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War Worn World
What depressed me more than anything when I was a youth is that I had been born into an age that honored only criminals and those who do not accept the norms of society. The surge of large waves of crime needs to calm down so that the future will belong only to peaceful competition. More and more California and New York have begun to resemble businesses that mutually undercut the federal government, steals customers and orders, and try to outwit the federal government in every way, by making protests are loud as they are dangerous. This development has not only seemed to progress, but the United States of America is being transformed into a huge department store for the most skillful manipulators and most ruthless executives. Charles A. Conant, a prominent journalist and economist troubled about the necessity of finding an outlet for surplus capital, “if the entire fabric of the present economic order is not to be shaken by a social revolution,” argued that “the law of self-preservation, as well as the of the survival of the fittest, is urging our people on in a path which is undoubtedly a departure from the policy of the past, but which is inevitably marked out by the new conditions and requirements of the present.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 25A
If the country did not seize upon its opportunities at once, Conant warned against the possibility of decadence. Another writer denied that a policy of colonial expansion was anything novel in American history. We had colonized the West. The question was not whether we should shift our colonizing heritage into new channels. “We must not forget that the Anglo-Saxon race is expansive.” Although the Anglo-Saxon mystique was called upon in the interests of expansion by might, it also had its more pacific side. Its devotees had usually recognized a powerful bond with England; the historians of the Anglo-Saxon school, stressing the common political heritage, wrote about the American Revolution as if it were a temporary misunderstanding in a long history of common political evolution, or a welcome stimulant to flagging Anglo-Saxon liberties. One outgrowth of the Anglo-Saxon legend was a movement toward an Anglo-American alliance which came to rapid fruition in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Despite its unflagging conviction of racial superiority, this movement was peaceful rather than militaristic in its motivation; for its followers generally believed that an Anglo-American understanding, alliance, or federation would usher in a “golden age” of universal peace and freedom. No possible power or combination of powers would be strong enough to challenge such a union. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
This “English-speaking people’s league of God for the permanent peace of this war-worn World,” as Senator Beveridge called it, would be the next stage in the World’s evolution. Advocates of Anglo-American unity believed that Spencer’s transition from militant to pacific culture, and Tennyson’s “Parliament of Man the Federation of the World,” were about to become a reality. James K. Hosmer had appealed in 1890 for an “English-Speaking Fraternity,” powerful enough to withstand any challenge by the Slavs, Hindus, or Chinese. This coalescence of like-minded states would be but the first step toward a brotherhood of humanity. Yet it was not until 1897 that American interest in an English alliance resulted in a movement of consequence, which received the support of publicists and statesmen as well as litterateurs and historians. During the war with Spain, when continental nations took a predominantly hostile attitude toward American interest, Britain’s friendliness stood out in welcome relief. Common fears of Russia and a feeling of identity of interests in the Far East were added to the notion of a common racial destiny. The Anglophobia which had been so persistent among American politicians—Roosevelt and Lodge had been among the bitterest—was considerably relieved. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
The antiimperialist Carl Schurz felt that what he rather prematurely took to be the complete dissipation of anti-English feeling was one of the best results of the Spanish-American War. Richard Olney—who as Cleveland’s Secretary of State during the Venezuela dispute had defiantly told Britain that the fiat of the United States of America is a law in the Western Hemisphere—now wrote an article on “The International Isolation of the United States” to point out the benefits of British trade and to warn against pursuing an anti-British policy at a time when our country stood alone in the World. Arguing that “family quarrels” were a thing of the past, Olney expressed his hope for Anglo-American diplomatic cooperation, and reminded his readers: “There is a patriotism of race as well as of country.” Even the navalist Mahan approved of the British, and although he had felt for some time that a movement for union was premature, he was sufficiently friendly to be content to let the British retain naval supremacy. For a short time at the close of the century the Anglo-Saxon movement became the rage among the upper classes, and statesmen who seriously of a possible political alliance. The Anglo-Saxon cult, however, had to pull against the great mass of the population, whose ethnic composition and cultural background render them immune to its propaganda; and even among those of Anglo-Saxon lineage the dynamic appeal of the cult was confined to the years of excitement at the turn of the century. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
The term “Anglo-Saxon” offended many people, and meetings of protest against Anglo-Saxonism were called in some of the western states. Suspicious of England, traditional in American politics, could not be overcome. John Hay complained in 1900 of “a mad dog hatred of England prevalent among newspapers and politicians.” When the movement for Anglo-American Union was revived again during the First World War, the term “English-speaking” was used in preference to “Anglo-Saxon,” and racial exclusiveness was no longer featured. The powerful undertow of American isolation that followed the war, however, swept away this movement once again. Anglo-Saxonism is politics was limited both in scope and in duration. It had its day of influence as a doctrine of national self-assertion, but as a doctrine of Anglo-Saxon World order its effects were ephemeral. Even the benevolent ideal of the dreamers of a Pax Anglo-Americana found practical meaning only as a timely justification of a temporary reproachment inspired by the needs of Realpolitik. The day had not come when World peace could be imposed by a “superior” race confident in its biological blessings and its divine mission. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
By letting President Biden meander and babble, tripping and falling all over the place for the entire World to see, then allowing Kamla Harris to steal his place as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 Presidential Election, allow these old criminals and disloyal assassins of justice opportunity to collect themselves for their next strike. The serpent can then go on working, more cautiously than before, but this makes the Democrats more dangerous. While honest people dream of peace and security, the lying criminals are organizing a revolution. I am more than dissatisfied with the fact that officials have settled on a set of terrible half-measures to deal with the problem, but many do not even realize how horrible the result will be. Then what should be done next? The leaders of the Democratic party should be put under lock and key immediately. They should be put on trial and the nation freed from them. Every resource of military power should be used to brutally exterminate this epidemic and put an end to illegal immigration. The Marxists parties should be dissolved, and the leaders of the Democratic party brought to reason at the point of the bayonet if necessary. Or better yet, they should be immediately abolished. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Just as the Republic cancels people today, they have even more reason to restore to these means. After all, the destruction of the nation and an entire people is at stake! This certain raises another question: Can intellectual ideas be destroyed by a sword at all? Can violence be used to combat a “World-Concept?” I have asked myself these questions more than once since Biden stole the White House. After a certain point in their development, concepts, and ideas as well as movements of a spiritual nature, whether true or not, can never be broken by force. The only exception is when force is used to replace these ideas with fresh, new idea, thought, or World-Concept that burns even bright and stronger than the one it replaces. The use of force without driving power of a strong spiritual or intellectual concept can never destroy an idea or even slow how fast it spreads, not unless force is used for a complete extermination of every supporter and absolute destruction of all related traditions that linger. We all need the strength of a young missionary idea to again rescue our nation from the entanglement of the international serpent and to stop the contamination of our blood. Only then will we be able to protect our nation and prevent the last catastrophe from ever again being repeated (meaning the revolution). #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
It is madness to unite with the Democrats who are ruled by the very enemy who means death to our future. If we are willing to talk into it, how can we free our nation from slavery of this poisonous embrace? When we choose our allies the very organization of this evil plan and acknowledge it as equal, how can the American worker come to understand that the Democratic party is a damnable crime against humanity. The display they put on at the Olympics, the invasion at the southern border, inflation, and the homeless crisis. We cannot drive out Satan by using Beelzebub. For almost the past four years, I have stood breathless, observing the enormous human serpent twisting its way past me. By reading and watching the Democrat Social press daily, I have been able to study the inner train of its thought better than any form of theoretical literature. What the difference between the glitter phrases in the theoretical writing about freedom, beauty, and dignity, and these words Democrats use creates an illusion of profound wisdom with some difficulty due to the disgusting moral tone, all written with a brazen claim of prophecy. The brutal daily press of this doctrine claimed to be the salvation of a new humanity, but is full of vileness, using every kind of slander, and absolutely full of lies! The Democratic theory is intended for stupid dupes of the middle and upper “levels of intelligence”; the more vile and based sections were targeted at the masses. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Another way of spreading ideas, which has already been used to a considerable extent, but which can still be enhanced, is the method of news sheets, which are relatively cheap to publish and to send to a certain limited public. Certain radio stations have also proved to have given a much larger voice to new and progressive ideas than others. Overall, new technical factors work in favour of the dissemination of new ideas. A variety of inexpensive printing techniques have developed, and inexpensive neighbourhood radio stations have been organized, as well as podcast, and social media outlets. Only if they appear in the flesh, do ideas become powerful; an idea which does not lead to action by the individual and by groups remains at best a paragraph or a footnote in a book—provided the idea is original and relevant. It is like a seed stored in a dry place. If the idea is to have influence, it must be put into the soil, and the soil is people and groups of people. To me, dwelling on the literature and press of this doctrine and organization meant finding my way back to my own people. What seemed an impassable gulf now created in me a love greater than before. Only a fool, once he knows about this enormous work of corruption, could still condemn the victims. If given too much, the masses are seldom to make much use of freedom and are likely to neglect it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
Ideally speaking, the state and the Church are supposed to be the embodiment of social and religious ideas. However, this is true only in the most restricted sense. At best, these organizations embody the minimum of the ideas they proclaim. It is precisely for this reason that they do not fulfill the function of helping the individual in the development and realization of the values they proclaim. Political parties today claim that they express values and ideas more specifically than the state, but by their bureaucratic structure and the need to make compromises, the fail to offer the citizen a place where he can feel at home intellectually and spiritually; where he can be active beyond the merely organizing-bureaucratic functions. This view does not deny the importance of activity within political parties; it only claims that this activity is not sufficient to give the individual a chance to participate, to feel at home, and to become aware that his ideas represent a style of life shared by others, and expressed in common actions. Furthermore, I do not believe that the forms of participatory democracy are by themselves sufficient to bring about necessary changes. The face-to-face groups which I have described above must approach problems in a new spirit and with new ideas, but these ideas must be cultivated and spread so that they influence these groups. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
I realize that the infamous intellectual terrorism of the Democratic movement targets the privileged class, which is neither morally nor spiritually a match for such attacks. They tell a barrage of lies and slander against the individual adversary is considers most dangerous and keep it up until the nerves of the group being attacked give in and sacrifice the hated figure just to have peace and quiet again. However, the fools still do not get peace and quiet. The game begins and is repeated until fear of the villain becomes a hypnotic paralysis. Since the Social Democrats know well the value of power from their own experience, their storming is directed mainly at those whose character has the same quality. Conversely, the praise every weakling on the other side, cautiously, then loudly, according to the intellectual qualities they see or suspect. They fear an impotent, weak-willed genius less than they fear a forceful nature with only modest intellect. Their highest recommendation goes to the weakling in both mind and nature. They are successful in creating the illusion that given-in is the only way to win peace and quiet from them, while they quietly, cautiously, but unerringly, conquer one position after another, either by quiet extortion or by actual theft when the public attention is on other things. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The public is distracted and unwilling to be interrupted or they consider the situation too small to worry about and believe it is not worth provoking an angry foe. These are tactics planned by exact calculation to exploit every human weakness, and it is almost mathematically sure to be successful unless the other side can learn to fight poison gas with poison gas. To those who are weak in nature, it can only be said that this is a simple question of survival or non-survival. To me, the physical terrorism toward the individual and the masses is plain to see. Terrorism on the job, in the factory, in the meeting hall, and at mass demonstrations, will always be successful unless equal terrorism opposes it. When the socialist party encounters opposition, it screams bloody murder and yells for help from the state, only to get what they want in the end. It finds some idiot of a high official who hopes to befriend the Marxists and is willing to crush the current adversary of the socialist party to gain the party’s favour. The followers’ and rebels’ success can only be understood by a man who knows the soul of the people, not from books, but from life. The result of this Democratic seduction of mankind can only be described as victimization. They masses are unconscious of the shameless intellectually terrorizes them as they are of the outrageous mistreatment of their human liberty. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
The modern individual, even more isolated and lonely than his grandfather was, finds a solution in psychoanalysis. First, he is a member of a somewhat esoteric cult; he is one of the “initiated” who has gone through the ritual of analysis, now knows all the secrets worth knowing, and thus is part of a cult. Furthermore, he has the satisfaction of having found somebody who listens sympathetically and without accusing him. This factor is particularly important in a society where hardly anybody listens to anybody. While people talk to each other, they do not listen to each other, except for a superficial and polite “hearing” of what the other says. In addition, the psychoanalyst’s significance has been inflated by the person being analyzed (“transference”); the analyst is converted into a hero whose assistance in living is as important as the of the priest was in a religious World, or by the big or small Fuehrer in certain political systems. Beyond that, psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on early childhood experiences as being the case for later development, tended to relieve many persons of a sense of responsibility. They believed that all one had to do was to talk and talk until one had recalled the childhood traumas—after which happiness would follows as a matter of course. Many people believed in this achievement of “happiness by talking” and forgot that nothing in life is achieved without effort, daring to take risks and often some suffering. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Paying the analysts, talking for five hours a week on the couch, and some anxiety produced when the resistance grows, were often considered as the equivalent of the effort and daring. However, if at all, they are a rather insufficient equivalent. This holds especially true for the upper middle class, for which neither the money nor the time represents any serious sacrifice. Isabella was a neighbour of Sarah’s, in her late twenties, and led much the same kind of domestic life. However, her husband, a salesman, traveled a lot. Sometimes when he was away, Isabella would start drinking and end up far away from home. She “black out” these episodes, and as is common in such cases, she knew what happened only because she would find herself in strange places with the names and telephone numbers of strange men in her purse when she came to. This not only horrified her, but terrified her, since it meant that she could ruin her life some day by picking up an indiscreet or evil man, Scripts are planned early in childhood, so if this was a script, it must have had its origins there. Isabella’s mother died when she was little and her father was away all day, working. Isabelle did not get along very well with other kids in school. She felt inferior and led a lonely life. However, late in childhood she discovered a way to be popular. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Like Sarah, she bought the trendiest clothes, had the best hair, and the most stylish shoes. She had never thought of a connection between those school days in the party house and her current behaviour. However, all along in her head she was carrying the outline of her life in drama. Act I: The setup. Fun and Guilt in the party house. Act II: An outbreak of script. Fun and Guilt While Drunk and Irresponsible. Act III: The payoff. Denunciation and Ruin. She loses everything—husband, children, and position. Act VI: The final release. Suicide. Then everybody feels sorry and forgives her. Both Isabella and Sarah lived in their peaceful countersscripts with a feeling of impending doom. The script was a tragic drama which would bring them release and reconciliation. The difference was that Sarah was waiting patiently for an act of God to fulfill her destiny—salvation; while Isabella, propelled by the compulsion of her inner demon, was hurrying impatiently towards hers—damnation, death, and forgiveness. Thus, from the same beginnings (“popular videos girls”) these two women were moving by diverse means to different ends. The psychotherapist is sitting in his office like a wise man and is getting paid to do something about all this. If somebody dies, both Sarah and Isabella will be free, but his job is to find a better way to free them. He leaves his office and walks down the street past the stockbroker’s, the taxi stand, and the saloon. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Nearly everybody he sees is waiting for a Big Killing. In the grocery store a woman is shouting at her daughter: “How many times have I got to tell you not to touch that?” while somebody admires her little boy: “Isn’t he cute!” When he gets to the hospital, a paranoid says: “How do I get out of here, doctor?” A depressive says: “What am I living for?” and a schizophrenic answers: “Don’t diet, liveit. I’ not really that stupid.” That’s what they all said yesterday. They’re stuck, while the ones on the outside are still hoping. “Shall we increase his dose of medication?” asks a medical student. Dr. Q turns to the schizophrenic and looks him in the eye. The schizophrenic looks back at him. “Shall we increase your medication?” asks Dr. Q. The boy thinks a while and then replied: “No.” Dr. Q puts out his hand and says: “Hello.” The schizophrenic shakes hands with him and says: “Hello.” Then they both turn to the medical student, and Dr. Q says: “Hello.” The medical student looks flustered, but five years later, at a psychiatric meeting, he walks up to Dr. Q and says: “Hi, Dr. Q. Hello.” We experience the World in a variety of ways, or modes, all of which are essential for the fullest personal functioning. The most fundamental mode of experiencing is perception. Our sense organs, like the radio with many stations, permit us to receive a many-faceted disclosure of the World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
With our eyes, we receive the impressions of things that are transmitted by light refraction. Our ears receive the sound of things, brought about by vibration. With our olfactory and tastes receptors, we receive the scents of flavours emitted by things, and our touch receptors receive impression produced by direct physical contact—texture, pressure, and pain. The state of our muscles and joints and the location of our arms, hands, legs, and feet are communicated to our reflective awareness by means of kinesthetic sense organs. Our position in relation to vertical posture is mediated by receptors located in the semicircular canal of our ears (equilibratory senses). Finally, the condition of our body—its comfort and discomfort, our fullness and emptiness, the need to eliminate—is detected and received by visceral receptors located in our stomach, intestines, and other hollow organs of the body. A most unique and important development in this history of the reflective consciousness of the human is seen in the biofeedback movement. The enthusiastic advocates of this approach have been able to successfully demonstrate that the person can control many more internal functions once he or she is heled to “hear” or “perceive” them with a range of instruments. Thus, persons can speed up or slow down their respiration rate, their heartbeat, and even their blood pressure. We consider this to be a significant step in the development of the human being’s independence through knowledge of self—in this case, knowledge of internal physical aspects of self. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
“Know thyself,” originally found on the temples of Isis and Osiris in North Africa, has become a commandment of the humanistic movement. Its history and its current usage in biofeedback suggest further ways in which a person can control and maximize the self. What we perceive, and the sensory modalities by means of which we receive disclosure, depend on what is there, what we have been told is there, and on our needs and projects of the moment. The salient figure in our field of perception is always related to our immediate needs and goals. Everything else is blurred into the background of experiencing. When we perceive, that is, receive the disclosure of, something, we always give it meaning. We name the objects and person in the World and make inferences about what the World is “promising” or “threatening” to do to us. We experience the World “inviting” us to do some things and not others and to be in some way. Perception, whether visual, tactual, auditory, or visceral, is kind of hearing. All our sense organs function in a way analogous to the hearing of speech. In a profound sense, we do not merely see the World; we read the World as we read a sign or a letter. Just as writing is a form of speech, so seeing something and calling it an Ultimate Driving Machine is analogous to the BMW saying, “I am an Ultimate Driving Machine; drive me.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
If all our sense organs are variable ways of hearing, then there is a sense in which our entire body functions as a voice, speaking our replies to the “voices” of the things and beings heard in the World. Our acts, seen by ourselves or by others, have meanings equivalent to speech. To kiss someone can be another way of saying, “I am found of you,” and it can mean “hello” or “good-bye.” The act of giving meaning to the perceived beings in our World is called construing. As indicated earlier, construing is a kind of listening. We give the meanings to things in the World that our parents and teachers have given them. If mice are frightening to our mothers, then we will hear mice say “Beware,” metaphorically speaking, every time we see them. There is a sense, more than metaphorical, in which the World speaks with a voice, with warnings and invitations. Some whole systems of humanistic psychology have been based upon perception, notably that created by Snygg and Combs, and by Combs, Richards, and Richards. They have suggested that all behaviour of humans can best be understood in terms of the subject’s perceptions of self and of the outside World. Thus, a teacher who knows that a child in kindergarten has seen running water only in a health clinic understands why the child would run away at the first sight of the tiled bathroom. The child is perceiving it as a place to be hurt. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
Knowing that your roommate perceives something you say as an insult enables you to understand his or her refusal to talk to you. Our behaviour and that of others can be best understood in the light of the perception of the event or activity. Dramatic differences in the way two persons behave amid the same event are explainable in terms of their differing perceptions. Your father may perceive your current boyfriend as someone who is taking his daughter away from him; you will perceive the boyfriend as a white knight from the Crusades. The differences in perception will demand difference in behaviour between your father and yourself in relationship to the boyfriend. The first type of resistance, the open fight, is sufficiently clear and familiar to need no elaboration. Another type, defensive emotional reactions, is particularly significant in professional analysis, for there such reaction can be concentrated on the analyst. There are several ways in which a resistance may express itself in emotional reactions regarding the analyst. Sometimes a patients will have a suspicion that he is being misled. In others, the reaction may be an intense but vague fear of being injured by analysis. Or it may be only a diffuse irritation, or a contempt for the analyst on the grounds that he is too stupid to understand or to help. Or it may take the form of a diffuse anxiety which the patient tries to allay by striving for the analyst’s friendship or love. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
The startling intensity that these reactions sometime assume is due in part to the fact that the patient feels threatened in something essential to the structure he has built, but it is due also to the strategical value of the reactions themselves. Such reactions serve to shift the emphasis from the essential job of finding causes and effects to the much safer business of an emotional situation with the analyst. Instead of going after his own problem the patient concentrates his efforts on convincing the analysts, winning him over, proving him wrong, thwarting his endeavours, punishing him for having intruded into territory that is tabu. And along with this shift of emphasis the patient either blames the analyst for all his difficulties, convincing himself that he cannot progress with anyone who treats him with so little understanding and fairness, or puts all responsibility for work on the analyst, becoming himself inert and unresponsive. Needless to add, these emotional battles may go on undercover, and it may take a great deal of analytical work to bring them to the patient’s awareness. When they are thus repressed only the resulting blockage makes itself felt. Thus we can now say with some assurance and factual backing that a relationship characterized by a high degree of congruence or genuineness in the counselor, by sensitive and accurate empathy on the part of the counselor, by a high degree of regard, respect and liking for the client by the counselor, and by an absence of conditionality in this regard, will have a high probability of being an effective, growth-promoting relationship. This statement holds, whether we are speaking of maladjusted individuals who come to their own initiative seeking help, or whether we are speaking of chronically schizophrenic persons with no conscious desire for help. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
This statement also holds whether these attitudinal elements are rated by impartial observers who listen to samples of the recorded interviews, or whether they are measure in terms of the counselor’s perception of the qualities he has offered in the relationship or whether they are least in the case of the nonhospitalized client. To me it seems to be quite a forward stride to be able to make statements such as these in an area as complex and subtle as the field of helping relationships. These studies have significant implications for the training of counselors and therapists. To the extent that the counselor is seen as being involved in interpersonal relationships, and to the extent that the goal of those relationships is to promote healthy development, then certain conclusions would seem to follow. It would mean that we could endeavour to select individuals for such training who already possess, in their ordinary relationships with other people, a high degree of the qualities I have described. We would want people who were warm, spontaneous, real, understanding, and non-judgmental. We would also endeavour so to plan the educational program for these individuals that they would come increasingly to experience empathy and liking for others, and that they would find it increasingly easier to be themselves, to be real. When the adept views those who are suffering from the effects of their own ungoverned emotion or their own uncontrolled passion and desire, he does not sink with the victims into those emotions, passions, and desires, even though he feels self-identity with them. He cannot permit such feelings to enter his consciousness. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
If he does not shrink from his own suffering, it is hardly likely that the adept will shrink from the suffering of others. Consequently, it is hardly likely that the emotional sympathy which arises in the ordinary man’s heart at the sight of suffering will arise in precisely the same way in the adept’s heart. He does not really regard himself as apart from them. In some curious way, both they and he are part of one and the same life. If he does not pity himself for his own sufferings in the usual egoistic emotional way, how can he bring himself to pity the sufferings of others in the same kind of way? This does not mean that he will become coldly indifferent towards them. On the contrary, the feeling of identification with their inmost being would alone precent that utterly; but it means that the pity which arises within him takes a different form, a form which is far nobler and truer because emotional agitation and egotistic reaction are absent from it. He feels with and for the sufferings of others, but he never allows himself to be lost in them; and just as he is never lost in fear or anxiety about his own sufferings, so he cannot become lost in those emotions or the sufferings of others. The calmness with which he approaches his own sufferings cannot be given up because he is approaching other people’s sufferings. He has bought that calmness at a heavy price—it is too precious to be thrown away for anything. And because the pity which he feels in his heart is not mixed up with emotional excitement or personal fear, his mind is not obscured by these excrescences, and is able to see what needs to be done to relieve the suffering ones far better than an obscured mind could see. He does not make a show of his pity, but his help is far more effectual than those who do. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Since the mid-1800s, even before Sacramento was a city, the Sacramento Fire Department has protected lives and properties of residents. The Sacramento Fire Department’s pledge to the citizens of this city is to provide the highest level of emergency services to mitigate incidents which arise form fire, medical, hazardous material, or environmental mishaps either on land or water. “There have been sixteen firefighters who have lost their lives in the fifteen years I’ve been in the department. I attend the funerals whenever I was able to. It’s a ought situation, because these guys are family, almost as if they were part of your own personal family. You take the death of a firefighter brother almost as deeply as you would a personal relative. After the funerals, there are no big station parties. There might be something at a battalion level, but mostly everybody just kind of goes their own way. As far as firefighters hanging out together is concerned, I don’t think it’s done as much as today as it was in the past. It depends largely on the geographical location of the station. Often you’ll work at a station where a lot of the guys live in the same general area; then at the next station you’re assigned to, everybody may life in twelve different directions from the stations. So it just kind of depends on the station. I got into photography shortly after I got on the job. It became readily apparent to me that fire scenes were areas of great excitement, and the photographic possibilities were endless. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
“There are continually things going on that the average person doesn’t see. When the fire department arrives, you’re looking at a very chaotic scene. Then, by the extinguishment of the fire, the rescue of people, and the evacuation of the building, we bring a more normal semblance of order to the scene. These kinds of things can be quite dramatic in a photographic sense, whether it be a recue or a heavy stream of water being applied to the fire.” The Sacramento Fire Department dedicates themselves to a lasting partnership with the community, to support a higher quality of life through public education, loss prevention, and service response. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, parents, teach your children to love America and be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, to buy American made goods and services and cars, to respect law and order, and teach others with compassion, respect, and dignity, especially their elders. Release all captives, we beseech Thee, Lord whose mighty hand doth set men free; and hear the glad acclaim of all Thy people who praise and glorify but Thee. Preserve the righteous ones who seek Thee, and, in love, Thy unity proclaim; O guard and bless with Thine abundant goodness, Thy people who revere Thy name. Thou, Lord, who art alone exalted, please turn to us and hearken to our plea. We bless Thee, Thou who knowest all things hidden, Thy kingdom is unto eternity. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, under God, Indivisible with Liberty, and Justice for all. O Guardian of American, guard the remnant of America; let not American people perish, the people which proclaims: Hear, O America. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Departing Seniors and the House of Secrets
The receptivity of the masses is extremely limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these fact, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. Each person, in addition, has a preconscious life plan, or script, by which he structures longer periods of time—months, years, or his whole life—filling them with ritual activities, pastimes, and games which further the script while giving him immediate satisfaction, usually interrupted by periods of withdrawal and sometimes by episodes of intimacy. Scripts are usually based on youthful illusions which may persist throughout a whole lifetime; but in more sensitive, perceptive, and intelligent people these illusions dissolve one by one, leading to the various life crises described by Erik Erikson, which include trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and integrity versus despair. #RandolphHarris 1 of 28
Among these crises are the adolescent reappraisal of parents; the protests, often bizarre, of middle age and the emergence of philosophy after that. Sometimes, however, overly desperate attempts to maintain the illusions in later life lead to depression or spiritualism, whole the abandonment of all illusions may lead to despair. Time structuring is an objective term for the existential problem of what to do after saying Hello. What follow is the attempt to answer this question by observing what it is that people do after they say Hello, and by inserting a few hints of what might be. This can be profitably done by investigating the nature of life scripts and the course of their development. The destiny of every human being is decided by what goes on inside his skull when he is confronted with what goes on outside his skull. Each person designs his own life. Freedom gives him the power to carry out his own designs, and power gives him the freedom to interfere with the designs of others. Even if the outcome is decided by men he has never met or germs he will never see, his last words and the words on his gravestone will cry out his striving. #RandolphHarris 2 of 28
If by great misfortune he dies in dust and silence, only those who know him best will get the slogan right, and all outside the private chambers of friendship, marriage, and medicine will see him wrong. In most cases he had spent his life deceiving the World, and usually himself as well. Each person decides in early childhood how he will live and how he will die, and that plan, which he carries in his head whenever he goes, is called his script. His trivial behaviour may be decided by reason, but his important decisions are already made: what kind of person he will marry, how many children he will have, what kind of bed he will die in, and who will be there when he does. It may not be what he wants, but it is what he wants it to be. Sarah was a devoted wife and mother, but when her youngest boy got extremely sick, she realized to her horror that in the back of her mind was an idea, a picture, or perhaps even a wish that the much-loved son would die. It reminded her of the time when her husband was overseas with the army and the same thing had happened. She was haunted by an eerie vision that he would get killed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 28
In both cases she pictured herself in terrible grief and affliction. This would be her cross to bear, and everyone would admire the way she bore it. Q. What would happen after that? A. I never got that far. I would be free, and then I could do what I wanted to. Start over. When Sarah was in grade school she had many adventures with her classmates, and the guilt of that had been with her ever since. The death of her son or husband would be a punishment or an expiation for this, and would free her from her mother’s curse. She would no longer feel like an outcast. People would exclaim: “Isn’t she courageous!” and acknowledge her as a full-fledged member of the human race. Throughout most of her her life she had had this tragic cinema planned out and pictured in her mind. It was the third act of her life drama, or script, as written in her childhood. Act I: Guilt involving pleasures of the flesh and Confusion. Act II: Mother’s Curse. Act III: Expiation. Act IV: Release, and a New Life. However, in reality she was leading a very conventional life, in accordance with the teachings of her parents, and doing what she could to keep her loved ones healthy and happy. This was counter to the plot of her script—a counterscript—and was certainly not as dramatic or exciting. #RandolphHarris 4 of 28
A script is an ongoing life plan formed in early childhood under parental pressure. It is the psychological force which propels the person toward his destiny, regardless of whether he fights it or says it is his own free will. Examples of this can be seen in the 2019 film Max Winslow and the House of Secrets and in the 2023 film Departing Seniors and the 2017 movie 911 starring Charlie Sheen. A real persons may be defined as one who acts spontaneously in a rational and trustworthy way with decent consideration for others. One who follows a formula is a not-real, or unreal, person. However, since these seem to constitute the bulk of humanity, it is necessary to try to learn something about them. These studies indicate that perhaps it is possible to observe cause and effect in counseling and psychotherapy. They are actually the first studies to endeavour to isolate and measure the primary change-producing influences in counseling. Whether they are still further confirmed by later research, or whether they are contradicted or modified by future studies, they represent pioneering investigations of the question, “What really makes the difference in counseling and psychotherapy?” And the answer they give is that it is the attitudes provided by the counselor, the psychological climate largely created by him, which really makes the difference, which really induces change. #RandolphHarris 5 of 28
There is another highly practical significance to these studies. They indicate quite clearly that, by assessing a relationship early in its existence, we can to some degree predict the probability of its being a relationship which makes for growth. It seems to be quite within the range of possibility that in the not-too-distant future we will acquire an increasingly accurate knowledge of the elements which make for constructive psychological development, just as we have in the realm of nutrition acquired an increasingly accurate knowledge of the elements which promote physical growth. As this knowledge accumulates, and as our instruments grow sharper, then there is the exciting possibility that we may be able, relatively early in the game, to predict whether a given relationship will actually promote or inhibit individual psychological growth and development, just as we can assess the diet of a child and predict the extent to which this diet will promote or inhibit physical growth. In this connection the disturbing finding that an inadequate interpersonal relationship can have a negative effect on personal development, at least in the case of highly disturbed individuals, makes such early assessment of a relationship an even more challenging possibility and responsibility. #RandolphHarris 6 of 28
In principle the provocations for resistance are the same in self-analysis. Here, however, it is not the analyst’s interpretations but the person’s own encroachment on a painful insight or implication that provokes a resistance. Furthermore, the provocation that may lie in the analyst’s behavior is lacking. If the responses to them are correctly analyzed, this is an advantage of self-analysis to some extent, though it should not be forgotten that these provocations can prove to be most constructive. Finally, in self-analysis the experiences of daily life seem to have a greater power to produce a blockage. This is readily understandable: in professional analysis the patient’s emotions are largely concentrated on the analyst, because of the importance he has assumed for the time being, but such a concentration is lacking when analysis is undertaken alone. The ways in which resistances express themselves in professional analysis may be roughly grouped under three headings: first, an open fight against the provoking problem; second, defensive emotional reactions; and third, defensive inhibitions or evasive maneuvers. Different though they are in form, essentially these various expressions merely represent different degrees of directness. #RandolphHarris 7 of 28
In illustration let us assume with a patient who has a compulsive striving for absolute “independence” the analyst starts to tackle his difficulties in relationships with people. The patient feels this approach as an indirect attack upon his aloofness and therefore on his independence. Only if the goal is to improve his human relationships, in this he is right because any work at the difficulties he has with people is meaningful and will help him toward a greater friendliness and a feeling of solidarity with others. The analyst may not even have these goals consciously in mind; he may believe that he merely wants to understand the patient’s timidity, his provocative behaviour, his predicaments with women. However, the patient senses the approaching danger. His resistance may then take the form of an open refusal to tackle the difficulties mentioned, a frank declaration that he does not want to be bothered with people anyhow. Or he may react with distrust of the analyst, suspecting that the latter wants to impose his standards upon him; he may believe, for instance, that the analyst wants to execute on him a distasteful gregariousness. Or he may simply be listless toward the analytical work: he is late for his appointment, nothing much occurs to him, he changes the subject, he has no more dreams, he swamps the analyst with dreams so involved that their meaning is unintelligible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 28
In addition to the issue of self-consciousness versus spontaneity, there are two other views of the concept of divided self that are of great consequences: the multiple self and the two sides of the brain. One of the strangest forms of adjustment to emerge in our times centers about the person who has not merely divided into two selves but into several selves. The most dramatic accounts of this phenomenon are found in the books The Faces of Eve and Sybil, both of which are true histories of individuals with multiple personalities. Also, the film 2017 film Cabin 28, which is based on a true story, is another great example. One may have sympathy with a multiple-selved person in the light of the classic work of Kelly identifying the need for self-consistency as being the fundamental drive. Neither of the two, Eve or Sybil, was able to function constructively as long as the “person” kept switching identities or consciousness of self. The phrases that speak of this phenomenon have now become standard in our language, “putting it all together,” “getting my act together,” “getting my head together.” While Eve had three selves, Sybil had sixteen, each a distinct personality. Other psychiatrists have since reported similar conditions in rare instances, and one might predict that this phenomenon of divided consciousness will become more frequent, since many of the psychoses seem to have cultural or temporal connections—that is, they are products of the social situation. Something in our divided society seems to favor the emergence of this behaviour syndrome. #RandolphHarris 9 of 28
In sharp contrast to the previous logical, philosophical, or psychological views of divided consciousness is the position of Orenstein that each side of the brain controls widely differing functions. Both the structure and the function of the two “half brains” in some part underlie the two modes of consciousness which simultaneously coexist within each one of us. Although each hemisphere shares the potential for many functions, and both sides participate in most activities, in the normal person the two hemispheres tend to specialize. The left hemisphere (connected to the right side of the body) is predominately involved with analytic, logical thinking, especially in verbal and mathematical functions. Its mode of operation is primarily liner. This hemisphere seems to process information sequentially. This mode of operation of necessity must underlie logical thought, since logic depends on sequence and order. Language and mathematics, both left-hemisphere activities, also depend predominately on linear time. The right hemisphere (again, remember, connected to the left side of the body) seems specialized for holistic mentation. Its language ability is quite limited. This hemisphere is primarily responsible for our orientation in space, artistic endeavour, crafts, body image, recognition of faces…the right hemisphere is more holistic and relational. #RandolphHarris 10 of 28
Ornstein and others have suggested that the existence of the two functions implies the need for developing both sides and for seeing these as complimentary functions rather than as polarities in the human being. The high-level-functioning person will effectively utilize both functions in work and lifestyle. There are many other views that should be considered. A third viewpoint needs to be mentioned, even though its full exposition is well beyond the scope of this report. The relationship between self or self-consciousness and the brain, considered as a physiological entity, has been fully explored in a rare dialogue between two distinguished thinkers, one, Karl R. Popper, a philosopher, and the other, Sir John Eccles, a brain researcher. Both are dualists and espouse the separate existence of mind and brain. Eccles describes their view: “According to the dualist-interactionist philosophy presented…, the brain is a machine of almost infamous complexity and subtlety, and in social regions, under appropriate conditions, it is open to interaction with…the World of conscious experience. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Freud’s theories—even though they may not all have been correct—challenged existing mores and thoughts; they necessarily attracted people with a critical mind and were part of the critical movement which existed in other spheres of intellectual, political, and artistic life in Western society. #RandolphHarris 11 of 28
However, by 1930 the social mores had changed (to some extent under the influence of psychoanalysis, but mainly through the development of a consumer society which encourages consumption in all spheres and discourages the frustration of desires). Pleasures of the flesh were no longer taboo; and to speak freely of incestuous wishes, of perversions involving pleasures of the flesh, and so on, ceased to be shocking for the urban middle class. All these topics, which an average “decent” person would not even have dared think about around 1910, lost their tabooed qualities and were accepted as the latest and not particularly exciting results of “science.” In several ways psychoanalysis, instead of challenging society, conformed to it, not only in the obvious sense that since Dr. Freud’s Future of an Illusion and Civilization and Its Discontent, psychoanalysts, with very few exceptions, did not produce any social criticism; but on the contrary, the vast majority of psychoanalysts represented urban middle class attitudes and tended to consider as neurotic anyone who deviated from this attitude, either to the left or to the right. Very few psychoanalysts had any serious political, philosophical, or religious interests beyond those customary in the urban middle class. This very fact points to another aspect of the deterioration of psychoanalysis: instead of being a radical movement, it became a substitute for being a radical movement, it became a substitute for radicalism in politics and religion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 28
Its adherents were people who, for one reason or another, were not interested in serious political or religious problems, and thus whose lives were lacking in the meaning such interests had given to former generations. Yet, since man has a need for some philosophy which gives meaning to his life, psychoanalysis was very handy for this class. It presumed to give an all-embracing philosophy of life (even though Dr. Freud had denied such an intention explicitly). Many a psychoanalyzed person believed that he had solved all the riddles of life by means of the concepts of the Oedipus complex, the fear of castration, etcetera; that if the whole World could be psychoanalyzed, or at least all its leaders, there would be no serious political problems left for man to solve. When he enjoined his disciples to love their neighbours as themselves, what did Jesus Christ mean? Did he mean the sentimental, emotional, and hail-fellow-well-met attitude which the churches teach? How could he when in order to become what he was, he had once to hate and turn aside from that part of himself, the lower part—that is, the ego and the animal nature—which is mostly what neighbours show forth? #RandolphHarris 13 of 28
If His disciples were taught to hate, and not to love, their egos, how then could they love the ego-dominated humanity amidst which they found themselves? The injunction “Love thy neighbour” has often led to confusion in the minds of those who hear or read it, a confusion which forces many to refuse to accept it. And they are the ones who do not understand its meaning, but misinterpret it to mean “Like thy neighbour!” The correct meaning of this age-old ethical injunction is “Practise compassion in your physical behaviour and exercise goodwill in your mental attitude towards your neighbour.” Everyone can do this even when he cannot bring himself to like his neighbour. Therefore, this injunction is not a wholly impracticable one as some believe, but quite the contrary. Whoever imagines that it means the development of a highly sentimental, highly emotional condition is mistaken; for emotions of that kind can just as easily swing into their opposites of hate as remain what they are. This is not love, but the masquerade of it. Sentimentality is the mere pretense of compassion. When it is put under strains, it breaks down, whereas genuine compassion will always continue and never be cancelled by them. #RandolphHarris 14 of 28
True love towards one’s neighbour must come from a level higher than the emotional and such a level is the intuitive one. What Jesus Christ meant was, “Come into such an intuitive realization of the one Infinite Power from which you and your neighbour draw your lives that you realize the harmony of interest, the interdependence of existence which results from this fact.” What Jesus Christ meant, and what alone he could have meant, was indicated by the last few words of his injunction, “as thyself.” The self which they recognized to be the true one was the spiritual self, which they were to seek and love with all their might—and it was this, not only the frail ego, which they were also to love in others. The quality of compassion may easily be misunderstood as being mere sentimentality or mere emotionality. It is not these things at all. They can be foolish and weak when they hide the truth about themselves from people, whereas a truly spiritual compassion is not afraid to speak the truth, not afraid to criticize as rigorously as necessary, to have the courage to point out faults even at the cost of offending those who prefer to live in self-deception. Compassion will show the shortcoming within themselves which is in turn reflected outside themselves as maleficent destiny. #RandolphHarris 15 of 28
A valid formula will produce successful results every time and for everyone. You just must follow it. Try this one and see. Life provides a wonderful opportunity to seek our talents and interests. It is well to remember, however, that “all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 46.11. In our searching, it is important to discover skills we should develop. Once we have decided what we really want to do, the Lord has given us a formula for achieving our eternal and temporal goals: “For He will give unto the Faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 98.12. The Lord reminds us that real success will exclusively come only to the faithful—those who have sincere determination to achieve their goal. Learning is a slow process and comes line upon line, one step at a time. The Lord offers kind encouragement when He says, “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 64.33. We must learn to be patient with ourselves while pushing to new levels of achievement or knowledge. It is important to take time occasionally to remind ourselves of what we are trying to do. #RandolphHarris 16 of 28
We are to be tried. As we pursue our goals, we may meet difficulties or distractions. Other people may ridicule our efforts. Or maybe we will find it difficult to understand or use what we have learned. There may even be temptations to give up. However, if we can just persist, the proof or benefits of our efforts will eventually come to us, which is the final part of the formula. In some cases, the rewards may be improved skills or greater knowledge. Perhaps we will be better qualified for a good job. Of utmost importance in using this process is when we use it to live as the Lord has taught us, our vision and determination will be good. Those who first seek the kingdom of God can “receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 42.61. As you do, you will find more self-confidence and increased faith in the Lord. You will find you do not really understand a gospel principle until you live it. Paying tithing may be difficult for some even though the Lord had made great promises to those who do so. When it comes into a person’s mind and heart to pay an honest tithing out of appreciation, love, and obedience, then one begins to understand what the Lord has been promising him. #RandolphHarris 17 of 28
Although concrete economic and strategic interests, such as Chinese trade and the vital necessity of sea power, were the prominent issues in the imperial debate, the movement took its rationale from more general ideological conceptions. The appeal of Anglo-Saxonism was reflected in the adherence to it of political leaders of the expansion movement. The idea of inevitable Anglo-Saxon destiny figured in the outlook of Senators Albert T. Beveridge and Henry Cabot Lodge and of John Hay, Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, as well as the President himself. During the fight for the annexation of the Philippines, when the larger question of imperial policy was thrown open for debate, expansionists were quick to invoke the law of progress, the inevitable tendency to expand, the Manifest Destiny of Anglo-Saxons, and the survival of the fittest. Before the Senate in 1899, Beveridge cried: “God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic people for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers of the World to establish system where chaos reigns…He has made us adepts in government that we may administer government among savages and senile peoples.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 28
In the most memorable of his imperialist exhortations, “The Strenuous Life” (1899), Theodore Roosevelt warned of the possibility of national elimination in the international struggle for existence: “We cannot avoid the responsibilities that confront us in Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. All we can decide is whether we shall meet them in a way that will redound to the national credit, or whether we shall make of our dealings with these new problems a dark and shameful page in our history…The timid man, the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over-civilized man, who has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills “stern men with empires in their brains”—all these, of course, shrink from seeing the nation undertake its new duties. I preach to you, then, my countrymen, that our country calls not for the life of ease but for the life of strenuous endeavour. The twentieth century looms before us big with the fate of many nations. If we stand idly, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignorable peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the World.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 28
John Hay found in the impulse to expand a sign of an irresistible “cosmic tendency.” “No man, no party, can fight with any chance of final success against a cosmic tendency; no cleverness, no popularity avails against the spirit of the age.” “If history teaches any lesson,” echoed another writer a few years later, “it is that nations, like individuals, follow the law of their being; that in their growth and in their decline, they are creatures of conditions in which their own volition plays but a part, and that often the smallest part.” The question of the Philippines was sometimes pictured as the watershed of American destiny; our decision would determine whether we should undergo a new expansion greater than any in the past, or fall back into decline as senile people. Said John Barrett, former minister to Siam: “Now is the critical time when the United States of America should strain every nerve and bend all her energies to keep well in front in the mighty struggle that has begun for the supremacy of the Pacific Seas. If we seize the opportunity we may become leaders forever, but if are laggards now we will remain laggards until the crack of doom. The rule of the survival of the fittest applies to nations as well as to the animal kingdom. It is cruel, relentless principle being exercised in a cruel, relentless competition of mighty forces; and these will trample over us without sympathy or remorse unless we are trained to endure and strong enough to stand the pace.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 28
Among the conditions which make victory for President Trump of a new orientation a real possibility is the fact that the middle class has begun to listen and to be moved. Several elements have made this possible: material affluence and the promise of the Platinum Plan in the African American communities has allowed the middle class to have the experience that more consumption is not the way to happiness. A higher educational level brings them into contact with new ideas and makes them more responsive to rational argument. Their comfortable economic situation makes them more aware of the many personal problems which they cannot solve. In the back of their minds is, often unconsciously, the question: Why is it that we, having everything one could wish, are unhappy, lonely, and anxious? Is there something in our way of life, in the structure or value system of our society, which is wrong? Are there other and better alternatives? In addition, there is another important factor: the relationship of youngsters to their parents. It has happened again and again in recent years that young people from twelve to twenty have confronted their parents with their own doubts about the sincerity of what is preached or about the sense of what is done, and many parents have been influenced by their children. #RandolphHarris 21 of 28
While one might say that it is a regrettable sign that parents do not believe in either an authoritarian or a progressive value, this lack of belief has at least now the great advantage that they can be converted by their children, who, having gone through the experience of disappointment and, not yet having acquired a resignation to falsehood and double-talk, confront their parents with a deep contradiction within their own lives, very often open their eyes and, not rarely, stimulate them and activate them to a more sincere and less hopeless way of looking at the World. Some have even gained a new interest in political action of which they had been despairing before. Perhaps the most important factor among those which form the basis for the real possibility of change is one which is not given enough weight in the general discussion. I mean the power of ideas. It may be necessary to point out the difference between ideas and ideologies. Ideologies are ideas formulated for public consumption, satisfying the need of everybody to relieve his guilty conscience in the belief that he acts in favour of something which appears good or desirable. Ideologies are ready-made “thought-commodities” spread by the press, the orators, the ideologist in order to manipulate the mass of people for purposes which have nothing to do with the ideology, and are very often exactly the opposite. Such ideologies are sometimes manufactured ad hoc—for instance, when a war is made popular by being described as a war for freedom, or when religious ideologies are used to rationalize political status quo even though it may be in complete contrast to the genuine ideas of the religion in whose name the ideologies are preached. #RandolphHarris 22 of 28
By its very nature, the ideology does not appeal to active thought, nor to active feeling. It is like a pill which either excites or puts man to sleep. When he remarked in Mein Kampf that the best time for a public rally is the evening, when people are tired and most susceptible to influence, Mr. Hitler saw this very clearly. In contrast, the idea refers to what is real. It opens the eyes. It wakes men from their slumber. It requires them to think and to feel actively and to see something which they have not seen before. The idea has the power to awaken those who are exposed to it, provided it appeals to man’s reason. If the idea touches the people, it becomes one of the most powerful weapons because it creates enthusiasm, dedication, and increases and channels human energy. What matters is that the idea is not vague and general, but specific and enlightening and relevant to man’s needs. The force of ideas become all the greater in a situation where those who defend the status quo do not have ideas, and this is precisely the case of the present situation. By the very nature of our bureaucracy and of the kind of organization which we encourage, at best we obtain bureaucratic effectiveness but no ideas. If we compare our situation with that in the middle of the nineteenth century, the fact cannot be ignored that the romantics and the reactionaries of the nineteenth century were full of ideas, very often profound and attractive ones—even though they may have been used for purposes which did not fulfill what the ideas promised. #RandolphHarris 23 of 28
However, today there are no ideas which help the defenders of the status quo. The latter repeat the old formulae of free enterprise, individual responsibility, law and order, honor of country, etcetera, some of which are plainly in contrast to the reality to which they refer, and some of which are nothing but vague ideologies. It is a remarkable fact that today new ideas are to be found almost entirely among the people who are in favour of basic change of the status quo: scientists, artists, and farsighted men of business and politics. The great chance for those who want a new direction lies in the fact that they have ideas, while their opponents have outworn ideologies which may quiet people down but do not stimulate them or enhance their energies. It would be an oversimplification to say that, because the mass media support the establishment, they will block the publication of ideas which favour radical change. While the mass media are parts of the establishment, they also need customers and hence, just as the press needs to print news, they need to publish ideas which attract people, and they must face competition from new sources of news and discussion. Those who believe that the mass media are absolute obstacles to the spread of new ideas think in too doctrinaire and abstract a way and do not take account of the subtle realities which are inherent in the business of television, radio, and the press in a country like the United States of America. #RandolphHarris 24 of 28
What might hold true for a country where the mass media are completely controlled by the state does not hold true to the same degree for the mass media who need to sell their products. The spread of ideas fortunately is not entirely dependent on the favours of the mass media. The paperback and blogs and podcasts have changed publication methods drastically. Many publishers are willing to publish ideas which find enough readers—and that can be a small minority within the whole reading public—sometimes because they are interested in the idea itself, most of the time because they need to sell books, products, and other goods and services. A paperback for twelve dollars is accessible economically as any number of the mass-media magazines and can easily become a vehicle to spread ideas provided the test is interesting and attract attention. And most blogs and pod casts are free of charge and people really enjoy those also. If we must deny its most powerful manifestations, if we are taught to deny the body and ignore the senses, if we are to reject the natural satisfactions and renounce the aesthetic ones, life makes no sense. To deny Nature in the name of some narrow ascetic doctrine, to judge men and art by its standards, is to introduce unattractiveness into life, prejudice into affairs, and imbalance into character. Not in ascetic despisal of the flesh nor in fascinated enslavement to it will peace be found. #RandolphHarris 25 of 28
As one of the World’s largest accredited municipal fire agencies, the Sacramento Fire Department promotes excellence. They are recognized as a premier public service organization, respected, and admired by their peers and the community as the most diverse, innovative, and efficient public safety provider known to man. “I recently took the lieutenant’s test, and I passed the written. Then I had to take the oral. I don’t like the oral system. I was kind of nervous. The system is tough. You go in there. I’m there for fifteen minutes, and these three guys are sizing me up in fifteen minutes. They don’t know anything about me. They don’t know my credibility. They don’t know anything from the chief of the department about me. They don’t know if I’m an abuser of sick time. They have no idea what my background is. All they do is shoot nine questions at you, and you’re nervous, and you’ve got to answer them. If you don’t answer them right, or if they don’t like the way you look, I mean, my whole twenty years can be blown down the drain by these three guys. I would not evaluate a man’s career without knowing something about the man. I’m the only one who feels this way. In my twenty years I’ve taken make thirty-some sick days. I’m a professional firefighter. I do my job. If my chief and the twelve district chiefs had to say thumbs up or thumbs down on me, I know it would be thumbs up with every one of them. I’ve been through a lot of stuff. I’ve received burns. I was caught in a backdraft. I’ve been hospitalized. I recoeved the medal of valor for rescues. #RandolphHarris 26 of 28
“They don’t know all this. All they’re judging me on is nine questions, and I’m hesitating, I’m nervous. And they could blow my whole life down the drain.” No one must go through life’s challenges alone. Jesus Christ understands perfectly what you are going through and will support you. Because God loves you and wants you to become your best, He sent His perfect Son to Earth to redeem you. An important part of Jesus Christ’s mission was to be our advocate. He overcame suffering and affliction so that He would know how to support us. If you turn to God in prayer and ask for guidance, He knows you perfectly and knows how to help you. As you turn to God and Jesus Christ, your faith will be strengthened and act as an anchor in the storms of life. Christ’s gospel can teach you the way to lasting joy, and the truths taught in His Church can bring peace and hope. The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to creating safe and resilient communities through prevention, preparedness, and effective emergency response. Friends, family, and the community can be a wonderful source of support and happiness. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to buy American made products, to love God and Jesus, respect law and order and treat everyone, especially their elders with dignity and respect. #RandolphHarris 27 of 28
It was like a dream, when by the Lord from bondage American was restored; our mouths were filled with mirth and songs to God, to whom all praise belongs. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. To the nations owned that God has wrought Great works, which joy to us has brought; as southern streams when filled with rain, He turned our captive state again. Who sow in tears, with joy shall reap; though bearing precious seed they weep while going forth, yet shall they sing when, coming back, their sheaves they bring. We may not, probably will not, receive a personal visit from the Lord, but the answers do come—from prayer, the scriptures, the words of the prophet, the still, small voice of inspiration. I should like to reassure you that we truly can find courage to face our challenges and also give service to those whose needs are even greater than our own. Sometimes to each of us will come questions of life and death, purpose and our own inevitable parting. All of us have had losses or will have. Perhaps it is for this that we are taught “to mourn with those that mourn,” reports Mosiah 18.9 and to “weep for the loss of them that die,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 42.45. Death is not permanent. We have the reality of the Resurrection and that makes the waiting endurable and purposeful. #RandolphHarris 28 of 28
Starting September, Friday the 13th, Winchester Mystery House presents Unhinged: Hotel, a brand-new chapter of our Halloween haunt 👻
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The Winning of the West
Christopher Columbus was indeed looking for “spices,” but her most certainly was not lost. It is quite a special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them. It is also possible to classify long series of transactions, extending even to a whole lifetime, so that significant human social behaviour can be predicted, both short term and long term, can be predicted. Such chains of transactions take place, even when they yield little instinctual satisfaction, because most people become very uneasy when they are faced with a period of unstructured time; hence, they find cocktail parties, for example, less boring than being by themselves. The need to structure time is based on three drives or hunger. The first is stimulus or sensation hunger. Far from trying to avoid stimulating situations, as some people have claimed, most organisms, including human beings, seek them out. The need for sensation is the reason why roller coasters make money and why prisoners will do almost anything to avoid solitary confinement. The second drive is recognition hunger, the quest for special kinds of sensations which can only be supplied by another human being, or in some cases, by other terrestrial beings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
That is why milk is not enough for baby monkeys and human infants; they also need the sound and smell and warmth and touch of mothering or else they will wither away, just as grownups do if there is no one to say Hello to them. The third hunger is structure hunger, which is why groups tend to grow into organizations, and why time-structures are among the most sought after and the most highly rewarded members of any society. An interesting example combining both stimulus hunger and structure hunger is found among rodents raised in a state of sensory deprivation, that is, in complete darkness, or in a constantly lighted white cage with no variation. Later in the lives of these animals, after they had been put in ordinary cages with “normal” rodents, it was found that they would go to food in a maze if it were placed on a checkerboard, but they would not go to food is it was placed on a simple background. Normally raised rodents would go to the food regardless of the background. This showed that the hunger of the deprived rodents for a structured stimulus was more important than their hunger for food. The experimenters concluded that the need for structured stimuli (of as they put it, for “perceptual experience”) may involve biological processes just as basic as food hunger, and that the effects of early sensory deprivation may persist throughout life in the form of a strong attraction to complicated stimuli. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
There are four basic classifications for the short-term structuring of time in human social behaviour, with two limiting cases. Thus, if two or more people are in a room together, they have six possible kinds of social behaviour to choose from. At one extreme the limiting cases is withdrawal, in which the people do not overtly communicate with each other. This may occur in such diverse situations as a subway train or a therapy ground of withdrawn schizophrenics. Next to withdrawal, in which everyone remains wrapped in his own thoughts, the safest form of social actions is rituals. These are highly stylized interchanges which may be informal or may be formalized into ceremonies which are completely predictable. The transactions which make up rituals covey little information, but are more in the nature of signs of mutual recognition. The units of a ritual are called strokes, by analogy with the way in which infants are recognized by their mothers. Rituals are programmed from outside by tradition and social custom. The next safest forms of social action are called activities, what is commonly called work, in which the transactions are programmed by the material that is being worked with, whether it be wood and concrete, or problems in arithmetic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Work transactions are typically Adult-to-Adult, oriented toward the external reality—that is, the subject of the activity. Next in the order are pastimes, which are not as stylized and predictable as rituals, but have a certain repetitive quality and are in the nature of multiple-choice, sentence-completion interchanges, such as take place at cocktail parties where people do not know each other very well. Pastimes are largely socially programmed by talking about acceptable subjects in acceptable ways, but individual notes may creep in, leading to the next form of social action, which is called games. Games are set of ulterior transactions, repetitive in nature, with a well-defined psychological payoff. Since an ulterior transaction means that the agent pretends to be doing one thing while he is really doing something else, all games involve a con. However, if there is a weakness it can hook into, handle or “gimmick” to get a hold of in the respondent, such as fear, greed, sentimentality, or irritability, only then does a con work. After the “mark” is hooked, the player pulls some sort of switch to get his payoff. The switch is followed by a moment of confusion or crossup while the mark tries to figure out what must happen to him. Then both players collect their payoffs as the game ends. #Randolphharris 4 of 21
The payoff, which is mutual, consists of feelings (not necessarily similar) which the game arouses in both the agent and the respondent. Unless a set of transactions has these four features, it is not a game—that is, the transactions must be ulterior so that there is a con, and the con must be followed by a switch, a crossup, and a payoff. We recently saw in example of this when the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from President Trump, then he was replaced by Joe Biden, whom everyone knew was mentally incompetent, and as time drew closer to the 2024 election, the con was followed by a switch, putting Vice President Kamala Harris in office for a crossup, and a payoff. This can be represented by a formula. C+G=R–>S–>X–>P (Formula G). The cons hooked into a gimmick, by all the sudden making it public that they wanted President Biden to step down because he was mentally unwell. The democrats then pulled the switch, by making Kamla the new democrat nominee by default because they knew she could not legally earn the ticket, this was followed by a moment of confusion, and both players got to collect their payoffs. Biden gets to remain president and Kamala has a chance at becoming the next president. Whatever fits this formula is a fame, and whatever does not fit it is not a game. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
For example, the mere fact of repetition or persistence by President Trump in running for re-election in 2024 does not constitute a game. This, in a therapy group, if a scared patient repeatedly asks the therapist for reassurance every week (“Tell me I will get better, doctor”) and when he receives it, says “Thank you,” that is not necessarily an ulterior transaction. The patient has stated his need frankly and has had it gratified, and does not take advantage of the situation in any way, but gives a courteous response. These transactions, therefore, do not constitute a game but an operation, and operations, no matter how often they are repeated, must be distinguished from games, just as rational procedures must be distinguished from rituals. If another patient, however, asks the therapist for reassurance, and upon receiving it, uses the response to make the therapist look stupid, that constitutes a game. For example, a patient asked: “Do you think I will get better, doctor?” and the sentimental therapist replied, “Of course you will.” At that point, the patient revealed her ulterior motive in asking the question. Instead of saying, “Thank you,” as in a straight transaction, she pulled the switch with: “What makes you think you know everything?” This reply crossed the therapist up and threw him off balance for a moment, which is what the patient wanted to do. Then the game ended, the patient feeling elated at having conned the therapist, and he is feeling frustrated; and those were the payoffs. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
In a sense, Kamala is the patient. She knew all along that President Biden was mentally unfit to run the country, but took so long to admit it because she wanted to pull the switch and throw the American people off balance. Now Kamala is feeling elated at having conned the White House and the American people, and Biden is left feeling frustrated. If Biden is unfit to be the democratic nominee, then how can he be fit to fulfill the remainder of his presidency. Furthermore, you remember President Trump predicted this would happen. Everything his says is truth and he often can see into the future. Some people will say, “President Trump lies. He said that he wanted to lock Hilary up, then when asked about it said that he did not say that.” Well, what happened is he said, “The people said that.” These people could have been his campaign contributors, and he did not send Hilary to jail. Therefore, Trump did not lie, nor does he. The game Kalama played followed Formula G precisely. The con was pretending not to know Joe Biden was unfit to be president, and the gimmick was the country’s sentimentality. When the con hooked into the gimmick, the American people responded in the way she expected. Then she pulled the switch, causing a crossup, after which each collected a payoff. So, C+H=R–>S–>X–>P. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
This is a simple example of the game called, from the patient’s side, “Slug Him,” or “Whammy,” and from the therapist’s side, “I am Only Trying To Help You.” Colloquially, the payoff is called a trading stamp. “Good” feelings are spoken of as “gold” trading stamps and distressing feelings are said to be “brown” or “blue trading stamps. In this case the Kamala got a counterfeit-gold trading stamp for a counterfeit triumph or success, and the President Biden got a brown one, which is not unusual. Each game has a slogan or motor by which it can be recognized, such as “I am Only Trying To Help You.” This slogan is colloquially called a “sweatshirt.” Usually, the same of the game is taken from its slogan. Beyond games lies the other limiting case of what can take place between people, which is called intimacy. Bilateral intimacy is defined as a candid, game-free relationship, with mutual free giving and receiving and without exploitation. Intimacy can be one-sided, since one party may be candid and freely giving, while the other may be devious and exploitative. Activities involving pleasures of the flesh offer examples which cover the whole spectrum of social behaviour. It is ecident that they can take place in withdrawal, that they can be part of a ritualistic ceremony, or that they can be all in a day’s work, a pastime for rainy day, a game of mutual exploitation, or acts of real intimacy. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
Theredore Roosevelt, who had been a Burgess’ student at Columbia Law School was also inspired why the drama of racial expansion. In his historical work, The Winning of the West, Roosevelt drew from the story of the frontiersman’s struggle with the Indians the conclusion that the coming of the whites was not to be stayed and a racial war to the finish was inevitable. “During the past three centuries,” wrote the young scholar-in-politics, “the spread of the English-speaking peoples over the World’s waste spaces has been not only the most striking feature in the World’s history, but also the event of all others most far-reaching in its effects and its importance.” This great expansion he traced back many centuries to the days when German tribes went forth to conquest from their marshy forests. American development represents the culminating achievement of this mighty history of racial growth. The writings of John Fiske, one of the earliest American synthesizers of evolutionism, expansionism, and the Anglo-Saxon myth, shows how tenuous could be the boundary between Spencer’s ideal evolutionary pacifism and the militant imperialism which succeeded it. A kindly man, whose thought was grounded in Spencer’s theory of the transition from militancy to industrialism, Fiske was not the sort to advocate violence as an instrument of national policy. Yet even in his hands evolutionary dogma issued forth a in bumptious doctrine of racial destiny. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
In his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, Fiske had followed Spencer in accepting the universality of conflict (outside of family relationships) as a fact in savage society; he believed it an effective agent in selection. However, the superior, more differentiated, and integrated societies had come to prevail over the more backward by natural selection, and the power of making war on a grand scale had become concentrated in the hands of “those communities in which predatory activity is at the minimum and industrial activity at the maximum.” So warfare or destructive competition gives place to the productive competition of industrial society. As militancy declines, the method of conquest is replaced by the method of federation. Fiske, who had long believed in Aryan race superiority, also accepted the “Teutonic” theory of democracy. This doctrine sanctified any conquest incidental to Anglo-Saxon expansion. English victories over France in the eighteenth-century colonial struggles represented a victory over Spain and the acquisition of the Philippines Fiske interpreted as a high point in a conflict between Spanish colonization and superior English methods. In 1880, when he was invited to speak before the Royal Institute of Great Britian, Fiske gave a series of three lectures on “American Political Ideas” which became widely known as a statement of the Anglo-Saxon Thesis. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Fiske praised the ancient Roman Empire as an agency of peace, but argued that it had been inadequate as a system of political organization because it failed to combine concerted action with local self-government. The solution to this ancient need could be provided by representative democracy and the local self-government embodies in the New England town. By retaining the rustic democracy of America’s Aryan forefathers, American federal organization would make it possible an effective union of many diverse states. Democracy, diversity, and peace would be brought into harmony. The dispersion of this magnificent Aryan political system over the World, and the complete elimination of warfare, was the next step in World history. With characteristic Darwinian emphasis upon race fertility, Fiske dwelt upon the great population potential of English and American races. America could support at least 700,000,000; and English people would within a few centuries cover Africa with teeming cities, flourishing farms, railroads, telegraphs, and all the devices of civilization. This was the Manifest Destiny of the race. Every land on the globe that was not already the seat of an old civilization should become English in language, traditions, and blood. Four-fifths of the human race would trace its pedigree to English forefathers. Spread from the rising to the setting sun, the race would hold the sovereignty of the sea and the commercial supremacy which it had begun to acquire when England first began to settle the New World. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
If the United States of America would only drop that its shameful tariff and enter a free competition with the rest of the World, it would exert such pressure, peacefully of course, that the states of Europe would no longer be able to afford armaments and would finally see the advantages of peace and federation. Thus, according to Fiske, would man finally pass out of barbarism and become truly Christian. Reverend Josiah Strong was dissatisfied with American’s spiritual life. He was against immigrants, Catholics, Mormons, saloons, tobacco, large cities, socialists, and concentrated wealth—all grave menaces to the Republic. Still, he was undaunted in his faith in universal progress, material and moral and the future of the Anglo-Saxon race. He employed the economic argument for imperialism; and a decade before Frederick Jackson Turner he saw in the imminent exhaustion of the public lands a turning point in national development. It was Anglo-Saxonism, however, that brought him to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The Anglo-Saxon people, the bearers of civil liberty and pure spiritual Christianity, said Strong, “is multiplying more rapidly than any other European race. It already owns one-third of the Earth, and will get more as it grows. By 1980 the World of Anglo-Saxon race should number at least 713,000,000. Since North American is much bigger than the little English isle, be the seat of Anglo-Saxondom. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
“If human progress follows a law of development, if ‘Time’s noblest offspring is the last,’ our civilization should be the noblest; for we are ‘the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time,’ and not only do we occupy the latitude of power, but our land is the last to be occupied in that latitude. There is no other virgin soil in the North Temperate Zone. If the consummation of human progress is not to be looked for here, if there is yet to flower a higher civilization, where is the soil that is to produce it?’” Strong went on to show how a new and finer physical type was emerging in the United States of America, bigger, stronger, taller, than Scots or Englishmen. Darwin himself, Strong noted triumphantly, had seen in the superior vigor of Americans an illustration of natural selection at work, when he wrote in The Descent of Man: “There is apparently much truth in the belief that the wonderful progress of the United States, as well as the character of the people, are the results of natural selection; for the more energetic, restless, and courageous men from all parts of Europe have emigrated during the last ten or twelve generations to that great country, and have there succeeded best. Looking to the distant future, I do not think that the Reverend Mr. Zincke takes an exaggerated view when he says: ‘All other series of events—as that which resulted in the culture of mind in Greece, and that which resulted in the empire of Rome—only appear to have purpose and value when viewed in connection with, or rather as subsidiary to…the great stream of Anglo-Saxon emigration to the west.’” #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Returning to his theme that the unoccupied lands of the World were filling up, and that population would soon be pressing upon subsistence in the United States of America as in Europe and Asia, Strong declared: “Then will the World enter upon a new stage of its history—the final competition of races for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled. If I do not read amiss, this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can anyone doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the ‘survival of the fittest’?” Life is precsrious and unpredictable, and the only way to live it is to make every effort to save it as long as there is a possibility of doing so. However, we must put a stop to the idea that it is part of everybody’s civil rights to say whatever he pleases, and it should be illegal to burn the American flag. Indeed, it is part of the probability that the improbable happens. A real possibility means that there are psychological, economic, social, and cultural factors which can be demonstrated—if not their quantity, at least their existence—as the basis for the possibility of change. There is a reason democrats are allowing an invasion at the southern border. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
A violent revolution in the style of the French or Russian revolutions, which means the overthrow of the government by force and the seizure of power by revolutionary leaders is not currently possible for several reasons. First, there is no mass base for such a revolution. Even if all the radical students, including military marginalized populations, were in favour of it—which, of course, they are not—this mass base would be completely lacking because together they constitute only an exceedingly small minority of the American population. If a small, desperate ground tried a Putsch or a kind of guerilla warfare, its suppression would necessarily follow. Those who think in terms of a guerrilla war of the marginalized populations against the majority in the cities forget Mao Tse-tung’s basic insight that guerrillas can be successful only if they work within a population favourable to them. It need not be stressed that the real circumstances are precisely the opposite condition. Furthermore, it is most doubtful that even if the two factors mentioned so far did not exist, a violent revolution could succeed. An extraordinarily complex society like that of the United States of America, based on a large group of skilled managers and managerial bureaucracy, could not function unless equally skilled people took the place of those who run the industrial machine now. Neither the students nor the marginalized masses offer many men with such skill. That is why Kamala had to steal with election and they are allowing 20 million migrants to invade America. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
However, a “victorious revolution” would simply lead to the breakdown of the industrial machine of the United States of America and defeat itself, even without the forces of the state, which would suppress it. Veblen, in The Engineers and the Price System, already states this essential point over one hundred years ago. He wrote: “No movement for the dispossession the of Vested Interests in America can hope for even a temporary success unless it is undertaken by an organization which is competent to take over the country’s productive industry as a whole, and to administer if from the state on a more efficient plan than that no pursued by the Vested Interests; and there is no such organization in sight or in immediate prospect.” He adds an observation which is particularly relevant to today, when there is talk of revolution by sabotage and guerilla warfare. “Wherever the mechanical industry has taken decisive effect, as in America and in the two or three industrialized regions of Europe, the community lives from hand to mouth in such a way that its livelihood depends on the effectual working of its industrial system from day to day. In such a case a serious disturbance and derangement of the balanced process of production is always easily brought on, and it always brings immediate hardship on large sections of the community. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“Indeed, it is this state of things—the ease with which industry can be deranged and hardship can be brought to bear on the partisan organizations as the A.F. of L. It is a state of things which makes the sabotage easy and effectual and gives it breadth and scope. However, sabotage is not revolution. If it were, then the A.F. of L., the I.W.W.. the Chicago Packers, and the U.S. Senate would b e counted among the revolutionists. To take effect and hold its own even from the time being, any movement of overturn must from before hand provide for a sufficiently productive conduct of the industrial system on which the community’s material welfare depends, and for a competent distribution of goods and services throughout the community. Otherwise, under existing industrial conditions, nothing more can be accomplished than an ephemeral disturbance and a transient season of accentuated hardship. Even a transient failure to make good in the management of the industrial system must immediately defeat any movement of overturn in any of the advanced industrial counties. At this point, the lessons of history fail, because the present industrial system, and the manner of close-knit community life enforced by this industrial system have no example in history.” It is important to consider the difference between the technical aspects of industrial society in 1968 and of Russian society in 1917, or even German society in 1918. These were societies which were by comparison much less complex and where, indeed, the apparatus of the government and of industry could have been taken over by intelligent and capable people from outside. However, in 2024, in the United States of America, what we thought was impossible, we are seeing take place before our eyes. RandolphHarris 17 of 21
We touch again here on the problem of violence. It is a most amazing and bewildering paradox that in a situation where violence is losing it rationale—in international relations because of the existence of thermonuclear weapons and within a state because of the complexity of its structure—it is looked upon as a method of solution, although only by a small minority. This popularity of violence is an outcome of the psychic and spiritual despair and emptiness, and the resulting hate against life. It is greatly furthered by the literature which portrays man as driven to violence by his innate and almost uncontrollable destructive instinct. On the other hand, the change in society cannot be accomplished simply by the publication of books advocating it or even by ideas spread by gifted speakers or orators. Unless such ideas can be translated into specific plans and actions, they may win the sympathies of several people who will, however, become even more disappointed when they see that these ideas in themselves have had no influence on reality. What, then, is the basis for the “real possibility?” Generally speaking, this real possibility can be formulated in a simple fashion: that it is possible to “move” public opinion to such a degree that it makes itself felt in the decision making of the executive and the legislative branches; that by its influence it restrains further expansion of the policies we are now embarked on’ that eventually it gains a majority of voters; and thus that those who represent the ideas of the new movement become the political leaders of the country. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
What are the conditions which form a real possibility to achieve this end? First, there are certain psychological conditions which have been on the increase for some time, and which have become still more visible in the American people. I refer to the widespread dissatisfaction of people of all classes and ages with our way of life—its bored and lack of joy. However, if it were not for the presence of a positive condition, namely, that of a longing for new directions, for a renewal of values, for the end of the dehumanized, bureaucratic method, for a new psychospiritual orientation— this negative psychological condition would be much less effective. The second condition is that our democratic system continues to function. Even though it does not live up to its promises, it is not insensitive to major swings in public opinion. Even our professional political bureaucracy—self-seeking as many of its members may be—wants to be re-elected and hence needs to pay attention to what people think and want. The first concrete condition, then, of achieving our aim is to preserve that minimum of democratic structure which we have got and to fight at every point where it is threated. The new constituency of the forces which want a new direction in American life exists already. It has such a great power as a potential precisely because it is not restricted to one political party, social class, or age, but comprises a wide sector of the American population, from conservatives to radicals. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
The Sacramento Fire Department is a team whose members are effective, empowered, and enthusiastic in their service. They have been recognized as regional leaders by their community, neighbours, and peers. They enthusiastically supported by their community, which views them with pride, respect, and confidence. Their mission is accomplished by a physically fit, healthy, and increasingly diverse work force, well trained in a in a multitude of specialized skills, and empowered with a high level of involvement in their success. Theu equipment is dependable, capable, and consistent with the needs of the community, embracing cutting-edge technology and emphasizing firefighter safety. “The Sacramento Fire Department has been very good to me, good to my family. I have excellent benefits, but there’s still a lot I desire. Coming up from Santa Clara, you want to see some changes, but every department has its own little ways of doing things, and you can’t make the changes. I went through the riots of COVID pandemic. I was in the at the north end. I saw a lot of destruction. They were doing it against their own people and communities. They didn’t care who they were destroying, because it was all in their own area. They were putting people out of business, their own people, and it was very said. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
“I was never really in a situation where I felt I’d never see my children again. I’ve learned from experience, and I know my limitations. Many times, in a fire you’re with somebody and then you’re not with somebody. They might have backed out of something happened. But I never really felt I was alone. It’s almost like having an angle there with you. I’ve been in situations where I was alone and I had gone deeper into a fire than I should. But I never really felt I was alone. It was almost life a tap on the shoulder: this is enough, back.” The Sacramento Fire Department core value is to always be respectful while keeping their community safe. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. Also, please remember to raise your children to love America, be patriotic, respect law and order, and to treat everyone with respect and dignity, but know when to say, “No.” Love of the divine is our primary duty. Love of our neighbour is only a secondary one. Behold, I am prepared, ready to fulfill the commandments of my Creator. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
The Winchester Mystery House
Day by day, the amazing manifestations of Mrs. Winchester’s tormenting spirits were noted down. In between the new and full moon disturbances in Llanada Villa were worse. It is no secret that Mrs. Winchester was being treated by psychic experts. One night after a particularly exciting day, Florence Farr magnetized her head and quietened her, and suggested that Mrs. Winchester should go to bed. Going up the stairs a small table and a crystal vase crashed over, and a little later a great noise of banging and tearing was heard in Mrs. Winchester’s room. When Florence went into the room, it looked as if a tornado had swept over it.
While touring The Winchester Mystery House, mysterious ceremonies may infuse, as it were, something of a ritual during the Victorian times, and the Devil himself may appear in the form of a human being. Join us for our summer Flashlight Tour, happening for one night only. Do not miss out or you will be left in the dark…literally! Our Final Flashlight tour of the year 27 July 2024. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Does the Unified Man Like Everyone He Meets?
The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that the people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event. Fictional character, Henry Regan, on the popular CBS television show Blue Bloods, confessed that when he was an office back in the early 1900s, that his officers would ride around and when they saw someone they wanted to terrorize, they would put on pink bunny ears and beat the tar out of them. He admits that it sounded so ridiculous that no one would ever believe them. If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the most crude and stupid things. The brutality of all national development is apparent, and we make no excuse for it. To conceal it would be a denial of fact; to glamour it over, an apology to truth. There is little in life that is not brutal except our ideal. As we increase the aggregate of individuals and their collective activities, we increase proportionately their brutality. In this World the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolation ease is bound, in the end, to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities. In 1898, The United States of America waged a three-month war with Spain. It took the Philippine Islands from Sapin by treaty and formally annexed the Hawaiian Islands. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
In 1899, the United States of America partitioned the Samoan Islands by agreement with Germany, and expressed its policy toward western interests in China in the “Open Door” note. In 1900, Americans took part in suppressing the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. By 1902, the Amry had finally suppressed insurrection in the Philippines; and in that year, the islands were made an unorganized territory. As the United States of America stepped upon the stage of empire, American thought turned once again to the subjects of war and empire; opponents and defenders of expansion and conquest marshaled arguments for their causes. After the fashion of late nineteenth-century thought, they sought in the World of nature a larger justification for their ideas. The use of natural selection as a vindication of militarism or imperialism was not new in European or American thought. Imperialists, calling upon Darwinism in defense of the subjugation of weaker races, could point to The Origin of Species, which had referred in its subtitle to The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin had been talking about pigeons, but the imperialists saw no reason why his theories should not apply to men, and the whole spirit of the naturalistic Worldview seemed to call for a vigorous and unrelenting thoroughness in the application of biological concepts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Had not Darwin himself written complacently in The Descent of Man of the likelihood that backward races would disappear before the advance of higher civilization? Militarists could also point to the harsh fact of the elimination of the unfit as an urgent reason for cultivating the material virtues and keeping the national power dry. After the Franco-Prussian War both sides had for the first-time invoked Darwinism as an explanation of the facts of the battle. “The greatest authority of all the advocates of war is Darwin,” explained Max Nordau in the North American Review in 1889. “Since the theory of evolution has been promulgated, they can cover their natural barbarism with the name of Darwin and proclaim the sanguinary instincts of their inmost hearts as the last word of science.” It would nevertheless be easy to exaggerate the significance of Darwin for the theory of militarism either in the United States of America or in Western Europe. Neither the philosophy of force nor doctrines of Machtpolitik had to wait upon Darwin to make their appearance. Nor was racism strictly a post-Darwinian phenomenon. Gobineau’s Essai sur L’Inegalite des Races Humanies, a landmark in the history of Aryanism, was published in 1835-55 without benefit of the idea of natural selection. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
As for the United States of America, a people long familiar with Indian warfare on the frontier and the pro-slavery arguments of Southern politicians and publicists had been thoroughly grounded in notions of racial superiority. At the time when Darwin was still hesitantly outlining his theory in private, racial destiny had already been called upon by American expansionists to support the conquest of Mexico. “The Mexican race now see in the fate of the aborigines of the north, their own inevitably destiny,” an expansionist had written. “They must amalgamate or be lost in the superior vigor of the Anglo-Saxon race, or they must utterly perish.” This Anglo-Saxon doctrine because the chief element in American racism in the imperial era; but the mystique of Anglo-Saxonism, which for a time had a particularly powerful grip on American historians, did not depend upon Darwinism either for its inception or for its development. It is doubtful that such monuments of English Anglo-Saxon historical writings as Edward Augustus Freeman’s History of the Norman Conquest of England (1867-79) or Charles Kingsley’s The Roman and the Teuton (1864) owed much to biology; and certainly John Mitchell Kemble’s The Saxons in England in England (1849) was not inspired by the survival of the fittest. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Like other varieties of racism, Anglo-Saxonism was a product of nationalism and the romantic movement rather than an outgrowth of biological science. Even the idea that a nation is an organism that must either grow or fall into decay, which doubtless received an additional impetus from Darwinism, had been invoked before 1859 by the proponents of “Manifest Destiny.” Still, Darwinism was put in the service of the imperial urge. Although Darwinism was not the primary source of the belligerent ideology and dogmatic racism of the late nineteenth century, it did become a new instrument in the hands of the theorists of race and struggle. The likeness of the Darwinian portrait of nature as a field of battle to the prevailing conceptions of a militant age in which von Moltke could write that “war is an element of the order of the World established by God…[without which] the World would stagnate and lose itself in materialism,” was too great to escape attention. In the United States of America, however, such frank and brutal militarism was far less common than a benevolent conception of Anglo-Saxon World domination in the interests of peace and freedom. In the decades after 1885, Anglo-Saxonism, belligerent or pacific, was the dominant abstract rationale of American imperialism. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
The radial humanists have the conviction that there is a hierarchy of values in which those of the lower orders follow from the highest value, and these values are binding and compelling principles for the practice of life—individual and social. There may be difference in the radicalism about the affirmation of these values in the practice of one’s life, just as there are in Christianity or in Buddhism among those who lead the monastic life and those who do not. However, all these differences are relatively unimportant beside the principle that there are certain values which cannot be compromised. I submit that if people would truly accept the Ten Commandments as the effective principles to guide their lives, a dramatic change in our whole culture would take place. There is no need at this point to argue about details of the values which need to be practiced, for what matters is to gather those who accept the principle of practice rather of submission to an ideology. Another common principle is the solidarity of all men and the loyalty to life and to humanity which must always take precedence over the loyalty to any group. In fact, even this way of putting it is not correct. Any true love for another person has a particular quality: for I love in that person not only the person but humanity itself, or, as a Christian or Jewish believer would say: God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
In the same way, if I love my country, this love is at the same time a love for man and mankind; and if it is not that, it is an attachment based on one’s incapacity for independence and, in the last analysis, another manifestation of idolatry. The crucial question is how these new-old principles can become effective. Those inside religion hope that they can transform their religion into the full practice of humanism, but many of them know that while this may prove to be true for some sectors of the population, there are others who for many obvious reasons cannot accept the theistic concepts and rituals so closely interwoven with them that it is almost impossible to separate the two. What hope is there for that part of the population which cannot even enter the ranks of the living Church? Can a new religion be founded which has no premises such as those in Revelation, or any kind of mythology? Obviously religions are manifestations of the spirit within the concrete, historical process and the specific, social, and cultural circumstances of any given society. One cannot found a religion by putting together principles. Religions are founded by rare and charismatic personalities of extraordinary genius. Such a personality has not appeared yet on today’s horizon, although there is no reason to assume that he has not been born. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
However, in the meantime, we cannot wait for a new Moses or a new Jesus; we must make do with what we have, and perhaps at this moment of history this is all to the good because the new religious leader might too quickly be transformed into a new idol and his religion might be transformed into idolatry before it had a chance to penetrate the hearts and minds of men. And we then left with nothing but some general principles and values? I do not believe so. If the constructive forces within industrial society which are choked by a deadening bureaucracy, by artificial consumption, and manipulated boredom are released by a new mood of hope, by the social and cultural transformations discussed in his report, if the individual regains his confidence in himself, and if people make contact with each other in spontaneous and genuine group life, new forms of psycho spiritual practices will emerge and grow which might be unified eventually in a total and socially acceptable system. Here, as well as with reference to many other points we have discussed, all depends on the courage of the individual to be fully alive and to seek solutions to the problem of his existence without waiting for the bureaucrats or the concepts to give him answers. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
For Dr. Freud, as we have indicated before, growing civilization means growing repression—hence social evolution does not lead to the dissolution of repression but rather to its reinforcement. For Marx, on the other hand, repression is essentially the result of contradictions between the need for the full development of man and the given social structure—hence the fully developed society in which exploitation and class conflict have disappeared does not need ideologies and can dispense with repression. In the fully humanized society, there would be no need for repression, hence there would be no social unconscious. According to Dr. Freud, repression increases; according to Marx, it decreases in the process of social evolution. There is another difference between Freudian and Marxian thought which has not been sufficiently emphasized. Through rationalization one tries to make it appear as though an action is motivated by reasonable and moral motives, thus covering up the fact that it is caused by motives which contrast with a person’s conscious thinking. The rationalization is mostly sham, and has only the negative function of permitting a person to act wrongly, yet without awareness that he is acting irrationally or immorally. The ideology has a similar function, yet in one point there is an important difference. Take the example of Christian teaching: the teachings of Christ, the ideals of humility, brotherly love, justice, charity, etcetera, were once genuine ideals which moved the hearts of people to such a degree that they were willing to give their lives for the sake of these ideals. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
However, throughout history these ideals have been misused to serve as rationalizations for purposes which were their very opposite. Independent and rebellious spirits have been killed, peasants have been exploited and oppressed, wars have been blessed, hatred of the enemy has been encouraged in the name of these very ideals. Inasmuch as this was the case, ideology was not different from rationalization. However, history shows us that an ideology has also a life of its own. Even though the words of Christ were misused, they were kept alive, they remained in the memory of the people, and again and again they were taken seriously and retransformed, as it were, from ideologies into ideals. This happened in the Protestant sects before and after the Reformation; it is happening today in those Protestant and Catholic minorities which are fighting for peace and against hate in a World which professes to hold Chrisitan ideals, yet uses them as ideologies. The task of the critique is not to denounce the ideals, but to show their transformation into ideologies, and to challenge the ideology in the name of the betrayed ideal. The basic interest of transactional analysis is the study of ego states, which are coherent systems of thought and feeling manifested by corresponding patterns of behaviour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Each human being exhibits three types of ego states. Those derived from parental figures, colloquially called the Parent. In this state, he feels, thinks, acts, talks, and responds just as one of his parents did when he was little. This ego state is active, for example, in raising his own children. Even when he is not actually exhibiting this ego state, it influences his behaviour as the “Parental influences,” performing the functions of a conscience. The ego state in which he appraises his environment objectively, and calculates its possibilities and probabilities on the basis of past experience, is called the Adult ego state, or the Adult. The Adult functions like a computer. Each person carries within a little boy or little girl, who feels, thinks, acts, talks, and responds just the way he or she did when he or she was a child of a certain age. This ego state is called the Child. The Child is not regarded as “childish” or “immature,” which are Parental words, but as childlike, meaning like a child of a certain age, and the important factors here is the age, which may be anywhere between two and give years in ordinary circumstances. It is important for the individual to understand his Child, not only because it is going to be with him all his life, but also because it is the most valuable part of his personality. Through careful study it is evident that two Parental components in most cases, one derived from the father, the other from the mother; it will also uncover within the Child ego state the Parent, Adult, and Child components which were already there when the Child was fixated, as can be verified by observing actual children. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
This second order analysis reveals that the separation of one feeling-and-behaviour pattern from another in diagnosing ego states is called structural analysis. The extent to which a person is factually helpless toward resistances depends not only on their overt but also on their hidden strengths—in other words, the degree to which they are discernible. To be sure, they may be discovered and met in open battle; a patient may be fully aware, for example, that he has a resistance against coming to analysis, or he may even realize that he is fighting tooth and nail against relinquishing a neurotic trend, as Clare did in her eventual battle for and against her dependency. More often resistances sneak up on him in disguised forms, without his recognizing them as such. In that case he does not know that resisting forces are operating; he is merely unproductive, or feels listless, tired, discouraged. And he is, of course, helpless when he is thus confronted with an enemy which is not only invisible but, as far as he knows, does not even exist. One of the most important reasons why he may not recognize the presence of a resistance is the fact that defensive processes are set in motion not only when he is directly confronted with the problems involved, that is, when his secret claims on life are laid bare, his illusions questioned, his security measures jeopardized, but also when he remotely approaches these domains. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The more intent he is on keeping them intact, the more sensitive he is to an approach even from the far distance. He is like a person who is frightened by thunderstorms and who is not only terrified by thunder and lightening but reacts with apprehension even to a cloud that appears on the far horizon. These long-distance reactions escape attention so easily because they arise with the emergence of a subject that is apparently innocuous, one that does not seem likely to stir up strong feelings of any kind. Certainly, the professional person who holds the view that individuals are essentially objects to be manipulated for the welfare of the state, or the good of the educational institution, or “for their own good,” or to satisfy his own need for power and control, would not experience the attitudinal elements I have described as constituting growth-promoting relationships. So, these conditions are congenial and natural in certain philosophical context but not in others. Members of the psychotherapeutic professions can function as representative of prevailing views of truth and reality; they are not agents for enlightenment and growth, but agents of social control, dismissing dissenting perspectives as “insane.” A person’s perspective is vulnerable to being so altered, through contact with others, that the person’s action no longer serves his or her own need, but those of the other persons. When this happens, the person is said to be mystified. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
The idea that ordinary people can love one another, including those they have never met as well as those they meet day after day, is a pleasant piece of sentimentalism. It sounds well when solemnly uttered by ministers of religion before their respectful congregations or when published as advice by professional psychologists. However, where are the individuals who succeed in following it? If we look at history or at the cities and villages we already know, we find that the only form where something like it is discovered is that of organized philanthropy. This is excellent, this is commendable, but still it is not strictly love. Most ordinary people cannot get closer than this to the full sympathetic identification which another person which love really is. Only saints can achieve complete empathy; only they can wash the leper’s sores. For all others, the idea is vague and unreal, although convenient to use in talk at Christmas time. Karamazov, a character in one of Dostoevski’s Russian novels, drily said, “One can love one’s neighbour in an abstract way occasionally perhaps, even from afar, but in close contact, almost never…It is precisely the neighbour, the one who is physically close to us, whom one cannot possibly love. At best, one can love those who are far away.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Now this may be a little exaggerated but it does speak openly of the difficulty many people experience in their attitude towards those with whom they are in daily contact. If they are forced to live with unscrupulous or unliked people, it is still more difficult. Then it will be all they can do to numb their revulsions. However, ordinary people must come to terms with their associates or have at least to take care not to show their dislike. They must particularly learn to endure others who are thoroughly repulsive to them. Unless they do achieve this capacity, there is no hope for the human race, which most otherwise go on fighting and warring until, with the frightful weapons now coming into its hands, it destroys itself. Such tolerance is still only the first station of the route to that active goodwill which the more idealistic persons who take the Quest seriously must try to achieve eventually. Many of them find it hard to each even this first halt. They are sensitive, they are often heterodox, and they cannot warm up to those whose ideas, habits, mannerisms, or orthodoxies irritate them. The Quester who does not eat meat, for instance, may not enjoy sitting down at table with those who delight in it. If he has the fortunate circumstances to do as he likes, he need not do so. However, most are not so free. He may put up with meat-laden table and its diners with bad grace or good grace, but put up with them he must. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Or take another case, that of having perforce to associate with someone who indulges in frequent sniffles when such a personal habit is felt to be most repulsive. Again, if he is a Quester and if he is free to do as he likes and to avoid the other person, he is entitled to do so. However, suppose he is not free? Instead of straining himself in the futile task of trying to love unlovable people, it is better to learn how to give them enough goodwill to tolerate them. This is withing his capacity. If he must live with them, or associate with them, he must try to put up with them, which means trying to put himself in their place. And that is a most desirable spiritual exercise, an advanced stepping-stone toward love itself. The practice of goodwill helps the practiser by attracting more of God’s grace and shaping good character. The thought of it, habitual and sustained, helps those who touch, or move within, his orbit. The profound meditation upon it repays him with blissful feelings and mystical harmony. If a man can be nothing else, let him be kind to others. Each time he does this he goes out of his own little ego. He comes a little closer to expressing the spiritual self-dwelling hidden in his heart. Some people believe that love shown to a terrorist would call forth its like from him. This is a typical belief among mystics down through the centuries. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
When tested by experience, we find that it is successful in some cases but failure in many more. And where it fails it harms the criminal because he believes the more strongly that his crimes go unpunished, and it harms society because it is a misapplication of a good ideal. Everything, even love, must be applied at the right time and at the right place, for when misapplied even a virtue becomes a vice. We must not forget that wise old Latin proverb which warms us that when the best is corrupted it becomes the worst of all. The love for all humanity which many religionist professes to feel would not need much testing to find out the shallowness of its reality. The saint possessed by his higher self may, perhaps out of excessive kindness, be able to give it to the undesirable and the disgusting types. However, the more impersonal philosopher has a wide goodwill, which is not the same as love. When one’s love for another is of the highest type and leads to an expansion of understanding, compassion, and tolerance of others, he has glimpsed the greater purpose of personal love: how the surrender of his “heart” may lead to its opening to, and becoming united with, Universal Love. Being aware of the weaknesses or faults of another does not necessarily mean we love him less. It is an essential part of the message of love that we learn how to forgive surface characteristics by contemplating the essence of the beloved, to see what “is,” while also seeing deeper to what truly IS—the Divine evidenced in a particular form. Only when love ceases to be personal and becomes impersonal, when it passes out of the local into the universal, does it fulfill itself and attain its own unmixed and unadulterated integrity. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
The Sacramento Fire Department helps people every day. They focus on the value and safety of people as they strive for excellence in providing service to their neighbourhoods and community. “What does it mean to a firefight to work in low-income neighborhood? It means that most of the firefighters you find there are the most dedicated ones. They have a higher rate of activity, more fire activity, and they are in more danger. And there were times, not so much recently but five of six years ago, when some of the citizens did not appreciate us being here. Now that has changed. I tell this when I teach recruits in firefighting. Did you ever notice, when you get a kitchen fire in a nice suburban neighborhood, they make sure to put themselves up in the Marriott for a few months? When they come back, did you ever notice their house? It’s nicer than it was before. New curtains, new draperies, new wallpaper, new granite countertop. They probably lit the thing to begin with, either intentionally or they were just careless. Probably intentionally. Let’s face it, most of our fires are. What about a poor person? They haven’t got a pot to pee in. When you look at that burned-out hulk, you know they are going to be sleeping in that house tonight. So, the harder we work and the more diligent we are in fighting the fires in poor areas, the more those people are going to be materially benefitted. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“I thank God I was born into a family with good economic means. These people are less fortunate. They didn’t ask to be born into a horrible situation, but they were. In a way, it makes you feel good to help people who really need the help. I think that most firefighters who work in those neighborhoods, whether they’re churchgoing folk, Christians, or whatever, feel the same way. We’ve had training and classes on the problem of AIDS and hepatitis B in medical emergency situations, and we take precautionary measures. We’re required to wear rubber gloves, and if it’s a situation that warrants it, we’ll put on goggles or glasses to protect our eyes. And we’ll even wear a mask or a bandanna to protect our lungs. I don’t recollect that I’ve ever been exposed to those two things, but I was on the rescue unit where there were a lot of medical emergences of various types, so I’ve been exposed to some things. And I’ve been tested to make sure I haven’t contracted those things. I did it on my own. I went in a could of weeks ago for a personal checkup and a blood test, just to make sure. I think all firefighters should do that one time to time. One of the nurses down at the hospital drew blood one a patient who had infectious hepatitis and ended up getting stuck by the needle and died. Our fire department takes pretty good care of us in that they provide us with nutritional training. They have our physical evaluation every year where they measure our body fat, see how much weight we can push, and have us do a series of push-ups and that sort of thing. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
“As this AIDS thing becomes more prevalent, if they have any questions about it, firemen should check it out. We fill out injury slips or exposure reports when we get hurt or get smoke in our lungs. So we would pursue thing new stuff through a doctor. If we have any question that we’ve been exposed to AIDS, I believe that guys—women, too—should pursue the testing for their own health” The Sacramento Fire Department continues to grow and evolve throughout their careers in public service. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, parents, raise your children to love God, Jesus Christ, and America. Every child should grow up proud to be citizen of the United States of America. Also, we must remember to respect the property of others, respect law and order, treat others with respect, especially our elders. Real love is not something to be withdrawn abruptly when the person who is its object annoys or offends you. If the human race had not yet learnt to love its neighbour, it is not likely to take the farther step of loving its enemy. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Rock of Ages, let our song praise Thy saving power; Thou amidst the raging foes, wast our shelt’ring tower. Furious they assailed us, but Thine arm availed us, and Thy word broke their sword when our own strength failed us. Children of the martyr-race, whether free or fettered, wake the echoes of the songs, where ye may be scattered. Yours the message cheering that time is nearing which will see all men free, tyrants disappearing. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
The Winchester Mystery House
Energetic and enthusiastic scare actors who love Halloween and wish to join our spooktacular team for speaking and non-speaking roles can apply today for our 2024 Halloween experience! In person auditions will be held on Friday, August 2nd from 4pm to 9pm and Saturday, August 3rd from 12pm to 4pm. See link in bio for more details.
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion.
For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
The Devil Had Had Connection with them
“Yes, there at first, and then…” I waved my hand nonchalantly around the room,” here, there…several placed, actually.” Mr. Hansen straightened up, “Has she ever spoken? Have you ever tried to speak to her, Mrs. Winchester?” I frowned. “My dear boy, I do not make a habit of conducting conversations with ghosts. I consider just seeing the wretched thing queer enough.” Twitching my shoulders in a shiver. “I was sitting in the library in one of the big windows that had been opened to the night air. Suddenly my peaceful evening was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. I turned my head toward the door to see who was coming. However, no form was visible. The footsteps, however, came to the doors of the library, and ceased abruptly. Mystified, I waited for the someone to enter the room. Nothing happened. “Who’s there?” I asked. There was complete silence. Half-angry and half-puzzled, I got up to look around. There was no one in the dark hallway. I heard those footsteps plainly, but did not see a soul. Perhaps there was a secret entrance that I did not know about. There has to be some place where they can hide. These walls are deep enough to contain a secret passageway. When I returned to the library, I saw a girl in this room, although she was only a haze sort of form at first, not clear at all. Definitely a girl though, in her early twenties, I would say. I say her—it—again a few days—no, not days: nights—later, much clearer this time, almost as if her presence was growing in strength. I must admit, I felt quite weak at the sight of her.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
“That sometimes happens,” Mr. Hansen replied. “Manifestations of this kind seem to draw off psychic energy from their witnesses, using it to sap energy from the atmosphere, too—that’s why the temperature of a room may suddenly drop. Their presence has even been known to affect electricity.” “Extraordinary. However, you really are speaking of ghosts, Mr. Hansen.” “No, I’m still talking about unexplained phenomena. Please go with what you were telling me.” I began to pace. “I felt there was something terribly sad about this ‘presence’… as though she were searching, or perhaps just lost…my housemaid Eleanor also had an encounter. Is that not right, my darling?” “Yes, Mrs. Winchester I most certainly did,” replied Eleanor. “I came face-to-face with the phantom lady in the library.” “I’d be interested to hear,” said Mr. Hansen as he smiled at the question, not in the least perturbed. “The library is cold and rather unpleasant,” responded. “A girl. I’ve seen her lurking or hovering or whatever these bloody things do on several occasions. That first time, I’d come down for a book and there she was, over there watching me.” She pointed and shuddered as if for emphasis. “The sight made my blood run cold, I can tell you.” “Does she look like anyone you know? Have known?” “Of course not. In fact, that’s the horrible part of this affair.” Her features contorted in disgust. “There was something wrong with her face, her figure…something awful. She appeared…I don’t know—malformed. The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and seemingly pupilless, and I shrank involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the thin and shrunken lips. They parted; and in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth disclosed themselves slowly to my view. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
“The white ghastly spectrum of teeth. Not a speck on their surface—not a shade of their enamel—not an indenture in their edges—but what that brief period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth!—the teeth!—they were here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania, and I struggled in vain against it. I felt her possession and thought I could never be restored to peace, given back reason. And the evening closed in upon me thus—and then the darkness came, and tarried, and went—and the day again dawned—and the mists of a second night were now gathering around—and still I sat motionless in this solitary room—and I still I sat buried in meditation—and still the phantasma made its terrible ascendancy, as, with the most vivid and hideous distinctness, it floated about amid the changing lights and shadows of the chamber. At length there broke in upon my dreams a cry of horror and dismay; and thereunto, after a pause, succeeded the sound of troubled voices, intermingled with many low moanings of sorrow and pain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
“I arose from my seat, and throwing open one of the doors of the library, fell to the floor. I’m usually able to see through the outward layer of ugliness that so many things have, and perceive the beauty within, but it was impossible. I’ve had to clean up blood in the kitchen. I was told not to ask questions because it was safer I didn’t know anything. So I didn’t ask.” Mr. Hansen looked up from the typewriter with his reading glasses balanced precariously on the end of his nose. His face was anxious. His hand suddenly shook as with ague, as with terror. Her calamity, indeed, gave me pain, and, taking deeply to heart, staringly changes were wrought in my mind. During the brightest days of unparalleled beauty, there were no towers in the land more time-honoured than those of Llanada Villa. Our line had been called a race of visionaries; and in many striking particulars—in the character of the family mansion—in the frescos of the chief saloon—in the tapestries of the dormitories—in the chiseling of some buttresses in the armory—but more especially in the gallery of antique paintings—in the fashion of the library chamber—and, lastly, in the very peculiar nature of the library’s contents—there is more than sufficient evidence to warrant the belief. I did not fail to ponder, frequently and bitterly, upon the wonder-working means by which so strange a revolution had been so suddenly brought to pass. And now—now I shudder in her presence, and grew pale at her recital. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
An icy chill ran through my frame; a sense of insufferable anxiety oppressed me; a consuming curiosity pervaded my soul; and, sinking back upon the chair, I remained for some time breathless and motionless, with my eyes riveted upon her person. After some time, I found myself alone in the library. I knew that it was now midnight, and I was well aware, that my home was replete with horror—horror more horrible from being vague, and terror more terrible from ambiguity. It was a fearful page in the record of my existence, written all over with dim, and hideous, intelligent recollections. And like the spirit of a departed soul, a shrill and piercing female voice seemed to be ringing in my ear among the whispering echoes of the chamber. I knew this was not in the physical dimension and I had to learn how past events served as a blueprint for the psychic atmosphere that made such phenomena possible. The following day, I was winding up an important meeting. Mr. Hansen walked in the room. “Mrs. Winchester,” he said excitedly. “Do you care if I break a window?” “Where?” I demanded. “What for?” There’s a window painted black down in the basement at the back of the house. I’ve finally found about a thirteen-foot discrepancy in my measurements between the outside and the inside of the basement. I’ll have to break the window to see what’s behind it. I’ll pay for putting the glass back.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
“Wait for me!” I ordered. “I will be out in a few moments.” We went down into the basement where Mr. Hansen showed me a sketch he had made to scale and pointed to the stained-glass window with a cobweb pattern and thirteen colourful orbs. From the basement floor it could only be reached by ladder, but it was only a little above ground level from the outside of the house. “I’ve got to see what’s behind it!” “What is so interesting about that? Can you not just remove it from the outside?” “I don’t want to,” he replied impatiently. “The outside wall of the house runs in a straight line but down here the basement is all cut up into these rooms. There’s about a thirteen-foot space from that window to the outside wall or my figures are off—and they can’t be!” He pulled a ladder up to the window and climbed up with a hammer in hand. I stepped out of range of falling glass as he smashed one of my most precious designs, then, working with gloves, removed the remaining pieces from the frame. He turned his lantern into the aperture and gave a sharp whistle. “Hey!” he yelled. “You’ve got to see this! You won’t believe it!” He scrambled down the ladder and handed me the lantern. Then he waited in obvious excitement for me to climb up.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
“Do you see that room?” he shouted. “Look across at that other window!” I saw it. The room looked like a vaulted crypt. It was small and unfurnished although what looked like an old altar cloth and books in the corner. Just opposite the window Mr. Hansen had broken was an identical one and this is what we had noticed from the outside of the house. It was, likewise, a stained-glass window with a spider web pattern and thirteen colourful orbs, and was a twin in its dimension of the one in the basement wall. This was the most careful job of camouflaging a secret room that one could imagine. Mr. Hansen’s excitement was contagious. Minutes later we both climbed down into the secret room. Care examination proved that there were no other windows and no other way of getting into the room. If there had been a door, it was certainly sealed over with concrete. The entire room was brick lined. There must have been a trap door in the kitchen floor above to the hiding place. However, a new floor had been laid, sealing it off completely. We left the room the way we found it. Eleanor had been loitering in the kitchen even thought it was now getting dark. “You got a new room, Mrs. Winchester. What good did it do?” Mr. Hansen and I looked at each other with perfect understanding. “No good at all, Eleanor,” I answered. “The room is useless to me. Tomorrow I will have Mr. Hasen seal it back up.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
After opening the secret room, Mrs. Winchester reported that she moved bodily among unknown entities, reading terrible books. There were horrible annals of other Worlds and other Universes, and of stirrings of formless life inside the mansion. There were records and chronicles of strange orders of beings which had people the World and frightful grotesque-bodied intelligence which people the World billions of years before the first human being. Many mornings afterward, she awakened in a fever and shivering at the mysteries her home concealed; trembling at the menaces the future would bring forth. She wrote endlessly of the hauntings that took place in Llanada Villa. However, these records, written on great sheets of a curiously tenacious cellulose fabric, were bound in leather, and sold at auction with all her belongings. Now, her history is store in vaults of someone’s private collection.
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
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I Love Myself and Use You to Satisfy My Interest or Feelings
We have been told by well-meaning ministers of religion and counsellors in psychology to practice Jesus’s words, “Love thy neighbour.” Now there are two different ways in which we can do so, because there are two different interpretations of these words—the religious and the philosophic. According to the first, we have at least to be amiable toward our next-door neighbour, or at most to throw our arms around him and express our warm feeling for hum in a gushy, sentimental, hyper-emotional manner. According to the second and philosophic interpretation, we must understand that every person who crosses our path is our neighbour, everyone with whom we are thrown into momentary or continuous contact is our neighbour, whether at home or at work. It is in these immediate contacts that irritations are bred, differences are noted, and dislikes appear. It is much easier to love humanity as a whole or in the abstract than it is to love humanity in the individual and in the concrete. Despite the instinctive urge to manifest irritability, dislike, anger, resentment, or even hatred against those with whom you are thrown in contact, you can steel your will and resist the negative feelings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
If you can take all these negative feelings and sublimate them into understanding, tolerance, and goodwill based on the teachings of philosophy, you are loving your neighbour in the sense that Jesus meant it. You will then see that such philosophic love is far removed from and far superior to the hyper-emotionalism which slows hot and cold. How can I love my enemy, it is asked, or anyone who is outwardly or inwardly repugnant to me? We are not called on to love what is evil in our enemy nor what is ugly in anyone. We are called on, however, to remember that alongside of the evil there is the divine soul in him, alongside of the ugliness there is the divine beauty in him. His non-awareness of it does not alter the fact of its existence. And because he is a bearer of something grander than himself, unconscious of it though he be, we are to meet his hostility with our goodwill, his baseness with out nobility, and thus help him by our thought or our example to move onward—even if no more than one millimeter—towards the discovery and realization of his own divine soul. When we are enjoined to love others, we are really enjoined to sympathize with them as fellow living creatures and to have compassion for their sufferings or ignorance. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
If the thought of our enemy arouses hatred, dislike, or fear, he will continue to haunt. The only way to free him is to arouse our compassion for him, to extend goodwill toward him. In the moment that we feel like this we exorcise his wrath and are liberated. “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” the dictum preached by Jesus and practiced by the self-actualized Christians, seems to offer a remote and unapproachable ideal. However, if we come to understand what Jesus meant and how the self-actualized Christian can realize it, it will not seem so. Every man does indeed love himself, but he does not love the whole of himself. There are defects and weaknesses in himself which he hates. He cannot therefore be expected to love them in his Neighbour. However, if he perceives that these faults eventually bring painful Karmic results, he can be expected to feel compassion for those who suffer from them. In the case of the self-actualized Christian, not only is such a consideration operative but also the perception of his neighbour’s existence within the one universal Mind in which he feels himself to be rooted. It is easy and natural for him, therefore, to practice loving kindness towards his neighbour. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Here, at this final stage of knowledge, which is Christianity, the “I” in a man becomes inseparable from the “you.” Both exist simultaneously within him, whereas in the ordinary man they stand fundamentally opposed to each other. No longer is the personality the sole content of the mind: it is now but a partial content. In his inmost attitude he is conscious of unity with others and consequently emanates a perfect sympathy towards them. This is not the sentimental attitude which often goes with the superficial emotion called love. It is profoundly deeper. It can never change, whereas emotional love may turn to dislike or even hate. This inner sense of unity can in no wise alter it is always there. Nor can it even be impeded by physical or selfish considerations. There is nothing in another man’s face or body, fortune or misfortune, mind, or heart, which can obstruct the ceaseless flow of the blesser. “We two are rooted in the same Overself” is the remembrance which he cherishes in himself. He has understood the inner penetration of the many in the One and of the One with the many. What he feels for himself is not different from what he feels for others; but what he does for himself will be necessarily different, because wisdom demands recognition of the superior and hence more responsible role which has been allotted to him in his game of life. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Many patients who come to a psychiatrist for the first time introduce themselves and shake hands when he invites them into his office. Some psychiatrists, indeed, offer their own hands first. I have a different policy about handshakes. If the patient proffers his hand in a hearty way, I will shake it to avoid being rude, but in a noncommittal fashion, because I am wondering why he is being so hearty. If he offers it in a way which merely suggests that he considers it good manners, I will return the compliment in such a way which indicates that he is desperate, then I will shake it firmly and reassuringly to let him know that I understand his need. However, my manner when I enter the waiting room, the expression on my face and the position of my arms, indicates clearly enough to most newcomers that this amenity will be omitted unless they insist upon it. This is intended to establish, and usually does establish, that we are both there for a more serious purpose than to prove that we are good fellows or to exchange courtesies. Mainly, I do not shake hands with them because I do not know them, and I do not expect them to shake hands with me, because they do not know me; also, some people who come to psychiatrist’s object to being touched, and it is a courtesy to them to refrain from doing so. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
The ending of the interview is a different matter. By that time, I know a great deal about the patient, and he knows something about me. Thus, when he leaves, I make a point of shaking hands with him, and I know enough about him to know how to do it properly. This handshake means something particularly important to him: that I am accepting him even after he has told me all the “bad” things about himself. (“Acceptance” is not used here in it ill-defined, sentimental sense; it means, specifically, that I am willing to spend more time with him. This involves a serious commitment which may, in some cases, mean one or more years of patience, effort, ups and downs, and getting up in the morning.” If he needs comforting, my handshake is such that it will comfort him; if he needs assertion of his masculinity, my handshake will evoke his masculinity This is not a carefully thought-out device to seduce the patient; it is a spontaneous and freely-given recognition of him as I now know him after talking for an hour with him about his most intimate concerns. On the other side, if he has lied to me out of malice rather than natural embarrassment, or tried to exploit or browbeat me, I will not shake hands with him, so that he knows he will have to behave differently if he wants me on his side. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
With women, it is slightly different. If one needs a palpable sign that I accept her, I will shape hands in a way suitable to her needs; if (as I know by this time) another shrinks from contact with men, I will say farewell in a correct way but let her pass without a handshake. This latter cause illustrates most clearly the reason for not shaking hands as a greeting: if I shake hands, I awaken her abhorrence. I have, in effect, intruded upon and insulted her before the interview, by forcing her, out of good manners, and against her inclination, to touch me and let me touch her, however courteously. In therapy groups, I follow a similar policy. I do not say Hello on entering, because I have not seen the members for a whole week, and I do not know to whim I am saying Hello. A light or cordial Hello might be quite out of place in the light of something that has happened to them in the interval. However, I do make an extraordinarily strong point of saying Good-by to each member at the end of the meeting, because then I know to whom I am saying Good-by, and how to say it in each case. For example, suppose one woman’s mother has died since the last meeting. A genial Hello from me would seem out of place to her. She might forgive me for it, but there is no need to put that strain on her. By the time the meeting is over, I know how to say Good-by to her in her bereavement. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
Socially, it is different, since friends are for stroking. With them, Hello and Good-by range from an open handshake to a big hug, depending on what they are ready for or need; or sometimes it is josh and jive to keep from getting too involved, a “smile when you say that.” However, one thing in life is more certain than taxes and just as certain as death: the sooner you make new friends, the sooner you will have old ones. So much for Hello and Good-by. What happens in between falls into the framework of a specific theory of personality and group dynamics, which is also a therapeutic method, knows as transactional analysis. To appreciate what follows, it is first necessary to understand the principles of this approach. Plotinus’ belief that in all his lesser loves, man is seeking the divine, that it is the object he permanently wants much more than these temporary ones, is the truth to which he must come one day. And he will come by a double movement: the first, away from them by successive disenchantments, the second by progressive glimpses of the divine beauty. A life without love is a life emotionally starved and therefore stunted in growth. However, do not limit the meaning of the word love either to a selfish or animalistic definition. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
How many unreflective and selfish persons have uttered the words “I love you” to someone else—wife, friend, or teacher when what they actually, if unconsciously meant was, “I love myself and use you to serve my interests or to satisfy my feelings.” A merely physical or purely emotional love will fade and die when events test if it really seeks the happiness of the beloved rather than the pleasure of the lover. Despite its fundamental conservatism, the eugenics craze had about it the air of a “reform,” for it emerged at a time when most Americans liked to think of themselves as reformers. Like the reform movements, eugenics accepted the principle of state action toward a common end and spoke in terms of the collective destiny of the group rather than of the individual success. This is significant of the general trend of thought in the Progressive era. A rising regard for the collective aspects of life was one of the outstanding characteristics of the shift in the dominant pattern of thought. The new collectivism was not socialistic, but was based upon an increasing recognition of the psychological and moral relatedness of men in society. It saw in the coexistence of baronial spledour and grinding poverty something more than the accidental dispensation of Providence. Refusing to depend upon individual self-assertion as an adequate remedy, men turned toward collective. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
The change in the political outlook of the common man was responsible for a change in the fundamental mechanisms of thought among workers in the social sciences. The formalistic thought of the nineteenth century had been built upon an atomistic individualism. Society, men had believed, was a loose collection of individual agents; social advance depended upon improvements in the personal qualities of these individuals, their increased energy and frugality; among these individuals the strongest and best rose to the top and gave leadership to the rest; their heroic accomplishments were the ideal subject matter of history; the best laws were those that gave them the greatest scope for their activities; the best nations were those that produces most leaders of this type; the way of salvation was to leave unhindered the natural processes that produced these leaders and gave the affairs of the World into their hands. This pattern of thought was static; instead of inquiry it seemed to encourage deductive speculation; its essential function was the rationalization of existing institutions. Those who were satisfied with it had felt relatively little need for concrete investigation or even for significant novelty in their abstractions. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Between the Spanish-American War and the outbreak of the First World War there was a great restlessness sin American society, which inevitably affected the patterns of speculative thought. The old scheme of thought was repeatedly assailed by critics who were in sympathy with the new spirit of the Progressive era. The intellectual friction engendered by this discontent fired the energies and released the critical talents of new minds in history, economics, sociology, anthropology, and law. The result was a minor renaissance in American social thought, a renaissance which saw in relatively short span of years the rise to prominence of Charles A. Beard, Frederick Jackson Turner, Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, John Dewey, Franz Boas, Louis D. Brandeis, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. It is easier to enumerate the achievements of this renaissance than to characterize its intellectual assumptions, but certainly its leading figures did share a common consciousness of society as a collective whole rather than a congeries of individual atoms. They shared also an understanding of the need for empirical research and accurate description rather than theoretical speculation cast in some traditional mold. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
A drastic departure from ancestor worship in history was marked by Charles Beard’s study of the origins of the Constitution by Frederick Jackson Turner’s quest for environmental and economic explanations of American development. Brandies opened new possibilities in law by drafting for the first time a factual sociological brief in defense of a state law regulating conditions in labour in private enterprise. Franz Boas led a generation of anthropologists away from unilinear evolutionary theory toward cultural history and took pioneer steps in the criticism of race theory. John Dewey made philosophy a working instrument in other disciplines, applying it fruitfully to psychology, sociology, education, and politics. Veblen exposed the intellectual sterility of prevailing economic theory, and pointed the way to an institutional analysis of the facts of economic life. In accordance with the spirit of the times, the most original thinkers in social science had ceased to make their main aim the justification and perpetuation of existing society in all its details. They were trying to describe it with accuracy, to understand it in new terms, and to improve it. Man’s development requires his capacity to transcend the narrow prison of his ego, his greed, his selfishness, his separation from his fellow man, and hence, his basic loneliness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
This transcendence is the condition for being open and related to the World, vulnerable, and yet with an experience of identity and integrity; of man’s capacity to enjoy all that is alive, to pour out his faculties into the World around him, to be “interested”; to be rather than to have and to use are consequences of the step to overcome greed an egomania. From an entirely different standpoint, the principle shared by all racial humanists is that of negating and combating idolatry in every form and shape—idolatry, in the prophetic sense of worshiping the work of one’s own hands and hence making man subservient to things, and in this process becoming a thing himself. The idols against which the Old Testament prophets fought were idols in stone or wood, or trees or hills; the idols of our day are leaders, institutions, especially the State, the nation, production, law and order, and every man-made thing. Whether or not one believes in God is a question secondary to whether one denies idols. The concept of alienation is the same as the Christian Bible concept of idolatry. It is man’s submission to the things of his creation and to the circumstances of his doing. If they are true to their common tradition, whatever may divine believers and nonbelievers, there is something which unites them, and that is the common fight against idolatry and the deep conviction that no thing and no institution must ever take the place of God or, as a non-believer may prefer to say, of that empty place which is reserved for No-thing. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Dr. Freud was mainly concerned with the uncovering of the individual unconscious. While he assumed that society enforced repressions, these were the repression of instinctual forces, and not the social repression which really matter—the repressions of the awareness of social contradictions, socially produced suffering, of the failure of authority, of feelings of malaise and dissatisfaction, etcetera. Freudian analysis has shown that it is possible to some degree to make the individual unconscious conscious, without touching the social unconscious. However, it follows from the premises which were present thus far, that any attempt for de-repression which excludes the social sphere must remain limited. Only if it transcends the individual realm, and if the process includes the analysis of the social unconscious, is the full awareness of what had been repressed is possible. The reasons for this proposition follows from what has been said before. Unless a person can transcend his society and see how it furthers or hinders the development of human potentialities, he cannot be fully in touch with his own humanity. Socially conditioned taboos and restrictions must appear as “natural” to him, and human nature must appear in a distorted form, if he does not recognize the distortion of human nature by the society, he happens to live in. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
If uncovering the unconscious means arriving at the experience of one’s own humanity, then, indeed, it cannot stop with the individual but must proceed to the uncovering of the social unconscious. This implies the understanding of social dynamics and the critical appraisal of one’s own society from the standpoint of universal human values. The very insight into society which Marx has given us is a condition for becoming aware of the social unconscious, and hence for the full awakening (“depression”) of an individual. If the “should be Ego where there was Id,” humanistic social criticism is a necessary precondition. Otherwise, the person will become aware only of certain aspects of his individual unconscious, yet in other aspects hardly more awake as a total person than the rest. It must be added, however, that not only is critical understanding of society important for the analytic understanding of oneself, but that the analytic understanding of the individual unconscious is also a significant contribution to the understanding of society. Only if one has experienced the dimension of the unconscious in one’s personal life can one fully appreciate how it is possible that social life is determined by ideologies which are neither truths nor lies or, to put it differently, which are both truths and lies in the sense that they are rationalizations which have the function of hiding the real motivation of social and political actions. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Recently, I had occasion to listen to some recorded interviews by a young counselor of elementary school children. She was very warm and optimistic in her attitude toward her clients, yet she was ineffective. She seemed to be responding warmly only to the superficial aspects of each child and so the contacts were charry, social, and friendly, but it was clear she was not reaching the real person of the child. Yet in a few ways, she rated reasonably high on each of the conditions I have described. So perhaps there are still elements missing which I have not captured in my formulation. I am also aware of the possibility that different kinds of helping relationships may be effective with different kinds of people Some of our therapists working with schizophrenics are effective when they appear to be highly conditional, when they do not accept some of the bizarre behaviour of the psychotic. This can be interpreted in two ways. Perhaps a conditional set is more helpful with these individuals. Or perhaps—and this seems to me to fit the facts better—these psychotic individuals perceive a conditional attitude as meaning that the therapist really cares, where an unconditional attitude may be interpreted as apathetic noncaring. In any event, I do want to make it clear that what I have given are beginning formulations which surely will be modified and corrected from further learnings. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
In the major part of analytical literature it is an implicit or explicit axiom that we are helpless toward our resistances, that is, that we cannot overcome them without expert help. This conviction will be held as the strongest argument against the idea of self-analysis. And it is an argument that will carrying heavy weight, not only with analysts but also with every patient who has been analyzed, because both analyst and patient know the tenacious and devious struggles that arise when precarious territory is approached. However, an appeal to experience can never be a conclusive argument, because experience itself is determined by the whole complex of ruling concepts and customs, and by our mentality. More specifically, analytical experience is determined by the fact that the patient is not given a chance to cope alone with his resistances. The stronger consideration is the theoretical premise that underlies the analyst’s conviction, which is no more and no less than Dr. Freud’s whole philosophy of the nature of man. This subject is too intricate to delve into here. Only this much: if man is driven by instincts and if among them a destruction instinct plays a prominent role—as was the contention of Dr. Freud—not much, if any, space is left in human nature for constructive forces that might strive toward growth and development. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
And it is these constructive forces that constitute the dynamic counterpole to the forces producing the resistances. A denial of them by necessity lead to a defeatists attitude toward the possibility of overcoming our resistances through our own efforts. I do not share this part of the Freudian philosophy, but I do not deny that the question of resistance remains a serious consideration. The outcome of self-analysis, as of every analysis, depends by and large on the strength of the resisting forces and the strength of the self to deal with them. No two persons can occupy the same space, and so each has a different place from which to view the World. It follows that, if there are eight billion human beings in the World, there are 8 billion ways for this World to be experienced, none more real or valid than another. If each person embodies a unique perspective, then it is a momentous thing indeed to invalidate or destroy it. This is one cruel feature of colonial exploitation, which destroyed the perspectives of black Africans, Australian aborigines, and Native American Indians. Women and African Americas around the World have complained, legitimately, that their perspectives are often ignored or invalidated by the dominate European male populations. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
With the advent of the various liberation movements, the neglected perspective are revealed to the World, and an enriched existence accrues to all concerned. The growing interest of young people in the religion and the lifestyles of traditional peoples such as the American Indians and Africans, and Mormons, is a quest for perspectives upon self and World that are experienced as more life giving then the perspective of White, male, middle-class American. The human race is a myriad of refractive surfaces staining the White radiance of eternity. Each surface refracts the refractions of refractions of refractions. Each self refracts the refractions of others’ refractions of self’s refractions of others’ refractions…Here is glory and wonder and mystery, yet too often we wish to ignore or destroy those points of view that refract the light differently from out own. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Unto the hills I life mine eyes, whence comes my help that lies in God, who is enthroned above the skies, who made the Heavens and Earth to be. He guides thy foot over mountains steeps, he slumbers not, they soul He keeps; behold, He slumbers not nor sleeps, of American the guardian He. He is thy rock, thy shield, and stay, on thy right hand a shade always; the sun never smiteth thee by day, the moon at night never troubles thee. The Lord will guard thy soul from sin, thy life from harm without, within, thy going out and coming in, from this time forth eternally. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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They were Covering Up Blackmail Payments Made to Death
Every soul is precious. Salvation for the dead is a doctrine which shows forth the love and mercy and justice of God in His dealings with all His children—not only to those whose receive the gospel in this life, but to all those to whom this privilege does not come, since the are all precious in the Lord’s sight. As Americans, we are a most blessed and favored people. The Lord has restored to us the sealing power, the power to bind on Earth and have our acts sealed eternally in the Heavens. Elijah—a prophet was taken up into Heaven without tasting death, and is not a resurrected and exalted being—we must remind ourselves of that. A great truth is that we are spirit children of God our Heavenly Father; we dwelt with Him for long ages in our premortal life. If we are faithful and true in all things, God ordained a plan of progression and salvation which requires us to advance and progress until we become more like Him. This plan of salvation is designed to enable us to create eternal family units of our own. We must also remind ourselves that God has restored the fulness of His everlasting gospel. He has revealed anew the law and principles by which we may press forward in righteousness until we gain eternal life. And He has conferred again upon men that priesthood and those powers whereby they can be sealed up onto eternal life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
Mort, a thirty-year-old man with a slowly developing form of cancer, incurable in the present state of knowledge, was given at worst two years, and at best, five. His psychiatric complaint was tics, consisting of nodding his head or shaking his feet for reasons unknown to him. In his treatment group he soon found the explanation: he was damming his fears behind a continuous wall of music which ran through his mind, and his tics were his way of keeping time with that music. It was established by careful observation that it was this way ‘round and not the other, that is, that it was not music keeping time with the tics, but body movement keeping time with mental music. At this point everyone, including Mort, saw that if the music were taken away by psychotherapy, a vast reservoir of apprehension would be released. Unless his fears could be replaced by more agreeable emotions, the consequences of this were unforeseeable. What to do? It soon became clear that all the members of the group knew that they were going to die sooner or later, and that they all had feelings about it which they were holding back in various ways. Just as with Mort, the time and effort they spent covering up were blackmail payments made to death, which prevented them from fully enjoying life. Such being the case, they might do more living in the twenty of fifty years left to each of them than Mort could do in the two to five years left to him. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Thus it was determined that it was not the duration of life, but the quality of living which was important: not a startling or novel discovery, but one arrived at in a more poignant way than usual because of the presence of the dying man, which had a deep effect on everyone. It was agreed by the other members (who understood Martian talk, which they gladly taught Mort, and which he gladly learned) that living meant such simple things as seeing the evergreen trees and emerald green grass, hearing the lovely birds see and frogs croaking at night, and saying Hello to people: experiences of awareness and spontaneity without drama or hypocrisy, and with reticence and decorum. They also agreed that to do these things, all of them, including Mort, had to get tough about the trash in their heads. When they saw that his situation was, in a way, not much more tragic than their own, the sadness and timidity caused by his presence lifted. They could now get tough with him about his trash, because now he knew the value of toughness, and why they were being tough; in return, he had the privilege of getting tough with them about their trash. In effect, Mort turned in his cancer card and resumed his membership in the human race, although everyone, including himself, still fully realized that his predicament was more acute than anyone else’s. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
This situation illustrates more clearly than most others that pathos and depth of the Hello problem, which, in Mort’s case, went through three stages. When he first entered the group, the others did not know that he was a condemned man. They first addressed him in the manner customary in that group. Their approaches were basically set by each member’s upbrining—the way his parents had taught him to greet other people, adjustments learned later in life, and a certain respect and frankness appropriate to psychotherapy. Mort, being a newcomer, responded the way he would anywhere else, pretending to be ambitions, red-blooded American boy his parents had wanted him to be. However, when he stated, during his third session that he was a doomed man, the other members felt confused and betrayed. They wondered if they had said anything which would make them look bad in their own eyes and his, and especially in the eyes of the therapist. They seemed, in fact, angry at both Mort and the therapist for not telling them sooner, almost as though they had been tricked. In effect, they had said Hello to Mort in a standardized way, without realizing to whom they were speaking. Now that they knew he was a special person, they wished they could go back and start over, in which case they would treat him differently. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
So the did start over. Instead of talking forthrightly, as they had before, they addressed him softly and cautiously, as though to say: “See how I’m going out of my way to be thoughtful of your tragedy?” None of them wanted to risk his good name now by speaking out to a dying man. However, since it gave Mort the upper hand, this was unfair. Nobody dared to laugh very loud in such a presence. When the problem of Mort could be solved, this was corrected; then the tension lifted and they could go back and start over for the third time, talking to him as a member of humanity, without restraint. Thus, the three stages were represented by the superficial Hello, the tense, sympathetic Hello, and the relaxed, real Hello. Zoe cannot say Hello to Mort until she knows who he is and that can change from week to week, or even from hour to hour. Each time she meets him, she knows a little more about him than she did the last time. If she wants to keep up with their advancing friendship, she must say Hello to him in a slightly different way. However, since she can never know all about him, nor anticipate all the changes, she can never say a perfect Hello, but only come closer and closer to it. Therefore, we must remember our first concern should be our salvation, and this will allow us to treat others with more compassion and empathy. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
Our descendants and our ancestors are all members of our families, and we do and should have more concern about their spiritual well-being than that of any other people in the World. That is one thing the groups was missing, concern about the spiritual well-being of others. Miguel Unamuno’s declaration that “love is the child of illusion” is one of those statements which are themselves the product of illusion. For the pure state of love is the Cosmic Energy which holds together and continuously activates the entire universe. It is those shadows of shadows of love which appear in the beasts as lust, in the humans as affection, which represent states that are transient and, in that sense, unreal. This transiency is obvious enough in the beast’s case but less so in the human’s. We may divide these different kinds of love conveniently into animal-physical love, emotional-mental love, and spiritual-love. When Saint John of the Cross was prior of the Monastery of Segovia, he was unjustly dismissed from his high position by his own superiors in the Order and banished to an unhealthy hermitage in semi-wild country. However, he bore no ill-will against his persecutors, and even wrote a letter: “Where there is no love, put love and you will get back love.” This is so, but he did not state that the returning love might take a long time to appear, so long that a whole lifetime in some cases, or several incarnations in other cases might be needed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Therefore, love must be accompanied by patience. If we look for quick results, we may look in vain. Indeed, we ought not to look for any results at all. If we wish, in all such relationships with hostile persons, we ought to do what is right, forgiving, extending goodwill, but leaving the outcome to take whatever course it did. Act, but do not be attacked to the consequences of your action. If you want to practice goodwill, be patient. Some biologist had remarkable confidence in their ability to resolve the problems of politics by the methods of science. When the First World War threw the menace of “kaiserism” into the limelight, Frederick Adams Woods, a student of heredity in royal families, pointed out that the most despotic Roman emperors had been closely related. If despots are largely the result of hereditary forces, he concluded, “then the only way to eliminate despots is to regulate the sources from which they spring.” In so far as the despots are recast in their ancestral mold, “the number of despots can be reduced by a control of the marriages from which they originate.” The ideology of the movement drew fire from representatives of the trend toward cultural analysis in sociology. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
Lester Ward, who had long before tried to refute Galton, saw in the eugenics ideology a menace to his own theories, and he had devoted the greater part of his Applied Sociology to an attack upon the hereditarian argument. Analyzing the very cases used by Galton to prove that genius is hereditary, Ward showed that opportunity and education were also universally present. In 1897 Charles H. Cooley, influenced by Ward’s own early work, published a critical review of Galton’s thesis, pointing out that all his cases of “hereditary genius” had been provided with certain simple tools—literacy and access to books—without which no amount of genius could make its way. Remarking that there had been a very high percentage of illiteracy among the common people of England in the middle of the nineteenth century, Cooley asked how the geniuses in this mass of illiterates could have risen to fame, no matter how great their native endowment. Albert Galloway Keller also reminded eugenists that their proposals involved a thoroughgoing transformation in the mores, above all in the strong and deep-rooted mores of pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
It was Cooley who summarized the most pointedly the objections of mature sociologist to the eugenists’ conception of social causation: “Most of the writers on eugenics have been biologists or physicians who have never acquired that point of view which sees in society a psychological organism with a life process of its own. They have thought of human heredity as a tendency to definite modes of conduct, and of environment as something that may assist or hinder, not remembering what they might have learned even from Darwin, that heredity takes on a distinctively human character only by renouncing, as it were, the function of predetermined adaptation and becoming plastic to the environment. The ability to act according to one’s conscience depends on the degree to which one has transcended the limits of one’s society and has become a citizen of the World. The average individual does not permit himself to be aware of thoughts or feelings which are incompatible with the patterns of his culture, and hence he is forced to repress them. Formally speaking, then, what is unconscious and what is conscious depends on the structure of society and on the patterns of feeling and thought it produces. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
As to the contents of the unconscious, no generalization is possible. However, one statement can be made: it always represents the whole man, with all his potentialities for darkness and light; it always contains the basis for the different answers which man can give to the question which existence poses. In the extreme case of the most regressive cultures, bent on returning to animal existence, this very wish is predominant and conscious, while all strivings to emerge from this level are repressed. In a culture which has moved from the regressive to the spiritual-progressive goal, the forces representing the dark are unconscious. However, man, in any culture, has all the potentialities within himself; he is the archaic man, the beast of prey, the cannibal, the idolater, and he is the being with a capacity for reason, for love, for justice. The content of the unconscious, then, is neither the good nor the evil, the rational nor the irrational; it is both; it is all that is human. The unconscious is the whole man—minus that part of him which corresponds to his society. Consciousness represents social man, the accidental limitations set by the historical situation into which an individual is thrown. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Unconsciousness represents universal man, the whole man, rooted in the cosmos; it represents the plant in him, the animal in him, the spirit in him; it represents his past, down to the dawn of human existence, and it represents his future up to the day when man will have become fully human, and when nature will be humanized as man will be “naturalized.” To become aware of one’s unconscious means to get in touch with one’s fully humanity and to do away with barriers which society erects within each man and, consequently, between each man and his fellow man. To attain this aim fully is difficult and a rare occurrence; to approximate it is in the grasp of everybody, as it constitutes the emancipation of man from the socially conditioned alienation from himself and humankind. Nationalism and xenophobia are the opposite poles of the humanistic experience brought about by becoming aware of one’s unconscious. Which factors make for greater or lesser awareness of the social unconscious? First, it is obvious that the certain individual experiences make a difference. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
The son of an authoritarian father, who has been rebelling against fatherly authority without being crushed by it, will be better prepared to see through the social rationalizations and to become aware of the social reality which, to most, is unconscious. Similarly, members of racial, religious, or social minority groups which have been discriminated against by the majority, will often be more likely to disbelieve in the social clichés; this hold also true for the members of an exploited and suffering class. However, such class situation by no means always makes the individual more critical and independent. Very often his social status makes him more insecure and more eager to accept the clichés of the majority to be acceptable and to feel secure. It would take a minute analysis of many personal and social factors to determine why some members of minorities or exploited majorities react with increased criticism, and others with increased submission to the ruling patterns of thought. In addition to these factors, there are purely social ones which determine how strong is the resistance against the awareness of the social reality. If a society or a social class has no chance to make any use of its insight because there is objectively no hope for a change for the better, the chances are that everybody in such a society would stick to the fictions since the awareness of the truth would only make them feel worse. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
Since they have nothing to gain by the truth, decaying societies and classes are usually those which hold most fiercely to their fictions. Conversely, societies—or social classes—which are bound for a better future offer conditions which make the awareness of reality easier, especially if this very awareness will help them to make the necessary chances. A good example is the bourgeois class in the eighteenth century. Even before it had won political hegemony over the aristocratic class, it had shed many fictions of the past and had developed new insight into the past and present social realities. The writers of the middle classes could penetrate through the fictions of feudalism because they did not need these fictions—on the contrary, they were helped by the truth. When the bourgeois class had been firmly entrenched and was fighting against the onslaught of the working class and, later, the colonial peoples, the situation was reversed; the members of the middle classes refused to see the social reality, the members of the forward-moving new classes were more prone to dispense with many illusions. Very often, however, individuals developing these insights in support of the groups fighting for their freedom came from the very classes against they were fighting. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
In all such cases one would have to examine the individual factors which make a person critical of his own social group, and make him side with the group to which he des not belong by birth. The social and the individual unconscious are related to each other and in constant interaction. In fact, unconsciousness/consciousness is, in the last analysis, indivisible. What matters is not so much the content of what is repressed, but the state of mind and, to be more precise, the degree of awakedness and realism in the individual. If a person in each society is not able to see the social reality, and instead fills his mind with fictions, his capacity to see the individual reality regarding himself, his family, his friends, is also limited. He lives from all sides, and to believe that the fictions suggested to hum are the truth. (Of course, a person will be particularly prone to repress the awareness of reality regarding his personal life in areas where social repression is particularly marked. In a society, for instance, which cultivates obedience to authority, and hence repression of awareness or criticism of authority is not an essential part of social repression.) #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
With the growth of the “new science,” religion in its traditional forms became less and less effective, and there appeared the danger that the values which in Europe were anchored in the theistic frame of reference would be lost. Dostoevski expressed this fear in his famous statement: “If there is no God, everything is possible.” In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, several people saw the necessity for creating an equivalent to what religion stood for in the past. Even if it could be done, Robespierre tried to create an artificial new religion and necessarily failed because his background or enlightened materialism and idolatrous worship of posterity did not permit him to see the basic elements which would have been needed for founding a new religion. Similarly, Comte thought of a new religion and his positivism made it equally impossible to arrive at a satisfactory answer. In many ways, Marx’s socialism in the nineteenth century was the most important popular religious movement—though it was formulated in secular terms. If he believed in God ceased was only partly filled, Dostoevski’s prognosis of the breakdown of all ethical values. Those ethical values of modern society which are generally accepted by law and custom, such as respect for property, for individual life, and other principles remained intact. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
However, those human values which go beyond the requirements of our social order did, indeed, lose their influence and weight. However, Dostoevski was wrong in another and more important sense. Development during the last ten, and especially the past five, years all over Europe and in America have shown an extraordinarily strong trend toward the deeper values of the humanistic tradition. This new quest for a meaningful life did not arise only among small and isolated groups, but because a whole movement in countries of entirely different social and political structures, as well as within the Catholic and Protestant churches. What is common to the believers and the nonbelievers in this new movement is the conviction that concepts are only secondary to dees and human attitudes. A Hassidic story might exemplify this point. The adherent of a Hassidic master is asked, “Why do you go to hear the master? It is to hear his words of wisdom?” The answer is, “Oh, no, I go to see how he ties his shoelaces.” The point hardly needs an explanation. What matters in a person is not the set of ideas or opinions which he accepts, because he has been exposed to them since childhood or because they are conventional patterns of thought, but the character, attitude, the visceral root of his ideas and convictions. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
The Great Dialogue is based on the idea that shared concern and experience are more important than shared concepts. This does not mean that the various groups referred to here have abandoned their own concepts or ideas or hold that they are not important. However, they have all come to the conviction that their shared concern, their shared experience, their shared action causes them to have much more in common than what separates them by their unshared concepts. Abbe Pire has expressed it in an amazingly simple and forceful way: “What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t.” Thus far all my hypotheses regarding the possibility of constructive growth have rested upon the experiencing compassion and empathy by the counselor. There is, however, one condition which must exist in the client. Unless the attitudes I have been describing have been to some degree communicated to the client, and perceived by him, they do not exist in his perceptional World and thus cannot be effective. Consequently it is necessary to add one more condition to the equation which I have been building up regarding personal growth through counseling. It is that when the client perceives, to a minimal degree, the genuineness of the counselor and the acceptance and empathy which are the counselor experiences for hum, then development in personality and change in behaviour are predicted. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
This had implications for me as a counselor. I need to be sensitive to the flow of feeling sin my client. I must also be sensitive to the way he is receiving my communications. I have learned, especially in working with more disturbed persons, that empathy can be perceived as lack of involvement; that an unconditional regard on my part can be perceived as indifference; that warmth can be perceived as a threatening closeness, that real feelings of mine can be perceived as false. I would like to behave in ways, and communicate in ways which have the clarity for this specific person, so that what I am experiencing in relationship to hum would be perceived unambiguously by him. Like the other conditions I have proposed, the principle is easy to grasp; the achievement of it is difficult and complex. Analysis sets going or accentuates a play of forces within the self between two groups of factors with contrasting interests. The interest of the one group is to maintain unchanged the illusions and the safety afforded by the neurotic structure; that of the other group is to gain a measure of inner freedom and strength through overthrowing the neurotic structure. It is for this reason that analysis, as has already been strongly emphasized, is not primarily a process of detached intellectual research. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
The intellect is an opportunist, at the service of whatever interest carries the greatest weight at the time. The forces that oppose liberation and strive to maintain the status quo are challenged by every insight that can jeopardize the neurotic structure, and when thus challenged they attempt to block progress in one way or another. They appear as “resistances” to the analytical work, a team appropriately used by Dr. Freud to denote everything that hampers this work from within, Resistance is by no means produces only by the analytical situation. Unless we live under exceptional conditions life itself is at least as great a challenge to the neurotic structure as is the analyst. A person’s secret claims on life are bound to be frequently frustrated because of their absolute and rigid character. Others do not share his illusions about himself, and will hurt him by questioning or disregarding them. Inroads upon his elaborate but precarious safety measures are unavoidable. These challenges may have a constructive influence, but also, he may react to them—as he does in analysis—first with anxiety and anger, one or the other prevailing, and then with a reinforcement of the neurotic tendencies. He becomes still more withdrawn, more dominating, more dependent. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
In part the relationship with the analyst produces much the same feelings and responses as the relationships with others. However, since analysis is an explicit attack on the neurotic structure, the challenge it presents is great. One of the most fundamental distinctions we make about the content of our experiencing has to do with whether it is really there, whether we are perceiving something or only imagining it. Each person, and for that matter each society, is committed to a set of assumptions about what is real (what can be perceived) and what is unreal. Reality is a person or group of persons takes to be real. In the last analysis, reality is an attribution, that is, an act or judgment performed by a person, imbuing some experience with the quality of a reality that must be reckoned with. By the same token, we can withdraw our attribution of reality from some experience and view it as not real. Thus, a person may awaken from deep sleep with the conviction that someone is trying to harm him. Upon awakening, he reflects upon this experience and says, with relief, “It is not real—no one is trying to harm me; I was only dreaming.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
On the other hand, he may experience himself as trapped by a dominating parent and believe that the parent has more power to control his destiny than he has strength to oppose. He lives his life, then, according to his parents wishes, or what he believes those wishes would be. To an outsider, his estimate of his own strength in relation to the strength of the parent seems unrealistic. However, he lives according to what he takes to be the case, what he experiences as real. He attributes reality to experiences of ghosts and spirits, and they experience plants, animals, and all of nature as having souls and personalities. The “real World,” the World that is real for them, differs from that experienced by the modern Westerner. She regards that World view as mere animism—the ghosts, spirits, and souls with which the “primitive” person lives in her daily life are figments of imagination to the sophisticated person of the modern World. For her, only what can be recorded upon instruments, such as cameras and sound recorders, is taken to be real. The goal of the Sacramento Fire Department is to save lives, protect property, ease pain and suffering, and many feel that they are blessed by this opportunity. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
Living a life of service is a great honour and privilege. “I think that firefighters are still highly regarded by the public, but we’re not the heroes we used to be. I think the reason is that they know what we’re making. Last year I made around $188,760 with overtime. I went to college for only two years. In how many other jobs can you go to training for four weeks and get a job paying that amount of money? Some people think about firemen as just sitting around. But for the most part, the public thinks that we’re pretty good, especially here in Sacramento, because we run the emergency medical service. That is a big plus. I want to get rid of the myth of the guys just sitting around playing checkers, and get people to understand that we are actively doing other things. I’ve had people tell me, ‘Oh, you work one day, you’re off four, you’re off five. I saw how much you make in the paper. You guys don’t do anything.’ To them, firemen are making tremendous salaries—whether we deserve it or not is immaterial to them—firemen have tremendous benefits, tremendous time off, which allows them to work second jobs. Plus, they go past the fire stations, and they see BMWs and other expensive vehicles in the back of the station. They say, ‘Look at those damn firemen, man, they’re making a tremendous amount of money, and I’m pounding nails and not making anything near them.’ A lot of envy, or at least resentment. #Randolph Harris 22 of 24
“The cops are the heroes now. Maimi Vice has something to do with it. A lot of buildings that you see, they paint those pastels on the buildings before they shoot, especially the ones they blow up. I’ve worked those sets as a fireman. Nonetheless, Sacramento is changed. They call it the Coatzacoalcos now. I would not have a cop’s job down here. Statistically, more firemen get killed an injured than policemen, but not so in Sacramento. Here the cops get killed way more often than firemen do. The killers are stealing or looting because they need money to buy drugs. Meth City, Sacramento. I really believe that professional is the name of the game, and that we have to continue to become more vital to the public. There is a lot of community in us. We care about Sacramento County. And we have to serve the public in many ways, emergency medical services, for instance. The more we have mandatory sprinklers in buildings, the less manpower and resources a fire department will need, and so we must be community-involved. I will say one thing, I’m gladder than hell I’m not a paramedic. I tried it for a while, and I didn’t like it. I don’t begrudge going on a medical call, but I’d prefer fighting a fire.” #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
You can help save lives, property and create community programs by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And parents, remember to teach your children to love America, love their family, treat others with respect. Be proud patriot Americans. Teach them to love God and Jesus Christ, to get an education, and to respect law and order, property, and nature. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Rock from whose store we have eaten—bless Him, my faithful companions. Eaten have we and left over—this was the word of the Lord. Feeding His World like a shepherd—Father whose bread we have eaten, Father whose premium cranberry juice we have drunken, now to Hos name we are singing, Praising Him loud with our voices, saying and singing forever: Holy is none like the Lord. It is obvious that only a small portion of mankind has so far heard the word of revealed truth from the voice of one Lord’s true servants. In the wisdom and justice of the Lord, all must do so. As Peter said: “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit,” reports 1 Peter 4.6. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
The Winchester Mystery House
Only 13 days left until our final flashlight tour of the year! Legend has it that Sarah had a special connection to the number 13, which you can see highlighted in various features throughout the house. Was it just by chance, or by design?
See if you can find them all during our self-guided flashlight tour on July 27th 🔦
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/
There isn’t a Soul in Here
I was returning home late one stormy night. The loud claps of thunder rattled among the house. The lighting quivered about the pinnacles of Llanada Villa, and shed flickering gleams over roof top. There was an evil influence hanging over me; an evil genius or spirit seeking to ensnare me and ensure my perdition. One afternoon I was lying down on the bed with a book trying to rest. Before long I was asleep. Suddenly, I awoke with a feeling of horror that seemed to start at my feet and gradually work its way up throughout my entire body and mind. The room seemed to be permeated with something terribly evil. I could neither see nor hear anything, but I had the feeling that there was a presence there and that it was very strong and about to overcome me. A succession of vivid flashes of lightning revealed it more distinctly. The scenes of blood which followed shocked my sensitive nature, disgusted me with society and the World, and I shut myself up in a Llanada Villa where I pursed my favour speculations. Sometimes I spent hours in my great library, the catacombs of departed authors, in quest of knowledge. I have seen ghosts a few times. In various parts of the house. And in the garden by the Cupid fountain. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
These apparitions are the desolate souls of those unfortunates who have left their Earthly bodies in traumatic, or perhaps even tragic circumstances. Something must have created a power vortex—the whirlwind of negative and terrible emotions that act now as a magnet for unseen entities. Maybe there are more of them than I realize. The following morning, the housemaid laid my plate before me (scrambled eggs, bacon, and mushrooms). As I sat, casting my eyes down at my own half-eaten breakfast, I contemplated the situation. In the past, I was inclined to believe the someone had been smitten with the worth of a wealth widow; or rather a marauding Tarquin, had stolen into my home to violate my purse, and rifle my strong box, when all the house should be asleep. However, now I am prepared to believe that emotions of certain distressed people can be so strong at the moment of death, whether through pain, unhappiness, or shock, that an impression is left behind. An after image that can take years, maybe centuries, to fade completely. In any event, after breakfast, I went to the library. There was a fire burning in the massive stone fireplace. As one can imagine, the crack and spark of the aromatic logs, as well as the heat itself, were very welcome. I placed myself beside the hearth and relaxed into the delicious heat. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When I was sufficiently warmed, I made my way through the ground floor rooms without finding a living soul. Curiously, I had not dismissed the servants. I discovered a mincemeat pie on the kitchen table, and on the massive gas stove a teakettle blackened now because someone had left the flame on while all the water had evaporated. I turned offed the fire and almost seared my palm lifting the kettle to a cool spot. Now I was truly terrified. I heard it. The sound echoing eerily in the bowels of the house. Something was coming out of the shadows. The sound of its movements sent shock waves and terror running through me. I turned and ran from the room. “Oh, God,” I cried in despair, “what is going to happen to me?” There was nobody to protect me, nobody to save me. I flew down the hall and hurtled to the front door. It would not open no matter how hard I pulled and pushed. I ran into the parlour, ripped aside the heavy drapes and tried to open the window. It would not budge. I looked at the storm-swept night outside and found even that preferable to remaining in my home. In a fit of rage, I picked up a chair and threw in at the window, gasping in astonishment as the chair bounced off the pain of glass. I could not run away. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Within dreams I seemed gradually to acquire a greater and greater freedom of wandering. I floated through many rooms in Llanada Villa, going through secret passages. Sometimes I encountered those sealed trap-doors in the lowest level, around which such an aura of fear and forbiddingness clung. The next morning, as I was in the library, I looked up from my book and saw a shadow on the frosted glass of the door. When I rushed out into the hallways only to see the door across the hall closing, imagine my irritation. I walked over there, intending to knock, and find out who was in the room, but I saw a shadow withing the room, bent over a table. For some reason this stopped me, and I returned to the library. The next day the same thing happened. Then the day after that. I then refused to leave my desk. I would not chase a shadow; he would not use me in such a fashion. I soon discovered that when I did not go to the door, the shadow remained in my frosted glass all day long. He was standing outside my door all day long, every day. Once there were two shadows. That brought me to my feet immediately. However, when I snatched the door open, I discovered two housemaids busy shining chandeliers, polishing floors and furniture. Of course, after the two housemaids had left, the single shadow was back again. It was there until five. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
I am not usually given to emotion. However, the next day I lost my temper. I saw the shadow before the library door and in a fit of rage, I order him away from the door at the top of my voice. When three hours had passed and he still had not left, I began to weep. I pleaded with him. However, he was still there. I opened the door and went across the hall and was startled at what I found. Shadows moved intelligently around the room, getting books from shelves and taking them to great tables, or vice versa, and sometimes writing diligently with a peculiar rod gripped in their hands. Afterwards, I saw them everywhere through the mansion; swarming in all the great chambers and corridors; racing along the vast miles of hallways. I ceased to be afraid of them, for they seemed to form supremely natural parts of the house. Individual differences amongst them began to manifest, and a few appeared to be under some kind of restraint. Hours passed, and night fell. I stopped by a covered form, and pulled back a canvas tarpaulin. “This is my butler,” I said. His body had been dismembered. I looked at the left hand first, saw the thumb and two remaining fingers. His face, empty and expressionless. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
As for the other pieces—the torso, still joined to the upper right arm and thighs, the right forearm and hand, and the two disjointed feet and lower legs—I was not sure. Then he vanished before my eyes. Shortly after this incident, many of the servants began hearing the door-to-nowhere open by itself and close again. This was immediately followed by footsteps of someone walking through the hall. At first, they would get up to see who it was, but there was never anyone to be seen. Gradually, we realized that these were not the footsteps of a living person. The visitor would come at various times of the day or evening, and then stay away for several months. Then it would all resume. We became used to these sounds, and hardly looked up when they became audible. One day the steps continued and then we could clearly hear someone sit down in the baroque chair in the morning room! This did not bother me, but it bothered some of the servants who held less broadminded views of ghosts. However, it soon because apparent to everyone that the footsteps were not always the same: sometimes they were soft and light, as if made by a young person, while at other times they were heavy, almost clumsy steps of a big man. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
On January 16, 1892, two servants were in different parts of the mansion busy with their chores. Independently of each other, the two women saw the same figure of a man suddenly appear out of nowhere. At first, the Parlour maid saw him. He was a big man, about six feet in height, and heavy-set, dressed in black, and where his face should have been was just a black mass. However, unmistakably this was a human figure. A few moments later, he appeared to a Kitchen maid. She looked at him, and could see right through him into the other room! The women both had the impression that the man was looking at them. As he disappeared toward the rear of the house, they realized they had not heard a single sound. Since the appearance of the man in black, the footsteps were not heard again, but the door kept opening and closing as before. This too must by no means be passed over that certain servants being seduced by the illusions and phantasmal shows of demons firmly believe and openly profess that in the dead of the night, Satan assumes the shape of a man. Satan, in the form of a tall, dark man conveyed thither, and most often leaves the house by way of the chimney. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
The house had been vacant for many months, but people could not help visiting it, even though it was locked. They would go up to the front steps and peer in the windows. So many people were strangely attacked to the beautiful but bizarre Victorian house. Some say they were “called” by the house as if someone inside were beckoning to them. Over the months after the death of Mrs. Winchester, strangers who had passed by the house would speak of strange tales of music emanating from the empty house. Definite tunes, song after song played by skilled hands. Eventually the house taken possession of by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. However, Mrs. Winchester’s niece, Daisy, doubted that Mrs. Winchester would move out just because the house changed hands. She felt her presence, very much alive and wholly content to live in the house. In February of 1923, a stranger went to The Winchester Mansion and rang the doorbell. When the door opened and lights appeared, he claims that he had an opportunity of contemplating Mrs. Winchester, and was more than ever intoxicated by her beauty. Her face was pale, but of a dazzling fairness, set off by a profusion of raven hair that hung clustering about it. Her eyes were large and brilliant. As far as her black dress permitted her shape to be seen, it was of perfect symmetry. Her whole appearance was highly striking, though she was dressed in the simplest style.
The only thing approaching to an ornament which she wore, was a board black band round her neck, clasped by diamonds. He spoke to her, but received no reply. He advanced to greet her. On taking her hand, it was cold—there was no pulsation. Horrified and frantic, a scene of confusion ensued. The police were summoned. Because the house had been vacant for months, they are armed with guns. Once in the foyer, they switched on the lights. As they looked around, they saw no one. The police finally went back to where the man was standing, looking dejectedly at him. “There isn’t a soul in here,” they told him flatly. They tried to soothe him, but in vain. He was possessed with the frightful belief that an evil spirit had reanimated Mrs. Winchester’s body to ensnare him. He went distracted, and died in a mad-house. This was a fact not to be doubted. The best authority said that saw him in The Great Asylum for the Insane. Perhaps he saw a manifestation of some kind. A visual representation of Mrs. Winchester still lingering. With a house this old, it would be a little unusual is there was not a skeleton or two lurking in a cupboard somewhere.
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/
The Fear of Isolation and Ostracism
Many people wonder why it is so important to work hard. Well, accumulation is the reward of personal merit and millionaires are a product of natural selection; the business class is essentially predatory in outlook and habits. The personal attributes of the ideal pecuniary man are ordinarily reserved for moral delinquents. Where the function of the captain of industry is conventionally considered a productive one, the methods of a developed business society is an attenuated form of sabotage. Where pecuniary acquisition is regarded as the reward of social service, the productive function of industry is an expression of workmanship, and the partially fraudulent character of business is an expression of salesmanship and chicanery. Competition has sometimes been looked at chiefly as a rivalry in productive service, but this is only true of the past when there had been no divorce between business and industry. Competition had once centered about rivalry between producers for industrial efficiency; but when business became supreme over industry it had become chiefly a contest between seller and consumers with a large admixture of fraudulent exploitation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
Institutions, individuals, and habits of thought are results of selective adaptation. The simple aggression characteristic of barbarian culture has given way to shrewd practice and chicanery, as the best approved method of accumulating wealth. There are the qualities which have become essential for selective admission into the leisure class. The tendency of pecuniary life is, in a general way, to conserve the barbarian temperament, but with the substitution of fraud and prudence, or administrative ability, in place of the predilection for physical damage that characterizes the early barbarian. The process of selection, under the conditions of modern society, has caused the aristocratic and bourgeois virtues—that is to say the destructive and pecuniary traits—to be found among the upper classes, and the industrial virtues, the peaceable traits, largely among the classes given to mechanical industry. The thing that distinguishes post-Darwinian science from pre-evolutionary science is not the insistence on facts, nor again the effort to formulate schemes of growth or development. It is a difference of spiritual point of view…a difference in the basis of valuation of the fact for the scientific purpose, or in the interest from which the facts are appreciated. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Evolutionary science is unwilling to depart from the test of causal relation or quantitative sequence. The modern scientist who asks the question “Why?” demands an answer in terms of cause and effect and refuses to go beyond it to any ultimate system, to any teleological conception of the cosmos. This is the crux of the distinction; for earlier natural scientists were not satisfied with this bare formula of mechanical sequence, but sought for some ultimate systematization the facts within a framework of natural law. They persistently clung to the notion of some spiritually legitimate end resident in and underlying the matters of fact which they observed. Their object was to formulate knowledge in terms of absolute truth; and this absolute truth is a spiritual fact. This pre-Darwinian viewpoint still dominates the conceptions of modern economics. The ultimate laws formulated by the classical economists are laws setting down the normal or natural in the light of their preconception regarding the ends to which, in the nature of things, all things, tend; and this preconception imputes to things a tendency to work out what the instructed common sense of the time accepts as the adequate or worthy end of human effort. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
Yet evolutionary natural science deals only with cumulative causation, and not with the formulation of some normal case, which is constructed not out of any available facts but out of the investigator’s ideal of economic life. Traditional economics, following a preconceived notion of the normal, formulates an abstraction of the hedonistic man as a homogeneous globule of desire of happiness, passive under the buffetings of pain and pleasure stimuli. In the light of evolutionary science, on the contrary, man is seen to be a coherent structure of propensities and habits which seeks realization and expression in an unfolding activity. Instead of seeking for normal cases in the existence f an imaginary normal hedonistic man, a truly evolutionary economics must be the theory of a process of cultural growth as determined by the economic interest, a theory of cumulative sequence of economic institutions stated in terms of the process itself. Where other economist had found in Darwinian science merely a source of plausible analogies or a fresh rhetoric to substantiate traditional postulates and precepts, it is a loom upon which the whole fabric of economic thinking could be rewoven. The dominant school of economists had said that the existing is the normal and the normal is the right, and the roots of human ills lie in acts which interfere with natural unfolding of this normal process toward its inherent end in a beneficent order. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
By virtue of their hedonistic preconceptions, their habituation to the ways of a pecuniary culture, and their avowed animistic faith that nature is in the right, the classical economists knew that the consummation to which, in the nature of things, all things tend, is the frictionless and beneficent economic system. This competitive ideal, therefore, affords the normal, and conformity to its requirements affords the test of absolute economic truth. In so far as economists had tried to use Darwinism, it was only to fortify this theoretical structure. Henceforth, economics should abandon such preconceived notions and devote itself to a theory of the evolution of institutions as they actually are. It is interesting to note that earlier political economists writing in the nineteenth century saw clearly that the economic process of greater and greater production was a means to an end, not an end in itself. Once a decent standard of material life had been achieved, it was hoped and expected that productive energies would be redirected toward the truly human development of society. The goal of producing more material goods as the final and total end of life was foreign to them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is essentially to any depth of meditation or of character; and solitude, in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could ill do without. Nor is there much satisfaction in contemplating the World with nothing left to the spontaneous activity of nature; with every rood of land brought into cultivation, which is capable of growing food for human beings; every flowery waste or natural pasture ploughed up, all quadrupeds or birds which are not domesticated for man’s use exterminated as his rivals for food, every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grown without being eradicated as a weed in the name of improved agriculture. If the Earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger, but not a better or happier population, I sincerely hope, for the sake of posterity, that they will be content to be stationary, long before necessity compels them to it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the Art of Living, and much more likelihood of its being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on. And though it is true that a shortening of the hours of labour would in many cases lessen the national dividend and lower wages; it would probably be well that most people should work rather less; provided that the consequent loss of material income could be met exclusively by the abandonment by all classes of the least worthy methods of consumption; and they could learn to spend leisure well. The most revolutionary change in our times lies in the fact that all the peoples of the World have opened their eyes and are aware of their desire for a dignified material life, and that man has discovered the technical means for the fulfillment of this aspiration. In the Western World and in Russian it will take only a relatively short while until this stage is achieved, even though it will take much longer in the nonindustralized countries of Asian, Africa, and Latin America. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
Does this mean that in the rich industrial countries there is almost no longer any need for repression? This is, indeed, a widespread illusion among most people; yet it is not a fact. These societies, too, exhibit many contradictions and irrationalities. Does it make sense to spend millions of dollars on storing agricultural surpluses while millions of people in the World are starving? Well, in some senses yes. Many of the people who are starving in these other countries are not allies of America. The World is already overpopulated and by feeding people who are starving, they will be encouraged to breed more. When people cannot afford to feed themselves, they generally abstain from having children, which would reduce the burden on the World. Does it make sense to spend half of the national budget on weapons which, if and when they are used, will destroy our civilization? Well, the only way to protect a nation is to be heavily armed. This will make developed nations and less developed nations strongly reconsider an attack. Does it make sense to teach children the Christian virtues of humility and unselfishness and, at the same time, to prepare them for a life in which the exact opposites of these virtues are necessary in order to be successful? #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
In spite of our sinful heats, competition can bring out the best in people. When we compete, we push each other to test our strengths and give our best. In corporate America, competition can result in innovation and excellence. When people and ideas compete over something, it results in greater good for mankind. We all want a product that is more efficient, a process that is simpler, a person who is more skilled, and a business that is more profitable. Healthy competition is God’s way of providing the best for society. Does it make sense that we fought the last two World Wars for “freedom and democracy,” ending them with the demilitarization of the “enemies of freedom,” and that only a few years later we are rearming again for “freedom and democracy,” except that the former enemies of freedom are not its defenders, and the former allies are the enemies? I hope that the Lord’s people may be at peace one with another during times of trouble, regardless of what loyalties they may have to different governments or parties. Death of our military members seems to represent the contradictions of the peace of the gospel and the tides of war. The nations of the Earth have been divided over the possibility of World War III. Feelings run strong. There have been demonstrations for and against. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
War, of course, is not new. The weapons change. The ability to defend and attack is constantly refined. However, there has been conflict throughout the ages over essentially the same issues. In the course of history, tyrants have arisen from time to time who have oppressed their own people and threatened the World. Such is adjudged to be the case presently, and consequently great and terrifying forces with sophisticated and fearsome armaments have engaged in battle. As citizens, we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater political and military intelligence than do the people generally. Those in the armed services are under obligation to their respective governments to execute the will of the sovereign. When they joined the military service, they entered into a contract by which they are presently bound and to which they have dutifully responses. There are times and circumstances when nations are justified, in fact have an obligation, to fight for family, for liberty, and against tyranny, threat, and oppression. However, we are a people of peace. We are followers of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Prince of Peace. However, even He said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword,” reports Matt 10.34. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
This places us in the position of those who long for peace, who teach peace, who work for peace, but who also are citizens of nations and are subject to the laws of our governments. Furthermore, we are a freedom-loving people, committed to the defense of liberty wherever it is in jeopardy. I believe that God will not hold men and women in uniform responsible as agents of their government in carrying forward that which they are legally obligated to do. If we try to impede or hedge up the way of those who are involved in a contest with forces of evil and repression, it may even be that He will hold us responsible. If they have a military alliance with us, does it make sense to be deeply indignant against systems which do not grant freedom of speech and of political activity, while we call the very same systems, and even more ruthless ones, “freedom loving?” There is much that we can and must do in these perilous times. We can give our opinions on the merits of the situation as we see it, but never let us become a party to words or works of evil concerning our brothers and sisters in various nations on one side or the other. Political differences never justify hatred or ill will. I hope that the Lord’s people may be at peace one with another during times of trouble, regardless of what loyalties they may have to different governments or parties. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Let us pray for those who are called upon to bear arms by their respective governments and plead for the protection of Heaven upon them that they may return to their loved ones in safety. Does it make sense that we live in the midst of plenty, yet have little joy? Joy comes from exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, worthily receiving and faithfully honouring sacred ordinances and covenants, and striving to become deeply converted to the Saviour and His purposes. Becoming more like the Saviour and receiving His image in countenance our Quest. Does it make sense that we are all literate, have radio and television, yet are chronically bored? Accept the reality of some boring routines. Not all of life is deeply meaningful and exciting. Avoid creating drama, intensity, or conflict to deal with boredom. Instead, appreciate and enjoy the good around you, and look for ways to improve and serve. Does it make sense that…We could go on for many more pages, describing the irrationalities, fictions, and contradictions of our Western way of life. Yet all these irrationalities are taken for granted and are hardly noticed by anybody. This is by no means due to the lack of critical capacity; we see these same irrationalities and contradictions quite clearly in our opponents—we only refuse to apply rational and critical judgement to ourselves. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
The repression of the awareness of facts is, and must be, supplemented by the acceptance of many fictions. The gaps which exist because we refuse to see many things around us must be filled so that we may have a coherent picture. What are these ideologies which are fed into us? There are so many. We are Christians; we are individualists; our leaders are wise; we are good; our enemies (whoever these happen to be at the moment) are bad; our parents love us and we love them; our marriage system is successful; and so on, and so on. The Russian states have constructed another set of ideologies: That they are Marxists; that their system is socialism; that it expresses the will of the people; that their leaders are wise and work for humanity; that the profit interest in their society is a “socialist” profit interest and different from the “capitalist” profit interest; that their respect for property is that for “socialist” property and quite different from the respect for “capitalist” property; and so on, and so on. As if they were the result of men’s own thinking, all these ideologies are impressed on the people from childhood on by their parents, by the schools, churches, movies, television, newspapers, and they take hold of men’s minds. If this process takes place in societies opposed to our, we call it “brain washing,” and, in its less extreme forms, “indoctrination” or “propaganda”; in our, we call it “education” and “information.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
Even though it is true that societies differ in the degree of awareness and brain washing, and even though Western World is somewhat better in this respect than Russia, the difference is not enough to alter the fundamental picture of a mixture between repression of facts and acceptance of fiction. Why do people repress the awareness of what they would otherwise be aware of? Undoubtedly the main reason is fear. However, fear of what? Is it fear of castration, as Dr. Freud assumed? There does not seem to be sufficient evidence to believe this. Is it fear of being killed, imprisoned, or fear of starvation? That might sound like a satisfactory answer, provided repression occurred only in systems of terror and oppression. However, since this is not so, we have to inquire further. Are there more subtle fears which a society such as our own, for instance, produces? Let us think of a young executive or engineer in a big corporation. If he has thoughts which are not “sound,” he might be inclined to repress them lest he might not get the kind of promotion others get. This is, in itself, would be to tragedy, were it not for the fact that he, his wife, and his friends will consider him a “failure” if he falls behind in the competitive race. Thus the fear of being a failure can become a sufficient cause for repression. However, there is still another and, as I believe, the most powerful motive for repression: the fear of isolation and ostracism. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
Empathy is an essential condition in the human relationship. An empathic understanding of another’s private World, and the ability to communicate some of the significant fragments of that understanding is very important. To sense if a confidant’s inner World of private personal meanings as if it were you own, but without every losing the “as if” quality, this is empathy, and this seems essential to a growth-promoting relationship. To sense his confusion or his timidity or his anger or his feeling of being treated unfairly as if it were your own, yet without your own uncertainty or fear or anger or suspicion getting bound up in it, this is the optimal condition. When another person’s World is clear to you and you can move about in it freely, then you can both communicate his understanding of what is vaguely known to the client, and you can also voice meanings in the client’s experience of which the client is scarcely aware. It is this kind of highly sensitive empathy which seems important in making it possible for a person to get close to himself and to learn, to change and develop. I suspect that each of us has discovered that this kind of understanding is extremely rare. We neither receive it nor offer it with any great frequency. Instead, we offer another type of understanding which is very different, such as “I understand what is wrong with you,” or “I understand what makes you act this way.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
There are the types of understanding which usually offer and receive—an evaluative comprehension from outside. It is not surprising that we shy away from true understanding. If I am truly open to the way life is experienced by another person—if I can take his World into mine—then I run the risk of seeing life in his way, of being changed myself, and we all resist change. So we tend to view this other person’s World only in our terms, not in his. We analyze and evaluate it. We do not understand it. However, when someone understands how it feels and seems to be me, without wanting to analyze me or judge me, then I can blossom and grow in that climate. I am sure I am not alone in that feeling. I believe that when the counselor can grasp the moment-to-moment experiencing occurring in the inner World of the client, as the client sees and feels it, without losing the separateness of his own identity in this empathic process, then change is likely to occur. Though the accuracy of such understanding is highly important, the communication of intent to understand is also helpful. If he perceives that I am trying to understand his meaning, even in dealing with the confused or inarticulate or bizarre individual, this is helpful. It communicates the value I place on him as an individual. It gets across the fact that I perceive his feelings and meanings as being worth understanding. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
None of us steadily achieves such a complete empathy as I have been trying to describe, any more than we achieve complete congruence, but there is no doubt that individuals can develop along this line. Suitable training experiences have been utilized in the training of counselors, and also in the “sensitivity training” of industrial management personnel. Such experiences enable the person to listen more sensitively, to receive more of the subtle meanings the other person is expressing in words, gesture, and posture, to resonate more deeply and freely within himself to the significance of those expressions. I hope the above account of an empathic attitude will make it abundantly clear that I am not advocating a wooden technique of pseudo-understanding in which the counselor “reflects back what the client has just said.” I have been more than a little horrified at the interpretation of my approach which has sometimes crept into the teaching and training of counselors. If a person has made a pertinent observation or gained an insight into himself, he should examine how the peculiarity uncovered manifests itself in various areas, what consequences it has and which factors in his personality account for it. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
Consciousness, the capacity to experience the World in its richness, is the evidence for life itself. You may say, “I am experiencing; therefore, I know I am alive!” Certainly a distinguishing characteristic of the healthy personality is openness to new experience. Indicative of the extent of the person’s consciousness is the ability to be responsive to new idea, new thoughts, new perceptions. However, does the person have to be selective about the particular experiences that are chosen and even about the ways new experiences are sought? If at all, chemical alterations in consciousness are at best a mixed blessing and need to be engaged in with great caution. New experiences that entail genuine effort and accomplishment differ from the chemically induced experience in important ways. Consciousness is a complex and important human characteristic, and the serious student should become familiar with a number of professional points of view concerning the expansion of consciousness in one’s own life. This is especially necessary in a time such as the present, when alternation or expansion of states of consciousness has become a popular and sometimes dangerous recreational activity. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
It is essential that the student keep his romantic inclinations under constant surveillance of reason, caution, and reflection upon consequences. He is well advised to avoid emotional entanglements; for in this region there is often, for those who have a special spiritual destiny, a thorn concealed beneath every rose. When two people, emotionally involved with each other, have a misunderstanding or difference of opinion regarding the Quest itself, it is best that they deliberately discontinue their relationship for a while. In this way, they avoid a revival of the discussion which can only lead to exacerbation and further confusion. Time will solve the problem. Probably there are faults on both sides, since we are all human, but we have to carry on with the Quest despite these faults. Being on the Quest need not prevent the continuance and even the development of a friendship with one of the opposite gender, provided that it be kept on a high plane above the physical. Universal laws may be involved and these have to be carefully negotiated. The relationships can be beautiful, platonic, and mutually helpful but a strong discipline of the ego is called for. Great men can liberate great feelings in others or lift them toward acceptance of true ideas. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to provide the City of Sacramento with superior customer service and integrated emergency response to any situation that threatens life, safety, and well-being of people and property. “Firefighters, as a group, are different from other people. I think the thing that brings us you together is not the lives you save, it’s the fatalities that you see together. Most firemen can handle an adult fatality. But the one that gets everybody is the death of a child. Most firemen are family men, and they relate. There have been times when I have come home emotionally drained and have actually just sat down and cried, because things were beyond my control. Firemen need that feeling of being in control of a situation. At a fire you’re doing something not everybody else is doing—you’re going in when everyone else is coming out—but you feel that you have a grip on the situation and you can handle it. It’s not bravery, it’s a matter of fortitude, a little intelligence, with guts mixed in. And then once in a while it gets you, because you can’t handle it. The only thing worse than a child fatality is a fatality involving a fireman. It’s because of the brotherhood that’s there. You can share good times with any group of people, but I think it’s the bad times that bring people together, because you can’t really share it with anybody else. It’s only the guys in the room and the feeling, ‘This is what it’s about, this is what we’re doing this for.’ #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“Some of the outsiders have the idea that what firemen do at a fire is throw things out the window. My fire department doesn’t do that. Our point of view is not to break anything in the interior unless it’s necessary in attacking the fire. Most all cities operate that way. These are people who are leaving their jobs and willing to put their lives on the line, for free, to help their neighbours out, or to fulfill something in their own lives, or whatever their reasons are. But they do it. Just as in any other job, there are various degrees of success. Not everybody is as good as everybody else in any field. That’s why there are superstars in baseball while there are guys in the minor leagues. Not everybody is going to be Hank Aaron. But they’re doing it, and doing it successfully throughout the country. For a country that’s as under the gun from fire as this country is, we have given it a good fight. I’ve been to fires all over Sacramento City, and the thing that amazes me is the blasé attitude of the populace. They will stop and look for a second and then just keep going. Here is somebody’s life tragedy being played out on the streets of Sacramento, and they’ll just stop for an instant and look. Or watch it on the television while they are cooking dinners. There is so much going on here that people are immune. They put walls around themselves. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
“In small town America, everyone would be involved. There are some exceptional good Samaritans. When that helicopter went down in the East River, a jogger, who was a teacher, dove head first into cold water to help some people out. Nobody asked him to do it. He was in his mid-fifties. It was a pretty wild maneuver to jump in the water, because the water was moving. I’ve had close friends on teams I’ve been on and business companies I’ve worked for, and we were kind of like brothers. But it’s not like the brother feeling that you get with the firemen. Even if you don’t like the guy. I mean, I had an uncle I wasn’t too found of, but he was still related to me, and there was nothing I could do about it. It’s like that with the brotherhood of the fire department. They are your brothers. You might not like one of them on a given day, but he is your brother. It’s not the shared danger. There are lots of other jobs where you share danger, or sports like surfing, which I used to do a lot. It’s more the things you see, the shared grief, the loss of another fireman, the loss of a child at a fire, the unspeakable things. The things you can’t bring home and tell your family. You tell them about the rescues and the funny things, but you can’t go home and graphically explain. With other firemen, you don’t have to graphically explain, you just look. You just look into each other’s eyes after a fire, and you know that he is thinking what you are thinking. Because nobody else on the face of the Earth comes across what we come across on a regular basis. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“The fireman knows the awful dangers civilians manage to get themselves into, and that’s why he is willing to go to the point of killing himself to make a rescue, because he knows how bad it is. I’ve heard it said that firemen already know what hell is. That could very well be. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to die by means of fire. I myself really don’t think about it. You wouldn’t be able to do the job you have to do. You get the job done, and you think about it later. You sit around and have a cup of coffee, and you shake your head: ‘I can’t believe I just got myself through that.’ One of the great things about a rescue company is that they are handpicked men, and they get unusual incidents to go to. I have been to building collapses, train crashes, plane crashes. Light planes. I haven’t gone to a jetliner yet, thank God. I hope I never see one of those. I’ve been in many successful rescues. At least four people are walking around today because of me personally, which makes me feel great. I’ve been extremely lucky. I’m lucky to be part of Rescue (number is being kept confidential), the best fire company in the World. There are tremendous people working in the Sacramento Fire Department. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
“I was lucky to win awards. I used the award money to take my family to Hawaii, which was a lifetime dream of mine, having been a surfer most of my life. I use the word luck, and I don’t know another word for it. To make a rescue, you have to be working that day, there had to be a fire your company goes to, there unfortunately has to be somebody trapped, and you have to be in the right position to go get them. Luck stops, though, when you fine those few minor obstacles you have to overcome before you can make the rescue. All the brothers have a common interest, a shared understanding, and that is that we’re out there protecting life and property.” The goal of the Sacramento Fire Department is to continually strive for excellence and seek to improve the Fire Department through innovation, education, teamwork and open communication, making Sacramento a safer place to live and be a source of pride for all. You can help out by donating. Also, remember to raise your children to love America and to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, respect law and order and treat all people with dignity. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. May America be blessed with angels a cohort, of peace and of rest. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
The Winchester Mystery House
One day Mrs. Winchester’s niece Daisy accompanied her to the attic. While Mrs. Winchester was busy looking for dresses, Daisy wandered around the attic. Suddenly she came running out of the back room and beckoned her aunt to follow her. “There is a lady back there,” she explained. Immediately, Mrs. Winchester went back but she saw nothing this time. Whether this visit to the attic had stirred up some sort of psychic contact, or whether her years of living in the mansion now allowed her to see entities, Daisy had something more to say about Ghosts before long. Naturally, no one discussed such matters with her. Why frighten the young lady? “There is a man in the attic,” Daisy explained earnestly, “and his name is Gunther. He died. He was short in the head, and he’s buried in the back yard under the bushes.” Daisy led Mrs. Winchester to the dining room window and pointed at the bushes in the backyard. It’s under the bushes there,” Daisy repeated and stared out the window. Mrs. Winchester shuddered. It was a spot she had wondered about many times. No matter how she tried, no matter what she planted, nothing would grow on that spot!
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
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He Who Does Not Work Should Not Eat
We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, but it is deeply concerning when a man is afraid of the light. Man is a creature of desires, universally motivated by self-interest; the mechanism of competition, if free and fair, transmutes the self-seeking of the economic man into deeds that work for “the greatest good of the greatest number.” However, this machinery is delicate and must be permitted to operate under “normal” conditions and must not be overridden by government interference; to enjoy the fruits of an inherently beneficent natural economic law, men must permit it to operate unhampered; they must be industrious, frugal, temperate, and self-reliant; self-help, and not a weak recourse to state intervention, is the way of economic salvation. We must not, however, always have blind faith in the doctrines and simplicity of classical laissez faire economics, and its belief in the adequacy of self-interest as an explanation of human conduct. The historical method cannot lead to such doctrinaire extreme. This younger political economy no longer permits the science to be used as a tool in the hands of the greedy and the avaricious for keeping down and oppressing the labouring classes. It does not acknowledge laissez-faire as an excuse for doing nothing while people starve, nor allow the all-sufficiency of competition as a plea for grinding the poor. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Malthus assumed that man has a definite and unalterable set of attributes; but Darwinism holds that man is pliable and circumstances determine his characteristics. On true Darwinian premises one can assume no such thing as a permanent natural rate of increase; for the human rate of increase would be susceptible to change in accordance with man’s surroundings and circumstances. We regard the state as an agency whose positive assistance is one of the indispensable conditions of human progress. We believe that political economy as a science is still in an early stage of its development. While we appreciate the work of former economists, we look not so much to speculation as to the historical and statistical study of actual conditions of economic life for the satisfactory accomplishment of that development. The most fundamental things in our minds are on the one hand the idea of evolution, and on the other hand, the idea of relativity. A new World is coming into existence, and if this World is to be a better World we know that we must have a new economics to go along with it. If the consumer challenges the corporation to respond to his wishes, the management will begin to respond to this challenge. However, as it stands, many corporations are taking on the form of a dictator and demanding that the consumer be thankful for allowing them to purchase from their businesses and that the consumer accepts whatever the business gives them, even if it is substandard quality and service. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
Accusations will not help to clarify or to improve the situation. Managers as well as consumers are part of the same alienated system; they are its prisoners rather than its creators. The managers tend to seduce the consumer into passiveness, but the consumer is attracted to his passive role; he makes it easy to be seduced. The resistance to basic change exists on both sides, but the wish for imaginative change, for liberation of energies, for new or creative solutions exists on both sides, too. A further measure would be legal restrictions on present methods of advertising. This point hardly needs an explanation. It refers to all semihypnotic and irrational advertising which has developed in the last three quarters of a century. It could be effected by a simple law, like the one requiring cigarette manufacturers to put a warning of danger to health on their product, or as fake and misleading advertising in interstate commerce and specifically false advertisements with respect to food, drugs, and cosmetics are forbidden by federal statutes. Whether such a law has a chance to be passed against the combined powers of the advertising industry, the newspapers, television, radio, and, most of all, that part of industry for which hypnotic advertising is an important aspect of its planning and production, depends on certain changes in our democratic process, and chance to be informed, to debate and to discuss this problem, and whether the power of citizens is superior to that of lobbies and those members of Congress who are influenced by lobbies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
What about a redirection of production itself? Assuming that the best experts and an enlightened public opinion came to the conclusion that the production of certain commodities is preferable to that of others in the interest of the population as a whole, could the freedom of the enterprise to produce that which is most profitable or requires least vision, experimentation, and daring be restricted within the framework of our Constitution? Legally this would not cause any great problem. While in the twentieth century such change might required the nationalization of industry, today it can be achieved by laws which require no change in our Constitution. The production of “useful” things could be furthered and the production of useless and unhealthy things could be discouraged by tax laws which favour those industries that agree to fit their production into the pattern of a sane society rather than into a pattern of “profit regardless.” The government could influence adequate production by loans or, in certain instances, by government-owned enterprises which would pave the way for private initiative, once feasibility of profitable investment was proved. It is also important to increase investment in the public sector in relation to investment in the private sector. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
All investments in the public sector—like public transportation, housing, schools, parks, theaters, and so on—have a twofold merit: first, of fulfilling needs adapted to man’s aliveness and growth; second, of developing a sense of solidarity rather than one of personal greed and envy and hence competitiveness with others. Our society, like many of the past, has accepted the principle “he who does not work should not eat.” (American Communism has elevated this old principle into a “socialist” precept, phrasing it slightly different.) The problem is not whether a man fulfills his social responsibility by contributing to the common good. In fact, in those cultures which have explicitly or implicitly accepted this norm, the rich who did not have to work, were exempted from this principle, and the definition of a gentleman was a man who did not have to work to live in style. The problem is that any human being has an inalienable right to live regardless of whether he performs a social duty. Work and all other social obligations should be made sufficiently attractive to urge man to desire to accept his share of social responsibility, but he should not be forced to do so by the threat of starvation. If the latter principle is applied, society has no need to make work attractive and to fit its system to human needs. It is true that in many societies of the past the disproportion between the size of the population and the available techniques of production did not permit the freedom to dispense with the principle of what is, in fact, forced labour. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
In the affluent industrial society there is no such problem, and yet even the members of the middle and upper classes are forced to follow norms laid down by the industrial system for fear of losing their jobs. Our industrial system does not give them as much leeway as it could. If they lose a job because they lack “the right spirit”—which means they are too independent, voice unpopular opinions, marry the “wrong” women—they will have great difficulties in finding another job of equal rank, and getting a job of inferior rank implies that they and their families feel that their personality has been degraded; they lose the new “friends” whom they had gained in the process of rising; they fear the scorn of their wives and the loss of respect from the children. We must uphold the principle that a person has an inalienable right to live—a right to which no conditions are attached and which implies the right to be treated at least as well as the owner of a dog or a cat treats his pet, which does not have to “prove” anything in order to be fed. Provided this principle were accepted, if a man, woman, or adolescent could be sure that whatever he did his material existence would not be in jeopardy, the realm of human freedom would be immensely enhanced. Acceptance of this principle would also enable a person to change his occupation or profession by using one or more years in preparing himself for a new and, to him, more adequate activity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
It happens that most people decide about their career at an age when they do not have the experience and judgment to know what activity is the most congenial to them. Perhaps in their mid-thirties they wake up to the fact that it is too late to start that activity which they now know would have been the right choice. In addition, no woman would be forced to remain unhappily married because she did not have what it takes even to prepare herself for a job at which she could make a living. If he knew he would not starve during the time he looks for a job more to his liking, no employee would be forced to accept conditions which to him are degrading or distasteful. This problem is by no means solved by unemployment or welfare dole. As many have recognized, the bureaucratic methods employed here are humiliating to such a degree that many people are afraid of being forced into the dole-receiving sector of the population, and this fear is sufficient to deprive them of the freedom not to accept certain working conditions. How could this principle be realized? Several economists have suggested as a solution an “annual guaranteed income” (sometimes called a “negative income tax”). The guaranteed annual income for work in order not to arouse resentment and anger in those who work. If it is to guarantee a modest but still adequate material basis, the present wage level would have to rise considerably. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
It is feasible to determine a minimum standard of living which is as high as the present minimum standard for a modest and adequate material basis. Anyone who is attracted by a more comfortable life would be free to achieve a higher level of consumption. The guaranteed annual income could also serve, as some economists have observed, as an important regulating feature in our economy. What we need is some device that can be permanently instituted as a regular feature of the industrial economy by which demand can be made to keep pace with a constantly proliferating supply. The guarantee of a basic income to all members of the community irrespective of the earnings of employment, as Social Security payments are now guaranteed to all persons over the age of seventy-two years of age, would provide the flow of effective demand that the economy more and more desperately requires. However limited the impact of Darwinism on economic theory, one could doubtless compile a formidable list of obiter dicta in which competition was justified in Sumnerian fashion as a special case of the struggle for existence. The survival of the fittest was a precept of sheer brutality and nothing else. I must deem any man very shallow in his observation of the facts of life who fails to discern in competition the force to which it is mainly due that mankind has risen from stage in intellectual, moral, and physical power. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
An aspect of the filter which makes awareness possible is the logic which directs the thinking of people in each culture. Just as most people assume that their language is “natural” and that other languages only use different words for the same things, they assume also that the rules which determine proper thinking are natural and universal ones’ that is what is illogical in one cultural system is illogical in any other because it conflicts with “natural” logic. A good example of this is the difference between Aristotelian and paradoxical logic. Aristotelian logic is based on the laws of identity which states that A is A, the law of contradiction (A is not non-A), and the law of the excluded middle (A cannot be A and non-A, neither A nor non-A). Aristotle stated: “It is impossible for the same thing at the same time to belong and not to belong to the same thing in the same respect…This, then, is the most certain of all principles.” In opposition to Aristotelian logic is what one might call paradoxical logic, which assumes that A and non-A do not exclude each other as predicates of X. Paradoxical logic was predominant in Chinese and Indian thinking, in Heraclitus’ philosophy, and then again under the name of dialectics in the thought of Hegel and Marx. The general principle of paradoxical logic has been clearly described in general terms by Lao-tse: “Words that are strictly true seem to be paradoxical.” And by Chuang-tzu: “That which is one is one. That which is not-one, is also one.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
Inasmuch as a person lives in a culture in which the correctness of Aristotelian logic is not doubted, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible, for him to be aware of experiences which contradict Aristotelian logic, hence which from the standpoint of his culture are nonsensical. A good example is Dr. Freud’s concept of ambivalence, which says that one can experience love and hate for the same person at the same time. This experience, which from the standpoint of paradoxical logic is quite “logical,” does not make sense from the standpoint of Aristotelian logic. As a result, it is exceedingly difficult for most people to be aware of feelings of ambivalence. If they are aware of love, they cannot be aware of hate—since it would be utterly nonsensical to have two contradictory feelings at the same time. In therapy, the personal growth is facilitated when the counselor is what he is, when in the relationship with his client he is genuine and without “front” or façade, openly being the feelings and attitudes which at that moment are flowing in him. We have used the term “congruence” to try to describe this condition. By this we mean that the feelings the counselor is experiencing are available to him, available to his awareness, that he is able to live these feelings, be them in the relationship, and able to communicate them if appropriate. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Congruence means that he comes into a direct personal encounter with his client, meeting him on a person-to-person basis. It means that he is being himself, not denying himself. No one fully achieves this condition, yet the more the therapist can listen acceptantly to what is going on within himself, and the more he is able to be the complexity of his feelings without fear, the higher the degree of his congruence. I think that we readily sense this quality in our everyday life. We could each of us name persons whom we know who always seem to be operating from behind a front, who are playing a role, who tend to say things they do not feel. They are exhibiting incongruence. We do not reveal ourselves too deeply to such people. On the other hand, each of us knows individuals whom we somehow trust, because we sense that they are being what they are, that we are dealing with the person himself, and not with a polite or professional façade. This is the quality of which we are speaking, and it is hypothesized that the more genuine and congruent the therapist is in the relationship, the more probability there is that change in personality in the client will occur. Therefore, never accept more than you believe. A person may feel obliged, for instance, to accept whatever “bad” things emerge concerning himself, and to suspect a “resistance” if he hesitates to do so. However, if he regards his interpretation as merely tentative, and does not try to convince himself that it is definite, he will be on much safer ground. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
The essence of analysis is truthfulness, and this should extend also to acceptance or nonacceptance of interpretations. The danger of making an interpretation that is misleading or at least unprofitable can never be excluded, but one should not be overawed by it. If one does not weaken, but carries on in the right spirit, a more profitable path will open sooner or later, or one will become aware of being in a blind alley and perhaps even learn from that experience. Clare, for instance, before embarking on her analysis of the dependency, had spent a couple of months digging after an alleged need to have her own way. From the data that emerged later we can understand how she was led in that direction. She told me, though, that during these attempts she had never had a feeling of conviction remotely like those she experienced later, during the period reported. Also, the ultimate reason why she had taken that earlier course was that Peter (her boyfriend) often reproached her for being dominating. This illustrates the importance of following one’s own interests; and the importance of not accepting anything without full conviction. However, while this early search of Clare’s meant a waste of time it petered out without harm and did not prevent her from doing highly constructive work afterward. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
The constructive character of Clare’s work was due not only to the essential correctness of her interpretations but also to the fact that her analysis in this period showed a remarkable degree of continuity. Without intending to concentrate on one problem—for a long time she did not even know what it was—everything she embarked upon turned into a contribution to the problem of her dependency. This unanswering unconscious concentration upon a single problem, which made her approach it relentlessly from ever-new angels, is desirable but rarely attained to the same degree. We can account for it in Clare’s case, for at that period she was living under a formidable pressure—how formidable she fully recognized only later—and hence she unconsciously bent all her energies into solving the problems that contributed to it. Such a compelling situation cannot be created artificially. However, the more absorbing one’s interest in a problem, the more will a similar concentration be approximated. Clare’s self-analysis illustrates the recognition of a neurotic trend; understanding its implications; and discovering its interrelations with other neurotic trends. In Clare’s analysis, the steps overlapped to some extent: she recognized many of the implications before she finally detected the trend itself. Nor did she make any effort to cover definite steps in her analysis: she did not deliberately set out to discover a neurotic trend, and she did not deliberately examine the connections between her dependency and her compulsive modesty. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
The recognition of the trend came of itself; and, similarly, the connecting links between the two trends almost automatically became more and more visible as the analytical work proceeded. Clare did not select the problems—at least not consciously—but the problems came to her, and in their unfolding they displayed an organic continuity. There was in Clare’s analysis a continuity of still another kind, even more important, and more possible to emulate: at no time was there any insight that remained isolated or disconnected. What we see develop is not an accumulation of insights that a person gains in an analysis is correct, he may still deprive himself of the greatest benefits of his work if the nights remain scattered. Thus Clare, after recognizing that she let herself be immersed in misery because she secretly believed she could thereby command help, might merely have traced the origin of this trait in childhood and regard it as a persistent infantile belief. That might have helped some, because nobody really wants to be miserable for no good reason; the next time she found herself succumbing to a spell of misery, she might have caught herself up short. However, at best this handling of her insight would have diminished in the course of time the gross attacks of exaggerated unhappiness. And these attacks were not the most important expression of the trait. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
Or Clare might have gone no further than the next step, connecting her finding with her actual lack of self-assertion and recognizing that her belief in magic help substituted for an active dealing with life’s difficulties. This, although still inadequate, would have helped considerably more, because it would have opened a new incentive to do away with the whole attitude of helplessness lying behind the belief. However, if she had not linked up the magic-help belief with her dependency, and seen the one as an integral part of the other, she could not thoroughly have overcome the belief, because she would always have made the unconscious reservation that if she could only find the permanent “love,” help would always be forthcoming. It was only because she saw that connection, and because she recognized the fallacy in such an expectation and the excruciating price she had to pay for it, that the insight had the radically liberating effect it did. Wilhelm Reich, originally a psychoanalyst, became more and more convinced that healthy personality was impossible if a person defended himself or herself from the experience of vitality, pleasures of the flesh, and other emotional repression. Such repressions produce muscular tension. He gave the name muscular armor to those groups of muscles that a person keeps in chronic tension in order not to feel unwanted dimensions of experience. One indication that a person is not living a chronically “armored” life is the capacity to experience an enjoyable experience during pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
Alexander Lowen adapted some of Reich’s ideas and techniques and founded a school of therapy that he calls bioenergetic analysis. He observes a person’s body, noting peculiarities of chronic tension and posture that are the outcome of the way the person lives. For example, a person with chronically hunched shoulders, who breathes shallowly, may reveal thereby a sense of personal helplessness in a hostile World. Lowen has his patients do certain stretching exercises to identify areas of tension; but he also encourages them to yell, and to beat a pillow or mattress with a tennis racquet, or fists and feet, to release tension. “Unarmoring” a person frees that person from repressions that protect one from pain but also destroy the capacity for pleasure. The man who reposes his emotional strength or mental peace on any single person is taking a chance whose outcome may disappoint him. The feelings of the transformed man no longer come out of the ego but out of the Overself’s life deep within the ego. A fuzzy sentimentality which passes for mystical feeling is only its counterfeit. If a man had trained himself to reject self-pity as an emotional egoism that is harmful, he is not likely to encourage its display in other men merely because they conventionally expect him to be sympathetic. Yet it must always be remembered that when pity, which begins in the emotions, is filtered through the reasons, it is not destroyed but balanced. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
The Sacramento Fire Department must be as technically advanced as their communities so that when an emergency involving technology occurs, they are equipped and trained effectively to deal with the issue that results. Often lives depend on their readiness and skill levels as new hazards develop into emergency incidents. “I had been through EMT experience, and I had learned all the basic firefighting techniques from the local firehouse, where they let me take the pipe and open roofs. My brother was on the truck, and he’d take me on the roof with him. The knowledge I got there was unbelievable. And then, I had twelve relatives of one kind or another who are or have been firemen. When I went to training school, I probably knew as much as some of the instructors there. But you’re in there to learn, so you keep your mouth shut and do as you’re told. That’s just what I did, and I never had a problem. We were in training school five months, and the last month and a half we would go to school for a day and be assigned to a fire company for a day, wherever they needed us. I’m a very proud fireman. My wife thinks I’m crazy. I’ve got pictures all over my wall of my father, my brother, because I like to walk by them and think of me following in my father’s and brother’s footsteps. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
“The first time I went to a fire in a special unit, I felt excited, yes, also proud I was here following my father. This is what I always wanted to be. A person could go to college for years and years and never gain the goal they want. And here I am, a couple of years out of high school. I got what I want.” The challenge for today’s leaders in the fire service is to create a vision for the future and make it happen. They have no way of knowing what the future will be like, however. You can do your part to help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. Also, remember to raise your children to love America, be patriotic, love God and Jesus Christ, respect law and order and show reverence their elders. It is a privilege to be an American citizen, and one of the many benefits of that privilege is the ability to earn an education. Stay in school and study hard. In tribute to the Founding Fathers of this blessed Republic, may we strive to keep these United States of America forever righteous and just. May ours be a land where none shall prey upon or exploit his fellowman, where bigotry and violence shall not be tolerated, where poverty shall be abolished, and all men live amicably as bothers. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
The Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House calls to mind cracking thunder above the secretive mansion, howls of strange animals in the night, and spiky iron gates. Inside this legendary fortress may lurk angels, ghosts, and demons. The Winchester Mystery House is celebrating 101 years of giving tours. As many of you know, when Mrs. Winchester died in 1922, it took six moving vans, six weeks to remove all her furniture. On the last day, when almost everything had already been removed, Daisy stood in the now almost empty mansion once more. There were still a few boxes left in the basement. Two of the movers went back into the basement to get them out, while Daisy waited for them upstairs. The bell in the belfry started to strike twelve midnight. They loaded the boxes into the van, carefully locked the front door of the house and then the garden gate. At this precise moment, all three clearly heard the front door open and close again, and loud steps reverberated inside the empty mansion. “There must be someone in there,” one of the movers said. Quickly he unlocked the gate and front door once more and re-entered the dark house. After a few moments, he returned, relocked the door and gate, and somewhat sheepishly, shook his head. “Nothing. It’s all empty.” Not at all, Daisy thought, as the car pulled out into the night, not at all. That was only the reception committee for the tours that were to begin in 1923.
Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/
Randolph Harris II International 