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Business Underlies Everything in Our National Life, Including Our Spiritual Life!
Some humans are more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children. To be conscious that you are unaware of the true facts is a great step toward knowledge. What The Real Advantages Are Which American Society Derives From The Government of The Democracy: The political institutions of the Untied States of America appear to me to be one of the forms of government which a democracy may adopt: but I do not regard the American constitution as the best, or as the only one which a democratic people may establish. In showing the advantages which the Americans derive from the government of democracy, I am therefore very far from meaning, or from believing, that similar advantages can be obtained only from the same laws. General Tendency of The Laws Under The Rule of The American Democracy, And Habits of Those Who Apply Them: Defects of a democratic Government easy to be discovered.—Its Advantages only to be discerned by long Observation.—Democracy in America often inexpert, but general Tendency of the Laws advantageous.—In the American Democracy public Officers have no permanent interest distinct from those of the Majority.—Result of this State of things. The defects and the weaknesses of a democratic government may very readily be discovered; they are demonstrated by the most flagrant instances, while it is beneficial influence is less perceptibly exercised. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
A single glance suffices to detect the defects and weaknesses of a democratic government and its evil consequences, but its good qualities can only be discerned by long observation The laws of the American democracy are frequently defective or incomplete; they sometimes attack vested rights, or give a sanction to others which are dangerous to the community; but even if they were good, the frequent changes which they undergo would be an evil. How comes it, then, that the American republics prosper, and maintain their position? In the consideration of laws, a distinction must be carefully observed between the end at which they aim, and the means by which they are directed to that end; between their absolute and their relative excellence. If it be the intention of the legislator to favour the interests of the minority at the expense of the majority, and if the measure one takes are s combined as to accomplish the object one has in view with the least possible expense of time and exertion, the law may be well drawn up, although its purpose be bad; and the more efficacious it is, the greater is the mischief which it causes. Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest possible number; for they emanate from a majority of the citizens, who are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed to their own advantage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. The laws of an aristocracy tend, on the contrary, to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the minority, because an aristocracy, by its very nature, constitutes a minority. It may therefore be asserted, as a general proposition, that the purpose of a democracy, in the conduct of its legislation, is useful to a greater number of citizens than that of an aristocracy. This is, however, the sum total of its advantages. Aristocracies are infinitely more expert in the science of legislation than democracies ever can be. They are possessed of a self-control which protects them from the errors of a temporary excitement; and they form lasting designs which they mature with the assistance of favourable opportunities. Aristocratic government proceeds with the dexterity of art; it understands how to make the collective force of all its laws converge at the same time to a given point. Such is not the case with democracies, whose laws are almost always infective or in inopportune. The means of democracy are therefore more imperfect than those of aristocracy, and the measures which it unwittingly adopts are frequently opposed to its own cause; but the object it has in view is more useful. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
Let us now imagine a community so organized by nature, or by its constitution, that it can support the transitory action of bad laws, and that it can await, without destruction, the general tendency of the legislation: we shall then be able to conceive that a democratic government, notwithstanding its defects, will be most fitted to conduce to the prosperity of this community. This is precisely what has occurred in the United States of America; and I repeat, what I have before remarked, that the great Advantage of the Americans consist in their being able to commit faults which they may afterward repair. An analogous observation may be made respecting public officers. It is easy to perceive that the American democracy frequently errs in the choice of the individuals to whom it intrusts the power of the administration; but it is more difficult to say why the sate prospers under their rule. In the first place it is to be remarked, that if in a democratic state the governors have less honesty and less capacity then elsewhere, the governed on the other hand are more enlightened and more attentive to their interests. As the people in the democracies is more incessantly vigilant in its affairs, and more jealous of its right, it prevents its representative from abandoning that general line of conduct which its own interest prescribes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
In the second place, it must be remembered that if the democratic magistrate is more apt to misuse one’s power, one possesses it for a shorter period of time. However, there is yet another reason which is still more general and conclusive. It is no doubt of importance to the welfare of nations that they should be governed by people of talents and virtue; but it is perhaps still more important than the interests of those humans should not differ from the interests of the community at large; for if such were the case, virtues of a high order might become useless, and talents might be turned to a bad account. I say that it is important that the interests of the persons in authority should not conflict with or oppose the interests of the community at large; but I do not insist upon their having the same interests as the whole population, because I am not aware that such a state of things ever existed in any country. No political form has hitherto been discovered, which is equally favourable to the prosperity and the development of all the classes into which society is divided. These classes continue to form, as it were, a certain number of distinct nations in the same nation; and experience has shown that it is no less dangerous to place the fate of these classes exclusively in the hands of any one of them, than it is to make one people the arbiter of the destiny of another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
When the rich alone govern, the interests of the less affluent is always endangered; and when the less affluent makes the laws, that of the rich incurs very serious risks. The advantage of democracy des not consist, therefore, as has sometimes been asserted, in favouring the prosperity of all, but simply in contributing to the well-being of the greatest possible number. The humans who are intrusted with the direction of public affairs in the Untied States of America, are frequently inferior, both in point of capacity and of morality, to those whom aristocratic institutions would rise to power. However, their interests are identified and confounded with that of the majority of their fellow-citizens. They may frequently be faithless, and frequently mistake; but they will never systematically adopt a line of conduct oppose to the will of the majority; and it is impossible that they should give a dangerous or an exclusive tendency to the government. The mal-administration of a democratic magistrate is a mere isolated fact, which only occurs during the short period for which one is elected. Corruption and incapacity do not act as common interests, which may connect humans permanently with one another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
A corrupt or an incapable magistrate will not concert one’s measures with another magistrate, simply because that individual is as corrupt and as incapable as oneself; and these two humans will never unite their endeavours to promote the corruption and inaptitude of their remote posterity. The ambition and the maneuvers of the one will serve, on the contrary, to unmask the other. The vices of a magistrate, in democratic states, are usually peculiar to one’s own person. However, under aristocratic governments public humans are swayed by the interest of their order, which, if it is sometimes confounded with the interests of the majority, is very frequently distinct from them. This interest is the common and lasting bond which unites them together; it induces them to coalesce, and to combine their efforts in order to attain an end which does not always ensure the greatest happiness of the greatest number; and it serves not only to connect the persons in authority, but to unite them to a considerable portion of the community, as well as by the government of which one is a member. The common purpose which connects the interest of the magistrates in the aristocracies, with that of a portion of their contemporaries, identifies it with that of future generations; their influence belongs to the future as much as to the present. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
The aristocratic magistrate is urged at the same time toward the same point, by the passions of the community, by one’s own, and I may almost add, by those of one’s posterity. Is it, then, wonderful that one does not resist such repeated impulses? And, indeed, aristocracies are often carried away by the spirit of their order without being corrupted by it; and they unconsciously fashion society to their own ends, and prepare it for their own descendants. The English aristocracy is perhaps the most liberal which ever existed, and no body of humans has ever, uninterruptedly, furnished so many honourable and enlightened individuals to the government of a country. It cannot, however, escape observation, that in the legislation of England the good of the poor has been sacrificed to the advantage of the rich, and the rights of the majority to the privileges of the few. The consequence is, that England, at the present day, combines the extremes of fortune in the bosom of her society; and her hands perils and calamities are almost equal to her power and her renown. In the United States of America, where the public officer have no interests to promote connected with their caste, the general and constant influence of the government is beneficial, although the individuals who conduct it are frequently unskillful and sometimes contemptible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
There is, indeed, a secret tendency in democratic institutions to render the exertions of the citizens subservient to the prosperity of the community, notwithstanding their private vices and mistakes; while in aristocratic institutions there is a secret propensity, which, notwithstanding the talents and the virtue of those who conduct the government, leads them to contribute to the evils which oppress their fellow-creatures. In aristocratic governments public humans may frequently do injuries which they do not intend; and in democratic states they produce advantages which they never thought of. Ethical norms are given by God. Moral commandments are expressions of a divine will, which is sovereign and without criteria. It cannot be measured in terms of adequacy to human nature. It must be obeyed as it is given through revelation. However, the question then is: Why should anyone obey the commandments of this divine lawgiver? How are they distinguished from the commands given by a human tyrant? He is stronger than I am. He can destroy me. However, is not that destruction more to be feared which would follow the submission of one’s personality center to a strange will? Would not this be just the denial of the moral imperative? #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
The other way of the theological foundation of the moral imperative is the theonomous one. It avoids the destructiveness of the heteronomous way. However, just for this reason it become ontological. It assets (in agreement with the predominant trend of classical theology) that the law given by God is human’s essential nature, put against one as law. If humans were not estranged from oneself, if one’s essential nature were not distorted in one’s actual existence, no law would stand against one. The law is not strange to humans. It is natural law. It represents one’s true nature from which one is estranged. Every valid ethical commandment is an expression of human’s essential relation to oneself, to others and to the Universe. This alone makes it obligatory and its denial self-destructive. This alone accounts for the unconditional form of the moral imperative, however questionable and conditioned the contents may be. The theonomous solution leads inescapably to ontological problems. If God is not seen as a strange an arbitrary lawgiver, if His authority is not heteronomous but theonomous, ontological presuppositions are accepted. Theonomous ethics include ontology. And they also verify the ontological foundations on which they rest. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
The ontological statements about the nature of love, power, and justice are verified if they are about to solve the otherwise insoluble problems of the ethics of love, power, and justice. To show that his is the case we must consider the ethical functions of love, power, and justice in the spheres of personal relations, of social institutions and of the holy. In the first sphere, justice is leading, in the second sphere, power, and in the third sphere, love. However, all three principles are effective in each sphere. And the sphere of the holy is a quality in the other spheres, and only in some respects a sphere of its own. So we shall speak first of justice, love, and power in human relations, then of power, justice, and love in social institutions, then of love, power, and justice in relation to the holy. Our treatment of the Fall is superior to many others in trying to meet the philosophers half way. It duly recognizes that philosophical intuition opens insights into sin. It happily borrows from psychology its description of a state before the Fall as dreaming innocence, distinguished from awakeness and from experience. However, the dreaming innocence is not anterior to a subsequent event which would give the acquired knowledge of good and evil. It is the psychological background of all human acts. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Human actions mark a passage from the dreaming innocence of one who has not been subjected to the conditions of human existence to the wide-awake experience of humans in existence. In other words, the state before the Fall corresponds, in mythological language, to what philosopher call essence. The choice between good and evil corresponds to existence itself. This leap from essence to existence ins universal fact, but is not a fact distinct from creation. Every human being, by the very fact that one is created, is in existence. As such one is in a state of wide-awake experience; one has the experiential knowledge of good and evil as soon as one is able to act humanly. Original sin is not original in the sense that the first man sinned and that from this we derived the fact that we are born sinners. The notion of a moment in time in which humans and nature were changed from good to evil is absurd, and it has no foundation in experience or revelation. There is a danger of this identification of sin and creation; critics has voiced the justified fear that sin may become a rational necessity. The Fall of man is the transition from uncreated essence, or non-being, to created existence, or being. This happens to every human. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Every person is caught in the following tragedy: no exercise of one’s faculties is possible without the experience of estrangement from one’s essence in God, that is, without sin. Now, the trouble with this is that it certain is not the meaning of Revelation. That a theologian should argue against the Fall as a primordial catastrophe of the human race on the basis that it has no foundation in experience is disconcerting, for no supporter of this classical Christian belief has ever claimed that we have experience t. It would be as absurd to base the Fall of the First Man on present-day experience as it would be childish to deny that Fall arguing from the absence of a direct experience of it by humankind today. The original Fall has no foundation in revelation. It is significant that the account is exclusively based on Genesis and on the story of Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Yet it is recognized by exegetes that if Genesis tells a story of the first sin, it does not speak of transmission of that sin. The Old Testament had no notion of original sin as taught by Christianity. It has no notion of the sin of Adam and that of his descendants, imitating their forefathers, have also sinned, but it never suspected that there could be a causal link between Adam’s sin and man’s being born in sin. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
On the contrary, rabbinical tradition taught, and still teaches the humans are born without sin. It is not on Genesis, but on St. Paul, that the Christian view is founded. “As the fault of one has brought condemnation of all humans, so the righteousness of one brings on all a lifegiving righteousness,” reports Romans 5.18. St. Paul knows the Fall in the light of the Redemption. They are two correlative events. The historicity of Redemption stands facing the historicity of the Fall. One who would deny the latter would by implication negate the former. These words are not obscure: that several are justified through the obedience of Christ, as they have been constituted sinners through the disobedience of Adam; and accordingly, that just as Adam, enfolding us in his ruin, has caused our perdition, likewise Christ brings us back to salvation through his grace. I do not think that a longer proof is needed in such a clear light of truth. Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the individual’s lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning. Their relation to the instincts has been discussed elsewhere. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
The archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego. These are the shadow, and the anima, the animus. The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the absolute qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego in consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavourable role. The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involved recognizing the dark aspects of the personality are present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period. Closer examination of the morbid characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Emotion, incidentally, is not an activity of the individual but something that happens to one. Affects occur usually where adaption is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of one’s effects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment. Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one’s own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
One must be convinced that one throws a very long shadow before one is willing to withdraw one’s emotionally-toned projections from the objects. Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclination whatever to recognize one’s projections. The projection-making factor then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from one’s environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections change the World into the replica of one’s own unknown face. In the last analysis, one dreams a World whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d’incompletude and still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
A forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the World said to me: “But I can never admit to myself that I have wasted the best twenty-five years of my life.” We can all blame Adam for or problems or recognize that Jesus is or Redeemer. It is often tragic to see how blatantly a person bungles one’s own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in oneself, and now one continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course—for consciously one is engaged in bewailing ad cursing a faithless World that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil one’s World. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop one. One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, like being caught in Satan’s web of sins, would belong to the realm of the shadow—that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite gender, in a man’s case to a woman and vice versa. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
The source of projections is no longer the shadow—which is always of the same gender as the subject—but a contrasexual figure. Here we met the animus of a woman and the anmia of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections. Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized. With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow—so far as its nature is personal. However, when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for humans to recognize the relative evil of their nature, but it is a rare and shattered experience for one to gaze into the face of absolute evil. The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—the knowledge of God will cover the Earth in the Millennium—the Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559-545 before Christ. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall makes him quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. However, with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the Earth. The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. However, they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make humans go over dry shod. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt,” reports 2 Nephi 21.1-16. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
Lord God, of might inconceivable, of glory incomprehensible, of mercy immeasurable, of benignity ineffable; do Thou, O Master, look down upon us in Thy tender love, and show forth, towards us and those who pray with us, Thy rich mercies and compassions. O God, Thou art very great, my lot is to approach Thee with Godly fear and humble confidence, for Thy condescension equals Thy grandeur, and Thy goodness is Thy glory. I am unworthy, but Thou dost welcome; guilty, but Thou art merciful; indigent, but Thy riches are unsearchable. Thou hast sown boundless compassion towards me by not sparing Thy Son, and by giving me freely all things in him; this is the foundation of my hope, the refuge of my safety, the new and living way to Thee, the means of that conviction of sin, brokenness of heart, and self-despair, which will endear to me the gospel. Happy are they who are Christ’s, in Him at peace with Thee, justified from all things, delivered from coming wrath, made heirs of future glory; give me such deadness to the World, such love to the Saviour, such attachment to his house, such devotedness to his service, as proves me a subject of his salvation. My every part of my character and conduct make a serious and amiable impression on others, and impel them to ask the way to the master. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
Let to no incident of life, pleasing or painful, injure the prosperity of my soul, but rather increase it. Please send me Thy help, for thine appointments are not meant to make me independent of Thee, and the best means will be vain without super-added blessings. The self-actualized may tell of truth, as one knows it, by refraining from speech and entering the Stillness. However, if one’s interlocutors have not been preciously prepared to understand what lies behind one’s silence, they may not benefit by it. Serving humanity in one’s secret way, drawing benediction for all from this divine source, it would seem to be an unrequited activity; but one is included as recipient and beneficiary. Some come to illuminate, not to instruct. Some who have attained true wisdom make no special attempt to communicate it through speech or writing, or to express it in action. Does this mean the World never benefits from them, as it benefits by the existence and work of even the humblest primary school teacher? It does not. For their contribution, though quite noiseless, is not at all valueless. It is to let the silent influence of their presence among us touch those who can receive it, even though they do so unwittingly. Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love one’s neighbour on an empty stomach. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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A Fear of a Different Order is Generated—the Fear that Something May Jeopardize these Treasures!
Sometimes it takes falling into an open well to discover what we need. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. In its crucial features the ideal speech situation is strictly formal. To arrive at it we abstract from all social circumstances and institutions, as well as particular technical economic, political and cultural circumstances. The ideal speech situation abstracts out any interests speakers might have other than an interest in discursive consensus, and assumes for the speakers that all their experience and feeling is communicable. It also abstracts from the speaking situation those real material factors that require us to cut discussion short (such as having to eat, sleep, and so forth) and to acquire the means for doing so. Only this complete formality of the ideal speech situation permits it to have a universal character. Given the correctness of the theory of communication in which it is embedded, the ideal speech situation implicitly underlies any act of speaking which aims at understanding, as a quasi-transcendental condition for that speaking. This universality provides a theory of justice with a grounding that makes it less arbitrary than some other starting points. It also can provide a critical theory of justice with its needed capacity to distance itself from any and all actual social circumstances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
There is a price for this universalizing distance, however. Because the ideal speech situation is formal and abstract, it cannot itself serve as a standard or goal of justice. The ideal speech situation offers the vision of social relations free from domination, the ideal of pure democracy and social reciprocity. It offers this as a mere vision, however; it is no more than an unreal projection that interests thought. It is too abstract to serve as a means of evaluating particular social circumstances. Nor can principles of the evaluation of a society be derived from the ideal speech situation directly. As we have already seen, it is illegitimate to derive substantive normative principles from a purely formal beginning. To use the ideal speech situation for developing a conception of justice applicable to the evaluation of actual societies, we must introduce material premises derived from actual social circumstances. Habermas suggests a method for the introduction of such material content into the ideal speech situation. Utilization of the ideal speech situation, on the other hand, entails incorporating specific knowledge of the particular society one seeks to evaluate. The participants in the discussion know at least the following things about their society: They know the basic natural constraints of their location, such as climate, topography, the character and general amount of land and material resources to which they have access, and so on. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
People involved in the discussion also have basic demographic knowledge such as how much relative space they have and how much food can be produced relative to the given and projected population. They know the sort of problems their technology can solve and the general level of productive capacity they have at their disposal. All the above say in concrete terms that the persons here know approximately at what point their society lies on the scale between social scarcity and social abundance. As I interpret this model, moreover, the members of the discussion also know much about the culture and traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative tradition and a set of shared symbols and stores. They know their language, the games they play, their educational practices, and so on. In principle, if they were in a situation of equality and reciprocity in this model of reasoning about justice, the only things abstracted from real society are those conditions of domination which prevent people in real society from pressing interests that all would agree to as legitimate. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
This model of reasoning must be purely hypothetical, of course, since in reality material conditions and relations of domination are inextricably linked. Imagining persons with these material constraints as standing in the ideal speech situation—even though no such persons could exist—provides a means of locating the sources of domination. Given discussion unconstrained by domination, the model has individuals choose first principles of social organization that best serve what they judge as their collective needs and legitimate individual interests, given the material constraints under which they operate. They choose, that is, the basic rules of interaction, authority relations, and forms of decision making within and among institutions. Among the principles and rules chosen, of course, are those relating to the distribution of the benefits of social cooperation. Such principles of distribution, however, would be dependent on prior determination of institutional forms, conditions and relations of production and authority relations, as well as on the level of material abundance of which the society is capable. For without the prior knowledge of the forms of social organization, we do not know what sort of social benefits are to be distributed, nor what sort of social positions and interest groups there are to decide among in distributing. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The conception and principles of justice which emerge in this way from the application for the formal conditions of the ideal speech situation to the material situation of a particular society are thus quite particular. Unlike most theories of justice, this model of reasoning about justice does not call for the construction of an idea of the just society in general. Rather, the model allows for, even requires, a multitude of conceptions of justice, each derived from the particular conditions of the society and applicable only to them. The model thus satisfies the condition developed in the previous section, that a theory of justice recognize the historical specific of conceptions of justice. It grants that it is not in fact possible to articulate a substantive conception of justice that applies to the evaluation of all or many societies. This form of reasoning about justice in effect measures a society against itself rather tan measuring the society directly against an ahistorical set of principles. The conception of justice resulting from application of the ideal speech situation to particular social conditions, expresses the interests of all insofar as they are compatible. It thus shows that latent possibilities of the society given its historical and material conditions with the systemic sources of its conflicts of interest removed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
This process of reasoning about justice serves two purposes. Its main function is to identify sources of domination in the social arrangements of a particular society. The thought experiment discovers relations of domination in the process of setting up its starting point of reasoning. For every social relation whose justice one wishes to examine one asks whether there are aspects of it that tend to create asymmetries in the situation of discussion. The hypothetical models abstracts from them, but not from the material conditions and constraints. The second function served by the model is to project a vision of an alternative organization of that society which is free from domination. Therefore, utilization of the ideal speech situation in a model of reasoning about justice that applies it to the particular material and cultural situation of given society satisfies both the requirements for a theory of justice which have been raised in this essay. First, since the ideal speech situation focuses on relations of interaction and its application reveals the sources of domination, a theory of justice that uses it focuses primarily on forms of social organization. Secondly, the method of applying the ideal speech situation to particular material and cultural conditions points to a theory of justice that contains an a priori universal aspect without producing a conception of justice which claims transhistorical application. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
Transhistorical is the quality of holding throughout human history, not merely within the frame of reference of a particular form of society at a particular stage of historical development; it is eternal. In searching for the deeper meaning of any neurotic problem we can easily lose our bearings in a maze of intricacies. Since we cannot hope to understand neurosis without facing its complexity, this is not unnatural. It is helpful, though, to stand aside from time to time in order to regain our perspective. We have followed the development of the protective structure step by step. We have seen how one defense after another is built up until a comparatively static organization is established. And the element that impresses us most deeply in all this is the infinite labour that has gone into the process, a labour so tremendous that we are led again to wonder what it is that drives a person along so arduous a path and one so fraught with cost to oneself. We ask ourselves what are the forces that make the structure so rigid and so difficult to change. Is the motive power of the whole process simply the fear of the disruptive potency of the basic conflict? An analogy may clear a way to the answer. Like any analogy it is not a precise parallel and so can only be applied in the broadest terms. Let us assume that a man with a shady past has found his way into a community by false present. He will, of course, live in dread of his former state’s being disclosed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
In the course of tie his situation advances; he makes friends, secures a job, founds a family. Cherishing his new position, he is best with a new fear, the fear of losing these goods. His pride in his respectability alienates him from his unsavory past. He gives large sums to charity and even to his old associates in order to wipe out his old life. Meanwhile the changes that have been taking place in his personality proceed to involve him in new conflicts, with the results that in the end his having commenced his present life on false premises becomes merely an undercurrent in his disturbance. So in the organization the neurotic has established, the basic conflict remains but is transmuted. Tempered in some respect, it is enhanced in others. Due, however, to the vicious circle inherent in the process, the ensuing conflict become more urgent. What sharpens them most is the fact that every fresh defensive position further impairs one’s relations with oneself and others—the soil, as we have seen, out of which conflicts grow. Moreover, as new elements, however wrapped in illusion—love or success, an achieved detachment or an established image—come to play an important part in one’s life, a fear of a different order is generated, the fear that something may jeopardize these treasures. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
And all the while, one’s increased alienation from oneself deprives one more and more of the capacity to work on oneself and so get rid of one’s difficulties. Inertia sets in, taking the place of a directed growth. The protective structure, for all its rigidity, is highly brittle and itself gives rise to new fears. One of these is a fear that its equilibrium will be disturbed. While the structure lends a sense of balance, it is a balance that is easily upset. The person oneself is not consciously aware of this threat, but one cannot help feeling it in a variety of ways. Experience has taught one that one can be thrown out of gear for no apparent reason, that one becomes infuriated, elated, depressed, fatigued, inhibited when one least desires it. The sum total of such experiences gives one a feeling of uncertainty, a feeling that one cannot rely on oneself. It is as if one were skating on thin ice. One’s imbalance may also be expressed in gait or posture, or in lack of skill in anything requiring physical balance. The most concrete expression of this fear is a fear of insanity. When that is present in a marked degree it can be the paramount symptom that drives a person to seek psychiatric help. In such instance the fear is also determined by repressed impulses to do all sorts of “crazy” things, mostly of a destructive nature, without feeling responsible for them. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
The fear of insanity, however, is not to be construed as an indication that the person may actually go insane. Usually it is transitory and emerges only under conditions of acute distress. Its most poignant provocations are a sudden threat to the idealized image, or a mounting tension—most commonly due to unconscious rage—that puts excessive self-control in jeopardy. A woman, for example, who believed herself to be both even-tempered and courageous had an onset of panic when, in a difficult situation, she was struck with a feeling of helplessness, apprehension, and violent anger. Her idealized image, which had held her together as with a band of steel, suddenly burst and left her with a fear of going to pieces. We have already spoken of the panic hat may seize a detached person when one is pulled from one’s shelter and brought into close proximity to others—when, for instance, one has to join the army or live with relatives. This terror, too, may be expressed as a fear of insanity; and in this instance psychotic episodes may actually occur. In analysis a like fear will emerge when a patient who has gone to great lengths to create an artificial harmony suddenly recognizes that one is divided. That fear of insanity is most frequently precipitated by unconscious rage is demonstrated in analysis, when, this fear having subsided, its residues take the form of an apprehension that one may insult, beat or even kill people under conditions where self-control is impossible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
The commission of an act of violence in sleep or under the influence of drink, anesthesia, or excitement involving pleasures of the flesh will then be feared. The rage itself may be conscious or it may appear in consciousness as an obsessive impulse toward violence, unconnected with any affect. On the other hand, it may be entirely unconscious; in that case all the person feels are sudden spells of vague panic, accompanied perhaps by perspiration, dizziness, or a fear of fainting—signifying an underlying fear that the violent impulses might get out of control. Where the unconscious rage is externalized, the person may have a terror of thunderstorms, ghosts, burglars, snakes, and so on—that is, of any potentially destructive force outside oneself. However, after all, fear of insanity is comparatively rare. It is simply the most conspicuous expression of the fear of losing equilibrium. Ordinarily that fear operates in more hidden ways. It appears then in vague, indefinite forms and can be precipitated by any change in life’s routine. Persons subject to it may feel profoundly disturbed at the prospect of making a journey or of moving or changing jobs or employing a new maid or whatever. Wherever possible they try to avoid such changes. Its threat to stability may be a factor in deterring patients from being analyzed, particularly if they have found a way of living that permits them to function fairly well. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
When they discuss they advisability of analysis they will be concerned about questions that at first glance seem reasonable enough: Will analysis uproot their marriage? Will it temporarily incapacitate them for work? Will it make them irritable? Will it interfere with their religion? As we shall see, such questions are in part determined by the patient’s hopelessness; one does not think it worth while to take any risks. However, there is also a real apprehension behind one’s concern: one needs to be reassured that analysis will not upset one’s equilibrium. In such cases we can safely assume that the equilibrium is particularly shaky and that the analysis will be a difficult one. Can the analyst give the patient the assurance one wants? No, one cannot. Every analysis is bound to create temporary upsets. What the analyst can do, however, is to go to the root of such questions, to explain to the patient what one really is afraid of, and tell one that while analysis will upset one’s present balance it will give one an opportunity to attain an equilibrium more solidly grounded. Faith is not distinctly Christian phenomenon. All philosophers have tried to reach the bottom of human’s self-awareness. They have attempted to overcome the distinction between subject and object. That all this has been done since philosophy began is not surprising: for this effort is none other than that of making ourselves like God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Unity with God is a natural desire which is at least implicit in the heart of humans. Humans may or may not be able to give a name to God. At any rate, they tend to God as the goal of their fulfilment. They seek him in the dark along the winding roads of their anxieties, through the ups and downs of their fevers. And there is a sense in which they words that Pascal places on the lips of the Lord are true: “You would not seek for me, had you not already found me.” Other descriptions of faith, like Paul Tillich’s, when it describes human’s seeking and inclining towards God, is extremely valuable. Yet as we have seen, human’s search for God remains essentially ambiguous. The coincidence of guilt and forgiveness may be understood in two ways: either guilt I subsumed in forgiveness, or guilt already is forgiveness. An option between these two interpretations completely changes the meaning of guilt. Or, take faith as the acceptance of being accepted. If we are accepted, we are accepted, whether we accept it or not. What does our acceptance add to our being accepted? Strictly nothing. The conscious element of faith (our acceptance) is tacked on to a more basic element (our being accepted). If Paul Tillich thinks he is being radical in seeing this acceptance as faith, his radicalism can be outdone: faith is our being accepted. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Everything is accepted; all is love; all is forgiveness. It is better, for our own peace, to know this experientially; but at bottom it makes no difference. We are accepted in any case. Faith is no longer a free act of human’s entire personality. It is the stuff of all human life. Tillich comes dangerously near to saying this when he underlines the universality of faith: “Every religious and cultural group and, to a certain extent, every individual is the bearer of a special experience and content of faith.” “There is no human being without an ultimate concern and, in this sense, without faith.” If every person cannot help having faith, what is unique in the Christian faith? Between classical theology, Catholic or Protestant, and Tillich something has intervened. What has happened is that Tillich has ontologized the concept of faith. Catholicism, followed by the Reformation, sees faith as a freely accepted act. Humans can reject faith. It is also an act of God: God enlightens the soul; and the soul, accepting or rejecting this light, believes or disbelieves. With Tillich, faith underlies everything. Doubt itself stems from underlying faith. Only faith can attempt to refute faith. “Our ultimate concern can destroy us as it can heal us…But we never can be without it.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
Some people are distinguished from others, not in that they freely accept God’s light and believe, but rather in that they suddenly, ecstatically, realize what is common to all, though hidden, namely, that estrangement is also reunion, that life has an ultimate meaning. Personally, with this understand, I take worship of the Lord serious, and I also try to give my best time to prayer—which for me is never the time just before going to bed. One’s last waking moments should never be given to powerful intercessory prayer (except, perhaps, for students who have a final exam in the morning). Here Jesus’ habit is instructive: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed,” reports Mark 1.35. The early birds get the prime time. The real question for you is, when is your best time? For some it may be at lunch or before dinner. A certain person could not find the right posture for prayer. One tried praying on one’s knees, but that was not comfortable; besides, it wrinkled one’s slacks. One tried praying standing, but soon one’s legs got tired. One tried praying seated, but that did not seem reverent. Then one day as one was walking though a field, one fell headfirst into an open well. And did one ever pray! #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Seriously, one’s prayer posture can make a difference. While the Scriptures mention numerous postures for prayer, none is prescribed. What is important is that your posture enhance reverent attention. Sometimes I kneel, sometimes I walk about the house, often I sit at my desk with list in hand. There are times when I lift my hands, and other time I have been on my face. Heart attitude is the key factor. As to preparation for prayer, honest practicality is of greatest importance. Sometimes a person needs a shower and to get other grooming hygiene matters taken care of. If you are into coffee like I am, a good cup of coffee is a divine cordial. Again, it is not the physical details that are of prime importance but the condition and stance of the heart. Whatever helps you focus on the Lord. Often the best prayers are short and passionate. Luther himself said: “Look to it that you do not try to do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides, a good prayer must not be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.” A legalistic commitment to duration can kill one’s prayer life because it takes a lot of energy and you make look at it as a big, exhausting obstacle. So the best thing to do is just to get into and be honest and pour out your heart. It may surprise you where you go. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
If you go long enough without a bath even the fleas will let you alone. Isaiah see the Lord—Isaiah’s sins are forgiven—he is called to prophesy—he prophesies of the rejection by the Jews of Christ’s teachings—a remnant will return—Compare Isaiah 6. About 559-545 Before Christ. “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I: Wo is unto me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Host. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said: Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said; Here am I; send me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
“And he said: Go and tell this people—Hear ye indeed, but they understood not; and see ye indeed, but they perceived not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes—lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed. Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities he wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate; and the Lord have removed people far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. However, yet there shall be a tenth, and they shall return, and shall be eaten, as a teil tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof,” reports 2 Nephi 16.1-13. O God Who art rich in mercy to all, O Father of glory, Who madest Thy Son to be a Light to the Gentiles, to proclaim redemption to the captives and sight to the blind; do Thou, Who by Christ art bounteous in compassion, grant them remission of sins, and a portion among the Saints through faith. Lord of immortality, before whom Angels bow and Archangels veil their faces, enable me to serve Thee with reverence and Godly fear. Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts, help me to worship Thee in spirit and in truth. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Thou who art righteous, please let me not harbour sin in my heart, or indulge a Worldly temper, or seek satisfaction in things that perish. I hasten towards an hour when Earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain, when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor, successful or disappointed, admired or despised. However, it will be of eternal moment that I have mourned for sin, hungered and thirsted after righteousness, loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity, gloried in His cross. May these objects engross my chief solicitude! Produce in me those principles and dispositions that make Thy service perfect freedom. Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame, so tat with firmness and courage I may confess the redeemer before humans, go forth with one bearing one’s reproach, be zealous with one’s knowledge, be filled with one’s wisdom, walk with one’s circumspection, ask counsel of one in all things, repair to the Scriptures for one’s orders, stay mind on one’s peace, knowing that nothing can befall me without one’s permission, appointment and administration. The notion of infinity implies that it cannot be extended, and whoever understands this will not look in this World for anything which contradicts the implication. The tremendous monumentality of the World-Idea, the staggering breadth of its scope and variety are a mere hint of the divine wisdom behind both. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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The essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different—to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possess. Philosophers generally stipulate that a conception of justice should be held independently of particular social or historical circumstances, or practices, as a necessary condition for objectivity. In the effort to achieve this universality and objectivity, most modern philosophical accounts seek correct normative principles of social life by adopting a strategy of deriving such principles from a hypothetical starting point. Whether called the state of nature, the original position, the moral point of view, the ideal observer, and so on, this hypothetical starting point purportedly escapes the specificity of actual historical circumstances. The starting point aims to remove all natural and social contingency from human life, leaving only its formal and universal elements. Then political theorists can claim to derive the correct conception of the just social order from this universal and formal starting point. As we have seen, however, each account smuggles into the starting point substantive premises derived more or less directly from the theorist’s social circumstances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The theory of the just social order which emerges, then, merely reflects in idealized and systematized form the actual structure of the society in which the theorist dwells. Thus, many writers argue that classic liberalism makes substantive assumptions about human nature (for example, that human beings are essentially acquisitive) which reflect the particular needs of an emergent bourgeois and capitalist social order. This presents us with a dilemma. If one cannot derive a substantive conception of justice from a formal starting point alone, then it appears inevitable that substantive theories must have substantive premises derived from particular social circumstances. Theories do not err in introducing substantive premises into the starting point, since this is logically necessary if they are to arrive at substantive conclusions. Rather, the error lies in presenting these substantive premises as ahistorical and thus claiming that the substantive conception applies across different social and historical circumstances. Most contemporary social theorists conclude from this that the philosophical ideal of a rationally grounded conception of justice independent of particular social circumstances is an unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme, and a dangerous one at that. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Many Marxists, for example, argue that the search for correct, rationally grounded, universal principles of justice is illusory. Each social formation has its own normative principles which arise from and serve to reproduce the particular social relations of that society. Juridical forms, and the principles of justice that govern them, are specific to modes of production. There is, moreover, no transhistocial conception of justice by which these social practices can be judged unjust. There can be no “justice in itself” independent of the particular economic forms and social relations which engender and embody particular economic forms and social relations which engender and embody particular conceptions and principles of justice. It follows that any claim to have a universal and objective theory of justice is necessarily ideological; it makes as disinterested truth what really expresses the interests and values of the dominant class. Similarly, many contemporary non-Marxist social scientists regard with scepticism the possibility of arriving at a normative conception of justice that is not a mere reflection of norms actually operative in a society. For much contemporary social science norms exist only as facts: One can give an account of the norms people actually adhere to and follow in a society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
One can show their social origins and give a functional account of how they contribute to the maintenance of social integration. No basis exists, however, for saying that some norms are right while others are not. Given the logical problem outlined above, the traditional philosophical search for a rationally grounded theory of justice appears to be illusory. Yet this conclusion leads to undesirable consequences. The thesis of the impossibility of a rationally grounded conception of justice that is more than a mere reflection of actual social circumstances implies the impossibility of rational social criticism. To criticize a set of social circumstances, and to judge them unjust, one should be able to take a sufficient distance from them that they no longer appear normal or inevitable. This seems to imply that one needs some means of transhistocial evaluation. Herbert Marcuse, was a German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. He argued that the traditional appeal to normative universals like truth, beauty, freedom and justice serves just its critical function. The projection of universalistic ideas of what ought to be opens up possibilities for thinking, which otherwise would be conditioned by what actually exists. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The absence of such philosophical ideals creates the one-dimensional thinking characteristic of contemporary culture. Yet the appeal to universals is necessarily abstract. In the classical philosophical tradition while the motive for the development of an ideal conception of justice may have been critical, the outcome more often than not has been ineffectual. Reflection on the philosophic ideal of just society has most often served as a means of turning one’s back on the real social circumstances and retreating into rarified contemplation. A theory of justice is thus presented with a dilemma. It must provide a means of distancing social criticism from the concrete social conditions under evaluation. The tradition of philosophical criticism has found such a means of distancing only in a priori formal ideal. For a conception of justice to have any substance, however, it must be anchored in the particular social circumstances in which it exists and which it purports to evaluate, and hence be limited in application only to them. So the project of a properly critical theory of justice appears to be contradictory. It must develop a conception of justice independent of particular social circumstances, and yet at the same time derive from particular circumstances and be applicable only to them. I suggest that utilization of the ideal speech situation in what Habermas calls the “model of the suppression of generalizable interests” does just this. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning. The common idea that it s primarily used to justify oneself or to bring one’s motives and actions into accord with accepted ideologies is only valid up to a point; the implication there would be that persons living in the same civilization all rationalize along the same lines, whereas actually there is a wide range of individual differences in what is rationalized as well as in the methods employed. That this should be so is only natural if we view rationalization as one way of supporting neurotic attempts to create artificial harmony. In each of the planks of the defensive scaffolding built around the basic conflict, the process can be seen at work. The predominant attitude is strengthened by reasoning—factors that would bring the conflict into sight are either minimized or so remodeled as to fit in with it. How this self-deceptive reasoning assists the streamlining of the personality shows up when one contrasts the complaint type with the aggressive. The former ascribes one’s desire to be helpful to one’s sympathetic feelings, even though strong tendencies to dominate are present; and if these are too conspicuous one rationalizes them as solicitousness. The latter, when one is helpful, firmly denies any feeling of sympathy and lays one’s action entirely to expediency. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The idealized image always requires a good deal of rationalization for support: discrepancies between the actual self and the image must be reasoned out of existence. In externalizing, it is brought to bear to prove the relevance of outside circumstances or to show that the traits unacceptable to the individual oneself are merely a “natural” reaction to the behaviour of others. The tendency towards excessive self–control can be so strong that I at one tie counted it among the original neurotic trends. Its function is to serve as a dam against being flooded by contradictory emotions. Though in the beginning it is often an act of conscious will power, in time it usually becomes more or less automatic. Persons who exert such control will not allow themselves to be carried away, whether by enthusiasm, excitement in pleasures of the flesh, self-pity, or rage. In analysis they have the greatest difficulty in associating freely; they will not permit alcohol to lift their spirits and frequently prefer to endure pain rather than undergo anesthesia. In short, they seek to check all spontaneity. This trait is most strongly developed in individuals whose conflicts are fairly out in the open, those who have not taken either of the steps that ordinarily help to submerge the conflicts; clear predominance has not been given to one of the conflicting sets of attitudes, nor has sufficient detachment been developed to put the conflicts out of operations. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
Such persons are held together merely by their idealized image; and apparently its binding power is insufficient when unaided by one or the other of the primary attempts at establishing inner unity. The image is particularly inadequate when it takes the form of a composite of contradictory elements. The exertion of will power then, consciously or unconsciously, is needed to keep the conflicting impulses under control. Since the most disruptive impulses are those of violence prompted by rage, the greatest degree of energy is directed toward the control of rage. Here a vicious circle is set in motion; the rage, by reason of being suppressed, attains explosive strength, which in turn requires still more self-control is brought to one’s attention one will defend it by pointing to the virtue and necessity of self-control for any civilized individual. What one overlooks is the compulsive nature of one’s control. One cannot help exerting it in he most rigid way and is seized by panic if for any reason it fails to function. The panic may appear as a fear of insanity, which clearly indicates that the function of the control is to ward off the danger of being split apart. Arbitrary rightness has the twofold function of eliminating doubt from within and influence from without. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
Doubt and indecision are invariable concomitants of unresolved conflicts and can reach an intensity powerful enough to paralyze all action. In such a paralyzing state of doubt, a person is naturally susceptible to influence. When we have genuine convictions we will not be readily swayed; but if all out lives we stand at a crossroad, undecided whether to go in this direction or that, outside agencies can easily be the determining factors, if only temporarily. Moreover, indecision applies not only to possible courses of action but also includes doubts about one-self, one’s rights, one’s worth. All these uncertainties detract from our ability to cope with life. Apparently, however, they are not equally intolerable to everyone. The more a person sees life as a merciless battle, the more will one regard doubt as a dangerous weakness. The more isolated one is and insistent upon independence, the more will susceptibility to foreign influence be a source of irritation. All my observation points to the fact that a combination of predominant aggressive trends and detachment is the most fertile soil for the development of rigid rightness; and the nearer to the surface the aggression, the more militant the rightness. It constitutes an attempt to settle conflicts once and for all by declaring arbitrarily and stick and rigidly that one is invariably right. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
In a system so governed by rationality, emotions are traitors from within and must be checked by unswerving control. Peace may be attained but it is the peace of the grave. As would be expected, such persona loathe the idea of analysis because it threatens to disarrange the tidy picture. Almost polar to rigid rightness, but likewise an effective defense against it the recognition of conflicts, is elusiveness. Patients inclined toward this kind of defense often resemble those characters in fairy tales who when pursued turn into fish (The Little Mermaid); if not safe in this guise, they turn into deer (Bambi); if the hunter catches up with them, they fly away as birds (Icarus). You can never pin them down to any statement; like Mitt Romney, they always deny having said it or assure you they did not mean it that way. Much like Bernie Sanders, they have a bewildering capacity to becloud issues. These people are also very similar to Hilary Clinton, in the sense that it is often impossible for them to give a concrete report of any incident; should they try to do so the listener is uncertain in the end just what really did happen. The same confusion reigns in their lives. Like Sarah Michelle Gellar (who is similar to Fallon on Dynasty) they are vicious one moment, sympathetic the next; at times overconsiderate, ruthlessly inconsiderate at others; domineering in some respects, self-effacing in others. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
People who suffer from arbitrary rightness also reach out for a dominating partner, like we have seen Andrew Cuomo do with his relationship with the federal government, only to change to a “doormat,” then back to the former variety. After treating someone badly, they will be overcome by remorse, attempt to make amends, then feel like a “sucker” and turn to being abusive all over again. Nothing is quite real to them. The analyst may well find oneself confused, and, discouraged, feel there is no substance to work with. There one is mistaken. These are simply patients who have not succeeded in adopting the customary unifying procedures: they have not only failed to repress parts of their conflict, but they have established no definite idealized image. In a way they may be said to demonstrate the value of these attempts. For no matter how troublesome the consequences, persons who have so proceeded are better organized and not nearly so lost as the elusive type. On the other hand, the analyst would be equally mistaken were one to count on an easy job by virtue of the fact that the conflicts are visible and need not therefore be dragged out of hiding. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Nevertheless one will find oneself up against the patient’s aversion to any transparency, and this will tend to defeat one unless one oneself understands that this is the patient’s way of warding off any real insight. A final defense against the recognition of conflicts is cynicism, the denying and deriding of moral values. A deep-seated uncertainty in respect to moral values is bound to be present in every neurosis, no matter how strict and rigidly the person adheres to the particular aspects of one’s standards that are acceptable to one. While the genesis of cynicism varies, its function invariably is to deny the existence of moral values, thereby relieving the neurotic of the necessity of making clear to oneself what it is one actually believes in. Cynicism can be conscious, and then become a principle in the Machiavellian tradition and be so defended. All that counts is appearance. You can do as you please as long as you do not get caught. Everyone is a hypocrite who is not fundamentally stupid. This kind of patient may be as sensitive to the analyst’s using the term moral, regardless of the context, as those of Dr. Freud’s time were to the mention of pleasures of the flesh. However, cynicism may also remain unconscious and be concealed by lip service to the prevalent ideologies. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Unaware though one may be of the hold one’s cynicism has upon one, the way one lives and the way one talks about one’s life will reveal that one acts upon its principles. Or one may involve oneself unwittingly in contradictions, like the patient who was sure one believed in honesty and decency yet was envious of anyone who indulged in crooked maneuvers and resented the fact that one oneself never “got away” with that kind of thing. In therapy it is important to being the patient’s cynicism to full awareness at the proper time and help one to understand it. It may also be necessary to explain why it is desirable for one to establish one’s own set of moral values. The foregoing, then, are the defenses built around the nucleus of the basic conflict. For simplicity I shall refer to the whole system of defenses as the protective structure. A combination of defenses is developed in every neurosis; often all of them are present, though in varying degrees of activity. To change governing ideas, whether the individual or the group, is one of the most difficult and painful things in human life. Genuine “conversation” is a wrenching experience. It rarely happens to the individual or group expect in the form of divine intervention, revolution, or something very like a mental breakdown. It can cause deep and permanent damage to the most intimate of relationships, as Jesus forewarned. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
“Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? No, I will you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law,” reports Luke 12.51-53. In fact, we are now undergoing an ever more profound change than in the sixties, though it is less noisy, with the emergence of mass “spirituality” at the end of the twentieth century. This change is the equivalent of a “soul Earthquake” that leaves nothing unshaken and many individuals hurt or destroyed. From one essential perspective, of course, Jesus himself confronted and undermined an idea system and its culture, which in turn killed him. He proved himself greater than any idea system or culture, however, and lives on. He is continuing the process of a Worldwide idea shift that is crucial to his perpetual revolution, in which we each are assigned a part. The Lord’s vineyard (Israel) will become desolate, and His people will be scattered-woes will come upon them in their apostate and scattered state—the Lord will lift an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 5. About 559-545 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“And then will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wild grapes. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard—I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, and behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry. Wo unto them that join house to house, till there can be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth! #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“In mine ears, said the Lord of Hosts, of a truth many houses shall be desolate, and great and fair cities without inhabitant. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephan. Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, and wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, either consider the operation of one’s hands. Therefore, my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honourable people are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and one that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean person shall be brought down, and the mighty person shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. However, the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted in judgement, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Then shall the lambs feed after their manners, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. We unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope; that say: Let one make speed, hasten one’s work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“We unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Wo unto the wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! Wo unto the mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink; who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from one! Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, their root shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Thereofre, is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the Earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them. None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent, and their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
“They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver. And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the Heavens thereof,” reports 2 Nephi 15.1-30. I intreat Thee, O Lord, holy Father, everlasting God, command the way of Thy truth and of the knowledge of Thee to be shown to Thy servants who wander in doubt and uncertainty amid the darkness of this World; that the eyes of their souls may be opened, and they may acknowledge Thee, the One God, the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit, and enjoy the fruit of this confession, both here and in the World to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. One seeks no power over others, no claim to rulership over their lives, no disciples of one’s own, no train of followers clinging to one’s coat-tails. Yet one will not refrain from helping where such help is imperative, nor from giving counsel where the young, the inexperienced, the bewildered seekers have desperate need of it. However, the moment after one will appear to have forgotten what one has done, so gracious is one’s delicacy, so strong one’s desires to leave others quite free and unobligated. I pray Heaven to bestow the best blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise people rule under this roof. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
O Lord, whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible, other things that they may neither hinder, nor discourage me, nor prove obstacles to the progress of Thy cause; stand between me and all strife, that no evil befall, no sin corrupt my gifts, zeal, attainments; may I follow duty and not any foolish device of my own; permit me not to labour at work which thou wilt not bless, that I may serve Thee without disgrace or debt; let me dwell in Thy most secret place under Thy shadow, where is safe impenetrable protection from the arrow that flieth by day, the pestilence that walketh in darkness, the strife of tongues, the malice of ill-will, the hurt of unkind talk, the snares of company, the perils of youth, the temptations of middle life, the mournings of old ages, the fear of death. I am entirely dependent upon Thee for support, counsel, consolation. Uphold me by Thy free Spirit, and may I not think it enough to be preserved from falling, but may I always go forward, always abounding in the work Thou givest me to do. Strengthen me by Thy Spirit in my inner self for every purpose of my Christian life. All my jewels I give to the shadow of the safety that is in Thee—my name anew in Christ, my body, soul talents, character, my success, wife, children, friends, work, my present, my future, my end. Take them, they are thine, and I am thine, now and forever. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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Morality Seems to be a Gift Like Intelligence—I Grew Up thinking it was a Sin to Play Pool!
The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize. Education’s purpose is to replace an empty minds with an open one. The shadow is one example of an “unconscious personality,” which possesses a certain measure of autonomy. The shadow might be said to be responsible for those slips of the tongue and other “mistake” which Dr. Freud catalogues in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life; mistakes which reveal feelings and motives which the conscious self disowns. The shadow is also often projected on to others. Examination of those attributes which a person most condemns in other people (greed, intolerance, disregard for others, and so forth) usually shows that, unacknowledged, one possesses them. The shadow is usually the first archetype to be encountered during analysis. In the dreams of Europeans, the shadow appears as a figure of the same gender as the dreamer; usually as dark-skinned, alien, or primitive. It is a commonplace that one lie usually leads to another, the second takes a third to bolster it, and so one till one is caught in a tangled web. Something of the sort is bound to happen in any situation in the life of an individual or group where a determination to go o the root of the matter is lacking. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
The patchwork may be of some help, but it will generate new problems which in turn require a new makeshift. So it is with neurotic attempts to solve the basic conflict; and here, as elsewhere, nothing is of any real avail but a radical change in the conditions out of which the original difficulty arose. What the neurotic does instead—and cannot help doing—is to pile one pseudo solution upon another. One may try, as we have seen, to make one face of the conflict predominate. One remains as torn as ever. One may resort to the drastic measure of detaching oneself from others entirely; but though the conflict is set out of operation one’s whole life is put on a precarious basis. One creates an idealized self in which one appears triumphant and unified, but at the same time creates a new rift. One tries to do away with that rift by eliminating one’s inner self from the field of combat, only to find oneself in an even more intolerable predicament. So unstable an equilibrium requires still further measures to support it. One turns then to any one of a number of unconscious devices, which may be classified as blind spots, compartmentalizing, rationalizing, excessive self-control, arbitrary rightness, elusiveness, and cynicism. We shall not attempt to discuss these per se—that would be too intensive a task—but will show only how they are employed in connection with conflicts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The discrepancy between a neurotic’s actual behaviour and one’s idealized picture of oneself can be so blatant that one wonders how one can help seeing it. However, far from doing so, one is able to remain unaware of a contradiction that stares one in the face. This blind spot in view of the most obvious contradictions was one of the first things that drew my attention to the existence and relevance of the conflicts I have described. A patient, for example, who had all the characteristics of the complaint type and thought of oneself as Christlike, told me quite casually that at staff meetings one would often shoot one colleague after another with a little flick of one’s thumb. True enough, the destructive craving that prompted these figurative killings was at that time unconscious; but the point here is that the shooting, which he dubbed “play,” did not in the least disturb his Christlike image. Another patient, a scientist who believed himself seriously devoted to his work and considered himself an innovator in his field, was guided in his choice of what he should publish by purely opportunistic motives, presenting only papers that he felt would bring him the most acclaim. There was no attempt at camouflage—merely the same blissful obliviousness to the contradiction involved. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Similarly, a man who in his idealized image was goodness and straightforwardness itself thought nothing of taking money from one girl to spend in on another. It is obvious that in each of these cases the function of the blindness was to keep underling conflicts from awareness. What is amazing is the extent to which this was possible, the more so since the patients in question were not only intelligent but psychologically informed. To say that we all tend to turn our backs on what we do not care to see is surely insufficient explanation. We should have to add that the degree to which we blot out things depends on how great our interest is in doing so. All in all, such artificial blindness demonstrates in a quite simple fashion how great is our aversion to recognizing conflicts. However, the real problem here is how we can manage to overlook contradictions as conspicuous as those just cited. The fact is that there are special conditions without which it would indeed be impossible. One of them is an inordinate numbness to our own emotional experience. The other, already pointed our by Strecker, is the phenomenon of living in compartments. Strecker, who also offers illustrations of the blind spots, speaks of logic-tight compartment and segregation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
There is a section for friends and one for enemies, one for family and one for outsiders, one for professional and one for personal life, one for social equals and one for inferiors. Hence what happens in one compartment does not appear to the neurotic to contradict what happens in another. It is possible for a person to live that way only when, by reason of one’s conflicts, one had lost one’s sense of unity. Compartmentalizing is thus as much a result of being divided by one’s conflicts as a defense against recognizing them. The process is not unlike that described in the case of one kind of idealized image: contradictions remain, but conflicts are spirited away. It is hard to say whether this type of idealized image is responsible for the compartmentalization or the other way around. It seems likely, however, that the fact of living in compartments is the more fundamental and that it would account for the kind of image created. To appreciate this phenomenon, cultural factors must be taken into consideration. Humans have become to so great a degree merely a cog in an intricate social system that alienation from the self is almost universal, and human values themselves have declined. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
As a result of innumerable outstanding contradictions in our civilization a general numbness of more perception has developed. Moral standards are so casually regarded that no one is surprised, for instance, to see a person a pious Christian or devoted father one day, conducting himself like a gangster the next. There are too few wholehearted and integrated persons around us to offer contrast to our own scatteredness. In the analytical situation Dr. Freud’s discarding of moral values—a consequence of his viewing psychology as a natural science—has contributed toward making the analyst just as blind as that patient to contradictions of this sort. The analyst thinks it “unscientific” to have moral values of one’s own or to take any interest in those of the patient. As a matter of fact, the acceptance of contradictions appears in many theoretical formulations not necessarily confined to the moral sphere. If one discounts the “statistical criminal,” there still remains the vast domain of inferior qualities and primitive tendencies which belong to the psychic structure of the person who is less ideal and more primitive than we should like to be. We have certain ideas as to how a civilized our educated or moral being should live, and we occasionally do our best to fulfil these ambitious expectations. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
However, since nature has not bestowed the same blessings upon each of her children, some are more and others are less gifted. Thus there are people who can just afford to live properly and respectably; that is to say, no manifest flaw is discoverable. They either commit minor sins, if they sin at all, or their sins are concealed from them by a thick layer of unconsciousness. One is rather inclined to be lenient with sinners who are unconscious of their sins. However, nature is not at all lenient with unconscious sinners. She punishes them just as severely as if they had committed a conscious offence. It is highly moral people, unaware of their other side, who develop particularly hellish moods which make them insupportable to their relatives. The odour of sanctity may be far reaching, but to live with a saint might well cause an inferiority complex or even a wild outburst of immortality in individuals less morally gifted. Morality seems to be a gift like intelligence. One cannot pump it into a system to which is not indigenous. Unfortunately there can be no doubt that humans are, on the whole, less good than they imagine themselves or want to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the more morbid and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. However, if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected, and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness. At all events, it forms an unconscious snag, blocking the most well-meant attempts. We carry our past with us, to wit, the primitive and inferior human with desires and emotions, and it is only with an enormous effort that we can detach ourselves from this burden. If it comes to a neurosis, we invariable have to deal with a considerably intensified shadow. And if such a person wants to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which one’s conscious personality and one’s shadow can live together. This is a very serious problem for all those who are themselves in such a predicament or have to help sick people back to normal life. Mere suppression of the shadow makes no sense. The reconciliation of these opposites is a major problem, and even in antiquity it bothered certain minds. Thus we know of an otherwise legendary personality of the second century, Carpocrates, a Neoplatonist philosopher whose school, according to Irenaeus, taught that good and evil are merely human opinions and that the soul, before its departure from the body, must pass through the whole gamut of human experience to the every end if not to call back into the prison of the body. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
It is as if the soul could only ransom itself from imprisonment in the somatic World of the demiurge by complete fulfilment of all life’s demands. The bodily existence in which we find ourselves is a kind of hostile brother whose conditions must first be known. It was in this sense that the Carpocratians interpreted Matthew 5.25. (also Luke 12.58): “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou has paid the uttermost fartherng.” Remembering the other Gnostic doctrine that no human can be redeemed from a sin one has not committed, we are here confronted with a problem of the very greatest importance, obscured through it by the Christian abhorrence of anything Gnostic. Inasmuch as the “adversary,” is none other than “the other in me,” it is plain that the Carpocratian mode of thought would lead to the following interpretation of Matthew 5.22: “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with oneself without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to oneself, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thou hast aught against thyself, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thyself, and then come and offer the gift. Agree with thyself quickly, whiles thou art in the way with thyself; lest at any time thou delieverest thyself to the judge.” From here it is but a step to the uncanonical saying: “Humans, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed; but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed, and a transgressor of the law.” However, the problem comes very close indeed in the parable of the unjust steward, which is a stumbling-block in more senses than one. “And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely,” reports Luke 16.8. In the Vulgate the word for “wisely” is prudenter, and in the Greek text it means (prudently, sensibly, intelligently). There is no denying hat practical intelligence functions here as a court of ethical decisions. Perhaps, despite Irenaeus, we may credit the Carpocratians with this much insight, and allow that they too, like the unjust steward, were commendably aware of how to save face. It is natural that the more robust mentality of the Church Fathers could not appreciate the delicacy and the merit of this subtle and, from a modern point of view, immensely practical argument. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
It was also dangerous, and it is still the most vital and yet the most ticklish ethical problem of a civilization that has forgotten why human’s life should be sacrificial, that is, offered up to an idea greater than themselves. If they may sense to them, humans can live the most amazing things. However, the difficulty is to create that sense. It must be a conviction, naturally; but you find that the most convincing things humans can invent are inexpensive and ready-made, and are never able to convince them against their personal desires and fears. If the repressed tendencies, the shadow as I call them, were obviously evil, there would be no problem whatever. However, the shadow is merely somewhat inferior, primitive, unadapted, and awkward; not wholly bad. It even contains childish or primitive qualities which would in a way vitalize and embellish human existence, but convention forbids! When I was growing up, I was not allowed to go to the local pool halls. As I look back, I am sure my parents did not want me to come under the influence of the unsavory characters who frequented those halls. So they built a fence to keep that from happening: “Do not go into those pool halls.” The problem was I did not understand why, so I grew up thinking it was a sin to play pool (do not laugh, I really did). #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Imagine my consternation when I moved to a Christian conference center and saw a beautiful antique pool table in the recreation room and Godly men playing pool. Should we scrap our fences, then? Not necessarily. Often they are helpful; sometimes they are necessary. Some years ago I realized I was craving espresso bean gelato to the point where I was not exercising responsible self-control. I has some every night at dinner and another dish at bedtime. So I built a fence. I asked my wife to no longer keep a regular supply of espresso bean gelato on hand. Only after my craving had been dealt with did we begin to have gelato occasionally. I think my parents’ pool hall fence was appropriate. However, there is a lesson in my experience for all parents: Do not focus on the fence. If you erect a fence for your children—for example, in regard to certain movies or television programs—be sure to focus on the real issues, not the fence. Take time to explain and re-explain the reason for the fence. If you decide, as my parents did, that you do not want your children going to the local pool hall, explain why not. Distinguish between playing the game itself—which has neither negative nor positive moral value—and the atmosphere you are trying to protect them from. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
For all of us, it may be good to have some fences, but we have to work at keeping them as just that—fences, helpful to us but not necessarily applicable to others. We also have to work at guarding our freedom from other people’s fences. Some of the fences in our respective Christian circles have been around a long time. No one quite knows their origin, but by now they are “embedded in concrete.” If you violate one, although it may cause conflict, you must guard your freedom. Stand firm in your freedom, and do not let anyone bring you into bondage with their fences. I am not suggesting you jump over fences just to thumb your nose at the people who hold them so dearly. We are to “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification,” reports Romans 14.19. Use discretion in embracing or rejecting a particular fence. However, do not let other coerce you with humanmade rules. And ask God to help you see if you are subtly coercing or judging others with your own fences. The existential experience through which faith breaks into human life is estrangement. There is no faith without an intrinsic in spite of and the courageous affirmation of oneself in the state of ultimate concern. Existential doubt and faith are poles of the same reality, the state of ultimate concern. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Faith is the positive realization of what is negatively expressed in terms of estrangement. Whoever plunges into oneself breaks through the surface and sinks from depth to depth. The wise person of all ages have found that they were not what they believed themselves to be. The drama of humans are that they are not what they themselves to be. There is a disruption between essence and existence. There are all sorts of disruptions in our psychical depths. Unbelief is hybris, of dynamics from force, of individualization from participation. The vanity of human existence has been universally described and deplored. Life does not appear as a unity, but as a conundrum. The puzzling fragments of life have to be deciphered. And this is all the more difficult as every person is a fragment themselves…a riddle to themselves. Existential philosophers have analysed estrangement and anguish more thoroughly than had been done before, and have reached nearer to the meaning of faith than many others. The existential thinker is the interested or passionate thinker. The passionately living person knows the true nature of humans and life. Interest, passion, indirect communication: there are the qualities of the existential thinker. Are they not also those of the faithful? #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
They are and yet they are not. The existential philosopher who describes the negative depths of life does only part of what faith achieves. Philosophy as such can probe depths. However, only faith can pierce through them and reach the point where depth is also height. It is proper to faith to realize that there is no estrangement without an underlying unity. The absolutely strange cannot enter into a communion. However, the estranged is striving for reunion. Estranged presupposes original oneness. This is true of reunion among people and especially of human love. It is also true of faith. Faith sees estrangement as the manifestation in our existence of our original unity. Its ultimate commitment is a commitment to that form which we are estranged and to which we remain nevertheless related. Speaking in terms of God, we shall say that infinite passion for God is, no less than the intense passion, a consequence of the objective situation, namely, of the state of separation of those who belong together and are driven towards each other in love. This then is the experience of faith: to experience that estrangement in all its forms as a veil covering our union with God, the ground of our being. Seen from inside the experience of faith, estrangement represents both original union and future reunion. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
The state of our whole life is estrangement from others and ourselves, because we are estranged from the Ground of our being, because we are estranged from the origin and aim of our life. And we do not know where we have come from, nor where we are going. We are separated from the mystery, the depth and the greatness of our existence. We heart the voice of that depth; but our ears are closed. We feel that something radical, total and unconditioned is demanded of us; but we rebel against it, try to escape its urgency, and will not accept its promise. Sin in its most profound sense, sin as despair, abounds amongst us. Judah and Jerusalem will be punished for their disobedience—the Lord pleads for and judges His people—the daughters of Zion are cursed and tormented of their Worldliness—Compare Isaiah 3. About 559-545 Before Christ. “For behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole staff of bread, and the whole stay of water. The mighty human, and the human of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient; the captain of fifty, and the honourable human, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children unto them to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
“And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and every one by one’s neighbour; the child shall behave oneself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. When a person shall take hold of one’s brother of the house of one’s father, and shall say: Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let not this ruin come under thy hand—in that day shall one swear saying: I will not be a healer; for in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, because their tongues and their doings have been against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against the, and doth declare their sin to be even as Sodom, and they cannot hide it. Wo unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves! Say unto the righteous that it is well with them; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo unto the wicked, for they shall perish; for the reward of their hands shall be upon them! And my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they who lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths. The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes therefor; for ye have eaten up the vineyard and the spoil of the poor in your houses. What mean ye? Ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faced of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts. Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet—therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the Moon; the chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers; the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head bands, and tablets, and the ear-rings; the rings, and nose jewels; the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pings; the glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet small there shall be stink; and instead of a gridle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty. Thy people shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate, and shall sit upon the ground,” reports 2 Nephi 13. 1-26. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
Glorious God, My Covenant Lord, all Thy promises in Christ Jesus are yea and amen, and all shall be fulfilled. Thou hast spoken them, and they shall be done, commanded, and they shall come to pass. Yet I have often doubted Thee, have lived at times as if there were no God. Lord, please forgive me that death in life, when I have found something apart from Thee, when I have been content with ephemeral things. However, through Thy grace I have repented; Thou hast given me to read my pardon in the wounds of Jesus, the ground of my life, the spring of my hope. Teach me to be resigned to Thy will, to delight in Thy law, to have no will but Thine, to believe that everything Thou doest is for my good. Help me to leave my concerns in Thy hands, for Thou hast power over evil, and bringest from it an infinite progression of good, until Thy purposes are fulfilled. Bless me with Abraham’s faith that staggers not at promises through unbelief. May I not instruct Thee in my troubles, but glorify Thee in my trials; grant me a distinct advance in the divine life; may I reach a higher platform, leave the mist of doubt and fear in the valley, and climb to hill-tops of eternal security in Christ by simply believing He cannot lie, nor turn from his purpose. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Please give me the confidence I ought to have in Christ who is worthy to be praised, and who is blessed for evermore. O Thou most clement, Who recallest the erring Thou most merciful, Who despiest not sinners, we rely on Thine own promise, O Lord, that Thou wilt give pardon to the penitent. May all who seek Thee find Thee. Have mercy, O Lord, upon Thy servants—that all their wickedness may be put away, and they may be so protected by the defence of Thy compassion, that they may go on to perfection in the keeping of Thy commandments; so that in this life they may avoid all misdeeds, and may one day come without confusion before the presence of Thy glory. That Thou wouldest bring back the erring into the way of salvation: We beseech Thee, hear us please. O God, Who delightest in the devotion of the faithful, please make Thy people, we pray to Thee, to be devoted to Thy holy things; that they who depart from their duties by ungodly depravity of mind, may be converted by Thy grace, and return from the snares of the devil wherein they are held captive; through Jesus Christ our Lord. May Thy perpetual gifts, O Lord, be confirmed to Thy faithful servants, that in receiving them they may seek Thee, and in seeking Thee may endlessly receive them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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There are Times that Try Human’s Soul—Do Not Look Back! Something Might be Gaining on You!
There are people who learn, who are open to what happens around them, who listen, who hear the lessons. When they do something that is not wise, they do not do it again. And when they do something that works a little bit, they do it even better and harder the next time. The question to ask is not whether you are a success or a failure, but whether you are a learner or non-leaner. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents. Contemporary radical criticisms of the liberal paradigm of justice carry less weight than they might because they fail to offer absolute alternative framework for reasoning about justice. Some authors do indeed offer principles of justice or images of the just society which they claim will help justify a political practice aiming to alter fundamentally the basic institutions, especially the economic institutions, of our society. Such efforts, however, lack grounding in a critically oriented framework of reasoning about justice. Lacking such grounding, proposals for radical egalitarian or socialist conceptions of justice constitute little more in the way of an alternative absolute theory of justice than do mere criticisms of the dominant framework. I argue that formulation of questions of justice exclusively in distributive terms tends toward conceptual confusion and fails to be basic enough. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
I also argue that the sort of criticism of traditional theories of justice that Milton Fisk, who believed justice is relative to the different interests of dominant and subordinate classes, leaves us with apparently impossible task of developing a theory which can make universalistic claims without abandoning or disguising the historical embeddedness of its origins and application because it collapses into something that is unacceptable and appeals to brute interest. This is because he cannot say which justice we should choose as the right one, or perhaps, indeed, that we choose at all. As Fisk argues, dominant and subordinate classes will tend to accept different principles of justice because of their conflicting interest. To solve these problems with traditional theories of justice, I offer some suggestions for alternative framework for theorizing about justice. To outline a theory of justice, I develop certain elements of the communicative ethics which Jurgen Habermas has proposed. Human rationality is a necessary outcome of successful communication. There are intuitively mastered rules for reaching an understanding and conducting argumentation, possessed by subjects who are capable of speech and action. The goal is to transform this implicit “know-how” into explicit “know-that,” for instance, knowledge, about how we conduct ourselves in the realm of moral-practical reasoning. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
In particular, I take up Habermas’s unelaborated suggestion that the ideal speech situation, which he argues any act of speaking presupposes, expresses the ideal of justice. I argue that the ideal speech situation offers the potential foundation for a framework of theorizing about justice which focuses not primarily on distribution, but on more fundamental questions of institutional relations and domination. I argue, further, that the application of the ideal speech situation to particular social configurations constitutes a means for solving the problem of how to construct an objective and critical conception of justice which does not merely reflect actual social circumstances at the same time that it remains historically specific. Since Adam Smith, almost every theory of social justice has focused primarily on questions of how social benefits should be allocated among members of the society. Insofar as it entails a theory of justice, utilitarianism is a paradigm of this distributive focus. Utilitarian methodology calls for treating all values as greater or lesser “bundles” of goods and comparing alterative distributions of bundles. Contemporary criticisms of classical utilitarian theory as ignoring the most important questions of justice—merit, desert, rights, and so forth—many be apt. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Most contemporary critics of utilitarianism, however, continue to formulate the question of justice primarily as a question of distribution. This distributive paradigm of questioning about justice so dominants philosophical thinking that even critics of the traditional liberal framework continue to formulate the focus of justice in exclusively distributive terms. A distributive focus on theorizing about justice is so much a part of our moral conceptualization that it does not appear possible to have any other to find. To such another focus we must look back to the ancient conception of justice, in particular that enunciated in the Platonic dialogues. For the ancients, justice refers to the whole of virtue insofar as it concerns relations with others. For Plato the question of justice does not concern primarily the proper distribution of social benefits and burdens. Rather, justice concerns first the organization of the community as a whole. We develop a conception of justice by constructing a vision of the organization of social positions and relations which will produce a harmonious and cooperative whole. I do not wish to adopt the Platonic conception of justice, for there is much in it that is inappropriate for us, or indeed absolutely pernicious. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
I will argue, however, that a theory of justice which takes as its primary question the structural and institutional relations of the society in its totality is better than one which focuses exclusively or primarily on questions of distribution. There are, in particular, two objections to the distributive orientation. First, formulation of many apt questions of justice in distributive terms tends to render them conceptually confused. Second, a distributive orientation tends to focus on the evaluation of the effects of given institutional forms and relations, instead of evaluating the institutional structures themselves. Questions about the principles and procedures according to which a society ought to distribute the material benefits of social production obviously constitute crucial questions of social justice. By no means all questions about the rights and liberties a society ought to protect for its members, the structure of power and decision-making, and so on. Here are some example of such questions of justice that are not distributive in any immediate sense: Is a division between mental and manual labour just? Is it just to raise taxes without the mandate of popular referendum? Is marriage just? #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
True to the utilitarian tradition, most modern theories of justice answer questions like these in terms of the relatively quantity of benefits that accrue to persons. They conceptualize questions of rights liberties, the justice of institutionalized positions, decision-making procedures, relations of authority, and so on, as questions of the proper distribution of bundles of non-material goods. Such distributively oriented treatment of questions of rights, liberties, power, and so on, however, tends to obscure the meaning of those concepts. I shall concentrate on the examples of rights and power. Talk of distribution of power within society is perhaps the most common way political theories wrongly construe questions f social justice in distributive terms. Democratic arrangements are frequently held to entail an equal distribution of power, while more hierarchical arrangements are defined by an unequal distribution of power. The conceptual confusion here may ultimately lie in an equivocation on the term “equality.” Equality in the distribution of goods refers to sameness of quantity or value, whereas equality in relations of power and powerlessness means something like “peership.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Discussion of power as some kind of “stock” which can be distributed obscures the fact that power, unlike wealthy, for example, does not exist except through social relations. Having social power means standing in relation with others such that one can control their actions or the conditions of their actions. One can have a plot of land without being related to anyone else, but having the power to levy rent on it essentially entails specific relations to others and a whole supporting set of institutions. It is thus misleading to conceptualize relations of power on analogy with the distribution of an amount of goods. If the social relations of power change in such a way that a person or group gains autonomy, this does not mean that some quantity of power has been redistributed. It means, rather, that a relation of power has been eliminated. This criticism that a distributively oriented theory of justice distorts the meaning of important social and political concepts, however, does not reach to the core of the problem with distributively oriented theories. The main criticism of a distribytively oriented theory of justice is that it tends to focus on patterns of distribution without even bringing into direct theoretical focus the structure of the institutional relations and the movement of social processes which bring this pattern of distribution about. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Like nearly all other modern theories of justice, then, John Rawls’s approach avoids asking about the justice of specific institutional structures themselves, along with the relations of power, exploitation and dependency they can produce. Several writers have argued, for example, that Rawls fails to focus on the institutional relations which underlie economic classes, and fails to justify his assumption that class inequality is inevitable. In his theory Rawls implicitly assumes many institutions as given, moreover, such as competitive markets, political bureaucracies, and monogamous heterosexual families, without every raising questions about whether the positions and relations these institutions entail are just. In sum, distributively oriented theories conceptualize questions of justice, whether of particular actions or practices, or of the pattern of rights and inequalities of a whole society, primarily as questions concerning the fair allocation of social goods, including non-material goods, among individuals. The approach advocated here, on the other hand, focuses on the structures of social organization that allow some individuals to have power over others, on the structure of decision making within and among institutions, and on the definition of social positions themselves. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
I am no arguing, of course, that questions of distribution are not important to a theory of justice, only that these questions of institutional structure should be considered first. On the basis of an ontology of love it is obvious that love it the principle of justice. If life as the actuality of being is essentially the drive towards the reunion of the separated, it follows that the justice of being is the form which is adequate to this movement. The further principles to be derived from the basic principle mediate between it and the concrete situation in which the risk of justice is demanded. There are four principles which perform this mediation. The first principle is that of adequacy, namely the adequacy of the form to the content. There is a complaint, as old as human laws, that laws which were adequate in the past are still in force, although inadequate in the past are still in force, although inadequate in the present. They do not give the form in which creative encounters of power with power are possible and a definite power of being results. They prevent such encounters from becoming creative, or, in terms of the ontology of love, from reuniting the separated. Laws, governing the family structure of another period or its economic relations, may destroy families and disrupt the class unity of this period. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
The possibility for such discrepancies between law and actual encounter is based on the fact that forms which once expressed the power of being, have a tendency towards self-continuation beyond the point of their adequacy. This is so even in nature, as the remnants of former biological stages in later stages of development show. It is confirmed by the conservatism of institutions in human’s cultural and social existence. In both cases it is the risk of self-transcendence which keeps life in the bondage of tested institutions. However, the price paid for the safety in the old form is paid in terms of injustice. And injustice in terms of the inadequacy of the form ultimately undermines safety, so that the price was paid in vain. The second principle of justice is that of equality. It is implicit in every law, in so far as the law is equally valid for the equals. However, the question is: Who are the equals? In what sense is equality meant? In Plato’s Republic, the central concern of which is the idea of justice, a large group of human beings, for instance, those enslaved, are excluded from full humanity and the corresponding justice. Amongst the three groups who are equals as citizens and as such fully human, great inequalities do exist with respect to their claims for distributive justice. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Christianity has reduced the fundamental inequality of the ancient World, namely that between human beings with full humanity and those with limited humanity. There is ultimate equality between all people in the view of God and His justice is equally offered to all of them. Hierarchy and aristocracy are irrelevant for the ultimate relation. However, they are very relevant for the inner human relations. Slavery was not abolished in the early Church and the medieval order was feudal, establishing qualifications of justice according to the claim for justice of each grace of social standing. The principle of equality was restricted to the equals within the same ontological degree, inside and outside the human society. Justice is based on a cosmic hierarchy. It is the form in which this hierarchy actualizes itself. The principle of equality can be understood in the opposite way. It can be applied democratically to every human being. If this is done, one points to the possession of reason in everyone who deserves the name “human.” It is their potential rationality which makes all humans equal. If real equality is to be created, this potentiality must be actualized. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
However, in the process of actualization innumerable differences appear, differences in the given nature of the individual, differences in one’s given social opportunity, differences in one’s given creativity, differences in all sides of one’s power of being. These differences entail differences in one’s social power and consequently in one’s claim for distributive justice. However, these differences are functional and not ontological, as in the systems of hierarchical thinking. They are not unchangeable. Nevertheless they prevent an egalitarian system of society. Actually there is no egalitarian structure in any society. The relation of equality and justice depends on the power of being in a human and one’s corresponding intrinsic claim for justice. The definition of this claim is rather diverse. It is one thing if one is posited on a grade of a hierarchical stairway and one expects to receive the justice which fits one’s grade. It is another if one is considered a unique and incomparable individual and one expects a special justice which is adapted to one’s particular power of being. It is still another if one is considered a potential bearer of reason and one expect the justice which is claimed by one’s dignity as a rational being in different states of development. In all these cases equality is present, but a qualified equality, never an egalitarian one. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Every solution of the problems of human’s freedom can be accepted in the context of the present discussion. What is decisive is only that humans are considered as a deliberating, deciding, responsible person. Therefore one had probably better speak of the principle of personality as a principle of justice. The content of this principle is the demand to treat every person as a person. If people are dealt with as if they were things, justice is always violated. This has been called “reification” (Verdinglichung) or “objectivation” (Vergegenstandlichung). In any case it contradicts the justice of being, the intrinsic claim of every person to be considered a person. This claim includes and circumscribes the relation of freedom to justice. Freedom can mean the inner superiority of the person over enslaving conditions in the external World. The Stoic slave and the Christian slave were equal in their independence of the social conditions which contradicted external freedom but which were not necessarily in conflict with their spiritual freedom, with their persons and with their claim to be considered as persons. The Stoic participates in the justice of the Universe and its rational structure; the Christian expects the justice of the Kingdom of God. An enslavement of the personal center is not implied in one’s social destiny. Spiritual freedom is possible even “in chains.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
In contrast to this ideal of non-political spiritual freedom, liberalism tries to remove the enslaving conditions. The transition from the one to the other idea of freedom is the awareness that there are social conditions which prevent spiritual freedom either generally or for the great majority of people. This was the argument of the revolutionary Anabaptists in the Reformation period. It was the argument of many social reformers in all periods of Christianity, and it was the argument of humanistic and religious socialists in our time. However, more than this is involved in the liberal fight for political freedom. “Liberty” is considered to be an essential principle of justice because the freedom of political and cultural self-determination is seen as an essential element of personal existence. Even if both the master and the slave can participate in a transcendent freedom, slavery in all forms contradicts justice. This liberal doctrine of justice is an exception in the total history of humankind, and it is today receding in influence. Does our ontological analysis give an answer to the question of freedom in liberalism? And is there an answer to the previous question of the aristocratic and the democratic idea of equality in connexion with it? #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The ontology of love gives the answer. If justice is the form of the reunion of the separated, it must include both the separation without which there is no love and the reunion in which love is actualized. This is the reason why frequently the principle of fraternity or solidarity or comradeship or, more adequately, community has been added to the principles of equality and liberty. This addition has, however, been rejected in the name of a formal concept of justice, and under the assumption that community is an emotional principle adding nothing essential to the rational concept of justice—on the contrary, endangering its strictness. The decision of all these interwoven problems is dependent on the qualities of justice and the relationship of justice to power and love. Ideas are very general models of or assumptions about reality. They are patterns of interpretations, historically developed and socially shared. They sometimes are involved with beliefs, but are much more than belief and do not depend upon it. They are ways of thinking about and interpreting things. They are so pervasive and essential to how we think about and how we approach life that we often do not even know they are there or understand when and how they are at work. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Our idea system is a cultural artifact, growing up with us from earliest childhood out of the teachings, expectations and observable behaviours of family and community. Anthropologists observe that the World occupied by a human being comprises not only the surrounding land, water, sky, plant and animal life, human beings and works of human hands, but also a “symbolic reality,” which is superimposed upon material reality. Our idea system is shareable by many—perhaps by entire social systems, such as nations or families—and it develops and changes through time and historical process, often without it being noticed that it has in fact changed. Examples of ideas are freedom, education, happiness “The American Dream,” science, progress, death, home, the feminine or masculine, the religious, “Christian,” “Muslim,” church, democratic (form of government), fair, just family, evolution, God, the secular, and so on. If you wish to see ideas in action, look closely at artistic endeavours in their various forms (especially today, movies and music, which encapsulate most of what is called “pop culture”), and at efforts to persuade (especially today, politics and commercials). Look, for example, at the place, freedom, a major idea now, plays in automobile ads and rock lyrics. And look at our now largely paralyzed public education system to see what ideas are dominant in students and teachers. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
Now, for all their importance to human life, ideas are never capable of definition or precise specification; and yet people never stop trying to define them, in their vain efforts to control them. They are broadly inclusive, historically developing ways of interpreting things and events, which, for all their power, often do not emerge into the consciousness of the individual. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for most people to recognize which ideas are governing their life and how those ideas are governing their life. This is partly because one commonly identifies his or her own governing ideas with reality, pure and simple. Ironically, it is often people who think of themselves as “practical” or as “humans of action”—both, of course, major ideas—who are most in the grip of ideas: so far in that grip that they cannot be bothered to think. They simply do not know what moves them. However, ideas govern them and have their consequences anyway. Another illustration of “idea grip” would be how most people think of success in life in terms of promotions and possessions. One’s culture is seen most clearly in what one thinks of as “natural” and as requiring no explanation or even thought. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
Beware the fury of a patient person. Jacob saw his Redeemer—the law of Moses typifies Christ and proves He will come. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And now, Jacob spake many more things to my people at that time; nevertheless only these things have I caused to be written, for the things which I have written sufficeth me. And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he proveth all his words. Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the World, unto humans, are the typifying of him. And also my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers; yea, my soul delighteth in his grace, and in his justice, and power, and mercy in the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“And my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that save Christ should come all human must perish. For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation. However, there is a God, and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time. And now I write some of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all humans. Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all humans,” reports 1 Nephi 10.1-8. God of my end, it is my greatest, noblest pleasure to be acquainted with Thee and my rational, immortal soul; it is sweet and entertaining to look into my being when all my powers and passions are untied and engaged in pursuit of thee, when my soul longs and passionately breathes after conformity to Thee and the full enjoyment of Thee; no hour pass away with so much pleasure as those spent in communion with Thee and with my hearts. O how desirable, how profitable to the Christian life is a spirit of holy watchfulness and Godly jealousy over myself, when my soul is afraid of nothing except grieving and offending Thee, the blessed God, my Father and friend, whom I then love and long to please, rather than be happy in myself! #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Knowing, as I do, that this is the pious temper, worthy of the highest ambition, and closet pursuit of intelligent creatures and holy Christians, may my joy derive from glorifying and delighting Thee. I long to fill all my time for Thee, whether at home or in the way; to place all my concerns in Thy hands; to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own. Help me to live to Thee forever, to make Thee my last and only end, so that I may never more in one instance love my sinful nature. O God, our Refuge in pains, our Strength in weakness, our Help in tribulations, our Solace in tears; spare, O Lord, spare Thy people, give not up to beasts the souls that praise Thee. O God of Heavenly powers, fulfill Thy promised mercy; that the hearts of the rebellious may be subdued to the truth of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and everlasting God, Who savest all humans, and willest not that any should perish; look upon the sols which have been deceived by the fraud of the devil; that all heretical perversity may be driven away, and the hearts of the erring may repent, and return to Thine unshaken truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Dissolve, O Christ, the schisms of heresy, which seek to subvert the faith, which strive to corrupt the truth; that as Thou art acknowledged in Heaven and in Earth as one and the same Lord, so Thy people, gathered from all nations, may serve Thee in the unity of faith. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
This Nation, Under God, Shall Have a New Birth of Freedom and Shall Not Perish from the Earth!
The dream begins, most of the time, with believing in yourself, by loving yourself, pushing yourself, and allowing God to lead you on to the next level, sometimes enlightening you along the way with truth. God posses in penetrating insight into His children’s needs. We have already seen that external stimuli are not necessary for central processes to be active. As networks of assemblies and phase-cycles are activated and continue their process in semi-independence of further incoming information, we get something like “looking ahead.” The pattern of impulses formed within the structure of connexions will function as an apparatus of orientation by representing both the actual state of the environment and the changes to be expected by that environment. Here we are back to the process of “expectancy.” Our expectations of what will happen are already on the map. Either a similar sequence of events has happened in the past and for that reason may be expected again in the future; or higher-order processes have formed an image of what can happen, on the basis of whatever information is available about what has happened in the past. Thus behavior now is guided and directed by an expectation, just concept t (for “triangle”) could direct and guide the eye to look for angles. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
The representation or model of the environment will thus constantly tend to run ahead of the actual situation. This representation of the possible results following from the existing position will of course be constantly checked and corrected by the newly arriving sensory signals which record actual developments in the environment. The representations of the external environment which will guide behaviour will thus be not only representations of the actually existing environment, but also representations of the changes to be expected in that environment. We must therefore conceive of the model as constantly trying out possible developments and determining action in the light of the consequences which, from the representations of such actions, would appear to follow from it. On the map are good places, and paths to good places—goals, we might say, and steps to those goals. The model is the active part of the map which shows at any moment where we are in relation to the good places on our maps (and in relation to painful places as well). The map enables us to look ahead to some extent, that is to have expectations of what can happen next. What can happen next may lead to good places eventually or to painful places. Expectations can turn into preferred or dreaded outcomes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The image on the map which already has good feelings attached to it may be kept in mind by the processes of reverberation. It is thereby likely to steer the organism to respond selectively to further information, according to the messages congruity with a good path. The parts of the map associated with good feelings, which hold our preferences, can thus act as gyroscopes, bringing the organism back on course towards good things when it has deviated. Part of the map associated with bad feelings may of course operate in a similar way. The data on fight and flight as defense reactions makes the instinctive theory of aggression appear in a peculiar light. The impulse to flee plays—neurophysiologically and behaviourally—the same if not a larger role in animal behaviour than the impulse to fight. Neurophysiologically, both impulses are integrated in the same way; there is no basis for saying that aggression is more “natural” than flight. Why, then, do instinctivists talk about the intensity of the innate impulses of aggression, rather than about the innate impulse for flight? #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
If one were to translate the reasoning of the instinctivist regarding the impulse for fight to that of flight one would arrive at the this kind of statement: “Humans are drive by an innate impulse to flee; one may try to control this impulse by one’s reason, yet this control will prove to be relatively inefficient, even though some means can be found that may serve to curb the power of the ‘flight instinct.’” Considering the emphasis that has been given to innate human aggression as one of the gravest problems of social life, from religious positions down to the scientific work, a theory centered around human’s “uncontrollable flight instinct” may sound funny, but it is neurophysiologically as sound as that of “uncontrolled aggression.” In fact, from a biological standpoint it would seem that flight serves self-reservation better than fight. To political or military leaders it may, in fact, not sound funny, but rather sensible. They know from experience that human’s nature does not seem to incline toward heroism and that many measures have to be taken to motivate humans to fight and to prevent them from running away in order to save one’s life. The student of history may rise the question whether the instinct for flight has not proven to be at least as powerful a factor as that for fight. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
One may come to the conclusion that history has been determined not so much by instinctive aggression as by the attempt to suppress human’s “flight instinct.” One may speculate that a large part of human’s social arrangements and ideological efforts have been devoted to this aim. Humans had to be threatened with death to instill in them a feeling of awe for the superior wisdom of their leaders, to make them believe in the value of honour. One tried to terrorize one with the fear of being called a coward or a traitor, or one simply got him or her drunk with liquor or wit the hope of booty and women. Historical analysis might show that the repression of the flight impulse and the apparent dominance of the fight impulse is largely due to the cultural rather than to biological factors. These speculations are only intended to point to the ethological bias in favour of the concept of Homo aggressivus; the fundamental facts remains, that the brain of animals and humans has built-in neuronal mechanisms which mobilize aggressive behaviour (or flight) in response to threats to the survival of the individual or the species, and that this type of aggression is biologically adaptive and serves life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
In our own Anglo-American culture there seems to be two common-sense models according to which we formulate our conceptions of behaviour: the real, sincere, or honest performance; and the false one that thorough fabricators assemble us, whether meant to be taken unseriously, as in the work of stage actors, or seriously, as in the work of confidence people. We tend to see real performances as something not purposely put together at all, being unintentional product of the individual’s unselfish conscious response to the facts in one’s situation. And contrived performances we tend to see as something painstakingly pasted together, one false item on another, since there is no reality to which the items of behaviour could be a direct response. It will be necessary to see now that these dichotomous conceptions are by way of being the ideology of honest performers, providing strength to the show they put on, but a poor analysis of it. First, let it be said that there are many individuals who sincerely believe that the definition of the situation they habitually project is the real reality. In this report I do not mean to question their proportion in the population but rather the structural relation of their sincerity to the performances they offer. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
If a performance is to come off, the witnesses by and large must be able to believe that the performers are sincere. This is the structural place of sincerity in the drama of events. Performers may be sincere—or be insincere but sincerely convinced of their own sincerity—but this kind of affection for one’s part is not necessary for its convincing performances. There are not many French cooks who are really Russian spies, and perhaps there are not many women who want to play the part of wife to one man and mistress to another but these duplicities do occur, often being sustained successfully for long periods of time. This suggests that while persons usually are what they appear to be, such appearances could still have been managed. There is, then, a statistical relation between appearances and reality, not an intrinsic or necessary one. In fact, given the unanticipated threats that play upon a performance, and given the need (later to be discussed) to maintain solidarity with one’s fellow performers and some distance from the witnesses, we find that a rigid incapacity to depart from one’s inward view of reality may at times endanger one’s performance. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Some performances are carried off successfully with complete dishonesty, other with complete honesty; but for performances in general neither of these extremes is essential and neither, perhaps, is dramaturgically advisable. The implication here is that an honest, sincere, serious performance is less firmly connected with the solid World than one might assume. And this implication will be strengthened if we look again at the distance usually placed between quite honest performances and quite contrived ones. In this connection take, for example, the remarkable phenomenon of stage acting. It does take deep skill, long training, and psychological capacity to become a good stage actor. However, this fact should not blind us to another one: that almost anyone can quickly learn a script well enough to give a charitable audience some sense of realness in what is being contrived before them. And it seems this is so because ordinary social intercourse is itself put together as a scene is put together, by the exchange of dramatically inflated actions, counteractions, and terminating replies. Scripts even in the hands of unpracticed players can come to life because life itself is a dramatically enacted thing. All the World is not, of course, a stage, but the crucial ways in which it is not are not easy to specify. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
The recent use of “psychodrama” as a therapeutic technique illustrates a further point in this regard. In these psychiatrically staged scenes patients not only act out parts with some effectiveness, but employ no script in doing so. Their own past is available to them in a form which allows them to stage a recapitulation of it. Apparently a part once played honestly and in earnest leave the performer in a position to contrive a showing of it later. Further, the parts that significant others play to one to switch from being the person that one was to being the persons that others were for one. This capacity to switch enacted roles when obliged to do so could have been predicted; everyone apparently can do it. For in learning to perform our parts in real life we guide our own productions by not too consciously maintaining an incipient familiarity with the routine of those to whom we will address ourselves. And when we come to be able properly to manage a real routine we are able to do this in part because of “anticipatory socialization,” having already been schooled in the reality that is just coming to be real for us. When the individual does move into a new position in society and obtains a new part to perform, one is not likely to be told in full detail how to conduct oneself, nor will the facts of one’s new situation press sufficiently to one from the start to determine one’s conduct without one’s further giving thought to it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Ordinarily one will be given only a few cues, hints, and stage directions, and it will be assumed that one already has in one’s repertoire a large number of bits and pieces of performances that will be required in the new setting. The individual will already have a fair idea of what modesty, deference, or righteous indignation looks like, and can make a pass at playing these bits when necessary. One may even be able to play out the part of hypnotic subject or commit a “compulsive” crime on the basis of models for these activities that one is already familiar with. A theatrical performance or a staged confidence game requires a thorough scripting of the spoken content of the routine; but the vast part involving “expression given off” is often determined by meager stage directions. It is expected that the performer of illusions will already know a good deal about how to manage one’s voice, one’s face, and one’s body, although one—as well as any person who directs one—may find it difficult indeed to provide a detailed verbal statement of this kind of knowledge. And in this, of course, we approach the situation of the straightforward person in the street. Socialization may not so much involve a learning of the many specific details of a single concrete part—often there could not be enough time or energy for this. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
What does seem to be required of the individual is that one learn enough pieces of expression to be able to “fill in” and manage, more or less, any part that one is likely to be given. The legitimate performances of everyday life are not “acted” or “put on” in the sense that the performer knows in advance just what one is going to do, and does this solely because of the effect it is likely to have. The expressions it is felt one is giving off will be especially “inaccessible” to one. However, as in the case of less legitimate performers, the incapacity of the ordinary individual to formulate in advance the movements of one’s eyes and body does not mean that one will not express oneself through these devices in a way that is dramatized and pre-formed in one’s repertoire of actions. In short, we all act better than we know how. When the individual’s stigma is established in one during one’s stay in an institution, and when the institutions retains a discrediting hold upon one for a period after one’s release, one may expect a special cycle of passing. For example, in one mental hospital it was found that patients re-entering the community often planned to pass in some degree. Patients who were forced to rely on the rehabilitation officer, the social service worker, or the employment agencies for a job, often discussed among their fellows the contingencies they faced and the standard strategy for dealing with them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
For the first job, official entrée would necessitate the employer knowing about their stigma, and perhaps the personnel officer, but always the lower levels of the organization and workmates could be kept in some ignorance. As suggested, it was felt that this could involve a certain amount of insecurity because it would not be known for sure who “knew” and who did not, and how long-lasting would be the ignorance of those who did not know. Patients expressed the feeling that after staying in a placement job of this kind for six months, long enough to save some money and get loose from hospital agencies, they would quit work and, on the basis of the six-month work record, get a job someplace else, this time trusting that everyone at work could be kept ignorant of the stay in a mental hospital. Another strategy of those who pass is to present sights of their stigmatized failing as signs of another attribute, one that is less significantly a stigma. People with mental impairments, for example, apparently sometimes try to pass as mental patients, the latter being the lesser of the two social evils. “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,” reports Acts 4.19. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Similarly, a hard of hearing person may intentionally style his or her conduct to give others the impression that he or she is a daydreamer, an absent-minded person, an indifferent, easily bored person—even someone who is feeling faint, or snores and therefore is unable to answer quiet question since one is obviously asleep. These character traits account for failure to hear without the imputation of deafness. The self-actualized has no wish to put one’s ego forward, makes no pretensions to spiritual superiority, yet one’s wishes to awaken others to the idea that enlightenment is possible, is worth seeking, and is accompanied by unparalleled felicity. It is possible for a person to realize one’s high aspiration. However, will one then find that all is bliss? How could that be when first one would become much more sensitive to the Word’s miseries and sorrows and, second, much more aware that everything that is, including oneself, is merely a passing show—just like a dream of the night which vanishes in the morning? Will there not be a touch of melancholy in these two aspects of one’s awareness? The acceptance will be there, for one will be just as much aware of the Real which does not pass, but this acceptance will itself be touched with a kind of resignation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Is this what the religio-mystics mean when they so often admonish others to resign themselves to God’s will? There is a type of legalism I want to address: the observance of humanmade rules. Paul’s call to stand firm in our freedom in Christ and not let ourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery is just as valid today with our rules as it was in the Galatians’ day with the Mosaic law. I previously noted that King John was forced to sign the Magna Charta. However, God gave us our spiritual Magna Charta. Though Paul, He called us to be free: “You, my brothers, were called to be free.” In fact, God does not just call us to freedom, He actually exhorts us to stand firm in our freedom—to resist all efforts to abridge or destroy it. Despite God’s call to be free and His earnest admonition to resist all efforts to curtail it, there is very little emphasis in Christian circles today on the importance of Christian freedom. Just the opposite seems to be true. Instead of promoting freedom, we stress our rules of conformity. Instead of preaching living by grace, we preach living by performance. Instead of encouraging new believers to be conformed to Christ, we subtly insist that they be conformed to our particular style of Christian culture. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
We do not intend to do this and would earnestly deny we are. Yet that is the bottom-line effect of most of our emphases in Christian circles today. For example, many people would react negatively to my quoting only part of Galatians 5.12, “You, my brothers, were called to be free.” Despite the fact that this statement is a complete sentence, they would say, “But that is not all of the verse. Go on to quote the remainder: ‘But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.’” (We seem to forget that verse divisions were not inspired.) The person who reacts that way has made my point. We are much more concerned about someone abusing one’s freedom than we are about one’s guarding it. We are more afraid of indulging the sinful nature than we are of falling into legalism. Yet legalism does indulge the sinful nature because it fosters self-righteousness and religious pride. It also diverts us from the real issues of the Christian life be focusing on external and sometimes trivial rules. “But wo unto the rich who are rich as to the things of the World. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them. And wo unto the deaf that will not hear; for they shall perish. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish also. Wo unto the uncircumcised of heart, for a knowledge of their iniquities shall smite them at the last day. Wo unto the lair, for one shall be thrust down to hell. Wo unto the murderer who deliberately killeth, for one shall die. Wo unto them who commit whoredoms, for they shall be thrust down to hell. Yea, who unto those that worship idols, for the devil of all devils delighteth in the. And, in fine, who unto all those who die in their sins; for they shall return to God, and behold his face and remain in their sins. O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded its life eternal. O, my beloved brethren, give ear to my words. Remember the greatness of the Holy One of Israel. Do not say that I have spoken hard things against you; for if ye do, ye will revile against the truth; for I have spoken the words of your Marker. I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not for they love the truth and are not shaken. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
“O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for humans is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before one, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and one employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for one cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name. And whoso knocketh to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they are rich who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they who despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. However, the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever—yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints. O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all people shall be judged of their works, that the God of Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation. Prepare your souls for that glorious day when justice shall be administered unto the righteous, even the day of judgment, that ye may not shrink with awful fear; that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness, and be constrained to exclaim: Holy, holy are thy judgement, O Lord God Almighty—but I know my guilt; I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath obtained me, that I am a prey to his awful misery. However, behold, my brethren, is it expedient that I should awake you to an awful reality of these things? Would I harrow up your souls if your minds were pure? Would I be plain unto your according to the plainness of the truth if ye were freed from sin? Behold, if ye were holy I would speak unto you of holiness; but as ye are not holy, and ye look upon me as a teacher, it must needs be expedient that I teach you the consequences of sin. Behold, my soul abhorreth sin, and my heart delighteth in righteousness; and I will praise he holy name of my God. Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and one that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labour for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness. Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice. And behold how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescension unto the children of humans; and because of his greatness, and his grace and mercy, he has promised unto us that our seed shall not utterly be destroyed, according to the flesh, but that he would preserve them; and in future generations they shall become a righteous branch unto the house of Israel. And now, my brethren, I would speak unto you more; but on the morrow I will declare unto you the remainder of my words. Amen,” reports 2 Nephi 9.30-54. Depart, O Christian soul, out of this World, in the Name of God the Father Almighty, Who created thee; in the Name of Jesus Christ His Son, who suffered for thee; in the Name of this Holy Ghost, Who has been poured into thee; may thy place be this say in peace, and thy habitation in the Heavenly Jerusalem. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
My God, I feel it is Heaven to please Thee, and to be what thou wouldst have me be. O that I were holy, pure as Christ is pure, perfect as Thy Spirit is perfect! These, I feel, are the best commands in Thy Book, and shall I break them? Must I make them? Am I under such a necessity as long as I live here? Woe, woe is me that I am a sinner, that I grieve this blessed God, who is infinite in goodness and grace! O, if he would punish me for my sins, it would not wound my heart so deep to offend him; but though I sin continually, He continually repeats his kindness to me. At times I feel I could bear any sufferings, but how can I dishonour this glorious God? What shall I do to glorify and worship this best of beings? O that I could consecrate my soul and body to His service, without restraint, forever! O that I could give myself up to him, so as never more to attempt to be my own! Or have any will or affections that are not perfectly conformed to His will and His love! However, alas, I cannot live and not sin. O may Angels glorify Him incessantly, and if possible, prostrate themselves lower before the blessed King of Heaven! I long to bear a part with them in ceaseless praise; but when I have done all I can to eternity I shall not be able to offer more than a small fraction of the homage that the glorious God deserves. Give me a heart full of divine, Heavenly love. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Unto every Chrisitan souls that is afflicted, or plunged into distress, grant Thou mercy, grant relief, grant refreshment. Despise not, O Lord, we beseech Thee, those who cry out in their afflictions, but mercifully relieve their pain with speedy assistance; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
To Understand All is to Forgive All and Let a White Lily Emerging Unsullied from a Bog
We seldom attribute common sense except to those who agree with us. Be kind to unkind people—they need it the most. Tranquility can be reached by simply allowing the mind to become quiet. From tranquility emerges a person brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. An alcoholic patient, A, complained of the inconsiderateness of his mistress. As far as I could see, the complaint was not warranted, or at any rate not nearly to the extent that A implied. He himself suffered from a conflict, quite obvious to an outsider, of being compliant, good-natured, and generous on the one hand and domineering, demanding, and arrogant on the other. Here, then, was a projection of aggressive trends. However, what made the projection necessary? In his idealized image, aggressive tendencies were merely a natural ingredient of a forceful personality. The most prominent feature, however, was goodness—there had not been anyone so good as he since St. Francis, and never had there been such an ideal friend. Was the projection, then, a sop to his idealized image? Certainly! However, it also permitted him to live out his aggressive trends without becoming aware of them and so being confronted with his conflicts. Here was a person caught in an unsolvable dilemma. He could not relinquish his aggressive trends because they were of a compulsive nature. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
Neither could he abandon his idealized image, for it was what held him together. The projection was a way out of the dilemma. It thus represented an unconscious duplicity: it enabled him to asset all his arrogant demands and to be at the same time the ideal friend. The fact was that he himself was given to transitory affairs which he kept secret. One might think here of a retaliatory fear growing out of his judging others by himself. Certainly a need to justify himself was involved. Consideration of a possible projection of homosexual tendencies did not help to clarify the situation. The clue lay in his peculiar attitude toward his own unfaithfulness. His affairs were not forgotten, but in retrospect they did not register. They were no longer a live experience. The alleged unfaithfulness of the woman, on the other hand, was quite vivid. Here, then, was an externalization of experience. Its function was the same as that of the previous example: it allowed him to maintain the idealized image and also do as he pleased. Power politics, as played among political and professional groups, may serve as another instance. Frequently such maneuvering is motivated by a conscious intention to weaken a rival and fortify one’s own position. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
However, such maneuvering may also spring from an unconscious dilemma similar to the one presented above. In that case it would be an expression of unconscious duplicity. It would permit one all the intrigue and manipulation involved in this kind of attack without blemishing the idealized image, while at the same time affording an excellent way of pouring all one’s anger and contempt for oneself upon another person—better still, upon one who it is desirable to defeat in the first place. I shall conclude by pointing out a common way in which responsibility may be shifted to others without investing them with one’s own difficulties. Many patients, as soon as they are made aware of certain of their problems, jump immediately to their childhood and pin all their explanation on that. They are sensitive to coercion, they say, because they had a domineering mother. They are easily humiliated because humiliations were suffered in childhood; they are vindictive because of their early injuries; they are withdrawn because nobody understood them when they were young; they are inhibited in pleasures of the flesh because of their puritanical upbringing, and so on and so on. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
I do not refer here to interviews in which both analyst and patient are seriously engaged in understanding early influences but rather to an overeagerness to explore childhood which leads to nothing but endless repetition and is accompanied by an equally great lack of interest in exploring the forces operating in the patient at present. Inasmuch as this attitude is supported by Dr. Freud’s overemphasis on genesis, let us carefully examine how much of it is based on truth and how much on fallacy. It is true that the patient’s neurotic development started in childhood and that all the data one can provide is relevant to an understanding of the specific kind of development that has taken place. It is true also that one is not responsible for one’s neurosis. The impact of circumstances was such that he could not help developing as he did. For reasons that will be discussed presently, the analyst must make this point very clear. The fallacy lies in the patient’s lack of interest in all the forces that have been built up in one on the basis of one’s childhood. These, however, are the forces that are operating in one now and that lie behind the present difficulties. One having seen so much hypocrisy around oneself as a child may have played a part, for instance, in making one cynical. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
However, if one relates one’s cynicism to one’s early experience alone, one ignores one’s current need to be cynical—a need that springs from one’s being divided between divergent ideals and so having to throw all values overboard in an attempt to solve that conflict. Moreover, one tends to assume responsibility where one cannot, and to refuse to assume it where one should. One keeps referring to early experiences in order to reassure oneself that one really cannot help having certain failings, and at the same time feels that one should have come out of one’s early calamities unscathed—a white lily emerging unsullied from a bog. For this one’s idealized image is partly to blame, since it will not permit one to accept oneself with flaws or conflicts past or present. However, more important, one’s harping on childhood is a particular kind of evasion of self which still allows one to maintain an illusion of eagerness for self-scrutiny. Because one externalizes them one does not experience the forces operating within one; and one cannot conceive of oneself as an active instrument of one’s own life. Having creased to be the propellant one thinks of oneself as a ball that once pushed downhill must keep on rolling, or as a guinea pig, once conditioned forever determined. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
The one-sided emphasis a patient may put on childhood is so definite an expression of one’s externalizing tendencies that whenever I meet this attitude I expect to find a person who is thoroughly alienated from oneself and who continues to be driven centrifugally away from oneself. And I have not yet been mistaken in this anticipation. The tendency to externalize operates in dreams as a jailer, if the husband slams the doors through which the dreamer wants to pass, if accidents occur or obstacles interfere with reaching a much desired destination, these dreams constitute an attempt to deny the inner conflict and to ascribe it to some external factor. A patient with a general tendency to externalize offers peculiar difficulties in analysis. One comes to it as one would go to a dentist, expecting the analyst to perform a job that does not really concern one. One is interested in the neurosis of one’s wife, friend, brother, but not in one’s own. One talks about the difficulty circumstances under which one lives and is reluctant to examine one’s share in them. If one’s wife were not so neurotic or one’s work so upsetting, one would be quite all right. For a considerable person one has no realization whatever that any emotion forces could possibly be operating within oneself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
The individual is afraid of ghost, burglars, thunderstorms, of vindictive persons around one, of the political situation, but never of oneself. One is at best interested in one’s problems for the intellectual or artistic pleasures they afford one. However, as long as one is, so to speak, psychically nonexistent, one cannot possibly apply any insight one may gain to one’s actual living, and therefore in spite of one’s greater knowledge about oneself can change very little. Externalization is thus essentially an active process of self-elimination. The reason for it being feasible at all lies in the estrangement from the self that is inherent in the neurotic process anyhow. With the self eliminated, it is only natural that the inner conflicts, too, should be removed from awareness. However, by making the person more reproachful, vindictive, and fearful in respect to others, externalization replaces the inner conflicts with external ones. More specifically, it greatly aggravates the conflict that originally set in motion the whole neurotic process: the conflict between the individual and the outer World. Relationships between and among the major information-diffusing, socializing agencies of a society and the interacting, cumulative, socially accepted ideological orientations they create and sustain is the essence of hegemony. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
The American television industry, for instance, connects with other large industries, especially advertising companies but also national and multinational corporations that produce, distribute, and market a wide range of commodities, which could influence behaviour on an unconscious or even conscious level. Commercial TV networks no longer buys original children’s television shows. Network executives only want new program ideas associated with successful retail products already marketed to children. By early 2000 more than 20 toy-based TV shows appeared on American commercial TV weekly. Television also has the ability to absorb other major social institutions—organized religion, for instance—and turn them into popular culture. The TV industry also connects with government institutions, including especially the federal agencies that are supposed to regulate telecommunications. The development of American commercial broadcasting is a vivid example of how capitalist economic forces assert their power. Evacuation of the legislative mandated public service ideal could only have taken place because the Federal Communications Commission stepped aside while commercial interest amassed power and expanded their influence. Symptomatic of the problem is the fact that government regulators typically are recruited from, and return to, the very industries they are supposed to monitor. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
Transmedia and transgenre intergrations with mutually reinforcing ideological consequences are also commonplace. Popular radio and video songs, for example, can also be commercials. Commercial logos become products themselves and are reproduced on tee-shirts, posters, beach towels, and other informational media. The rhetoric of TV commercials and programs is recycled in the lyrics of rap music and in the routines of stand-up comedians performing live and on television. There are films made for television, magazines published about television, and television news magazines. The most well-known national newspaper in the Untied States of America, USA Today, is sold nationwide in vending boxes that resemble TV sets. Television commercial appear on Channel One, and educational news channel shown to students in American elementary school classrooms. Logos that advertise only national gasoline, food, and motel chains appear on government highway signs, advising travelers of their availability at upcoming freeway exists. Expensive public relations campaigns of major corporations distribute “informational” supplementary textbooks to elementary and secondary school systems. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Major business organizations send digests of their annual reports and other promotional materials to college instructors, hoping their biased information will be incorporated into teaching and research. Similar materials are sent to political and religious leaders so they will pas the information along to their constituencies and congregations. In the United States of America, advocacy of alternative political ideologies, parties, and candidates, or suggestions of viable consumer alternatives to the commercial frenzy stimulated and reinforced by advertising and other marketing techniques, are rarely seen on the popular media. Radical ideas typically appear only on underfinanced, non-commercial radio and TV stations and in low-budget print media. These media have tiny public followings compared to commercial television and video outlets, metropolitan daily newspapers, and national magazines. When genuinely divergent views appear on mainstream media, the information is frequently shown in an unfavourable light or is modified and co-opted to surrender to the embrace of mainstream thought. The mass media helped create an impression that even society’s roughest edges ultimately must conform to the conventional contours of dominant ideologies. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Hegemony has been central to the management of ideology in communist nations too, though it develops differently. Central ideological planning and the creation of propaganda to advise “the people” represent the same intention—to protect the interests of ruling elites. The collapse of political authority in some counties is the breakdown in political party’s ideological hegemony. Conflict between culture producers and young audiences is usually what happens before a country undergoes a shift in political power. Young rock musicians and their enthusiastic audiences led a cultural and political struggle against the repressive institutions and the ideology behind them. Trying to contain and control rebellious youth, the former communist governments attempted in sinister ways to defuse politically charged musical and cultural activity of youth by incorporating and sponsoring them. Young people and other dissenter saw through the strategy, however, challenged the hegemony, and stimulated policy changes that later contributed to the dramatic downfall of the European communist governments. In resistance among the country’s disaffected urban population. Recent popular revolutions in communist countries developed from widespread discontent with an interacting spectrum of economic, political, and cultural conditions. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Ironically, the workers’ uprising that Marx and Engels theorized would take place in repressive, class-based capitalist economies developed instead in communist nations which had proven in many respects to be even more repressive. No person, for any considerable period, can wear one face to oneself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true. It is conformity to how other people think we should live instead of how the Bible tells us to live. More often than not, these rules have no valid biblical basis. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, we have tried to “help” God by adding out humanmade rules to His commands. Jesus’ charge against the Pharisees, recorded in Mark 7.6-8, is still valid today: “’These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of humans.” This may seem like a rather severe charge to bring against contemporary Christianity, but it is true today. There are far too many instances within Christendom where our traditions and rules are, in practice, more important than God’s commands. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
More often than not, we try to earn favour with God in the area of humanmade rules, or we feel guilty because we have failed in keeping them. We do or do not do a particular thing because someone, or some group, or our cultural background tells us we ought or ought not to do it. And these “oughts” or “ought nots” are usually communicated by people in such a way that the favour or frown of God is tied to our compliance. However, we can do nothing to earn favour with God, His favour is given solely by His grace through Christ. I realize in our practice may lag behind our understanding, but we cannot begin to practice the truth until we understand it. Jacob explains that the Jews will be gathered in all their lands of promise—The Atonement ransoms man from the Fall—the bodies of the dead will come forth from the grave, and their spirits from hell and from paradise—they will be judged—the Atonement saves from death, hell, the devil and endless torment—the righteous are to be saved in the kingdom of God—penalties for sins are set forth—the Holy One of Israel is the keeper of the gate. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
“That he has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning down from generation to generation, until the time comes that they shall be restored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise. Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children. For I know that ye have searched much, many of you, to know of things to come; wherefore I know that ye know that our flesh must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our bodies we shall see God. Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great Creator that he suffereth himself to become subject unto humans in the flesh, and die for all people, that all humans might become subject unto him. For as death hath passed upon all people, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto humans by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgressions; and because humans became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
“Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon humans must need have remained to and endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother Earth, to rise no more. O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that Angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and become the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, Angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an Angel of light, and stirreth up the children of humans unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. O how great the goodness of our God, who prepereth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the new way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death if the grave. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
“And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of humans will be restored to one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all humans become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect. Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness. And it shall come to pass that when all humans shall have passed from the first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged accord to the holy judgment of God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his Angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end. O the greatness and the justice of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled. However, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the World, and despised the World, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the World, and their joy shall be full forever. O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone. O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
“And he cometh into the World that he may save all people if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all human, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day. And he commandeth all humans that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God. And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, they Holy One of Israel, has spoken it. Wherefore, he has given a law; and where there is no low given there is no punishment and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claimed upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him. For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“However, wo unto one that has the law given, yes, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of one’s probation, for awful is one’s state! O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of humans! When they are learned they think they are wsie, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. However, to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God,” reports 2 Nephi 1-29. O God the Father, of Heaven; have mercy upon the soul of Thy servants. O God the Son, Redeemer of the World; O God the Holy Ghost; O Holy Trinity, One God; Have mercy upon his soul. Thou Who art Three and One; O God the Holy of Holies; by Thy holy Incarnation; by Thy holy Nativity; By Thy holy Circumcision; by Thy holy Epiphany; by Thy holy Baptism; by Thy holy Passion; by Thy holy and most loving Death; by Thy holy Descent into hell; by Thy glorious Resurrection; by Thy wonderful Ascension; by the Coming of the Holy Ghost the Comforter; by the majesty of Thy Coming; we sinners do beseech Thee to hear us. That it may please Thee to deliver the soul of Thy servant from the princes of darkness, and the place of punishment; we beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
That it may please Thee to put all their sins out of remembrance forever; that it may please Thee mercifully to pardon whatever guilt they hath contracted by the fraud of the devil, or by one’s own sinfulness and weakness; that one may be enabled by Thy bounty to receive that remission of one’s sins which one has ever longed for; that it may please Thee to give to this our brother, returning to Thee out of Egyptian bondage, a place of refreshment, and light, and everlasting blessedness; that it may please Thee to give one joy and gladness in Thy kingdom, with Thy Saints and elect; that they may with confidence wait for the Day of Judgment; that it may please Thee to show them that sight of full of loveliness, Thy holy and gracious Face looking on them with benignity; that it may please Thee to hear us; Son of God; O Lamb of God, That takest away the sins of the World; have mercy of their souls. O Lamb of God, That takest away the sins of the World; give them peace, and eternal happiness, and everlasting glory. Lord, please have mercy on them. “The seventh Angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in Heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the World has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever,’” reports Revelation 11.15. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
My dear Lord, I can but tell Thee that Thou knowest I long for nothing but Thyself, nothing but holiness, nothing but union with Thy will. Thou hast given me these desires, an Thou alone canst give me the thing desired. My soul longs for communion with Thee, for mortification of indwelling corruption, especially spiritual pride. How precious it is to have a tender sense and clear apprehension of the mystery of Godliness, of true holiness! What a blessedness to be like Thee, as much as it is possible for a creature to be like its creator! Lord, give me more of Thy likeness; enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness; engage me to live more for Thee. Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual experiences, and when I feel at ease after sweet communings, teach me it is far too little I know and do. Blessed Lord, let me climb up near to Thee, and love, and long, and plead, and wrestle with Thee, and pant for deliverance from the body of sin, for my heart is wandering and lifeless, and my soul mourns to think it should ever lose sight of its Beloved. Please wrap my life in divine love, and keep me ever desiring Thee, always humble and resigned to Thy will, more fixed on Thyself, that I may be more fitted for doing and suffering. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
MILLS STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
Mills Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mission, Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
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Let Us Live then and be Glad while Young Life is Before Us!
Enjoy your own company. Learn to welcome solitude and work on your own inner being—your character. Solitude allows you opportunity to think deep thoughts. To think about where you have been. To think about where you are going. To think about why you feel so strongly about certain issues. To think about how different your values are from those other people you know. To think about wat all people have in common. To question yourself about why you cling to bad habits. To praise yourself for your strengths. To challenge yourself to follow your dreams. Reflection and solitude feed the soul. Again, all you have to do is pause to rest. Nature herself, when we let her, will take care of everything else. It is our impatience that spoils things. Perhaps we can come a little closer to the nature of memory by looking at it in the company of its traditional associates, common sense and imagination. The internal senses, as the are called, are distinguished from the external senses. They are three in number: common sense, memory, and imagination. The common sense was the faculty that unified the data of the external or special senses. Each sense did what is “proper” to it, the eye seeing, the ear hearing, and the like. What was “common” to disparate sensations was organized into a whole by the common sense. The result was a shape or figure of an object. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Common sense also gave meaning to successive affective aspects of experiences, such as pleasure and pain, and oragnised experience into things to be pursued and things to be avoided. To some philosophers, notably Avicenna, the evaluation of sensory experience was distinctive enough to furnish evidence of a separate power, the estimative faculty. The common sense moreover, supplied the dimensions of consciousness or awareness of experience. No sense was aware of its own activity, but the common sense identified the work of each sense. Hence, one “knew” that one as subject was undergoing or “receiving” the experience. In brief, common sense was the receiver, organizer, and evaluator of stimuli from the special senses. In the vocabulary of Schoolmen, its products were the “common sensibles,” as St. Thomas Aquinas said, or in modern parlance, perceptions. Its work dealt with the realities of concrete, everyday experience. In the system of communication among things mental and sensory, the common sense passed along its products to the memory for storage. The basic material of memory, then, was held to be a first-level classification of experience—possibly one could say, first-level abstraction—that in character was much closer to the World of the senses than to the life of the intellect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The imagination as an internal sense was the sole faculty having the power to handle images in the absence of the stimulation that originally gave rise to them. A person might look at London Bridge and go on about one’s business. Later one’s visions of it were the work of the imaginative faculty, imagination. It also made images of its own and in this, its creative role, it was often called fancy. In its reproductive capacity, say imagining London Bridge in the absence of the object, was the imagination responsible for recall or was the memory? Some theorizers, Descartes for example, held that common sense acted like a seal and impressed shapes on the imagination, which retained them, at least for a time. If imagination remembered the shapes of things and recalled them, did memory in its proper role have nothing to do with images? Believers in Galen would quote him: “that part of the soul which imagineth, whatsoever the same may be, seemeth to be the selfe that also remembereth.” Followers of Aristotle maintained that sense images go directly to the imagination which transmits them to the memory. There they are kept until wanted, whereupon the imagination returns and scans the record, behaving much like a person who writes something, lays it aside, and returns to read. In this account, some of the stuff of memory included images. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
As the retentive faculty, memory also stored the products of the understanding and reason. These products were much more abstract than those of common sense and imagination, ranging from the less abstract forms only slightly removed from the sensory levels of experience to the highest abstractions humans were aware of when they thought in terms mathematical, philosophical, and theological. It seems clear, then that, memory is the recorder, the storehouse, the treasury, of a human’s entire experience. However, it is not clear whether memory is held to be solely, or even primarily, responsible for recall and recollection. Especially in recovering and reinstituting a particular image from the past, one’s imagination seemed to be chiefly involved in the effort and to be doing much of the remembering. In the seventeenth century keen analysts of human nature were less ready then Schoolmen to draw neat borderlines among the psychological functions. When we assert that the senses respond to individuals only, that individuals pass entire into the memory, that individuals are impressions and images, we are implying that the end product of sensory activity is an image of a particular object—the sensory counterpart of a particular tree, a musical note, a spoken word. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Sense experience involves selection and rejection among stimuli emanating from objects—and that is all. The forms and shapes of things are part of the data presented to the senses. The sense do not interpret their own movements. Whatever the object of sensation, the object produces, in so far as it can, a likeness and image of itself, in imitation of incorporeal and spiritual nature. However, the immaterial copy of a material object was not merely that of a particular shape; upon it was impressed the species of the object as well. So what went into the memory whole was the shapes and species of things. The memory records the species of things, as a good register, ready when called for by the imagination and reason. Among human’s faculties we find no place for a common sense. We never use the term, nor do we allude to it. We never speak of common sensibles. Do we attribute any of the functions to this faculty to memory? As we have remarked, we give to memory the task of evaluating sense experience, because secondary objects—sense images—please or displease but in memory. Possibly this is another way of saying that the affective and emotional aspects of experience are stored in memory and that in the storehouse through some process of association they become guides to decision and conduct. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
We seem to have found no spot for an estimative faculty. This power, responsible for evaluating sense-bound or practical experience as distinct from intellectual or contemplative activity, sometimes has another name, the cogitative faculty. The French Academie, for example, takes note of those who recognize a knowing soule. All beings who possess this power are not sensitive creatures merely, but show a certain virtue and vigour, as of cogitation, of knowledge and memorie, that they may have skill to preserve their life, and know how to guide and govern themselves according to their natural inclination. A cogitative power so understood must not be confused with Bacon’s vis cogitiva, a power of thought fundamental to the functioning of all of human’s faculties. The passage in which Bacon announces that thinking goes on whenever humans exercise any of their faculties is important to us here in two ways. First, the distinction drawn among the mental faculties are broad ones in which Bacon is thinking in terms of genus and species. The genus of mental life is vis cogitiva; the species can be considered as memory, imagination, reason and the will and affections. On this basis, the faculties share in an activity that is substantial, not merely formal. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The faculties can be designated in part by noting their most general manifestations. Indeed, in the passage under scrutiny, reason is taken broadly enough to include understanding, as it does when Bacon, classifying all knowledge in sweeping terms, relates philosophy to reason. Second, in employing broad language Bacon assigns to memory the functions of remembering and recollecting. It is evident that to him memory was something more than a repository of experience. In the human being, memory referred to a kind of thinking, possible only because experience of all sorts and from all sources of stimulation could be both retained and recalled. The material of memory came from other kinds of thinking. At the higher levels of organized behaviour, the materials were products of understanding, reason, and will; at the lower levels of behaviour they were the experiences of the special sense, the affections, and the appetite. Among the qualities of affective states as they relate to memory were the pleasant and unpleasant. These became the guides to future action; they gave meaning to expectation. In the middle of things, as it were, was imagination. This faculty not only created images of its own and revived sense images but translated abstract thought into objects of sense. These, too, were engraved in memory, and on demand of the other faculties they were summoned up again. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
In recognizing an art of memory and placing it among the intellectual arts, Bacon was doubtless well aware that reasoning must presuppose memory. Reason typically isolates items of experience, analyzes them, and combines them into statements and patterns of which the classic examples are deduction, induction, and analogy. Such intellectual activity is reducible to separate, sequential operations. Each must be held in mind until the full pattern is completed. So memory is involved in reasoning. It is no merely evident in each insane of reasoning, but it also provides a storehouse of materials upon which the intellect can draw whenever it wishes. On these matters Edward Reynolds, a near contemporary of Bacon’s, is more explicit. Memory “preserveth” each separate act of the understanding “until a through [sic] concoction be wrought; so proportionably is the Faculty of Memory given to Reason, as a meanes to consolidate and enrich it.” In retaining experience, memory remembers not only the species of things brought to it by the senses, but it functions as “Consors & co-operatrix Rationis…a joynt-worker in the operations of Reason; which the Latins call Reminiscentia, or Recordatio; including some acts of the Understanding: Which is a reviewing, or (as we speake) a calling to minde of former objects, by discourse, or rationall searching for them.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The dependence of intellectual life upon memory led Aristotle, so Reynoldes reminded his readers, to regard remembrance as the remote ground of all the arts. Hobbes also linked memory to the retention of sense experience and to the “cause” and “coherence” of thoughts or conceptions. Sense always had “some memory adhering to it.” Certain sequences or coherences of thought, called reminiscence, experience, and expectation, were the chief manifestation of memory. It is somewhat surprising to find that Bacon has nothing to say about the physiological basis of memory. Another near contemporary of Bacon’s Sir Kenelm Digby, tried to explain remembrance by postulating vibratory, undulatory behaviour of atom-like particles in a “liquid vaporous” substance. The movements were analogous to those of musical sounds. Similar and simultaneous movements reinforced each other. A particular movement long at rest was revived by a similar undulatory motion. However, Bacon’s interest in the phenomena of recall, the art of memory, and the general nature of the faculty did not lead him int physiological speculations. In sum, Bacon regarded memory as a human’s power of recording and recalling their experience. It received and stored images from the external senses and it organized the affective accompaniments of sensory life in ways that made them meaningful guides to action. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
In common with human’s other faculties memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory thinking. Memory kept the records of human’s analytical, critical, and imaginative thinking which in its symbolic and imageful garb was peculiarly the work of understanding, reason, and imagination. It not only kept the intellectual record; it was essential to its making. If they were to reason at all, humans had to remember. In reflecting on memory and its relationship to other faculties, one becomes aware of two striking, possibly unique, features. The explanation of human’s behaviour is being managed without recourse to as many “entities” and divisions of the soul as was the usual practice. The soul customarily had at least three parts or levels of being: vegetative, sensible, and rational. This vocabulary was abandoned by Bacon. The sensible soul was usually divided into two parts: the external or special senses, and the internal senses. Human’s internal sensory powers had numbered as many as seven, although common practice in the seventeenth century reduced the number to three: common sense, memory, and imagination. Bacon eliminated the common sense. As a result—or perhaps the cause—of the reduction in the number of human’s parts, a second important feature becomes evident. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Human’s sensory functions are closely associated with their intellectual functions, and vice versa. Bacon found that the faculties overlapped in their operations and that it was impossible to fix precise boundaries. The operations were often mutually dependent and the communication direct. Yet a rational act or a memorative act could be recognized as such, and hence was subject to study and improvement, without knowing exactly where reason began and memory left off. The operations of the faculties were very different, yet they closely linked and so near neighboured that they could be discerned separately: the understanding cannot work without the memory being present, representing unto the same the figures and fantasies agreeable thereunto, it behooved that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the memory cannot do it, if the imagination do not accompany the same we shall easily understand, that all the powers are united in every several ventricle [of the brain], and that the understanding is not solely in the one, nor the memory solely in the other, nor the imagination in the third..but that this union of powers is accustomably made in human’s body [as is the union of the four natural abilities: digestive, retentive, attractive, and expulsive. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
As we first turned away from God in our thoughts, so it is in our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occurs. Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change. There the light of God first begins to move upon us through the word of Christ, and there the divine Spirit begins to direct our will to more and more thoughts that can provide the basis for choosing to realign ourselves with God and his way. The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon. We are not totally free in this respect. However, we do have great freedom here, and even though “dead in trespasses and sins,” we still have the ability and responsibility to try to retain God in our knowledge—if only in an inadequate and halting manner. And those who do so will surely makes progress toward him; for if we truly do seek God as best we can, he, who always knows what is really in our hearts, will certainly make himself known to us. It is because of this fact that we always remain responsible before God, even though we are spiritually dead. By “thoughts” we mean all of the ways in which we are conscious of things. That includes our memories, perceptions, and beliefs, as well as what we would ordinarily refer to when we say “I thought of you yesterday,” or “I was just thinking of our meeting tomorrow.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Now clearly, our thoughts are one of the most basic sources of our life. They determine the orientation of everything we do and evoke the feelings that frame our World and motivate our actions. Interestingly, you cannot evoke thoughts by feeling a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings by directing your thoughts. Our power over thoughts is of great and indispensable assistance in directing and controlling our feelings, which themselves are not directly under the guidance of our will. We cannot just choose our feelings. Our ability to think and represent things to ourselves also enables us to bring vast ranges of reality—and non-reality—before us. This is not always done in a way that is adequate to what we think about or in a way that is even correct. It is actually a part of the greatness of thought that it is not limited to accuracy or even reality. It can consider—bring before our mind—what is not the case but could be, or what ought to be though it is not, as well as what never should be. Our essential nature as active and creative beings depends upon our ability to envision what is not the case as well as what is. Our ability to plan for the future must constantly run ahead of reality. And this we do in thought. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
A will that runs ahead depends, of course, upon our abilities to think; and what we think, imagine, believe, or guess sets boundaries to what we can will or choose, and therefore to what we can create. As our senses present a landscape for our body and its actions, so our thoughts present the “lifescape” for our will and our life as a whole. Within that “thought lifescape” (including our perceptions) we make the decisions that determine what we will do and who we will become. The realm of thought involves four main factors. These are ideas, images, information, and our ability to think, but the two most powerful ones are ideas and images. “And now, my sons, I speak unto you thee things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the Heavens and the Earth, and all things that are in them are, both things to act and thing to be acted upon. And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of human, after he created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto humans that they should act for oneself. Wherefore, humans could not act for oneself save it should be that one was enticed by the one or the other. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“And I, Lehi, according to the thing which I have read, must needs suppose that an Angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from Heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from Heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all humankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the Earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the Earth. And the days of the children of human were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of humans. For he gave commandment that all humans must repent; for he showed unto all humans that there were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remined in the garden of Eden. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. However behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that humans might be; and people could raise their beautiful children true to their heritage; and humans are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that one may redeem the children of humans from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. Wherefore, humans are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto people. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all people, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for one seeketh that all humans might be miserable like unto oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit; and not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hades, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom. I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my mortal probation on Earth; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen,” reports 2 Nephi 3.14-30. If the machine were used deliberately to vanquish human inequality, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And in fact, without being used for any such purpose, but by a sort of automatic process—by producing wealth which it was sometimes impossible not to distribute—the machine did raise the living standards of the average human being very greatly over the past one hundred and fifty years. However, by lack of understanding some people remain sane. They simply swallow everything, and what they swallow does them no harm, because it leaves no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Lord Jesus, Great High Priest, Thou hast opened a new living way by which a fallen creature can approach Thee with acceptance. Help me to contemplate the dignity of Thy Person, the perfectness of Thy sacrifice, the effectiveness of Thy intercession. O What blessedness accompanies devotion, when under all the trials that weary me, the care the corrode me, the fears that disturb me, the infirmities that oppress me, I can come to Thee in my need and feel peace beyond understanding! The grace that restores is necessary to preserve, lead, guard, supply, help. And here Thy saints encourage my hope; they were once poor and are now rich, bound and are now free, tried and now are victorious. Every new duty calls for more face than I now possess, but not more than is found in Thee, the divine Treasury in whom all fullness dwells. To Thee I repair for grace upon grace, until every void made by sin be replenished and I am filled with all Thy fullness. May my desires be enlarged and my hopes emboldened, that I may honour Thee by my entire dependency and the greatness of my expectation. Do Thou by with me, and prepare me for all the smiles of prosperity, the frowns of adversity, the losses of substance, the death of friends, the days of darkness, the changes of life, and the last great change of all. May I find Thy grace sufficient for all my needs. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
I divine all teachers into two classes: titular gurus and real gurus. The former are quite common, the gap between their doctrines and their behaviour being noticeable, whereas the latter are rare indeed for they have achieved a conquest over the ego which reveals itself in their conduct and reflects itself in their lives. The demand for inspired teachers is always insistent but the supply is wholly insufficient. Unless the teacher is an inspired one one will be of little help to the would-be mystic. By inspired, we mean either in communion with one’s higher self or fully united with it. Almighty and everlasting God, Wo succourest those that labour under perils and afflictions, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that may please Thee to send Thy holy Angel to uphold with Thy comfort Thy servants, who in this house are suffering distress and affliction; that they may both receive Thy present assistance, and attain eternal healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please visit Thy servants, O Lord, as Thou wast pleased to visit Peter’s mother-in-law and the centurion’s servants. Restore them, O Lord, to their former health; that they may be enabled to say in the courts of Thine house, “The Lord hath chastened and corrected me, but He hath not given me over unto death, He Who is the Saviour of the World.” Grant this, O Lord, Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, God, throughout all ages. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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I am humbled by my realization of the sacredness of the time we are given and stunned by our irreverence for the time we have. Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the Earth, or burry my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the World, your return. #CresleighHomes
First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of One’s Country People!
Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It is not the mountain ahead that wear you out—it is the grain of sand in your shoe. Due to feminism and feminist theory, gender is coming to be recognized as a social factor of major importance. Indeed, the new meaning of the words reflects the fact that so much of what has traditionally been thought of a sexual difference is now considered by many to be largely socially produced. Feminist scholars from many disciplines and with radically different points of view have contributed to the enterprise of making gender fully visible and comprehensible. At one end of the spectrum are those whose explanations of the subordination of women focus primarily on biological differences as casual in the construct of gender, and at the other end are those who argue that biological difference may not even lie at the core of the social construction that is gender; the view of the vast majority of feminists fall between these extremes. The rejection of biological determinism and the corresponding emphasis on gender as a social construction characterize most current feminist scholarship. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Of particular relevance is work in psychology where scholars have investigated the importance of female primary parenting in the formation of our gendered identities, and in history and anthropology, where emphasis has been placed on the historical and cultural variability of gender. Some feminists have been criticized for developing theories of gender that do not take sufficient account of differences among women, especially race, class, religion, and ethnicity. While such critiques should always inform our research and improve our arguments, it would be a mistake to allow them to detract our attention from gender itself as a factor of significance. Many injustices are experienced by women as women, whatever the differences among them and whatever other injustices they also suffer from. The past and present gendered nature of the family, and the ideology that surrounds it, affects virtually all women, whether or not they live or ever lived in traditional families. Recognizing this is not to deny or de-emphasize the fact that gender may affect different subgroups of women to a different extent and in different ways. The potential significance of feminist discoveries and conclusions about gender for issues of social justice cannot be overemphasized. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Conclusions about gender issues of social justice and potential feminist discoveries undermine centuries of argument that started with the notion that not only the distinct differentiation of women and men but the domination of women by men, being natural, was therefore inevitable and not even to be considered in discussions of justice. Despite the fact that such notions cannot stand up to rational scrutiny, they not only still survive but flourish in influential places. During the same two decades in which feminists have been intensely thinking, researching, analyzing, disagreeing about, and rethinking the subject of gender, our political and legal institutions have been increasingly faced with issues concerning the injustices of gender and their effects. These issues are being decided within a fundamentally patriarchal system, founded in a tradition in which “individuals” were assumed to be male heads of households. Not surprisingly, the system has demonstrated a limited capacity for determining what is just, in many cases involving gender. Sex discrimination, sexual harassment, abortion, pregnancy in the workplace, parental leave, child care, and surrogate mother have all become major and well-publicized issues of public policy, engaging both courts and legislatures. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Issues of family justice, in particular—from child custody and terms of divorce to physical and sexual abuse of wives and children—have become increasingly visible and pressing, and are commanding increasing attention from the police and court systems. There is clearly a major “justice crisis” in contemporary society arising from issues of gender. There has been a great resurgence of theories of social justice. Political theory, which has been sparse for a period before the late 1960s except as an important branch of intellectual history, has become a flourishing field, with social justice as its central concern. Yet, remarkably, major contemporary theorists of justice have almost without exception ignored the situation I have just described. They have displayed little interest in or knowledge of the findings of feminism. They have largely bypassed the fac that the society to which their theories are supposed to pertain is heavily and deeply affected by gender, and faces difficult issues of justice stemming from its gendered past and present assumptions. Since theories of justice are centrally concerned with whether, how, and why persons should be treated differently from one another, this neglect seems inexplicable. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
These theories are about which initial or acquired characteristics of positions in society legitimize differential treatment of persons by social institutions, laws, and customs. They are about how and whether and to what obvious subject for such inquires. However, as we shall see, this does not strike most contemporary theorists of justice, and their theories suffer in both coherence and relevance because of it. This is a remarkable case of neglect. We are also attempting to rectify it, to point the way toward a more fully humanist theory of justice by confronting the question, “How just is gender?” Why is that when we turn to contemporary theories of justice, we do not find illuminating and beneficial contributions to this question? How can theories of justice that are ostensibly about people in general neglect women, gender, and all the inequalities between the sexes? One reason is that most theorists assume, though they do not discuss, the traditional, gender-structured family. Another is that they often employ gender-neutral language in a false, hollow way. While the democratic movement is professing to fight for the working classes against capitalism, in reality it is concerned only with establishing and perpetuating their own power. The masses are only there to be used—for their idealism, their class resentments, their willingness to work for cheap—and be sold out, again and again. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
There has arisen a sort of schizophrenic manner of thinking, in which words like “democracy” can bear two irreconcilable meanings, and such things as concentration camps and mass deportations can be right and wrong simultaneously. For instance, it is deemed acceptable to lock one race or class of people up, but acceptable to allow people to flood into the nation without documentation and do nothing about it. However, the reason is that African Americans and Hispanics are becoming more stable and affluent and influential and are moving away from the democratic party because they no longer government programs to survive and so to stay in power and get a supermajor, the democratic party has to court and seduce a new party of voters, even if they are not citizens. Doublethink is a form of mental discipline whose goal, desirable and necessary to all Party members, is to be able to believe two contradictory truths at the same time. This is nothing new, of course. Most of us do it. It is called compartmentalization. Compartmentalization is a defense mechanism, or a coping strategy, which does not impart a very good connotation. Put simply, it is how our minds deal with conflicting internal standpoints simultaneously. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
An example of compartmentalization is, while democrats were focused on the President and the Russia Witch hunt, they ignored the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, which is now a pandemic and is threatening the entire World, while President Trump created a thriving economy and high employment. President Trump is a threat to the democrat’s way of life because he puts Americans first and that is not what the media nor democrats want. Every day public opinion is the target of rewritten history, official amnesia and outright lying, all of which is sinisterly and sarcastically termed “news,” as if it were no more harmful than a walk through the park, on a warm Spring day. We know better than what these reporters tell us, yet hope otherwise. We believe and doubt at the same time—it seems a condition of political thought in a modern superstate to be permanently of at least two minds on most issues. Needless to say, this is of inestimable use to those in power who wish to remain there, preferably forever. And as you see, this form of tyranny has the potential for fatal mischief. Well, of course, the TV news media should not be altogether trusted as the main source of information, which is why so many people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their children to school. Parents want well informed adults, who know how to research and think for themselves. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
If creative flexibility is the method of education, how can one possibly train people to that way of practicing? When one in training, one should be given a rigid way of being so that one has a model to wean oneself to, so one can wean oneself from the ways of being one learned from mother, father, Sunday school, one’s neighbourhood, and the unreal TV news, and so on. These ways will not necessarily be effective in a daily exchange. However, I think it is good to learn something orthodox to give one a sense of professional identity, a badge. Yet, that is only half training. The other half is provided through supervision. Once a master is persuaded that the pupils have mastered the basic discipline, then one must afford encouragement and challenge to one’s student. When the student is wrestling with a concrete problem presented by a real-life situation, one is, as it were, being tempted to break discipline. If it seems to one and one’s supervisor that something is called for, but that if one does it, one will not be a good Rogerian (one who negotiates using a strategy in which common goals are identified and opposing views are described as objectively as passion in an effort to establish common ground and reach an agreement), then the supervisor must encourage one’s pupil to say, “Away with Rogerianism. Full speed ahead.” However, in a responsible way, because one and one’s supervisor must deal with whatever happens next. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
In the neurotic’s extraordinary difficulties in criticizing and making accusations there are several determining factors in one’s adult personality. In the first place this incapacity is one of the expressions of one’s lack of spontaneous self-assertion. In order to understand this deficiency it is necessary only to compare one’s attitude with the way the healthy person of our culture feels and behaves in regard to making and expressing accusations, or more generally speaking, in regard to attack and defense. The normal person is able to defend one’s opinion in an argument, to refute an unwarranted accusation, insinuation or imposition, to remonstrate internally or externally against neglect or cheating, to refuse a request or an offer if one does not like it and if the situation allows one to refuse it. One is able to feel and express criticism if necessary, to feel and express accusations, or deliberately to withdraw from or to dismiss a person if one wants to. Furthermore one is able to defend or attack without disproportionate emotional tension and to hold a middle course between exaggerated self-recriminations and an exaggerated aggressiveness which would lead one to unwarranted, violent accusations against the World. To be able thus to take the happy medium is possible only on the basis of conditions which in neuroses are more or less lacking: a comparative freedom from diffuse unconscious hostility and a comparatively secure self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
When this spontaneous self-assertion is lacking the inevitable consequence is a feeling of weakness and defenselessness. A person who knows—perhaps without every having thought about it—that if the situation demands it one can attack or can defend oneself, is and feels strong. A person who registers the fact that one probably cannot do this is and feels weak. We register as accurately as an electric clock whether we have suppressed an argument out of fear or out of wisdom, whether we have accepted an accusation out of weakness or out of a sense of justice, even though we may successfully deceive our conscious selves. For the neurotic person this registering of weakness is a constant secret source of irritation. Many a depression starts after a person has been unable to defend one’s arguments or express a critical opinion. However, given the life of faith in the community of the Church, the reception of the sacraments rightly administered and the audition of the Word of God soundly preached, a Christian is defined as one who is saved by grace through one’s faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour. The Saviour speak to one in the Word and comes to one in the sacraments. Christianity is more than any other faith or community the realm of principle. However, salvation must reach to the depths of the being. The modern World has sounded these depths. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
God’s graciousness is beyond and above human merit, and God’s graciousness is afforded us in spite of human’s intellectual doubts. Furthermore, God’s graciousness is even within human’s existential split. In chapter 18 the Ship Nephi was working on is finished—the births of Jacob and Joseph are mentioned—the company embarks for the promised land—the sons of Ishmael and their wives join in revelry and rebellion—Nephi is bound, and the ship is drive back by a terrible tempest—Nephi is freed, and by his prayer the storm ceases—the people arrive in the promised land. About 591-598 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timers of curious craft. And the Lord did show mw from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship. Now, I Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men. And, I Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
“And it came to pass that after I had finished the ship, accord to the word of the Lord, my brethren beheld that it was good, and that the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine; wherefore, they did humble themselves again before the Lord. And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came unto my father, that we should arise and go down into the ship,” reports 1 Nephi 18.1-5. Our natural knowledge begins from sense. Hence our natural knowledge can go as far as it can be led by sensible things. However, our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God; because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. Hence from the knowledge of sensible things the whole power of God cannot be known; nor therefore can His essence be seen. However, because they are His effects and depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God “whether He exists,” and to know of Him what mist necessarily belong to Him, as the first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by Him. Hence we know that His relationship with creatures so far as to be the cause of them all; also that creatures different from Him, inasmuch as He is not in any way part of what is caused by Him; and that creatures are not removed from Him by reason of any defect on His part, but because He superexceeds them all. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
God is known by natural knowledge through the images of His effects. As the knowledge of God’s essence is by grace, it belongs only to the good; but the knowledge of Him by natural reason can belong to both good and bad. For it can be answered that many who are not pure can know many truths, id est, by natural reason. “And it came to pass that on the morrow, after we had prepared all things, much fruits and meant from the wilderness, and honey in abundance, and provisions according to that which the Lord had commanded us, we did go down into the ship, with all our loading and our seeds, and whatsoever thing we have brought with us, every one according to one’s age; wherefore, we did all go down into the ship, with our wives and children. And now, my father had begat two sons in the wilderness; the elder was called Jacob and the younger Joseph. And it came to pass after we had all gone down into the ship, and had take with us our provisions and things which had been commanded us, we did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land. And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days, behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
“And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us, and smite us because of our iniquity, that we should be swallowed up in the depths of the sea; wherefore, I, Nephi, began to speak to them with much soberness; but behold they were angry with me, saying: We will not that our younger brother shall be a rule over us. And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had spoken concerning the wicked. And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move, the compass which had been prepared of the Lord, did cease to work. Wherefore, they knew not whither they should steer the ship, insomuch that there arose a great storm, yes, a great and terrible tempest, and we were driven back upon the waters for the space of three days; and they began to be frightened exceedingly lest they should be drowned in the sea; nevertheless they did not loose me. And on the fourth day, which we had been driving back, the tempest began to be exceedingly sore. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the judgments of God were upon them, and they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof. Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions. Now my father, Lehi, had said many things unto them, and also unto the sons of Ishmael; but, behold, they did breathe out much threatenings against anyone that should speak for me; and my parents being stricken in years, and having suffered much grief because of their children, they were brought down, yea, even upon their sick-beds. Because of their grief and much sorrow, and the iniquity of my brethren, they were brought near even to be carried out of this time to meet their God; yea, their gray hairs were about to be brought down to lie low in the dust; yea, even they were near to be cast with sorrow into a watery grave. And Jacob and Joseph also, being young, having need of much nourishment, were grieved because of the afflictions of their mother; and also my wife with her tears and prayers, and also my children, did not soften the hearts of my brethren that they would loose me. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“And there was nothing save it were the power of God, which threatened them with destruction, could soften their hearts; wherefore, when they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the things which they had done, insomuch that they loosed me. And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and I did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land. And it came to pass that after we has sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land. And it came to pass that we did begin to till the Earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the Earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance. And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the mule and the horse, and the goat, and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of humans. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and silver, and of copper,” reports 1 Nephi 18.6-25. As God works miracles in corporeal things, so also He does supernatural wonders above the common order, raising the minds of some living in the flesh beyond the use of sense, even up to the vision of is own essence. He continues to work in our lives to conform us more and more to the likeness of Hid Son. As Paul said, “He who began a good work in your will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christs,” as reported in Philippians 1.6. This continuing work of God is called “progressive sanctification.” It differs from initial sanctification in two respects. Initial sanctification occurs instantly at the moment of salvation when we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Christ (see Colossians 1.13). Progressive sanctification continues over time until we go to be the with Lord. Initial sanctification is entirely the work of God the Holy Spirit who imparts to us the very life of Christ. Progressive sanctification is also the work of the Holy Spirit, but it involves a response on our part so that we as believers are actively involved in the process. O God, of infinite mercy and boundless majesty, Whom no distance of place nor length of time can part from those for whom Thou carest; please be present to Thy servants who everywhere confide in Thee. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
And God, through all the way in which they are to go be pleased to be their Guide and their Companion. May no adversity harm them, no difficulty oppose them; may all things turn out happily and prosperously for them; that by the assistance of Thy right hand, whatsoever they have asked for with a reasonable desire, they may speedily find brought to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Thou Most High, in the way of Thy appointment I am waiting for Thee, my desire is to Thy name, my mind to remembrance of Thee. I am a sinner, but not insensible of my state. My iniquities are great and numberless, but Thou art adequate to my relief, for Thou art rich in mercy; the blood of Thy Son can cleanse from all sin; the agency of Thy Spirit can subdue my most powerful lusts. Give me a teacher, wakeful conscience that can smite and torment me when I sin. May I be consistent in conversation and conduct, the same alone as in company, in prosperity and adversity, accepting all Thy commandments as right, and hating every false way. May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress, but to faith add virtue, knowledge, temperance, Godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. May I never neglect what is necessary to constitute Christian character, and needful to complete it. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
May I cultivate the expedient, develop the lovely, adorn the gospel, recommend the religion of Jesus, accommodate myself to Thy providence. Keep me from sinking or sinning in the evil day; help me to carry into ordinary life portions of divine truth and use them on suitable occasions, so that its doctrines may inform, its warnings caution, its rules guide, its promises comfort me. With this in mind, we must always keep on praying. Exodus 17 describes aged Moses standing atop a hill, arms lifted up to Heaven interceding for Israel, which was engaged in a pitched battle with the Amalekites below. As long as his arms were extended upward, Israel prevailed, but when in weariness they began to fall, the Amalekites dominated. Poor Moses was in agony as gravity drew his hands toward destruction. However, then cam Arron and Hur, who placed a stone under Moses and, standing on either side, held his hands up to God until Sunset and Victory came (vv. 10-13). That story graphically emphasizes that there is a mysterious efficacy to persistent prayer. This is not to suggest that God regards prayer as a meritorious work—so that when there are enough prayers, Her answers. Rather, He sovereignly chooses to encourage persistence in prayer and to answer it to His everlasting glory. I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
NOW SELLING! Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
Located off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District.
Fully finished single-story home located in the growing Cresleigh Ranch community! This contemporary farmhouse features an open floor plan with spacious kitchen including white painted cabinetry, warm granite counters, tiled backsplash, and stainless steel appliances. The home is full of natural light and durable LVP flooring throughout with the Great Room opening to the included covered patio! The Master Suite is tucked away at the rear of the home. The Home Hub is a bonus room found at the front of the home. It’s ideal for a home office, play room, or even a crafting studio. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-63/
