November 22, 2024

Ultimate Weapon of Destruction 

Weapons can be designed to destroy the physical body, the rational mind, or an individual’s will to choose.  The spirit of choice can be seen as most significant in that it is uniquely human.  While physical freedom to move about and the freedom to reason are necessary, as for human experience these two freedoms only serve to bring an individual to the threshold of making choices.  From this perspective, the ultimate human achievement is finding integrity among one’s spiritual choices; and the ultimate weapon is that which can destroy one’s ability to develop integrity among one’s own spiritual choices.    

Arguably, most individuals were taught as children to give up their will to choose.  It began when parents taught them to judge in terms of right and wrong.  As some psychologists would put it, they were taught an external locus of control (LOC) as distinct from an internal LOC. 

Learning to be guided by others continued when schooling began—albeit, more refined.  It is an approach where children are presented with contradictions as if they were not contradictions.  What happens is that most children come to think that their lack of understanding is the result of their own deficiency.  Consequently, they simply begin to repeat whatever the teacher has put forth.  When they do, they are given praise and social recognition (even from their parents).  On the other hand, for those who do not conform, they are publicly labeled as “failures”—and somewhat shunned.  Over time, the child becomes alienated from his/her own sense of spiritual understanding and simply repeats what is provided.  John Holt observed this process and described it in his best-selling book “How Children Fail” (see his summary section).  It was his experience that once a child (about 5^th grade) replaced internal understanding with what an authority instructs, the return to self-trust did not occur.  For adults, there is the best selling 1984 by George Orwell.  Here we have the idea of “double think” as a tool disabling an individual’s ability to think outside the box of government’s directives.  And then there is the role of drugs.  For decades, drugs have been used to help the child focus on what they are told.  In Brave New World, Revisited, Aldus Huxley describes the practice of dispensing drugs (soma) by the government to make people happy and submissive.         

Notably, just about everyone will have periods of rebellion.  At about 15-years-old, many individuals begin to experience an interest in developing their own sense of integrity (internal LOC).  Their choice of peers replaces parents when seeking advice.  They may spend time alone and reflect on their sense of being an individual with the ability to makes choices.  Notably, they may not realize the baggage they are carrying from earlier experiences.  Every new thought is interpreted in a “best fit” to all previous sensory input.  It is a tough slog to change old habits.  As Hermann Hesse put it (Siddhartha, By the River), “I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew.”

What’s God got to do with it?  During those teenage quiet times when one’s focus is turned to a spiritual force, it would be common to share such experiences with one’s friends.  Depending on one’s environment, individuals may be directed to professional religious leaders—or religious leaders may come looking for them.  Consider that virtually all religious leaders will direct those seeking guidance to writings and prophets thought by them to be sacred or inspired by God.  Notably, what happens is that what began as a personal, internal experience morphs into an external experience established by a group—that is, from an internal LOC to an external LOC.  As with parents and public school teachers, religious leaders will claim knowledge of good and evil, and seek to guide everyone toward the good and away from the evil.  Arguably, virtually all such religious guidance directs the individual away from a personal belief and relationship with God and towards rituals and doctrines formulated by others. 

If human nature is to be taken into account, spiritual understanding can be found only by looking inward during those quiet times when one’s focus turns to a spiritual Force.     

Anticipating the next posting in about 10-20 days with the topic: “Individual or Group Primacy”