There are many aspects of being a social being that are not as clear-cut as the psychosocial crises. Some of the vague and abstract situations involves the learning and following of the rules of the society in which you live. At the bottom, because they are the least clearly delineated, are the customs and traditions. These are often fuzzy and difficult to understand. For instance, no one seems to know, or bother to explain, why Americans shake hands to greet each other, but it is probably an antiquated psychic process so we can get a feel for the other person. Handshaking is also a symbolic gesture of peace-making, placating the stranger or friend so one will not think we are going to attack him or her. Possibly this is the origin of the practice, but the evidence is still speculative. However, it is a good example of a custom that is taught but not explained other than with the statement, “Now, this is what you do when you meet somebody, Ralph Silvestri.” In this same class are things like opening the car door for a lady, walking on the curb side of a lady to protect her run a runaway car, and wearing particular types of clothing on certain occasions. In Japan turning the eyes away is a mark of respect, as if the person finds you so awesome that one must turn away to avoid being blinded by your radiance. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

Anthropologists call these customs folkways. They are expected and strongly urged behaviors, but the person who fails to perform them can expect only very slight negative reaction. They boy who does not open the car door for a certain class of girl may hear her say: “Chivalry sure is dead!” or he may notice a slight clouding of her brow, if anything at all happens. However, there is a set of culturally prescribed behaviors and rituals that have much stronger sanctions attached to them. These are called the mores (pronounced mor-ays) of a society. These are so important that two things come about because of them: first, they often become part of society’s ethical behavior and we speak then of moral behavior; and secondly, many of them become codified and written down as laws. Some of these moral rules involve the rights of other people and to violate them means to bring down all kinds of social wrath. Belching, spitting, flatulence (passing gas), nose-picking, speaking about bathroom habits, or making sexual overtures in the full view of other people are good examples of unwritten, but strongly sanctioned, immoral behavior. Negative mores are sometimes called taboos, from a Polynesian word meaning behavior set aside as sacred. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

No society can live wholesomely by any other sort of regulation, and State legislatures stultify themselves when they fail to realize that their part is merely to formalize, and record, and support, the growth and decay of the taboos. Growing up and learning some of the rules for living that a society gives can become downright bothersome. Babies do not have to obey any rules but those of nature. However, as they grow, natural behavior comes more and more under the control, direction and sanction of the people who share the World with them. Actually, the babies become socialized. Socialization is the process of becoming enculturated, or of absorbing the required behaviors of the culture of which the individual is a part. Various aspects of life and experience go into making an individual’s personality. There are some experience that only happen under Biological Roles to only males or only to females, or only to adults or only to children, depending of course on the role that they play in their society. Yet, none of us participates in culture alone nor by ourselves, nor do we, individually, create culture. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid,”2 Nephi 22.2. No one is a slave or robot to anything in our culture. We can, within the limits we must acknowledge, make or break our selfhood. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

No man or woman is an island, entire of itself; every person is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a cold be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any person’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in humankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. “There was great mourning and howling and weeping among all the people continually; yea, great were the groanings of the people, because of the darkness and the great destruction which had come upon them,” 3 Nephi 8.23. Each of us is involved and interwoven delicately with our fellow human beings. The analogy of a spider web may be useful. All of us in the World, but especially those grouped closer together in nation, state, community, school, family, and marriage unit are tied together by delicate spider webs, webs of delicate resiliency. Each sensitive and responsive web tends to draw us closer or pull us father to whatever side another is drawn. Nobody dies without our feeling it, nobody rises without our also being pulled up. Each of us is responsive to and responsible for every other. “And one that will contend against the word of the Lord, let him or her be accursed; and one that shall deny these things, let him or her be accursed,” reports Ether 4.8. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

No person is an island, unless we look carefully at the geologic charts of our oceans. If we do this, we find that each island is the protruding peak of an undersea mountain range, but the range is connected and all of one piece, tied intimately and unmistakably to the Earth below it. Islands do not float on the surface of the ocean. Individual people do not float on the surface of society, unconnected from any of the rest of us. A full realization of this is what must take place for any ideal of universal humanity, or oneness to emerge. If there were no ties connecting the people of this land, and no longer ties connecting people of all lands, then there would be no need for an elaborate plan of governing and interrelating. However, there are. The designers of the Constitution of the United States of America (our Country), while great humans, full of the love of God and honor, wanted to put into effect a form of government based of the scriptures of the Bible so that the fullest participation of the largest number of the citizenry possible. Unfortunately, there are many ways of interpreting “citizens,” and the abuses of civil liberties down the years testify to the problems of interpretation with which we live. “If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die,” reports Revelations 11.5. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

Furthermore, the attempt is being made by people of conscience and good will to actualize the fullest meanings of the United States of America’s Constitution and Bill of Right, which is our laws and codes to protect legal citizens, so that all people who are legal can participate in both the benefits and responsibilities of full citizenship. One of the most crucial areas is still liberties, especially those of members of marginalized groups of citizens in this country. The nature of Americans is not cruel nor hostile, but there is a strong learning program through which everyone passes that insists one must grasp what one can and keep it, at whatever cost to another person. However, never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not in keeping with a Holy God. Holiness means absolute purity of our behavior before God, the words coming from our mouths, and every thought in our mind—placing every detail of our life under the scrutiny of God. Holiness is not simply what God gives us, but what God has given us that is being exhibited in our lives. “Be holy, for I am holy,” 1 Peter 1.16. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

If people in this nation are going to insist that they are moral people, that their land was founded in the spirit of religion and all the beneficial aspects that that can mean, then they will attempt to act more optimistically on the fellowship and love their religions teaches. The idea of American Country, were if the laws were established by God, then no one can challenge them, for God is supreme. We must discover that we are not to watch and profile our people, but to protect and love and assist them. This means that we must catch some of the deeper meaning of our common life styles, must recognize that the success of the nation depends on the mutual assistance of each one of us, and that an uplift in the economic, social, moral, personal, and educational level of any one of us can also bring about similar upliftings for each and every one of those who share this land. “Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the World from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Heavenly Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers,” reports Ether 4.15. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

Many a critic of this viewpoint insists that giving to the less affluent, for instance, means to take something away from one that one has rightfully earned. Such critics fail to see that if the poverty can be minimized or even eliminated, it means more jobs, more wages, more tax receipts, and an uplift in the entire economy. This is why we must put the needs of Americans first. We must help ourselves so we do not become bankrupt and poor and occupied by a hostile nation. “A third Angel followed them and said in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he or she, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the Holy Angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever,” reports Revelations 14.9-10. If one can find and restore the relatedness one has with others in this upward climb, humans can continue to prosper in all the ways one can prosper. “And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised and they bowed themselves before the Land, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them,” reports Ether 6.12. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

The population of the World continues to soar, we are nearly at 8 billion people, and many think 5 billion is the capacity, and the effects of this overpopulation will continue to be felt. As you can see, a dangerous mob of over 14,000 people is storming the American shores as we speak and demanding that we support them and their families. However, as the actual amount of square footage available for each human being is being computed, we need to deal with the many problems of sheer survival that are facing all of us—deal with them in a united fashion. Overcrowding brings about increased poverty, mental illness, infectious diseases, unemployment, housing shortages, crimes, and the biggest consequence of all: war. “People gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. The sixth Angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the moth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole World, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty, reports Revelations 16.12-14. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

There is a continual round of controversy in the history of nations and people. We find ourselves enmeshed in this conflict right now. In the frontier period of any nation, raw, heroic, rugged individualism is the keynote. We sing the praises of the Daniel Boones, Davy Crocketts, Jim Bridgers, Malcom Xs, Ice Teas, Abe Lincolns, Teddy Roosevelts, Harriet Tubmans,  Aaliyahs, Brandon Lees, and Jennifer Lopezs, and others who have done it for themselves, who have risen from less affluence or weak to successful or strong. This is part of the frontier history of any nation. However, most nations recognize that this period of emphasizing the solitary exploits of individual heroes must give way to the period of cooperative effort, group and family action. Even though our nation can show many examples of cooperative programs (beginning with the United States of America’s Constitution, Civil Rights Act of 1875, Civil Rights Cases (1883), the doctrine of Balance of Power, the League of Nations, the National Recovery Act and its New Deal, the United Nations), we have to a large degree continued to promulgate the success story to our children. We do not believe that either the loss of personal identity that often accompanies socialist or communist programs, or the loss of group cohesiveness and group relatedness is necessary. Rather, we liken any group endeavor to love. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

Love is union under the condition of preserving one’s integrity, one’s individuality. Love is an active power in humans, which breaks through the walls which separate humans from their fellow humans, which unites people with others; loves makes one overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits one to be oneself, to retain one’s integrity. In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two. “Righteous love truth and are not shaken,” reports 2 Nephi 9.40. It is not only possible, but highly desirable, to see any human cooperation as more important and productive than singlehanded or solitary effort when the goal has mostly social implications. This is true whether the effort is in the family, friendship group, work group, management group, legislative, judicial, executive, or any other kind of activity. Physicians and surgeons still rely on the consultative skills of fellow doctors before making important final judgements. Even in the surgical arena, there are many hands doing the work, even the work of the greatest surgical brain around. No person is of necessity an isolated entity; one achieves one’s humanity by virtue of one’s interaction with others; one shares one’s humanity and it comes back to one multiplied many times over. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11