FREE FRIENDS FORUM -- ABANDONED TO OURSELVES
An Open Forum for Naturalists, Humanists, and Individualists and their Opposites for Argument’s Sake
FREE FRIENDS FORUM INTRODUCTION
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https://responsiblyfree.wixsite.com/abandonedtoourselves
Free Friends Forum
Abandoned To Ourselves
Naturalism, Humanism, Individualism
“Suppose that God, abandoning mankind to ourselves, had effectively prescribed no rule of life for us, and had subjected us to no law.” Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui
"The serious study of Man…considers what we would have become, abandoned to ourselves." Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"Man is to Man a God."Baruch Spinoza
The 4 Golden Rules without Rulers:
1. Autonomy
2. Authenticity
3. Authorship
4. Authority
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to find how Responsibly Free your Mind actually is
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FREE FRIENDS -- ABANDONED TO OURSELVES is an open Forum for Naturalists, Humanists, and Individualists to understand themselves better and argue more convincingly through free intercourse with Supernaturalists, Utopians, and Collectivists (whether still hidden in themselves or out in the open in others).
The Forum is facilitated by Martin Huehne in Thailand and Jack Carney in New Zealand who both practice and advocate the three core philosophical ideas-values-methods of Naturalism, Humanism, and Individualism. Our chosen topics and guided discussions will be predicated on these three radical perspectives of the Human Condition that we consider best enable us to get and remain Responsibly Free.
We invite all perspectives for an irreverent and passionate, yet reasonable and mannerly, exchange of ideas-beliefs. We agree with Montaigne: “It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.” We encourage constructive debates and mutual learning.
Each weekly forum will be a combination of initiating posts by Jack and Martin on the central ideas-themes to be discussed and may include uploaded relevant books, articles, pictures and videos. The posts will be followed by two Zoom meetings to discuss the weekly ideas-themes live on video that will be recorded. No membership will be required and you will be invited to create your own posts attaching videos, pictures, etc., as well as commenting on others' posts. We hope you will participate to discover how Responsibly Free your Mind actually is.
New ideas-themes will be posted weekly on Wednesdays ahead of the Zoom meetings on Saturdays and Sundays, so the attendees will be able to asynchronously publish their initial posts, comment on other posts and respond to comments before the scheduled live Zooms (Note: all days/times for New Zealand).
The opening of our Free Friends Forum for posting asynchronous comments will be on Wednesday March 6, 2024.
The first set of our weekly Zoom meetings will be on 9 pm Saturday March 9 and 9am Sunday March 10, 2024 (New Zealand time),
--Asynchronous Posts Thursdays 3pm New Zealand time
--Zoom Saturdays 9PM New Zealand time (for example, this will be Saturdays Australia 7-6PM; China 4PM; Thailand 3PM; Kenya 11AM; Nigeria/France/Spain/Germany 9AM)
--Zoom Sundays 9AM New Zealand time (for example, this will be Saturdays California 12noon; Florida 3PM; Chile 5pm; Nigeria/France/Spain/Germany 9PM)
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Martin’s Epicurean Pleasure Philosophy
Martin has chosen pleasure as the goal of his life, and aims at pleasure by choosing carefully which desires to fulfil; he willingly accepts temporary pain if it is a side effect of actions (e.g. hard study, hard work, delay of enjoyments) to maximize future pleasure which is worth the endured pain or to minimize future pain. He upholds the No-Harm Principle and trusts his reasoning capability and his intuition toward love, friendship, compassion and justice to avoid counterproductive egoism. These items of his philosophy of life are identical with corresponding items of Epicurus' philosophy when it is interpreted consistently by resolving apparent contradictions between different quotes of the extant texts instead of being misrepresented as primitive hedonism or ascetic hedonism depending on which subsets of quotes are neglected or misinterpreted as absolute statements. Becoming or being his own authority is a derivative virtue, subordinate to the chief virtue prudence and to sustainable maximum pleasure as the goal.
Jack’s Voluntaryist Responsibly Free Philosophy
We are free to the degree: we take the responsibility to be; allow others to be; and trust ourselves to be. We are born into an evolutionary default setting of Obedience to the Gods of the Family-Clan. This is what the Great Reset must be: to grow up to become our own sole Authority based on Reason and Care for ourselves and others, Aka, Love. Everything, starting with yourself, must be Voluntary. Gently shake yourself awake from the Nightmare of Violent History brought on by Child Abuse-Neglect--learn the Lesson of Loss which is Reciprocal Care. Create and freely trade your unique worth and value. Stop trying to control others and start controlling yourself. Take the reparative NAP (Non-Aggression Principle) for peaceful restoration. From the Love of Wisdom and Liberty come to the Wisdom and Liberty of Love.
“Voluntaryism is the doctrine that relations among people should be by mutual consent, or not at all. Voluntaryists seek to delegitimize the State through education, and we advocate withdrawal of the cooperation and tacit consent on which State power ultimately depends.” www.Voluntaryist.com
“The symbol of all relationships among men who neither make sacrifices nor accept them is the trader. He does not treat men as masters or slaves, but as independent equals. He deals with men by means of a free, voluntary, unforced, uncoerced exchange—an exchange which benefits both parties by their own independent judgment.” Ayn Rand
“Define your terms, you will permit me again to say, or we shall never understand one another.” Voltaire
HUMANISM
“Humanism: a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially: a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason". Merriam Webster Dictionary
“…a commitment to the perspective, interests and centrality of human persons; a belief in reason and autonomy as foundational aspects of human existence; a belief that reason, scepticism and the scientific method are the only appropriate instruments for discovering truth and structuring the human community; a belief that the foundations for ethics and society are to be found in autonomy and moral equality.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
NATURALISM
“Naturalism: a theory denying that an event or object has a supernatural significance; specifically: the doctrine that scientific laws are adequate to account for all phenomena.” Merriam Webster Dictionary
“In philosophy, naturalism is the idea that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe.” Wikipedia
“Naturalism is the belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Instead of using supernatural or spiritual explanations, naturalism focuses on explanations that come from the laws of nature.” Vocabulary.com
INDIVIDUALISM
“Individualism: a doctrine that the interests of the individual are or ought to be ethically paramount; conduct guided by such a doctrine; the conception that all values, rights, and duties originate in individuals; a theory maintaining the political and economic independence of the individual and stressing individual initiative, action, and interest.” Merriam Webster Dictionary
“Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and advocating that the interests of the individual should gain precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism makes the individual its focus, and so starts ‘with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation’." Wikipedia
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AUTHORITY—BORN TO OBEY—THE ORIGINAL SIN OF BEING YOU
Our first topic, AUTHORITY, is for me the key one--until and unless you become your own sole, ultimate Authority (become “Self Authorized”) you are still being controlled by someone or something else--and you are not actually free. Further, you are a potential danger to genuinely free persons as you will be legitimating and empowering would-be Rulers even if unintentionally.
The "Original Sin", as etymology exposes (see below), is TO BE YOURSELF. That is, to be YOUR OWN “Authority”, to allow no other person to control/rule you—YOU as your RESPONSIBLY FREE MIND.
This assertive establishment of one’s Self--also known as Self-Actualization (Maslow) or Individuation (Jung)--as the sole, ultimate Authority is a rare achievement so far in the history of Humanity’s evolution. We must still earn our scientific name “Homo sapiens sapiens”—Wise, Wise Ones of/from the Earth.
Abraham Maslow and the Psychology of Self-Actualization Academy of Ideas (Video) May 9, 2018. 6:07
The reason this task of becoming your own Authority is not recognized as necessary and then accepted and enacted, is that to do so is to fundamentally DISOBEY the PARENTAL AUTHORITY our lives depend upon at birth and at least for the next six years.
I argue ALL structures of legitimated (morally accepted—Voluntary Enslavement of Co-Dependency) Authority from Theocracies to Democracies, have evolved out of the original Family-Clan Collective. Further, this Authoritarian Matrix-Pattern (etymologically, Ma- “Maternal Mother”; Pa- “Paternal Father”) only permits obedience to the “Other-Alter” who always has Power Over the Child-Victim of whatever age. In other words, you CANNOT BE FREE inside this Authoritarian Penitentiary where you have been sentenced for Life for the Sin of Being You by the evolved Co-Dependent Family-Clan unit. Your only choice is to be an Inmate, Guard, Warden or a God who created the entire structure and supposedly controls it.
Finally, the reasons so few are motivated to leave the Family-Clan Matrix-Pattern is that it is the source of Primal Security we neotenous humans must stay attached to if we are to avoid Madness-Insanity or Badness-Criminality. Those who do not obey the Matrix-Pattern Authority (whatever its form from cult to dictatorship to democracy) will be controlled, locked up; or failing that, killed.
FOR ME THE QUESTION BELOW--WHY IS DISOBEDIENCE (SELF AUTHORIZATION) SO RARE?--is one i must find answers to. My tentative hypothesis as to why so few of us get free of the Family-Clan Matrix-Pattern into which we are born, has to do with Attachment Theory and what i call the "Lesson Of Loss". More on this in the weekly posts to come.
“Obedience that occurs in a hierarchical social structure needs no special explanation. However, disobedience in the same circumstances does need explaining.” Obedience and Civilization by Don Mixon
I consider the evolutionary development of Homo sapiens sapiens from prehistory to now to be a moral progression from Authoritarian Other to Self Authorization due to changing modes of parenting (see Lloyd deMause below). Homo sapiens sapiens are going (finally growing up)
FROM: COERCIVE MASTER-SLAVE CO-DEPENDENCY
Violent Authoritarian Other-Rule produced by parental abuse-neglect of children
TO: VOLUNTARY TRADER INTERDEPENDENCY
Voluntary Autonomous Self-Rule produced by parental care enabling responsible freedom of children
LLOYD DEMAUSE AND THE ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOHISTORY
I consider Lloyd deMause and his The Association for Psychohistory https://psychohistory.com best explain why Homo sapiens sapiens has throughout its evolution been so horribly violent—from Theocratic routine sacrificial slaughters, to individual and gang rapes and murders, through world wars and modern Democides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide . The title of deMause’s last book before his death in 2020, The Origin of War in Child Abuse, tells the woeful and horrible tale.
HERE IS WIKIPEDIA EXPLAINING PSYCHOHISTORY AND LLOYD DEMAUSE’S SIX PSYCHOGENIC MODES OF PARENTING https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory
Psychohistory | Wikipedia audio article Wikipedia tts, (Video) Oct 4, 2019. 18:57
00:01:02 1 Description 00:02:14 1.1 Areas of study 00:03:24 1.2 Emergence as a discipline 00:05:04 1.3 Independence as a discipline 00:06:36 2 Psychogenic mode 00:09:41 2.1 A psychoclass for postmodern times 00:11:00 3 Criticisms 00:13:10 4 Organizations 00:14:42 5 Notable psychohistorians 00:15:09 6 See also 00:15:41 7 Notes 00:15:50 8 Bibliography 00:18:12 9 External links
HERE IS THE FIRST OF THREE ARTICLES BY LLOYD
The Evolution of Psyche and Society (Part 1) (article)
Since the further back in history one goes the lower the level of childrearing, it follows that children in the past grew up in houses of horrors that were like those of dissociated personalities of today. Psychiatric studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between elevated levels of dissociative symptoms—separate alters, depersonalization, derealization—and the amount of early physical, sexual and emotional abuse.1 That the average person before the modern period walked streets full of spirits, demons, gods and other alters is evidence of the dissociation that resulted from their routine abuse and neglect as children. Historical evolution of the psyche, therefore, is the slow, uneven process of integrating fragmented selves into the unified self that is the goal of modern upbringing.
http://primal-page.com/ps1.htm
Etymology, the historical development of words from their original roots to today, I consider shows us the evolutionary development of Human Subjective Consciousness, the Individual, Separate Self aware of itself, taking responsibility for its freedom, committed to becoming its sole, ultimate Authority and obeying no other source than its own Mind.
The ”Original Sin” (Bible) is YOU, to BE YOUR SELF and to DISOBEY YOUR PARENT/GOD.
Middle English sinne, from Old English synn, syn "violation of divine law, offense against God; moral wrongdoing," also "injury, mischief; enmity, feud; guilt, crime, misdeed," from Proto-Germanic *sundiō "sin" (source also of Old Saxon sundia, Old Frisian sende, Middle Dutch sonde, Dutch zonde, German Sünde "sin, transgression, trespass, offense," extended forms).
The notion is probably ultimately "it is true," i.e. "the sin is real" (compare Gothic sonjis, Old Norse sannr "true"), from PIE *snt-ya-, a collective form from *es-ont- "becoming," present participle of the ROOT *ES- "TO BE."
The semantic development would be via the notion of "to be truly the one (who is guilty)," as in Old Norse phrase verð sannr at "be found guilty of," and the use of the phrase "it is being" in Hittite confessional formula. Also see sooth.
SOOTH (N.)
"truth, reality, fact," Old English soð "truth, justice, righteousness, rectitude; reality, a true situation, certainty," noun use of soð (adj.) "true, genuine, real; just, righteous," originally *sonð-, from Proto-Germanic *santhaz (source also of Old Norse sannr, Old Saxon soth, Old High German sand "true," Gothic sunja "truth").
The group is related to Old English synn "sin" and Latin sontis "guilty" (truth is related to guilt via "being the one;" see sin (v.)), from PIE *hes-ont- "being, existence," thus "real, true" (from present participle of root *es- "to be")
Middle English sothen, from Old English soðian "show to be true, bear witness, offer confirmation" (senses now obsolete), from soð "true" (see sooth). The sense of "quiet, comfort, restore to tranquility," in reference to a person or animal, is by 1690s, via the notion of "to assuage one by asserting that what he says is true," a sense attested from 1560s (and compare Old English gesoð "a parasite, flatterer"). The meaning "reduce the intensity" (of a pain, etc.) is from 1711.
Old English gyltig "offending, delinquent, criminal," from gylt (see guilt (n.)). In law, "that has committed some specified offense," late 13c. Of conscience, feelings, etc., 1590s. Meaning "person who is guilty" is from 1540s. To plead not guilty is from 15c.; to plead guilty is 19c., though, as OED notes, "Guilty is technically not a plea, but a confession."
WHY HAVE SO FEW CLAIMED THEIR OWN AUTHORITY AND CHOSEN RESPONSIBLE FREEDOM?
I consider this is due to the rarity of understanding and taking control of the two Conditioners of the Human Condition:
FEAR OF DEATH & LUST FOR SEX.
Until and unless a person understands the nature-nurture of these two Conditioners and becomes responsible for them in terms of Doing No Harm, he (much more often than she) is a walking time bomb waiting for the Milgram or the Stanford Prison Experiment to bring out the Beast instead of the Best.
Escape from Evil by Ernest Becker (Audiobook) mr1001nights, (Video) March 15, 2022 8:16:44 From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Denial of Death, a penetrating and insightful perspective on the source of evil in our world.
NOTE: BEGIN 1:46 Narrator of Preface by Ernest Becker: “This book is a companion volume to The Denial of Death. It completes the task begun there, which is to synthesize the scientific and tragic perspectives on man. In The Denial of Death I argued that man's innate and all-encompassing fear of death drives him to attempt to transcend death through culturally standardized hero systems and symbols. In this book I attempt to show that man's natural and inevitable urge to deny mortality and achieve a heroic self-image are the root causes of human evil.”
The Evolution Of Desire by David M. Buss: 11 Minute Summary SnapTale Audiobook Summaries (Video) Jan 2, 2024 11:21
Discover the secrets to successful relationships by exploring our evolutionary past with The Evolution of Desire. Based on a massive study of over 10,000 individuals worldwide, this book offers a comprehensive theory of human mating behavior, with updated research on infidelity, orgasm, and physical attractiveness.
THE GREAT DICKTATOR—WHAT ALL MEN ARE BORN TO OBEY
My website is coming (pun pre-in-tended) soon where I will be publishing on Evolutionary Psychology’s “Mating Strategies” and how that X Chromosome is whY the Male is more Malevolent than the Female. www.thegreatdicktator.com
JUST FOUND THIS FOR OUR FORUM—A LITTLE LEVITY
The Dicktator DYNMC Creative (Video) Dec 14, 2019 2:27 Does your husband have a wandering eye? Does his little head get him to little get him into big trouble? Has fear caused you to resort to plotting elaborate schemes just to catch him in the act? Well fear no more, introducing...The Dicktator
PAIRING TODAY, my website
“Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed” Francis Bacon.
Let us choose the Bonobo “Make Love Not War” rather than the Chimpanzee “Make War Not Love”.
https://www.pairingtoday.com/from-bondage-to-bond
https://www.pairingtoday.com/sex-at-dawn
"We're All Perverts": The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality with Author Christopher Ryan ReasonTV (Video) Oct 15, 2013 26:43
Christopher Ryan sits down with Reason contributor Thaddeus Russell to discuss his book, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. Together with Cacilda Jethá, Ryan has written about the history of human sexuality and why we should fight against "socially imposed restrictions." By looking at archaeology, primate biology, human physiology, and anthropological studies of pre-agricultural tribes from around the world, Ryan says we aren't meant to be in life-long monogamous unions.
Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World (book)
In the spirit of Guns, Germs and Steel, Sex and War asks the basic questions: Why is war so fundamental to our species? And what can we do about it?
Malcolm Potts explores these questions from the frontlines, as a witness to war-torn countries around the world. As a scientist and obstetrician, Potts has worked with governments and aid organizations globally, and in the trenches with women who have been raped and brutalized in the course of war. Combining their own experience with scientific findings in primatology, genetics, and anthropology, Potts and Hayden explain war's pivotal position in the human experience and how men in particular evolved under conditions that favored gang behavior, rape, and organized aggression. Drawing on these new insights, they propose a rational plan for making warfare less frequent and less brutal in the future. https://www.amazon.com/Sex-War-Biology-Explains-Terrorism-ebook/dp/B003UBAX3A/ref=sr_1_1
1 in 200 Men are Direct Descendants of Genghis Khan (article)
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/1-in-200-men-direct-descendants-of-genghis-khan
8 Brutal Acts Of Genghis Khan And His Successors Sky History (article)
In the 13th and 14th centuries, an enormous empire straddled half of the Eurasian landmass. At its zenith, it stretched from the Pacific shores of the Korean Peninsula to the cold forests of Eastern Europe. This was the mighty Mongol Empire, and its emperors, known as Khagans, were some of the most bloodthirsty and powerful rulers in human history. Here we look at eight of their most shocking acts.
2. The crime against the Oirat
Ögedei Khan, son of Genghis Khan, ruled as Khagan-Emperor of the Mongol Empire from 1229 to 1241. Like his father, Ögedei loved war, sending the vast Mongol hordes thousands of miles in nearly every direction to fight and expand the empire.
He was also responsible for an act that one historian has called ‘one of the worst Mongol atrocities recorded’. This was the mass rape of the Oirat girls.
In 1237, the Oirat people, according to Persian chroniclers, failed to contribute the expected cohort of young women to the Mongol emperor’s harem. A furious Ögedei decided to punish the Oirat. He ordered that 4,000 Oirat girls were to be repeatedly raped by his soldiers and that the girls’ families were forced to watch. Two of the girls died, and the rest were distributed as sex slaves among the harem, merchant caravans, and the Mongol army.
https://www.history.co.uk/articles/brutal-acts-of-genghis-khan-and-his-successors
On Disobedience: Or How Obedience Can Be Harmful | Erich Fromm (Video) Germinal, Aug 16, 2020 11:45
What is disobedience? Is it a virtue? Is it a sin? What about obedience? Can it be harmful? Erich Fromm answers these questions and more in his short essay On Disobedience. Find out the difference between rational and irrational authority, the dialectic relationship between obedience and disobedience and learn how obedience could put an end to civilization
Erich Fromm - Disobedience: A Moral or Psychological Problem (1962) (Video) Biophily2, Feb 23, 2016 1:15:07
Erich Fromm | Obedience as a psychological and moral problem (Article)
FOR CENTURIES kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice. In order to introduce another point of view, let us set against this position the following statement: human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be, terminated by an act of obedience.
Human history was ushered in by an act of disobedience according to the Hebrew and Greek myths. Adam and Eve, living in the Garden of Eden, were part of nature; they were in harmony with it, yet did not transcend it. They were in nature as the fetus is in the womb of the mother. They were human, and at the same time not yet human. All this changed when they disobeyed an order. By breaking the ties with Earth and mother, by cutting the umbilical cord, man emerged from a pre-human harmony and was able to take the first step into independence and freedom. The act of disobedience set Adam and Eve free and opened their eyes. They recognized each other as strangers and the world outside them as strange and even hostile. Their act of disobedience broke the primary bond with nature and made them individuals. “Original sin,” far from corrupting man, set him free; it was the beginning of history. Man had to leave the Garden of Eden in order to learn to rely on his own powers and to be come fully human. http://moonmagazine.org/erich-fromm-obedience-psychological-moral-problem-2014-11-30/
The Whole Problem (and Solution) in Two Minutes (Video) Larken Rose, April 3, 2013. 2:37
The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose (Book, Audiobook)
Larken Rose - The Most Dangerous Superstition - Iron Web Publications [Audiobook, PDF, EPUB] by bluecar5556
“If you love death and destruction, oppression and suffering, injustice and violence, repression and torture, helplessness and despair, perpetual conflict and bloodshed, then teach your children to respect ‘authority:’: and teach them that obedience is a virtue. If, on the other hand, you value peaceful coexistence, compassion and cooperation, freedom and justice, then teach your children the principles of self-ownership, teach them to respect the rights of every human being, and teach them to recognize and reject the belief in ‘authority’ for what it is: the most irrational, self-contradictory, anti-human, evil, destructive and dangerous superstition the world has ever known.” https://archive.org/details/larken-rose-the-most-dangerous-superstition-iron-web-publications-2011
JULIAN JAYNES BICAMERAL THEORY HELPS US UNDERSTAND THE HOW & WHY HUMANITY EVOLVED ITS OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY. Let us no longer host Ghosts in our Brain-Mind. Claim your Consciousness as your own independent of any Collective Authority.
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes (Book)
“It said in a word that there is no authorization from outside. Behold! there is nothing there. What we must do must come from ourselves. The king at Eynan can stop staring at Mount Hermon; the dead king can die at last. We, we fragile human species at the end of the second millennium A.D., we must become our own authorization. And here at the end of the second millennium and about to enter the third, we are surrounded with this problem. It is one that the new millennium will be working out, perhaps slowly, perhaps swiftly, perhaps even with some further changes in our mentality.” Free download of the book https://tinyurl.com/3nfjey8f
The Quest for Authorization--Book Three, Chapter 1, p.317 The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
“We, at the end of the second millennium A.D., are still in a sense deep in this transition to a new mentality. And all about us lie the remnants of our recent bicameral past. We have our houses of gods which record our births, define us, marry us, and bury us, receive our confessions and intercede with the gods to forgive us our trespasses. Our laws are based upon values which without their divine pendancy would be empty and unenforceable. Our national mottoes and hymns of state are usually divine invocations. Our kings, presidents, judges, and officers begin their tenures with oaths to the now silent deities taken upon the writings of those who have last heard them.
For in spite of all that rationalist materialist science has implied since the Scientific Revolution, mankind as a whole has not, does not, and perhaps cannot relinquish his fascination with some human type of relationship to a greater and wholly other, some mysterium tremendum with powers and intelligences beyond all left hemispheric categories, something necessarily indefinite and unclear, to be approached and felt in awe and wonder and almost speechless worship, rather than in clear conception, something that for modern religious people communicates in truths of feeling, rather than in what can be verbalized by the left hemisphere, and so what in our time can be more truly felt when least named, a patterning of self and numinous other from which, in times of our darkest distress, none of us can escape ? even as the infinitely milder distress of decision-making brought out that relationship three millennia ago.
I am thinking too of our struggles toward systems of ethics, of attempting with rational consciousness to find substitutes for our previous divine volition which could carry with them that obligation which at least could simulate our earlier obedience to hallucinated voices. And too of the cyclic history of politics, the gyres of our wavering attempts to make governments out of men instead of gods, secular systems of laws to perform that formerly divine function of binding us together into an order, a stability, and a commonweal.
One distinguishing characteristic of such vestiges is that they are more obvious against the complexity of history the closer we are to the breakdown of the bicameral mind. The reason for this is quite clear. While the universal characteristics of the new consciousness, such as self-reference, mind-space, and narratization, can develop swiftly on the heels of new language construction, the larger contours of civilization, the huge landscape of culture against which this happens, can only change with geological slowness. The matter and technic of earlier ages of civilizations survive into the new eras uneroded, dragging with them the older outworn forms in which the new mentality must live.
But living also in these forms is a fervent search for what I shall call archaic authorization. After the collapse of the bicameral mind, the world is still in a sense governed by gods, by statements and laws and prescriptions carved on stelae or written on papyrus or remembered by old men, and dating back to bicameral times. But the dissonance is there. Why are the gods no longer heard and seen? The Psalms cry out for answers. And more assurances are needed than the relics of history or the paid insistences of priests. Something palpable, something direct, something immediate! Some sensible assurance that we are not alone, that the gods are just silent, not dead, that behind all this hesitant subjective groping about for signs of certainty, there is a certainty to be had.
Thus, as the slow withdrawing tide of divine voices and presences strands more and more of each population on the sands of subjective uncertainties, the variety of technique by which man attempts to make contact with his lost ocean of authority becomes extended. Prophets, poets, oracles, diviners, statue cults, mediums, astrologers, inspired saints, demon possession, tarot cards, Ouija boards, popes, and peyote all are the residue of bicamerality that was progressively narrowed down as uncertainties piled upon uncertainties. https://www.julianjaynes.org
Self-Authorization: “Who” or “What” Grants Us Permission for Our Behavior? (Video) 52 Living Ideas, Oct 5, 2021 1:09:55
If self-autonomy describes the sense of control we have, self-authorization indicates the “who” or “what” of personal agency and self-determination. To whom (or where) we attribute control of our behavior, or locus of control, is key to how we conceptualize how we relate to ourselves as well as to others. From a therapeutic perspective, much mental distress is arguably caused by a failure to appreciate how many of our problems originate in how we relate to ourselves (“I” relating to “me”). Many who have difficulty loving others actually suffer from the inability to accept and respect themselves. Related to the theme of self-respect is the capability of self-forgiveness, since learning to forgive oneself concerns authorization for a mental act. Outside of a therapeutic setting, the political implications of authorization should be considered as the authorization of the group is intimately related to self-authorization. This is because group membership (whether political, religious, or familial) establishes a tacit agreement neither to notice personal feelings of uneasiness or misgivings nor to question anything that challenges the authorization of the group. This leads to self-deception, which operates simultaneously at the level of the individual and in the collective awareness of a group.
Etymology
Origin and meaning of authority
c. 1200, autorite, auctorite "authoritative passage or statement, book or quotation that settles an argument, passage from Scripture," from Old French autorité, auctorité "authority, prestige, right, permission, dignity, gravity; the Scriptures" (12c.; Modern French autorité), from Latin auctoritatem (nominative auctoritas) "invention, advice, opinion, influence, command," from auctor "master, leader, author" author (n.))
mid-14c., auctor, autour, autor "father, creator, one who brings about, one who makes or creates" someone or something, from Old French auctor, acteor "author, originator, creator, instigator" (12c., Modern French auteur) and directly from Latin auctor "promoter, producer, father, progenitor; builder, founder; trustworthy writer, authority; historian; performer, doer; responsible person, teacher," literally "one who causes to grow," agent noun from auctus, past participle of augere "to increase" (from PIE root *aug- (1) "to increase").
c. 1300, obeien, "carry out the commands of (someone); submit to (a command, rule, etc.); be ruled by," from Old French obeir "obey, be obedient, do one's duty" (12c.), from Latin obedire, oboedire "obey, be subject, serve; pay attention to, give ear," literally "listen to," from ob "to" (see ob-) + audire "listen, hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive").
NIETZSCHE’S MAN OF THE FUTURE
I believe what Homo sapiens sapiens may evolve to through peaceful, responsibly free parenting based on the Non-Aggression Principle, will be Everything Voluntary Associations in various geographical locations (no more Nations) sharing different core values and able to co-exist peacefully. We Voluntaryists will be in ascendency when the initiation of physical force becomes obsolete either through moral maturity or a protective technology. The Everything Voluntary Responsibly Free Individual is the “Man of the Future” Nietzsche wished for. Join us as a Free Friend?
ETYMOLOGY OF FREE & FRIEND = TO LOVE
Old English freo "exempt from; not in bondage, acting of one's own will," also "noble; joyful," from Proto-Germanic *friaz "beloved; not in bondage" (source also of Old Frisian fri, Old Saxon vri, Old High German vri, German frei, Dutch vrij, Gothic freis "free"), from PIE *priy-a- "dear, beloved," from root *pri- "to love."
Old English freond "one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference," from Proto-Germanic *frijōjands "lover, friend" (source also of Old Norse frændi, Old Danish frynt, Old Frisian friund, Dutch vriend, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds "friend"), from PIE *priy-ont-, "loving," present-participle form of root *pri- "to love."
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