision of a suitable social paradigm. As the old order shows increasing signs of falling apart, some adequate vision of what may be simultaneously building is urgently needed for mobilization of constructive effort.
Perhaps the most crucial need of our time is to foster the dialogue about, and participatively construct, such a shared vision. (It is almost self-evident that an effective image of a humane high-technology society, congenial to the new image of humankind, would have to be participatively constructed — not designed by a technocratic elite nor revealed by a charismatic leader.) Chapter 7 describes some of the broad characteristics of an evolutionary-transformation future. But the guiding vision must be more specific than this. In particular, the four dilemmas of the "new scarcity," the changing role of work, control of technology, and more equitable sharing of the earth's resources must be satisfactorily "re-visioned."
There must be a new economics, if not steady-state in a strict sense, at least compatible with the constraints of the "new scarcity." An economic theory and practice always implies a psychology or, more particularly, a set of assumptions about human motivation. If motivations change, because the basic picture of man-on-earth and man-in- the-cosmos has altered, then economics must change. If the old economics required steady material growth as a necessary condition for a healthy economy, it does not follow that the new economics will likewise. Similarly, the definitions of good corporate behavior and good business policy depend upon tacit social agreements about the bases for legitimation, and change when those bases change. It may seem wildly Utopian in 1974 to think of the multinational corporations as potentially among our most effective mechanisms for husbanding the earth's resources and optimizing their use for human benefit — the current popular image of the corporation tends to be more that of the spoiler and the exploiter. But the power of legitimation is strong, as discussed in Chapter 7, and the concept is growing that business must "derive its just powers from the consent of those affected by its actions." The vision of a workable future must include a resolution of the present unsatisfactory situation where what is apparently sound business practice and good economics is often very unwise when viewed in the light of the "new scarcity."
Second, the guiding vision has to include some way of providing for full and valued participation in the economic and social affairs of the community and society, especially for those who are physically and mentally able to contribute but find themselves in a state of unwilling idleness and deterioration of spirit. Here too there seems to be a fundamental wrongheadedness in the conventional way of formulating our economics. It is implicit in that formulation that laboring is something man tends to avoid. The outputs of the private sectors are considered to be goods and services, which persons produce for pay. But according to the emergent image of man this calculus is based on faulty premises. Human beings seek creative work, and find it is the means of their own self-realization. Thus, the outputs of the private sector should be goods, services, and opportunities for meaningful work. The new society will have to provide for significant expansion of social-learning and social-planning roles, as discussed in Chapter 7, and also for expansion of productive roles for those whose capabilities are more modest.
The control dilemma requires for its resolution an effective network for participative planning at local, regional, national, and world levels, and again modifications to the economic incentives which at present make it good business to do violence to the environment, squander natural resources of all sorts, and treat persons as manipulable objects.
The fourth dilemma, the need for more equitable distribution of resources, may prove to be the most difficult of all to resolve, considering the exploding numbers of the earth's human beings. We have found it comfortable to believe, for some time, that the solution to the problem of the world's poor is not redistribution of wealth but helping the poor become productive. But the constraints of the "new scarcity" preclude solving the problem this way. At any rate, the poor of the world cannot become productive as America did, by exploiting cheap energy and institutionalizing waste as a way of life.
3. Foster a period of experimentation and tolerance for diverse alternatives, both in life styles and in social institutions. Experimentation is needed to find out what works, but there is a more important reason for trying to maintain an experimental climate. That is to reduce hostile tensions between those who are actively promoting the new and those who are desperately attempting to hold on to the old. In public education, for instance, it is equally important that new experimental curricula be tried and that the traditional subjects be available for those who resist moving precipitously into the new.
4. Encourage a politics of righteousness, and a heightened sense of public responsibilities in the private sector. Surveys and polls display drastically lowered faith of the American people in both business and government. At the same time, an atmosphere of trust is needed for the tasks ahead, the emergent image of man supports a moral perspective, and private lapses from moral and ethical behavior are harder to conceal. A politics of righteousness might have been laudable in any generation; it may be indispensable for safe passage through the times just ahead. A greatly heightened sense of stewardship and public responsibilities for powerful institutions in the private sector is, the appropriate response to rising challenges to the legitimacy of large profit-seeking industrial corporations and financial institutions. If these are to be more than merely pious statements, changes in institutional arrangements and economic incentives will need to be instituted so that individuals and institutions can afford to behave in these commendable ways.
5. Promote systematic exploration of, and foster education regarding, man's inner life. At the end of Chapter 4 we postulated an emergent scientific paradigm placing far more emphasis than in the past on explorations of subjective experience — of those realms that have heretofore been left to the humanities and religion, and to some extent to clinical psychology. The present situation leaves far too much of this societally important research to informal and illicit activities. Interested persons, not all young, resort to cultish associations, bizarre experimentation, and illegal drug use because they find legitimated opportunities for guided exploration in the society's religious, educational, scientific, and psychotherapeutic institutions to be inadequate, inappropriate, or in- accessible. This nation's guarantees of religious freedom have been in a curious way subverted by the preponderating orthodoxy of a materialistic scientific paradigm.
6. Accept the necessity of social controls for the transition period while safeguarding against longer-term losses of freedom. The transformation that is underway has a paradoxical aspect, according to the five initial premises. In considerable measure it has been brought about by the success of material progress (through better nutrition, higher standard of living, education, and the media) in raising more persons above excessive concern with subsistence needs. On the other hand, as the transition-related economic decline and social disruptions set in, they will tend to accentuate materialistic security needs. Political tensions will rise, and disunity will characterize social affairs. Regulation and restraint of behavior will be necessary in order to hold the society together while it goes around a difficult corner. The more there can be general understanding of the transitory but inescapable nature of this need, the higher will be the likelihood that a more permanent authoritarian regime can be avoided.
This is no strategy of "business as usual," if these six elements are taken seriously. They can contribute to a more orderly transformation, with fewer social wounds to be healed, than would be otherwise the case. Appendix E lists some exemplary specific actions that might be part of implementing such a strategy.
One last word. The general tone of this work has been optimistic, which is fitting since there does indeed appear to be a path — through a profound transformation of society, the dynamics for which may already be in place — to a situation where the present major dilemmas of the late-industrial era appear at least resolvable. That optimism, however, relates to the potentialities only. It should not be mistaken for optimism that industrial civilization will develop the requisite under- standing, early enough, to enable it to navigate these troubled waters without nearly wrecking itself in the process. In hoping this, some of us would be less sanguine.
_______________
Notes:i. Anthropologist Virginia H. Hine's thinking about "The Basic Paradigm of a Future Socio-cultural System" (reprinted in Appendix F) is relevant to this discussion.
(Source unknown.)
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