It's easy to believe that by following "The Rewells" that we will act "Correctly" and "Do The Right Thing".
In order to prevent people from acting horribly to each other, we make up these rules and laws and naively believe that they solve our problems. If we don't know what to do, we consult the "Rewells" so that we know how to act or react "Correctly". The problems come when we humans (filled with hubris) believe that a rule that we create with our words is big enough to apply to the whole of the Universe, and believe (filled with hubris) that our understanding of the "Way Things Are" is sufficient to decide that "what we know right here, right now" is never going to need to evolve.
And what too many people never realise is that it's not the "Rewells" that solve our problems, it is WE who must solve our problems, and that the "Rewells" are a TOOL that we use.
We naively place MORE value on understanding the "Rewells" than we do on clear and compassionate thought. And that's how we are led astray by maladaptive people who can play the "Rewells" to their advantage and manipulate us into believing that investing *them* with power is the "Correct" thing to do, and thus wind up (unsurprisingly) in situations where we empower them to order us to do things that are actually repugnant.
Hence my suspicion when anyone says that it's the "Word Of God" or the "Correct" thing to do- that we do something horrible. There will always be difficult choices in life and consequences to deal with for choices we make. And it's a blessing to have the guidance of our Ancestors, Thinkers, and Prophets to use in making our decisions. But when doing the "Right" thing makes less sense than breaking the "Rewells", that's when MORE questions need to be asked and not fewer. And yet we are so easily seduced into heeding the call to NOT think in these situations and do what is "Correct"- which most of the time is simply something that someone in Power has Told us to do. And at that point, when you're "just following orders", and doing something you know is wrong but placing the Rules before it, you ARE ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE, because AT THAT POINT, you're assuming that this "Rule" or "Order" you're following is so big, so eternal, so strong, that you can insist now that the Universe conform to YOUR WILL rather than evolving your understanding. Rather than face the cognitive dissonance, and grow in your understanding, you believe that the imprint of your puny handful of molecules will transcend YOUR misunderstanding of the Universe that you know you're experiencing. THAT is Hubris. It's maladaptive, and most religions consider it a sin.
The way to get rid of fundamentalism?
1) Teach people from an early age that God and the Universe is so mindbogglingly big that ANY understanding we have is likely to be imperfect, limited, and WILL eveolve as WE evolve. That our inevitable subjectivity is our call to humility.
2) Foster a wholescale reset of our attitudes such that we respect true and honest leadership but dis-establish Heirarchical Authority as a Societal Norm.
Your suggestions for getting rid of fundamentalism can help, in that they can reduce indoctrination into fundamentalism, but fundamentalism remains seductive ... There's a glee in realizing, "OMG, this complicated thing is really a matter of stunningly beautiful simplicity!" that goes beyond a lot of other problem-solving/insight-gaining delight. And that can tempt one into believing that near-misses are examples of stunningly beautiful simplicity as well -- a temptation to overlook inconvenient complexity, dismiss it as 'noise', or insist that it'll evaporate if one just pushes on it a little harder with the newly-discovered 'rewells'.
"They told me it was too mindbogglingly big to understand, but I've had The Insight that makes it all simple after all! They're going to be so glad I solved this problem for them!"
There's a seductive aspect to the idea that, "I've figured out what all these people around me haven't, and it's so simple; my insight will revolutionize everyone's thinking, and I must share it," sort of prophet trap. Boom, back to the hubris you pointed out again, and the accompanying zealotry, the urge to push this idea on "those fools who refuse to see" this beautiful simplicity the prophet is trying to share, "for their own good" ... and anyone who resists becomes an enemy of that "good", thus those who insist that it's really not as simple/un-nuanced/rigid as the prophet thinks, are "evil" because they're standing in the way of this grand new (or old and rediscovered) fundamentalism that the prophet has been blinded by.
... And thus the fundamentalism we tried to get rid of comes back again, because one of the things humans are good at -- oriented toward -- is discovering or inventing patterns to make sense of the world, and we will see false patterns in noise, and we will sometimes be seduced by them.
I'm not sayin' there's nothing we can do; just pointing out that it'll be a continual struggle for as long as we remain human. We might still be able to make the problem of fundamentalism smaller than it is now.
reply from maugorn
It's easy to believe that by following "The Rewells" that we will act "Correctly" and "Do The Right Thing".
In order to prevent people from acting horribly to each other, we make up these rules and laws and naively believe that they solve our problems.
If we don't know what to do, we consult the "Rewells" so that we know how to act or react "Correctly".
The problems come when we humans (filled with hubris) believe that a rule that we create with our words is big enough to apply to the whole of the Universe, and believe (filled with hubris) that our understanding of the "Way Things Are" is sufficient to decide that "what we know right here, right now" is never going to need to evolve.
And what too many people never realise is that it's not the "Rewells" that solve our problems, it is WE who must solve our problems, and that the "Rewells" are a TOOL that we use.
We naively place MORE value on understanding the "Rewells" than we do on clear and compassionate thought. And that's how we are led astray by maladaptive people who can play the "Rewells" to their advantage and manipulate us into believing that investing *them* with power is the "Correct" thing to do, and thus wind up (unsurprisingly) in situations where we empower them to order us to do things that are actually repugnant.
Hence my suspicion when anyone says that it's the "Word Of God" or the "Correct" thing to do- that we do something horrible. There will always be difficult choices in life and consequences to deal with for choices we make. And it's a blessing to have the guidance of our Ancestors, Thinkers, and Prophets to use in making our decisions. But when doing the "Right" thing makes less sense than breaking the "Rewells", that's when MORE questions need to be asked and not fewer.
And yet we are so easily seduced into heeding the call to NOT think in these situations and do what is "Correct"- which most of the time is simply something that someone in Power has Told us to do. And at that point, when you're "just following orders", and doing something you know is wrong but placing the Rules before it, you ARE ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE, because AT THAT POINT, you're assuming that this "Rule" or "Order" you're following is so big, so eternal, so strong, that you can insist now that the Universe conform to YOUR WILL rather than evolving your understanding. Rather than face the cognitive dissonance, and grow in your understanding, you believe that the imprint of your puny handful of molecules will transcend YOUR misunderstanding of the Universe that you know you're experiencing. THAT is Hubris. It's maladaptive, and most religions consider it a sin.
The way to get rid of fundamentalism?
1) Teach people from an early age that God and the Universe is so mindbogglingly big that ANY understanding we have is likely to be imperfect, limited, and WILL eveolve as WE evolve. That our inevitable subjectivity is our call to humility.
2) Foster a wholescale reset of our attitudes such that we respect true and honest leadership but dis-establish Heirarchical Authority as a Societal Norm.
Re: reply from maugorn
"They told me it was too mindbogglingly big to understand, but I've had The Insight that makes it all simple after all! They're going to be so glad I solved this problem for them!"
There's a seductive aspect to the idea that, "I've figured out what all these people around me haven't, and it's so simple; my insight will revolutionize everyone's thinking, and I must share it," sort of prophet trap. Boom, back to the hubris you pointed out again, and the accompanying zealotry, the urge to push this idea on "those fools who refuse to see" this beautiful simplicity the prophet is trying to share, "for their own good" ... and anyone who resists becomes an enemy of that "good", thus those who insist that it's really not as simple/un-nuanced/rigid as the prophet thinks, are "evil" because they're standing in the way of this grand new (or old and rediscovered) fundamentalism that the prophet has been blinded by.
... And thus the fundamentalism we tried to get rid of comes back again, because one of the things humans are good at -- oriented toward -- is discovering or inventing patterns to make sense of the world, and we will see false patterns in noise, and we will sometimes be seduced by them.
I'm not sayin' there's nothing we can do; just pointing out that it'll be a continual struggle for as long as we remain human. We might still be able to make the problem of fundamentalism smaller than it is now.