I wrapped myself in comforting phantasms and envisioned bowers of love, places of Divine safety foreordained beyond good and evil. In reaction to the predominance of the courage to be as oneself in modern Western history, movements of a neocollectivist character has arisen: fascism, Nazism, and communism. It is all an attempt to put a leader or a group above God and dedicate oneself to the mission of the authority figure or the group. America is a Capitalistic country, but we currently have democrats who cannot seem to respect the laws and government of the land. They feel that they have taken the only right way in which to reach their own fulfillment. If these democrats affirm themselves by affirming the collective in which they participate, they receive themselves back from the collective, filled and fulfilled by it. They give much of what belongs to their individual self, perhaps its existence as a particular being in time and space, but these liberals receive more because their true being is enclosed in the being of the group. In surrendering themselves to the cause of the collective liberals surrender that in them which is not included in the self-affirmation of the collective; and this they do not deem worthy of affirmation. In this way the anxiety of the individual nonbeing is transformed into anxiety about the collective, and anxiety about the collective is conquered by the courage to affirm oneself through participation in the collective. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15

As in every human being the anxiety of fate and death is present in the convinced Communist, which many democrats are becoming. No being can accept its own nonbeing without a negative reaction. The terror of a totalitarian democratic state would be meaningless without the possibility of producing terror in its subjects, and they are doing this by threatening to vanquish law enforcement and criticizing branches of government who are defending us and also passing laws to prevent branches of law enforcement from protecting us, and at the same time legalizing drugs and letting dangerous criminals out of jail early. This is fear is also reinforced with the threat of open boarders, and people fear that their safety is being compromised and the ways of the Wild, Wild, West may be becoming back where it is everyone for themselves because there will be no one there to protect the, no privacy, no laws, and that their personal property will be liquidated for the collective as well as their wages renegotiated to the point where doctors are making the same wages as the cashier at the local Steak N Shake. In some countries, doctors are working for free and being paid as little as $8 USD per hour because of budget problems. Through the participation in the communist type of government he liberals are trying to form, one affirms that which may become destructive fate or even cause the death for oneself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15

A more penetrating analysis shows the following structure in the democratic plan: Participation is partial identity, partial nonidentity. Fate and death may hurt or destroy part of oneself that is not identical with the collective in which one participates. However, there is another part according to the partial identity of participation. And this other part is neither hurt nor destroyed by the demands and actions of the whole. It transcends fate and death. It is eternal in the sense in which the collective is considered to be eternal, namely as an essential manifestation of being universal. All this need not be conscious in the members of the collective. However, it is implicit in their emotions and actions as they replace God with their leader and this moment, this Earth is all they have. Therefore, they are infinitely concerned about the fulfillment of the group. And from this concern they derive their courage to be. However, the term eternal and immortal should not be confused with finite. Immortal is the soul, but not yet the body and that would the body would go on living indefinitely. Eternal is living forever with God, leaving this planet and the body behind and having the power to create our own Worlds. #RandolpHarris 3 of 15

Finite is what we currently are. Our physical bodies can only live for so long. There is no idea of the individual mortality in old and new collectvism. The collective in which one participates replaces individual immortality. One the other hand, it is not a resignation to annihilation—otherwise no courage to be would be possible—but it is something above both immortality and annihilation; it is the participation in something which transcends death, namely the collective, and through it, in being-itself. One who is in this position feels in the moment of the sacrifice of one’s life that one is taken into the life of the collective and through it into the life of the Universe as an integral element of it, even if not as a particular being. The liberal political party has become a serious alternative to Christianity, and the anxiety of fate and death is taken into the courage to be as a part. The meaning of life for them is the meaning of the collective. Even those who live as victims of the terror at the lowest level of the social hierarchy do not doubt the validity of the democratic principles. What happens to them is a problem of fate and demands the courage to overcome the anxiety of fate and death and not the anxiety of doubt and meaninglessness. This is one of the reasons for the expulsion and prohibition of most of the modern forms of expression in many developed nations. #RandolphHarris 4 of 15

There have been some benefits from communism in the arts and literature, but it not a system most Americans want to participate in. However, the democrats are using the immigration debacle to make their party look humane, when all they want is to get sympathy and votes and enforce their communist rule, where the people have no say. And it is not their person sin that produces anxiety of guilt, anything they do is seen as necessary means to gain power. The collective, in this respect, replaces for themselves the God of judgment, repentance, punishment, and forgiveness. To the collective they accept judgment and punishment. To it they direct their desire for forgiveness and their promise of self-transformation. If one is accepted back by it, their guilt is overcome and a new courage to be is possible. These most striking features in the communist way of life can hardly be understood if one does not go down to their ontological roots and their existential power in a system which is based on the courage to be as a part. “The Lord had blessed them so long with the riches of the World that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, they began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they began to commit secret murders, and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain,” reports Helaman 6.17. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15

Mental health cannot be discussed meaningfully as an abstract quality of abstract people. If we are to discuss now the state of mental health in contemporary Western mortals, and if we are to consider what factors in one’s mode of life make for in-sanity and what others are conducive to sanity, we have to study the influence of the specific conditions of our mode of production and of our social and political organization on the nature of mortals; we have to arrive at such a picture of the personality of the average mortal living and working under these conditions. Only if we can arrive at such a picture of the social character, tentative and incomplete as it may be, do we have a basis on which to judge the mental health and sanity of modern mortals. What is mean by social character? I refer in this concept to the nucleus of the character structure which is shared by most members of the same culture in contradistinction to the individual character in which people belong to the same culture differ from each other. The concept of social character is not a statistical concept in the sense that it is simply the sum total of character traits to be found in the majority of people in a given culture. It can be understood only in reference to the function of the social character which we shall now proceed to discuss. #RandolphHarris 6 of 15

Each society is structuralized and operates in certain ways which are necessitated by a number of objective conditions. These conditions include methods of production and distribution which in turn depend on raw materials, industrial techniques, climate, size of population, and political and geographic factors, cultural traditions and influences to which society is exposed. These is no society in general, but only specific social structures which operate in different and ascertainable ways. Although these social structures do change in the course of historical development, they are relatively fixed at any given historical period, and society can exist only by operating within the framework of it particular structure. The members of the society and/or the various classes or status groups within it have to behave in such a way as to be able to function in the sense required by the social system. It is the function of the social character to shape the energies of the members of society in such a way that their behavior is not a matter of conscious decision as to whether or not to follow the social pattern, but one wanting to act as they have to act and at the same time finding gratification in acting according to the requirements of the culture. In other words, it is the social character’s function to mold and channel human energy within a given society for the purpose of the continued functioning of this society. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15

Modern, industrial society, for instance, could not have attained its ends had it not harnessed the energy of free mortals for work in an unprecedented degree. Mortals had to be molded into a person who was eager to spend most of their energy for the purpose of work, who acquired discipline, particularly orderliness and punctuality, to a degree unknown in most other cultures. It would not have sufficed if each individual had to make up one’s mind consciously every day that one wanted to work, to be on time, etcetera, since any such conscious deliberation would lead to many more exceptions than smooth functioning of society can afford. Nor would threat and force have sufficed as a motive, since the highly differentiated tasks in modern industrial society can in the long run only be the work of free mortals and not of forced labor. The necessity for work, for punctuality and orderliness had to be transformed into an inner drive for these aims. This means that society had to produce a social character in which these strivings were inherent. “Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me. And again, O God, when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me in prayer. Yea, O God, thou hast been merciful unto me, and heard my cries in the midst of thy congregations,” reports Alma 33.5-6 and 9. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15

The genesis of the social character cannot be understood by referring to one single cause but by understanding the interaction of sociological and ideological factors. Inasmuch as economic factors are less easily changeable, they have a certain predominance in this interplay. This does not mean that the drive for material gain is the only or even the most powerful motivating force in mortals. It does mean that the individual and society are primarily concerned with the task of survival, and that only when survival is secured can they proceed to the satisfaction of other imperative human needs. The task of survival implies that mortals have to produce, that is, one has to secure the minimum of food and shelter necessary for survival, ad the tools needed for even the most rudimentary process of production. The method of production in turn determines the social relations existing in a given society. It determines the mode of practice in life. However, religious, political and philosophical ideas are not rooted in the social character, they in turn also determine, systematize and stabilize the social character. “See that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live. Go unto this people and declare the word, and be sober,” reports Alma 37.47. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15

Let me state again, in speaking of the socioeconomic structure of society as molding mortal’s character, we speak only of one pole in the interconnection between social organization and mortal. The other pole to be considered is mortal’s nature, molding in the social conditions in which one lives. The social process can be understood only if we start out with the knowledge of the reality of mortals, one’s psychic properties as well as one’s physiological ones, and if we examine the interaction between the nature of humans and the nature of the external conditions under which one lives and which one has to master if one is to survive. While it is true that mortals can adapt themselves to almost any conditions, one is not a blank sheet of paper on which culture writes its text. Needs like striving for happiness, harmony, love and freedom are inherent in one’s nature. They are also dynamic factors in the historical process which, it frustrated, tend to arouse psychic reactions, ultimately creating the very conditions suited to the original strivings. As long as the objective conditions of the society and the culture remain stable, the social character has a predominantly stabilizing function. If the external conditions change in such a way that they do not fit any more with the traditional social character, a lag arises which often changes the function of character into an element of disintegration instream of stabilization, into dynamite instead of a social mortar, as it were. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15

Provided this concept of the genesis and function of the social character is correct, we are confronted with a puzzling problem. Is not the assumption that the character structure is molded by the role which the individual has to play in one’s culture contradicted by the assumption that a person’s character is molded in one’s childhood? Can both views pretend to be true in view of the fact that the child in one’s early years of life has comparatively little contact with society as such? This question is not as difficult to answer as it may seem at first glance. We must differentiate between the factors which are responsible for the particular contents of the social character and the methods by which the social character is produced. The structure of society and the function of the individual in the social structure may be considered to determine the content of the social character. The family on the other hand may be considered to be the psychic agency of society, the institution which has the function of transmitting the requirements of society to the growing child. The family fulfills this function in two ways. First, and this is the most important factor, by the influence the character of the parents has on the character formation of the growing child. Since the character of most parents is an expression of the social character, they transmit in this way the essential features of the socially desirable character structure to the child. The parents’ love and happiness are communicated to the child as well as their anxiety or hostility. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15

In addition to the character of the parents, the methods of childhood training which are customary in a culture also have the function of molding the character of the child in a socially desirable direction. There are various methods and techniques of child training which can fulfill the same end, and on the other hand there can be methods which seem identical but which nevertheless are different because of the character structure of those who practice these methods. By focusing on methods of child training, we can never explain the social character. Methods of child training are significant only as a mechanism of transmission, and they can be understood correctly if we understand first what kinds of personalities are desirable and necessary in any given culture. The problem, then, of the socioeconomic conditions in modern industrial society which create the personality of modern Western mortals and are responsible for the disturbances in one’s mental health require an understanding of those elements specific to the capitalistic mode of production, of an acquisitive society in an industrial age. Sketchy and elementary as such a description by noneconomist must necessarily be, I hope it is nevertheless sufficient to form the basis for the following analysis of the social character of mortals in present-day Western society. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15

Our individual accomplishments, opinions, and contributions enable us to know our own unique identity and to take pleasure in feeling that we are significant member of the human family. However, at times, differences in the way we act, look, dress, or think can separate us from those around us. The young person who want to repudiate his group identities can go to the extremes of grab and speech that show the World that he does not want to be just another one of the crowd, another manipulable warm body. Since society needs solidarity and conformity to get its work done, people tend to react to the nonconformer in a number of different ways. There can be the hostile, resentful reactions that were illustrated in the climax of the great film of 2001, Romeo Must Die. Here, two major families of relatively conforming parties are competing for land it starts a war, especially when their child starting dating. Sometimes we simply point the finger of scorn: “Why do you not shape up, you weirdo?” When are you going to rejoin the human race?” This attempt may not be so much to get them to conform as to make them feel contemptible, lowly. Often, the reaction is exile, driving the nonconformers away. They can be figuratively ridden out of town on a rail, or literally made to feel that their presence is noxious and that they would be doing everyone a favor by moving on. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15

There are, of course, other ways, but the overall pattern is one of separating the nonconformer from the conforming group. It seems that may people living conforming, comfortable, not too differentiated lives are ill at ease, awkward, uncomfortable, or even angry with those who choose to live differently. Often these nonconformers live differently because they are trying to experience more of their total selfhood than the larger group is willing to risk. There is a variety of reactions on the part of the nonconformers, too. Many of them choose to drop out, to live apart from the larger group. They set up housekeeping in solitary camps, abandoned cars, or communes, or they drift from place to place, disdaining to take on the way of life of those they feel are only experiencing themselves partially. Naturally, not all the drop-outs are in the category of self-actualizers, but an increasing number of young people do feel that this is the only way to grow. Again, knowing who the true hippie or hipster is and who the commercializers or opportunist are is a matter of becoming personally acquainted with them. Separateness is not an emotional illness per se. It is a conscious choice on the part of the separated or a conscious movement on the part of the larger group. It consists of creating separate and different living spaces for each of them. It may be an opportunity for the separated one to grow in selfhood, or it may lead to marginality. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15

However, seeking and receiving the acceptance of the Lord will lead to the knowledge that we are chosen and blessed by him. The feeling of being accepted by someone we love is a basic human need. Being accepted by good people motivates us. It increases our sense of self-worth and self-confidence. Those who cannot find acceptance from desirable sources often seek it elsewhere. They may look at people who are not interested in their well-being. They may attach themselves to false friends and do questionable things to try to receive the acknowledgment they are seeking. They may seek acceptance by wearing a particular brand of clothing to generate a feeling of belonging or status. For some, striving for a role or a position of prominence can also be a way of seeking acceptance. They may define their worth by a position they hold or a status they obtain. Seeking acceptance from the wrong sources or for incorrect reasons puts us on a dangerous path—one that is likely to lead us astray and even to destruction. Instead of feeling cherished and self-confident, we will eventually feel abandoned and inferior. Therefore, see that you look to God and live. The ultimate source of empowerment and lasting acceptance is our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. They know us. They love us. They do not acceptance of because of our title or position. They do not look at our status. They look into our hearts and accept us for who we are and what we are striving to become. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15