WOW WOW WOW!!!!
SOCIETY IN DISARRAY
excerpt from: Metaxis and Recovery: Towards a New Vision of Health
by Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr. MA and Jeffrey C. Wilson MD PM
"Underneath the guise of civic religion and American crypto-quasi ritual we still have a basic unrest, an essential longing. We need to be accepted for who we are, we have real feelings of having "missed the mark," we experience the need to be made whole. We have desires for a deep transformation of our selves and desires for vibrant social connection.
As a group of individuals, a society, we have lost our vision of authentic transcendent realities. Our spiritual energies have been shunted and mis-directed into a myriad of other activities. We pay homage to materialism, money, competition and social status rather than knowledge, growth, fellow-feeling and discovery of our uniqueness. We substitute patriotism or civic allegiances for communities based upon authentic spirituality and universal human attributes. We prefer secular ceremonies such as football games, bingo tournaments, the new year's eve party, or the fund-raising dinner rather than ceremonies by means of which we can share and be guided in our needs for transcendence. Our needs for transcendence are channeled into functional projects such as building efficient machines, bigger malls or more powerful computers rather than spiritual projects such as shared learning, artistic expression or growth in social understanding.
The proliferation of pseudo beliefs and crypto rituals from which we derive our communal and individual identity negatively effect not only ourselves, but the entire world. The fascination with what is visible, material, empirical and sensual is contagious. The human is offered the promise of temporary transformation through a wide assortment of banalized pseudo beliefs in the power of material accoutrements. The tendency is to sacralize our own way of national life. When this way of life is based upon the myth of wealth then the role of the businessman functions as the high priest in the massive civil religion of America. The quest for God becomes not a transcendent quest into awareness of the mystery, but a shopping trip to the local mall.
It is through the stories, images and symbols that comprise our national myth that we seek solutions to our human quest for fulfillment. Unfortunately, the symbolic environment in society has become one dimensional. Our culture's sense of reality is in many ways insane, self-destructive and empty. We are tempted by dreams of material prosperity to abandon the age old pursuits of folk traditions and common sense that bespeak of the transcendent yearning of the human and of the centrality of the mystery to that yearning. We are trained to be pragmatic. We worship the value of empirical reason. We over-achieve, out-compete and alienate our fellows. We become isolated in our autonomy.
We are a culture starving itself to death. Our love affair with the objective and the productive over the past two hundred years has produced a society of external plenty and inward poverty.
We fail to transcend the various social crisis such as racism and disparity of wealth. Our meager attempts to survive social boundary and limit are usually through rational and physical approaches. Mystery, awe and wonder are absent. The major symbolic structures of the human--language and culture--have been stripped of their potential to speak of the transcendent mystery. Transcendent symbols of wholeness have been destroyed or lost.
The personal alienation and social isolation we find in America now extends to and threatens the survival of our whole planetary community. We live under threats of nuclear holocaust and the destruction of our environment. We place greater value upon efficiency of production than upon the quality of people's lives. Our spiritual hunger for connection to noble purpose and uplifting meaning is not only neglected, but is actively rejected unless it has a functional purpose. We offer each other, and our children, the meager sustenance of training for competition, power and control. We espouse so-called "success" and "career climbing" over trust, fidelity, compassion and vision.
American culture is degenerating. Materialistic beliefs in wealth and power have largely replaced the original transcendent beliefs in freedom and expression. Our "sacralized" American way of life is limited. It flattens out our experience of the world, of our openness to awe, mystery and love. It is but a collection of pseudo-spiritualities that mislead, misdirect and end in frustration. It does not provide healthy guidance to our longing for transcendence and quest for meaning.
Humans are both free and determined. Our freedom is quite limited. It is not something that is always present--it has to be developed. The degree of our soul making capacity and skill is the degree of our freedom. To a large extent we are determined by our history and traditions. It is only through soul making that we are able to break through these determinisms, and then only to a limited degree. The thinker Hans-Georg Gadamer has written: "Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live." The problem is that the majority of us never come to an understanding of ourselves through self-examination. "
excerpt from: Metaxis and Recovery: Towards a New Vision of Health
by Jeremiah D. McAuliffe, Jr. MA and Jeffrey C. Wilson MD PM
"Underneath the guise of civic religion and American crypto-quasi ritual we still have a basic unrest, an essential longing. We need to be accepted for who we are, we have real feelings of having "missed the mark," we experience the need to be made whole. We have desires for a deep transformation of our selves and desires for vibrant social connection.
As a group of individuals, a society, we have lost our vision of authentic transcendent realities. Our spiritual energies have been shunted and mis-directed into a myriad of other activities. We pay homage to materialism, money, competition and social status rather than knowledge, growth, fellow-feeling and discovery of our uniqueness. We substitute patriotism or civic allegiances for communities based upon authentic spirituality and universal human attributes. We prefer secular ceremonies such as football games, bingo tournaments, the new year's eve party, or the fund-raising dinner rather than ceremonies by means of which we can share and be guided in our needs for transcendence. Our needs for transcendence are channeled into functional projects such as building efficient machines, bigger malls or more powerful computers rather than spiritual projects such as shared learning, artistic expression or growth in social understanding.
The proliferation of pseudo beliefs and crypto rituals from which we derive our communal and individual identity negatively effect not only ourselves, but the entire world. The fascination with what is visible, material, empirical and sensual is contagious. The human is offered the promise of temporary transformation through a wide assortment of banalized pseudo beliefs in the power of material accoutrements. The tendency is to sacralize our own way of national life. When this way of life is based upon the myth of wealth then the role of the businessman functions as the high priest in the massive civil religion of America. The quest for God becomes not a transcendent quest into awareness of the mystery, but a shopping trip to the local mall.
It is through the stories, images and symbols that comprise our national myth that we seek solutions to our human quest for fulfillment. Unfortunately, the symbolic environment in society has become one dimensional. Our culture's sense of reality is in many ways insane, self-destructive and empty. We are tempted by dreams of material prosperity to abandon the age old pursuits of folk traditions and common sense that bespeak of the transcendent yearning of the human and of the centrality of the mystery to that yearning. We are trained to be pragmatic. We worship the value of empirical reason. We over-achieve, out-compete and alienate our fellows. We become isolated in our autonomy.
We are a culture starving itself to death. Our love affair with the objective and the productive over the past two hundred years has produced a society of external plenty and inward poverty.
We fail to transcend the various social crisis such as racism and disparity of wealth. Our meager attempts to survive social boundary and limit are usually through rational and physical approaches. Mystery, awe and wonder are absent. The major symbolic structures of the human--language and culture--have been stripped of their potential to speak of the transcendent mystery. Transcendent symbols of wholeness have been destroyed or lost.
The personal alienation and social isolation we find in America now extends to and threatens the survival of our whole planetary community. We live under threats of nuclear holocaust and the destruction of our environment. We place greater value upon efficiency of production than upon the quality of people's lives. Our spiritual hunger for connection to noble purpose and uplifting meaning is not only neglected, but is actively rejected unless it has a functional purpose. We offer each other, and our children, the meager sustenance of training for competition, power and control. We espouse so-called "success" and "career climbing" over trust, fidelity, compassion and vision.
American culture is degenerating. Materialistic beliefs in wealth and power have largely replaced the original transcendent beliefs in freedom and expression. Our "sacralized" American way of life is limited. It flattens out our experience of the world, of our openness to awe, mystery and love. It is but a collection of pseudo-spiritualities that mislead, misdirect and end in frustration. It does not provide healthy guidance to our longing for transcendence and quest for meaning.
Humans are both free and determined. Our freedom is quite limited. It is not something that is always present--it has to be developed. The degree of our soul making capacity and skill is the degree of our freedom. To a large extent we are determined by our history and traditions. It is only through soul making that we are able to break through these determinisms, and then only to a limited degree. The thinker Hans-Georg Gadamer has written: "Long before we understand ourselves through the process of self-examination, we understand ourselves in a self-evident way in the family, society and state in which we live." The problem is that the majority of us never come to an understanding of ourselves through self-examination. "
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